Summary - Paper 2 - Factors affecting optimal performance (Sports Psych)

Sport Psychology: Revision Notes

PERSONALITY:

Personality = the collection of distinctive characteristics of an individual which are specific to them
= comes from beliefs, values, behavior

Types of Personality:
Introvert  energy is lost during social situations
 shy, focused, participate in individual sports
Extrovert  become energized in social situations
 social, loud, aggressive, participate in team sports

Trait Theory (Cattell): B = f(P)  Nature
 Personality is inherited by our genes (innate + heredity)
 Stable behavior (enduring/long lasting)
 Natural inclination

Type A:
i. Competitive
ii. Works fast
iii. Prone to stress
iv. Desire to succeed
v. Controlling

Type B:
i. Non-competitive
ii. Works slow
iii. Less stress
iv. Lacks desire to succeed
v. No control

Social Learning Theory (Bandura): B = f(E)  Nurture
 All behavior is learnt
 Socialization – adjusting to society
 Observation of significant others – to copy/model others

Interactionist Theory (Lewin & Hollander): B = f(PxE)
 A combination of trait and social learning theories
 Genetically inherited traits are triggered by the environment

1. Psychological core (Traits)
2. Typical response
3. Role-related behavior (Environment)




ATTITUDE:

,Attitude = an enduring emotional feeling that alters the response given towards a specific situation
= formed based of belief or opinion

Attitude formation:
 Stereotypes
 Based on past experiences
 Societal norms (myths  stereotypes  prejudice  discrimination  self-fulfilling prophecy)
 Role models (eg: significant others)

Triadic model:

A = Affective  how an individual feels about an attitude object
B = Behavioral  how an individua acts towards an attitude object
C = Cognitive  how an individual thinks regarding an attitude object

- Attitude:
 A = feeling (e.g.: fear)
 B = behavior (doing)
 C = knowing (e.g.: drowning)

+ Attitude:
 A = make it fun // feeling on security
 B = rewards // encouragement
 C = inform // showing

Changing attitude:
1. Cognitive Dissonance  disruption of the triadic model
2. Persuasive Communication  verbally making relevant points, to change another person’s attitude
towards an object (changing the attitude based on communication used and must come from a
significant)
a. Effectiveness dependent on: the persuaders and receivers characteristics // the quality of the
message // the situation




AROUSAL:

, Arousal = the energized state of readiness

Theory: Diagram: Explanation:
Drive theory  As arousal increases so does
the likelihood of dominant
response




Inverted U  As arousal increases so does
Theory performance to a certain level
 Optimal arousal aocurs at
moderate levels
 Factors affecting optimal
arousal (personality, nature of
task, skill of performer)




Catastrophe  Performers need optimum
Theory levels of arousal to perform
their best
 Overarousal = decrease in
performance
 Recovery can occur = varies
depending on the level of over
arousal
 Performer can also decrease
and not recover at all

IZOF = individual zone of optimal functioning
 Some performers have a wide range of optimal arousal levels / different bad widths of optimal arousal

Peak flow:
 Good selective attention
 Skills feel effortless
 Clear goals
 High levels of confidence / self-efficacy
 Sub concious feeling of control (IZOF)
ANXIETY:

Anxiety = a negative concept of being nervous or worried