1. Introducing sport psychology: Discipline and profession
Introduction
Mental processes are seen as crucial for athletic success, so psychologists should be able to enhance
athletic performance. Mental toughness and ability to concentrate effectively are most important,
but confidence is also related to athletic success. Narrative inquiry is a research method consisting of
stories athletes tell about their lives which can be analysed. Sport psychologists can thus have a
pragmatic and therapeutic role. Sport psychologists can differ in various ways, since not all
sport psychologists are professional psychologists. Different steps have to be taken to be a licenced
sport psychologist, with some people not completing the entire process and still going into the field.
The mental side of sport
Sport scientists typically distinguish between four hypothetical aspects of athletic performance,
which are:
1. Physical: fitness, strength and stamina, which can be measured objectively
2. Technical: proficiency/skills
3. Tactical: strategic aspects such as planning and decision making
4. Psychological: anxiety, maintaining momentum and concentration (mental toughness)
Doing research with statements from athletes to do research on the psychological aspect of sports is
hard, because biases have to be taken into account and statements are sport-specific. It's better to
use a questionnaire, for example.
What is confidence?
Confidence entails “the belief that one has the internal resources, particularly abilities, to achieve
success”, is usually correlated positively with peak athletic performance. This correlates positively
with athletic success. According to the theory of self-efficacy, confidence is a variable belief and is
related to the idea that one has the capacity to achieve a specific goal. This belief is actually
situation-specific and it isn’t fact-based.
To develop and maintain a robust confidence, one should make use of logging evidence, developing
understanding and awareness, manipulating the coaching environment, tailoring interventions, using
psychological skills, developing the athlete's signature strengths, never stop developing, keep
influencing the environment, having stable beliefs and reinforcing abilities.
What is mental toughness?
Mental toughness can be seen as determination, resilience and/or an exceptional immunity to
pressure situations. It enables athletes to react well to adversity and to persist in the face of
setbacks. Research has shown that this is key to athletic success, but it's still not clear what it exactly
means. Motivational climate is also very important, meaning that the environment for the athlete is
challenging yet enjoyable.
Four key components of mental toughness or hardiness are (Clough's 4C's): control, challenge,
commitment and confidence. Hardiness is a constellation of personality characteristics that enables
people to mitigate the adverse effects of stressful situations. Mentally tough athletes are thus seen
as individuals who have a high sense of self-belief and believe they can control their own destiny,
while remaining unaffected by adversity. Jones (2002) described mental toughness as a combination
of motivation, focus, the ability to deal with pressure and anxiety and the ability to cope with
physical and emotional pain. Different features of mental toughness are attitudes/beliefs, training,
competition and post-competition (setbacks/failure).
,Cook (2014) found independence and resourcefulness to be important characteristics for mentally
tough athletes. Gucciardi (2009a) researched factors that can influence mental toughness, which are
skill-mastery, competitiveness and use of psychological skills. Anthony et al. researched four key
categories of features evident in mentally tough athletes: personal characteristics, interactions within
the environment, progressive development and breadth of experience. They proposed that the
development of mental toughness requires an approach that addresses the interaction between an
individual’s personal capacity (i.e. person) and varying degrees of situational demands (i.e. context).
Nowadays mental toughness is still far from being a clear construct.
Developing your critical thinking skills
Critical thinking entails the ability and willingness to evaluate claims in an open-minded and careful
manner. It can also be seen as a form of intelligent criticism which helps people to reach
independent and justifiable conclusions about their experiences. So, there is a motivational and a
cognitive component involved in critical thinking. The first step towards thinking critically is to
question what the claim you are expected to believe, consists of. You can then start to analyse and
evaluate a source by its evidence and arguments. The third step is to use inference to establish
whether there are alternative explanations for the evidence provided. For this, you will need to
interpret evidence, evaluate plausibility of alternative explanations and then explain why which you
have concluded is correct. The final step consists of self-regulation: consolidate what you know by
establishing links.
What factors influence the mental demands of a given sport?
Not only do different sports differ in the physical aspects, but they also differ psychologically. Short
and intense concentration or sustained alertness for example, ask for different mental capacities.
Especially the nature and structure of a sport determine the mental demands. Snooker players are,
for instance, challenged by preventing lapses in concentration in situations where passivity is likely,
while golfers are challenged by the untimed nature of the sport, the full responsibility for their
performance and the stop-start nature of the sport. Mindfulness can help both players keep their
concentration and reshape their way of thinking. By using mindfulness athletes can learn to adopt a
moment-to-moment non-judgemental awareness that can help them to focus on the here-and-now.
Sport psychology as an academic discipline
Sport psychology entails the application of psychological theory and methods to understand the
performance, mental processes and well-being of athletes. Social facilitation is the process of
competing better when competing with others (around) than competing with oneself, against 'the
clock' or alone. It is defined as 'the facilitating effect that the presence of others has on the
performance of easy tasks/well-learned skills, while the presence of others can be impairing with a
difficult task of a poorly learned skill'.
It’s hard to define the discipline ‘sport psychology’ precisely. Though, three characteristics of sport
psychology are noteworthy. First, it is generally regarded as a science (falsifiable etc.). Second, sport
psychology is not just about sport – it involves the study of exercise as well as of competitive athletic
behaviour. Third, sport psychology is a profession as well as a science. Therefore, there are applied as
well as theoretical dimensions to this discipline.
A brief history of sport and exercise psychology
Triplett started doing research in the field of sport psychology in 1898, with more research following
in the next two decades. Different sport skills were being researched in 1910 and 1915. In the 1920's
a sport psychologist named Griffith was employed as a member of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
In 1925 the first sport psychology research facility was opened. Only in the 1960's did sport
, psychology develop further, when it was seen as an independent discipline; a subfield of sport
science. It was not until 1986 that sport psychology was seen as its own field of science. In 2000 the
discipline was still being named, but three characteristics were noteworthy: sport psychology is seen
as a science, the discipline studies sport and also exercise and it is seen as a profession, as well as a
science.
Research methods in sport psychology
Sport psychology is commonly regarded as an applied science and makes use of the following distinct
research methods:
Qualitative: concerned with understanding the meaning of events, situations and behavior.
Quantitative: the amount of something is measured and results in data through statistical
analysis.
Descriptive research: recording and analysing behavioural aspects, including methods like
case studies, naturalistic observation, survey research and psychometric testing.
Correlational research: measuring relationships or degree of association between two or
more variables.
Experimental research: determining cause-and-effect relationships between two or more
variables.
The grounded theory consists of a researcher attempting to develop a theory of a phenomenon from
the analysis of a set of qualitative data derived from peoples' experience of that phenomenon.
Single-case research designs are a group of quasi-experimental methods, which can be used to study
the effect, time course and variability of independent variables on dependent variables. (See page 28
for a summary of research methods.)
Sport psychology as a profession
Usually sport psychologists work in three main categories: applied consultancy work, education and
research. These categories overlap largely and sport psychologists usually only work part-time in this
field. Sport psychologists often have multifaceted professional roles.
Applied consultancy work: giving advice on performance enhancement and providing
counselling or clinical psychology services. People usually want advice to improve their
mental preparation and/or competitive performance. Research shows that enhancement
advice appears to have a moderate positive effect on performance, lasting at least a month.
Sport psychologists working in the field of providing counselling or clinical psychology
services deal with athlete's personal problems and still have to battle the stigma that comes
with athlete's dealing with personal problems like alcohol abuse or eating disorders.
Education: experts teach others about sport psychology and deal with myths and false
assumptions. They usually give practical strategies for forging team spirit and increase the
demand for other sport psychologists.
Research: asking practical questions and coming up with evidence to answer them.
Three problems with the traditional medical model of applied sport psychology every sport
psychologist has to deal with are that full responsibility for the health of the client rests on the
expert, theory has not yet been validated enough and experts have to deconstruct informal (wrong)
theoretical ideas of clients (athletes). Fortunately, this can be dealt with by educating the coach
about sport psychology instead of the athlete. Nowadays, in spite of its struggle against certain
persistent criticisms and misconceptions, sport psychology is developing into a respected discipline.
