What in the world is happening in sport psychology

Abstract

The field of sport psychology is advancing at a rapid rate in many parts of the world, considering the numbers of journals and scholarly articles being produced, the formation of professional societies, and the educational and interventional services being provided to participants in sport and exercise programs. One international direction in sport psychology research is the study of cognitive processes associated with excellence in performance. Cognitive and psychological loads associated with different activities are being determined in order to identify how best to optimize such loads. With a comparison of expert and novice performers, especially under laboratory sport-simulated conditions, researchers are learning more about how individuals possessing different levels of skill manage and respond to information present in the performance situation. Cognitive considerations in the learning and performing of sports skills are receiving more attention by the sport psychology researcher as well as by the consultant.     

On the evolution of sport

Sports have received little attention from evolutionary biologists. I argue that sport began as a way for men to develop the skills needed in primitive hunting and warfare, then developed to act primarily as a lek where athletes display and male spectators evaluate the qualities of potential allies and rivals. This hypothesis predicts that (1) the most popular modern male sports require the skills needed for success in male-male physical competition and primitive hunting and warfare; (2) champion male athletes obtain high status and thereby reproductive opportunities in ways that parallel those gained by successful primitive hunters and warriors; (3) men pay closer attention than do women to male sports so they can evaluate potential allies and rivals; and (4) male sports became culturally more important when opportunities to evaluate potential allies and rivals declined as both the survival importance of hunting and the proportion of men who experience combat decreased. The characteristics of primitive and modern sports are more consistent with these predictions than those generated by intersexual sexual selection theories of sport.     

现代运动心理学研究综述

从宏观的角度描述了现代运动心理学的研究领域,分析了运动员个性、唤醒水平与运动成绩、焦虑与运动成绩、心理技能训练和运动动机等五个方面的研究倾向,指出：认知运动心理学仍是研究的主流,各类研究都在尽量追求更明确的理论导向和更好的生态学效度,试图综合性地探讨运动行为,并且更加注重在描述和预测的基础上解释和控制运动行为。     

Behavioral coaching in the development of skills in football, gymnastics, and tennis

A review of the literature indicates that methods of skill acquisition based on the operant paradigm have been scientifically validated with many motor behaviors. However, these procedures have been limited to the use of positive reinforcement for correct performance when applied to the acquisition of complex sports skills in natural settings. To find complementary procedures to enhance skill acquisition, a coaching method involving several behavioral techniques was developed that focused on remediation of errors. This coaching method combined the following components: (1) systematic use of verbal instructions and feedback, (2) positive and negative reinforcement, (3) positive practice, and (4) time out. Three sports, football, gymnastics, and tennis, were selected to determine the effectiveness and generality of this behavioral coaching method. A total of 23 male and female subjects, ranging in age from 11 to 35, was included in this study. Baseline data were first collected for each sport under standard coaching conditions. Next, the behavioral coaching method was evaluated depending on the sport in either a multiple baseline or a reversal design. The behavioral dimensions selected were blocking in football; backward walkovers, front hand springs, and reverse kips in gymnastics; and the forehand, backhand, and serve in tennis. Behavioral coaching was immediately effective in increasing the correct execution of complex skills in all three sports. Gains of up to 10 times the baseline performance were achieved in each sport. In football, behavioral coaching resulted in an increase in correct blocking performance from a baseline average of 5% to 51.3%. Gymnasts' performances increased from baseline averages of 2.7% to 52.6% across the three skills. In tennis, standard coaching produced an average of 6% correct performance which increased dramatically under behavioral coaching to 57% across the three strokes. The success of the behavioral coaching package used here suggests that a technology of behavior may offer additional and complementary strategies to the acquisition of motor skills in the natural environment.     

From theory to practice: The integration of goal perspective theory and life development approaches within an injury-specific goal-setting program

Abstract

The psychology of sport injury rehabilitation is an awa of increasing research and practical interest (Heil, 1993: Pugman, 1993). However. there has been little exploration of how contemporary motivation theory might provide a theoretical basis for sport psychology interventions within the sports injury context. The present paper suggests that goal perspective theory and life development intervention (LDI) provide a conceptual base from which an injury-specific goal-setting program could be designed. The notion that goal-setting can empower the injured athlete with skills that encourage a stronger task orientation. create an enhanced sense of control during a life crisis, and improve lifestyle management is discussed. Opportunities for these skills to be used across different rehabilitation phases and through changing rehabilitation contexts are also explored. Finally. guidelines for the implementation of a rehabilitation-specific, task-oriented goal-setting program are suggested.     

Youth sport dropout from the achievement goal theory

This study examined dropout behavior, using the conceptual framework of achievement goal theory. We hypothesized that dropout could be predicted by a high ego-oriented goal disposition in combination with a low perception of personal skill and the perception that the coach and sport peers maintained ego-oriented sport success criteria. The participants were 134 adolescent athletes involved in high-level competitive sports participation. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) supported these hypotheses. Furthermore, the variables that directly predicted sport dropout were the participant's ego orientation (positively) and perception of skill (negatively). These findings and the research prospects are discussed.     

Applied sport psychology: Issues and challenges

Abstract

Achieving superior sport performance is often the result of well developed psychological skills (Morris &; Thomas, 1995). However, little is known about psychological skill development in athletes with disabilities (Hanrahan, 1998). The purpose of the present paper is to help sport psychologists in their work with athletes with physical disabilities. Although there are many similarities among athletes with and without disabilities, sport psychologists would benefit from an awareness of information unique to athletes with disabilities (Asken, 1991). I use a broad interpretation of psychological skills based on a holistic perspective and a personal development model (Vealey, 1988). Information is presented in the three areas of foundation, psychological, and facilitative skills, methods, and factors.     

Motor competence in fundamental motor skills and sport skill learning: Testing the proficiency barrier hypothesis

We investigated whether motor competence in fundamental motor skills influences sports motor skill learning. Motor competence in fundamental motor skills related to the overhead volleyball serve (i.e., throwing and volleying) was evaluated in 38 children (aged 9–10 yrs) and participants were divided into lower and higher motor competence groups. The groups practiced the volleyball serve under random or constant-random conditions during an acquisition phase and then assessed in pre-test, intermediate, and retention tests. A three-way repeated-measures ANOVA showed performance improvement from pre-test to retention test only for high motor competence groups in fundamental motor skills. Initial competence in fundamental motor skills influences sport skills learning and demonstrates a potential proficiency barrier to learning complex-sports motor skills.     

Metastable attunement and real-life skilled behavior

In everyday situations, and particularly in some sport and working contexts, humans face an inherently unpredictable and uncertain environment. All sorts of unpredictable and unexpected things happen but typically people are able to skillfully adapt. In this paper, we address two key questions in cognitive science. First, how is an agent able to bring its previously learned skill to bear on a novel situation? Second, how can an agent be both sensitive to the particularity of a given situation, while remaining flexibly poised for many other possibilities for action? We will argue that both the sensitivity to novel situations and the sensitivity to a multiplicity of action possibilities are enabled by the property of skilled agency that we will call metastable attunement. We characterize a skilled agent’s flexible interactions with a dynamically changing environment in terms of metastable dynamics in agent-environment systems. What we find in metastability is the realization of two competing tendencies: the tendency of the agent to express their intrinsic dynamics and the tendency to search for new possibilities. Metastably attuned agents are ready to engage with a multiplicity of affordances, allowing for a balance between stability and flexibility. On the one hand, agents are able to exploit affordances they are attuned to, while at the same time being ready to flexibly explore for other affordances. Metastable attunement allows agents to smoothly transition between these possible configurations so as to adapt their behaviour to what the particular situation requires. We go on to describe the role metastability plays in learning of new skills, and in skilful behaviour more generally. Finally, drawing upon work in art, architecture and sports science, we develop a number of perspectives on how to investigate metastable attunement in real life situations.

     

Individual differences in children's understanding of inversion and arithmetical skill

Background and aims. In order to develop arithmetic expertise, children must understand arithmetic principles, such as the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction, in addition to learning calculation skills. We report two experiments that investigate children's understanding of the principle of inversion and the relationship between their conceptual understanding and arithmetical skills. Sample. A group of 127 children from primary schools took part in the study. The children were from 2 age groups (6–7 and 8–9 years). Methods. Children's accuracy on inverse and control problems in a variety of presentation formats and in canonical and non‐canonical forms was measured. Tests of general arithmetic ability were also administered. Results. Children consistently performed better on inverse than control problems, which indicates that they could make use of the inverse principle. Presentation format affected performance: picture presentation allowed children to apply their conceptual understanding flexibly regardless of the problem type, while word problems restricted their ability to use their conceptual knowledge. Cluster analyses revealed three subgroups with different profiles of conceptual understanding and arithmetical skill. Children in the ‘high ability’ and ‘low ability’ groups showed conceptual understanding that was in‐line with their arithmetical skill, whilst a 3rd group of children had more advanced conceptual understanding than arithmetical skill. Conclusions. The three subgroups may represent different points along a single developmental path or distinct developmental paths. The discovery of the existence of the three groups has important consequences for education. It demonstrates the importance of considering the pattern of individual children's conceptual understanding and problem‐solving skills.     

Teacher-Coaches’ Perceptions of Life Skills Transfer from High School Sport to the Classroom

Positive youth development is one of the primary goals of high school sport participation, yet the process of how youth transfer life skills from sport to other life domains is in need of greater examination. To offer a unique perspective, the purpose of the study explored teacher-coaches’ perceptions of the process of life skills transfer for student-athletes from high school sport to the classroom. Using a constructivist approach, 12 teacher-coaches (9 male, 3 female) with an average of 13?years (SD?=?5.7) experience as a teacher-coach completed in-person, semistructured interviews. Using model for life skills transfer as a guiding framework, the theoretical thematic analysis revealed specific student-athlete characteristics (e.g., internal assets, external assets), high school sport factors (e.g., inherent demands, coaching characteristics), and high school classroom factors (e.g., classroom contextual factors, student-athlete psychological processes) that helped or hindered the process of life skills transfer. The critical influences of individual awareness and agency and of congruence between contexts highlighted the value of understanding life skills transfer through a developmental systems lens. Results are discussed with specific recommendations for researchers and practitioners related to understanding life skills transfer.

Lay Summary: Positive youth development is a primary goal of high school sport participation, yet researchers can do more to understand the developmental outcomes from high school sport. In this study, teacher-coaches identified specific factors that can help and hinder student-athletes’ ability and likelihood of transferring life skills from high school sport to the classroom.     

Executive functions in children engaging in open- and closed-skilled sports

Executive functions (EFs) are an important skill set for human cognition as well as achievement and can be separated into different components (inhibition, switching, updating). To date, it remains poorly understood whether the sport type children engage in is related to differences in their EFs. Thus, in the present study, we investigated whether children with regular engagement in open- and closed-skilled sports perform differently on tasks assessing inhibition, switching, and updating skills. Cross-sectional data from 113 children aged 8–13 years was used, of those 42 children engaged exclusively in open-skilled sports (e.g., soccer), 44 engaged exclusively in closed-skilled sports (e.g., swimming), and 27 engaged in both sport types as indicated by parental report. Children took part in three computerized tasks assessing their inhibitory, switching, and updating skills. Additionally, their verbal-reasoning skills, motor abilities, and aerobic fitness were assessed using acknowledged tasks. Results showed no differences with respect to children’s inhibitory and updating skills among the groups. However, it was found that children engaged in open-skilled sports showed lower switch costs in the switching task as compared to children engaged in closed-skilled sports. Follow-up analyses demonstrated that this held particularly true for children with a high level of engagement in open-skilled sports. Our findings indicate that children with a regular participation in open-skilled sports show higher switching skills as peers with a regular engagement in closed-skilled sports, suggesting that children’s experience in a dynamic, unpredictable sport exercise may be closely related to their EFs.     

“Decisions,decisions, decisions”: transfer and specificity of decision-making skill between sports

The concept of transfer of learning holds that previous practice or experience in one task or domain will enable successful performance in another related task or domain. In contrast, specificity of learning holds that previous practice or experience in one task or domain does not transfer to other related tasks or domains. The aim of the current study is to examine whether decision-making skill transfers between sports that share similar elements, or whether it is specific to a sport. Participants (n = 205) completed a video-based temporal occlusion decision-making test in which they were required to decide on which action to execute across a series of 4 versus 4 soccer game situations. A sport engagement questionnaire was used to identify 106 soccer players, 43 other invasion sport players and 58 other sport players. Positive transfer of decision-making skill occurred between soccer and other invasion sports, which are related and have similar elements, but not from volleyball, supporting the concept of transfer of learning.     

Conceptual overlap between moral norms and anticipated regret in the prediction of intention: Implications for theory of planned behaviour research

Moral norms and anticipated regret are widely used extensions to the theory of planned behaviour, yet there is some evidence to suggest that these constructs may conceptually overlap as predictors of intention. Two health-related behaviours with distinct moral implications (Study 1: organ donation registration, N?=?352 and Study 2: condom usage, N?=?1815) were therefore examined to ascertain whether moral norms and anticipated regret are indeed conceptually distinct. While evidence consistent with conceptual overlap was identified in Study 1, the evidence for such overlap in Study 2 was more ambiguous. In Study 3, a meta-analysis of existing literature revealed that the relationship between moral norms and anticipated regret was moderated by the extent of the moral implications arising from the behaviour under examination. Taken together, these findings suggest that conceptual overlap between moral norms and anticipated regret is more likely to occur among behaviours with obvious moral implications. Researchers wishing to examine the predictive utility of moral norms and anticipated regret among such behaviours would therefore be advised to aggregate these measures to form a composite variable (personal norms).     

Sport,nature and worldmaking

Many philosophers of sport maintain that athletics can contribute to our understanding of ourselves and the environments in which we live. It may be relatively easy to offer accounts of how athletes might acquire self-knowledge through sport; however, it is far more difficult to see how sport could add to the general understanding of human individuals, cultural frameworks or the material world. The study of sport as a way of worldmaking is helpful in understanding how sport can contribute to the pursuit of knowledge in such areas.

The position I present is based on arguments made by Gunter Gebauer in his 1993 presidential address to the Philosophic Society for the Study of Sport, ‘Sport, theater, and ritual: Three ways of worldmaking’, and in my explanation and interpretation of Gebauer's position, I rely heavily on Nelson Goodman's Ways of worldmaking. Gebauer's work is focused on traditional sports, and he argues that such sports create worlds that represent fundamental attitudes and values of the cultures that produce them. I argue that alternative sports are well suited to create new and original worlds that instantiate value systems in opposition to mainstream culture. I argue further that nature sports such as climbing and surfing represent relationships between humans and natural features, and that such sports, as a subcategory of alternative sports, are in a position to create new and original frameworks that can help us to better comprehend our relationships with natural environments.     

The 1997 coleman roberts griffith address movement expertise: A juncture between psychology theory and practice

Abstract

Two of the major distinguishing characteristics of the pioneering work of Coleman R. Griffith were his theory-practice integration through applied research and his eclectic focus not just on cognitive and emotional aspects of the psychology of sport. but also on elements related to perception, decision-making and movement control, and learning. The first part of this paper discusses the implications of these two attributes to broad issues for sport psychology related to the fragmentation-integration of knowledge, to defining the scope of the field, and to the nature of the relationship with other fields of knowledge, especially motor control and learning. The second part of the paper illustrates some of these issues through an overview of applied research on the enhancement of the perceptual skills of athletes. A critique of current understanding of the nature of perceptual skill in sport is first provided, using expert-novice comparisons as a means of uncovering the essential distinguishing attributes of expert performance. Knowledge about the nature of expert perception is then used to assess the potential of current and prospective training strategies to enhance perceptual skill and, through this, provide new avenues for improving athletic performance.     

A qualitative examination of choking under pressure in team sport

ObjectivesAs choking in sport has only been examined to date through athletes performing individual sports and/or closed skills, this study uses a qualitative methodology to provide a unique insight into choking within the team sport setting.Design and methodsThrough individual semi-structured interviews, the experiences of eight athletes who choked under pressure regularly whilst playing a team sport were examined in detail.ResultsThe participants perceived their choking episodes were associated with a range of antecedents, mechanisms, moderators and consequences. Many of which were similar to those found within individual sports/closed skills; although differences were noted. This study supports the suggestion by Hill, Hanton, Matthews, and Fleming (2010a) that choking in sport may be caused by distraction, debilitative anxiety and low perceived control, and that its consequence is a significant drop in performance.ConclusionsThe study extends the choking literature and offers information for practitioners working with teams.     

Transfer of pattern recall skills may contribute to the development of sport expertise

Superior recall of domain‐specific patterns is well established as a defining attribute of expert performers. Recent studies on the developmental histories of expert team ball sport players (e.g. Baker, Côté, & Abernethy, 2003a ) also suggest that experts characteristically receive exposure to a wide range of sports in their developing years and that this related sports experience may reduce the amount of sport‐specific training needed to become an expert. This study examined whether the facilitation of expertise associated with other sport experience might arise from positive transfer of pattern recall skills from one sport to another. Expert netball, basketball and field hockey players and experienced non‐experts performed a recall task for patterns of play derived from each of these sports. Experts from sports different to those shown in the presented pattern consistently outperformed non‐experts in their recall of defensive player positions, suggesting some selective transfer of pattern recall skills may indeed be possible. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

合资企业管理技能运用的实证研究

在对中外合资企业管理者的管理技能运用现状调查的基础上,揭示了外资比例、LMX和管理层次对管理技能运用的影响。结果表明,外资比例对技术技能和人际技能的运用有积极作用,LMX和管理层次会影响技能运用的机会。LMX和管理层次的交互作用对技术技能和概念技能有显著影响。     

A Preliminary Investigation into the Use of Humor in Sport Psychology Practice

“Creative efforts,” such as the use of humor, have been found to be beneficial to the nurse–patient, teacher–student, and psychologist–patient alliance. Potentially humor use might benefit the working alliance in applied sport psychology, yet to date there is limited research. Sport psychology consultants (n?=?55) completed an online survey that explored humor use within their practice. Statistical analyses revealed that most participants used humor for adaptive purposes such as to facilitate the working alliance, reinforce knowledge, and create healthy learning environments. Therefore, possible client change is likely to be facilitated by practitioners’ personal qualities and skills such as humor use and humor style. Recommendations are made for sport psychology practitioners in relation to humor use and further research. Increasing recognition has been given to the importance of the professional relationship between the client and practitioner within sport psychology consultancy as a means of facilitating client change. The present study demonstrated that use of humor by practitioners is an important part of enhancing the professional relationship and therefore potentially client change.

Lay Summary: Increasing recognition has been given to the importance of the professional relationship between the client and practitioner within sport psychology consultancy as a means of facilitating client change. The present study demonstrated that use of humor by practitioners is an important part of enhancing the professional relationship, and therefore potentially client change.