Introduction
“Effects of psychological factors on sport-related behavior, performance and well-being”
Person (individualistic approach), environment (situational approach), person x environment
(interactionist approach) → contemporary view (X-model)
Brief history of sport psychology:
- Triplett → how does high arousal influence performance ? effort → higher performance,
however later on they found an important mediator which is the complexity of a task.
Triplett wanted to understand why cyclists sometimes rode faster when they raced in groups
or pairs than when alone. He discussed how sports might develop character in participants.
- Griffith → considered father of American sport psychology; developed first laboratory in
sport psychology and initiated first coaching schools in America. Began to test athletes,
assessing reaction times, personality etc.
- Henry → responsible for field´s scientific development; scholarly study of aspects of sport
and motor skill acquisition.
- Yates → first women in US to both practice sport psychology and conduct research
- Ogilvie → applied sport psychologist. Discovered that for certain types of sport there are
some personality characteristics needed (risk taking sports—higher intelligence—
independence). Distinction between motor learning specialists and sport psychologists
developed during this time
- NASPA (not addressing applied questions) and FEPSEC were founded. In Netherlands VSPN
was founded. The field became more accepted → Harris helped establish the PSU graduate
program in sport psychology
Peak performance:
Individual differences → motivation, self-efficacy
Environmental factors → coach-effectiveness, peers/team-members, parents, opportunities
Psychological skills → goal setting, attentional focus, imagery, relaxation
Social facilitation theory (Zajonc) → when performed simple tasks people knew well, having an
audience influenced performance positively, however, when performed complex and new tasks,
having an audience harmed performance.
The “mental part”:
“It’s like taking a free throw, or a golf swing or anything like that, but if you talk to any professional
athlete who is in those sports, the biathlon is no different. Once you get to a certain level, it’s all
about the mental game.”
- When it comes to youth sport → enjoyment, character-building, competence, performance
etc.
,Practice vs. theory:
- Tension between researchers and applied practitioners like coaches etc. Researchers often
blame these to not use valid measures. Applied sport psychologists often blame researchers
to develop very isolated theories.
RE-AIM model:
- Using an active approach (evaluate how effective ideas are and in what situations they work;
modify and update them when needed by keeping current on latest scientific findings in
sport psychology)
Sport psychology orientations:
- Psychophysiological orientation → best way to study behavior during sport is to examine
the physiological processes of the brain and their influences on physical activity (heart rate,
brain wave activity using neuroimaging measures).
- Social-psychological orientation → behavior is determined by a complex interaction
between environment and personal makeup of the athlete. How an individual´s social
environment influences behavior and how the behavior influences the environment
- Cognitive-behavioral orientation → emphasize athlete´s cognitions, thoughts and behaviors
as they are central in determining behavior. Often self-report measures used (self-
confidence, anxiety, goal orientation, motivation).
,X-model for sport behavior:
1. Sport situation
- Task demands → hand-ball, foot-ball (what is demanded)
- Task-circumstances → more susceptible to change (grass, ball, referee, opponent, weather)
- Task-conditions → more stable (rules, time regulations, substitutes)
- Task-relations → Team or solo, relation coach-athlete, relation colleagues, communication
2. Person/athlete
- Stable characteristics: 4 unit of sport → physical, technical, psychological, tactical
- Variable characteristics: current capacity (in training you perform very well, but in a pressure
situation state anxiety might develop)
- Actual characteristics: what are actual KSAO´s of the player; what are the actual
characteristics of this sport team?
- Required characteristics: What are required KSAO´s of this player? What are actual required
characteristics of the sport team?
3. Sport behavior
- Motivation → willingness to spend effort (motivation is a process! See lecture 3)
- Action plan → a certain strategy in mind when running a race
Perceiving the situation, making action plan and deciding to act (decision making process)!
Using action theory to analyze sport behavior:
- Order all kinds of skills in a sequential way (
, 4. Sport outcomes
- Performance: objective (scored goals); subjective (jury, gymnastics)
- Result (what is the score?, win, loose)
- With the same performance (10 sec.) the result may differ, depending on the performance
of others
5. Outcomes for person
- Positive: game pleasure, self-efficacy
- Negative: fatigue, injury, depression
→ such changes may be permanent or temporary. Coaches have to identify the reasons of how
people perceive their own success (goal orientations and how they perceive their own competence)
Feedback loop box 5-box 2:
- You train a lot, get fatigued, but body supercompensates and becomes stronger
- An athlete is very satisfied about an outcome and that will increase his need for achievement
and increase his effort. When an athlete is able to focus on own success it will increase
feelings of success, increase need for achievement and increase effort.
“Effects of psychological factors on sport-related behavior, performance and well-being”
Person (individualistic approach), environment (situational approach), person x environment
(interactionist approach) → contemporary view (X-model)
Brief history of sport psychology:
- Triplett → how does high arousal influence performance ? effort → higher performance,
however later on they found an important mediator which is the complexity of a task.
Triplett wanted to understand why cyclists sometimes rode faster when they raced in groups
or pairs than when alone. He discussed how sports might develop character in participants.
- Griffith → considered father of American sport psychology; developed first laboratory in
sport psychology and initiated first coaching schools in America. Began to test athletes,
assessing reaction times, personality etc.
- Henry → responsible for field´s scientific development; scholarly study of aspects of sport
and motor skill acquisition.
- Yates → first women in US to both practice sport psychology and conduct research
- Ogilvie → applied sport psychologist. Discovered that for certain types of sport there are
some personality characteristics needed (risk taking sports—higher intelligence—
independence). Distinction between motor learning specialists and sport psychologists
developed during this time
- NASPA (not addressing applied questions) and FEPSEC were founded. In Netherlands VSPN
was founded. The field became more accepted → Harris helped establish the PSU graduate
program in sport psychology
Peak performance:
Individual differences → motivation, self-efficacy
Environmental factors → coach-effectiveness, peers/team-members, parents, opportunities
Psychological skills → goal setting, attentional focus, imagery, relaxation
Social facilitation theory (Zajonc) → when performed simple tasks people knew well, having an
audience influenced performance positively, however, when performed complex and new tasks,
having an audience harmed performance.
The “mental part”:
“It’s like taking a free throw, or a golf swing or anything like that, but if you talk to any professional
athlete who is in those sports, the biathlon is no different. Once you get to a certain level, it’s all
about the mental game.”
- When it comes to youth sport → enjoyment, character-building, competence, performance
etc.
,Practice vs. theory:
- Tension between researchers and applied practitioners like coaches etc. Researchers often
blame these to not use valid measures. Applied sport psychologists often blame researchers
to develop very isolated theories.
RE-AIM model:
- Using an active approach (evaluate how effective ideas are and in what situations they work;
modify and update them when needed by keeping current on latest scientific findings in
sport psychology)
Sport psychology orientations:
- Psychophysiological orientation → best way to study behavior during sport is to examine
the physiological processes of the brain and their influences on physical activity (heart rate,
brain wave activity using neuroimaging measures).
- Social-psychological orientation → behavior is determined by a complex interaction
between environment and personal makeup of the athlete. How an individual´s social
environment influences behavior and how the behavior influences the environment
- Cognitive-behavioral orientation → emphasize athlete´s cognitions, thoughts and behaviors
as they are central in determining behavior. Often self-report measures used (self-
confidence, anxiety, goal orientation, motivation).
,X-model for sport behavior:
1. Sport situation
- Task demands → hand-ball, foot-ball (what is demanded)
- Task-circumstances → more susceptible to change (grass, ball, referee, opponent, weather)
- Task-conditions → more stable (rules, time regulations, substitutes)
- Task-relations → Team or solo, relation coach-athlete, relation colleagues, communication
2. Person/athlete
- Stable characteristics: 4 unit of sport → physical, technical, psychological, tactical
- Variable characteristics: current capacity (in training you perform very well, but in a pressure
situation state anxiety might develop)
- Actual characteristics: what are actual KSAO´s of the player; what are the actual
characteristics of this sport team?
- Required characteristics: What are required KSAO´s of this player? What are actual required
characteristics of the sport team?
3. Sport behavior
- Motivation → willingness to spend effort (motivation is a process! See lecture 3)
- Action plan → a certain strategy in mind when running a race
Perceiving the situation, making action plan and deciding to act (decision making process)!
Using action theory to analyze sport behavior:
- Order all kinds of skills in a sequential way (
, 4. Sport outcomes
- Performance: objective (scored goals); subjective (jury, gymnastics)
- Result (what is the score?, win, loose)
- With the same performance (10 sec.) the result may differ, depending on the performance
of others
5. Outcomes for person
- Positive: game pleasure, self-efficacy
- Negative: fatigue, injury, depression
→ such changes may be permanent or temporary. Coaches have to identify the reasons of how
people perceive their own success (goal orientations and how they perceive their own competence)
Feedback loop box 5-box 2:
- You train a lot, get fatigued, but body supercompensates and becomes stronger
- An athlete is very satisfied about an outcome and that will increase his need for achievement
and increase his effort. When an athlete is able to focus on own success it will increase
feelings of success, increase need for achievement and increase effort.
