Psychology of sport & exercise
1. Introduction to the field=
- Introductie=
• Defenitie: portpsychologie is de wetenschappelijke studie van mensen en hun gedragingen
in (bewegings- en) sportactiviteiten en de praktische toepassing van die kennis.
• 2 manieren om sportpsychologie te studeren:
A) SPORT->PSY: Effecten van sport op het mentale welzijn:
→Bv: Will anxiety reduced and the confidence grow by regular jogging?
B) PSY->SPORT: Effecten van mentale welzijn op de sport:
→Bv: To what extent does pressure and tension determine the performance of an
athlete?
- Types of psychology=
- Psychologie of sport=
• Goal: Teach people to optimally perform/enjoy a sports setting.
• Target group: anyone who wants to improve their sporting performance (including non-
elite)
, - Essentials=
• The core of psychology of sport= learning systematic training of mental skill.
• It takes time to learn a mental skill and it takes time.
• Catastrophic thinking= when something went wrong, you think everything is lost.
• Docent meaning= it’s not real that they say “if you believe in it, you can do anything” or “if
you’re a nervous guy with mental skills training, you can be an chill guy”,… BUT he does
believe that you can “train” your anxiety that you can perform better.
• How do you need to see mental skill training?= The genes (biology, nature) holds
culture/nurture on a leash.
➔ Bv: a dog on a leash can go his own way, BUT there is a limit.
• Rethinking= avoid losing games that you can should have won.
➔ Evenepoel was the favorite but one day he had a major dip (= a mental issue) but the
day after he won the big race.
- For who is mental skill training useful?
• Especially for Elite athletes, competitive players & recreational athletes
➔ Tennis players
• But also amateur sports (=when u want to play because you want to have fun)
• Individuals & teams
• Children & adults
• Persons with a physical or mental handicap
- Sport psychology techniques=
• They are not restricted to atlhetes
• Because of the pressure by athletes, sport psychology has grown (bv: immigery)
• Most used outside of the field of the sports
• First the councillors were used to be the (sport) psychologists but now they have
professional help.
➔ (especially by sports like: dance, music, theatre, army, …)
- Difference between sport psychologist – mental coach=
Sport psychologist Mental Coach
Legally protected NOT legally protected
Often comes with some stigma More easily accepted
GOAL= clinical questions GOAL= improve mental skills
Became a scientific discipline in 1893-1920 Every coach is also a mental coach
(by Norman Triplett)
Every training is also a mental training
(= you cant see mental training as an other subject or
thing.)
- Sport psychology in 3 roles=
1) Teaching
2) Consulting
3) Research
,- Norman Triplett=
• 1861-1934
• Observation: do cyclists on track ride faster in company than alone?
• 1st published sport psychological experiment
(→Children where better in fishing alone than doing things in group)
• Explained it with social facilitation.
- Development/ process of scientific knowledge (kennis)=
• Sport- & exercise psychology both make use of the scientific method=
➔ Collecting knowledge by doing observations.
➔ This knowledge can be replicated & the test predictions can be falsified.
• Intern & extern validity=
➔ Intern: Are we sure that the result or effect we see, can not be a coincidence or
disruptive/distracting factors.
(= we are evaluating the design, procedure, effect size?, enough power?, the group that
has been tested,…)
➢ Limitations=
1) Self-reports about use of mental techniques: valid and reliable?
2) Self-report about criterium/performance: valid and reliable?
3) Differentiation between the techniques?
4) Personal best on 10 k as performance index?
5) Statistical power for correlation= n=100 at the least,otherwise very sensitive for
outliers.
6) Confounding variables (e.g., level of runner)
7) No conrol group => risk of size effect, learning effect
8) Small (statistical) power by small sample size (=6people)
9) Mutual influencing by players ?
10) Expectancy bias by coach who is also the researcher.
➔ Extern: how sure are we that it can be generalized to other populations and situations.
→If the internal validity is good enough= how sure are we that we can find the same
findings in other populations or other situations?
(= evaluate samplings, representativeness,…)
(=Can everybody participate in our research?)
➢ Limitations=
1) Self-selection (only runners sampled who are open formental techniques) =>
not representative for all athletes
2) Only male runners => can findings be generalized to- other sports?- females?-
other countries/regions
3) Does it also work under pressure in a game?
4) Effects on what? Does it only work for free-throws or also on playing better in
general?
, Topic 1: Assignments
- Assignment last week=
• Story: about the coach who want to improve the free throws by doing mindfulness sessions
and it worked.
• What are the 3 main limitations in term of internal validity of this resurge?
1) The experimental group is to low, they are only with 6six players & the outcome is not
that much better/ higher.
→She need more players
→More free throws then just 10.
2) Even if you would do the analysist, this difference is not proved to be statistically
significand/meaningful.
3) The coach has manipulated something, she did a mindfulness session.
→You need to still have a group that will be analyzed but didn’t do the session (= we
can see then the learning effect.)
4) You only have volunteers from the basketball team participating and no other people.
As a result, the outcome will not be complete enough for general conclusions because
no other people (like not sportive human) were tested.
- Scientifics VS practical knowledge=
Science Practice
Reliable (betrouwbaar) Less reliable (minder betrouwbaar)
Systematic & controlled Often lack of explanation
(vaak gebrek aan uitleg)
Objective & less biased Very sensitive for bias
(minder bevooroordeeld)
Limited direct practical value Holistic
(beperkte praktische waarde)
Reductionistic Innovative
Slow evolution Immediate (onmiddelijk)
- The most important steps in an experiment=
Voordelen van het kopen van samenvattingen bij Stuvia op een rij:
√ Verzekerd van kwaliteit door reviews
Stuvia-klanten hebben meer dan 700.000 samenvattingen beoordeeld. Zo weet je zeker dat je de beste documenten koopt!
Snel en makkelijk kopen
Je betaalt supersnel en eenmalig met iDeal, Bancontact of creditcard voor de samenvatting. Zonder lidmaatschap.
Focus op de essentie
Samenvattingen worden geschreven voor en door anderen. Daarom zijn de samenvattingen altijd betrouwbaar en actueel. Zo kom je snel tot de kern!
Veelgestelde vragen
Wat krijg ik als ik dit document koop?
Je krijgt een PDF, die direct beschikbaar is na je aankoop. Het gekochte document is altijd, overal en oneindig toegankelijk via je profiel.
Tevredenheidsgarantie: hoe werkt dat?
Onze tevredenheidsgarantie zorgt ervoor dat je altijd een studiedocument vindt dat goed bij je past. Je vult een formulier in en onze klantenservice regelt de rest.
Van wie koop ik deze samenvatting?
Stuvia is een marktplaats, je koop dit document dus niet van ons, maar van verkoper mirthedrieskens. Stuvia faciliteert de betaling aan de verkoper.
Zit ik meteen vast aan een abonnement?
Nee, je koopt alleen deze samenvatting voor €6,48. Je zit daarna nergens aan vast.