Performance slumps in sport: A systematic review

This systematic review explored the under-researched experience of performance slumps in sport with four objectives: (i) review definitions of a performance slump; (ii) identify known causes of a performance slump; (iii) identify the symptoms athletes present when in a performance slump; and (iv) review approaches used to combat a slump in performance. Literature searches into three databases (PsychARTICLES, PsychINFO and SPORTDiscus) resulted in the inclusion of quantitative (n = 14) and qualitative (n = 4) empirical research studies. The findings were thematically analysed and narratively synthesised. Results showed that: (i) definitions of a performance slump vary; (ii) perceived expectations for success and athletes attributing poor performance to something about themselves have been empirically verified as performance slump causes; (iii) during a slump, athletes might display a range of emotional and psychological symptoms and/or adopt skill-focused attention; and (iv) athletes reported several ways of coping with a performance slump, and research has offered succeeding under pressure as a potential route out of a slump. This systematic review highlights the need for an empirical investigation of the performance slump phenomenon. Future studies should be directed towards understanding the prominent symptoms athletes experience during the slump, so that cause, context, competitor and symptomatic dependant intervention strategies can be designed.     

Stereotype Lift

When a negative stereotype impugns the ability or worth of an outgroup, people may experience stereotype lift—a performance boost that occurs when downward comparisons are made with a denigrated outgroup. In a meta-analytic review, members of non-stereotyped groups were found to perform better when a negative stereotype about an outgroup was linked to an intellectual test than when it was not (d=.24,p<.0001). Notably, people appear to link negative stereotypes to evaluative tests more or less automatically. Simply presenting a test as diagnostic of ability was thus sufficient to induce stereotype lift. Only when negative stereotypes were explicitly invalidated or rendered irrelevant to the test did the lift effect disappear.     

The effects of the presence of others during a rowing exercise in a virtual reality environment

ObjectivesThe aim of the study was to test the performance, motivational, and affective impact of aerobic exercise within an immersive virtual reality environment experienced alone or with another individual.DesignSixty female participants aged 18–30 years were assigned to one of three conditions: no virtual reality (NVR), individual virtual reality (IVR), or companion virtual reality (CVR).MethodParticipants completed 9 min of self-paced rowing on an ergometer without any visual input or performance feedback (NVR), individually within a virtual reality environment (IVR), or within a virtual reality environment that included a companion depicted as an avatar (CVR).ResultsThe two virtual reality groups rowed a further distance and at a higher power output than the NVR group. Furthermore, the CVR group outperformed the IVR group in distance and had a higher heart rate. Participants in the virtual reality groups did not perceive themselves to be exerting more physical effort and rated the task as more enjoyable than participants in the NVR group.ConclusionsVirtual reality improves performance and the affective response to aerobic exercise, and performance effects are further enhanced by the presence of others in the virtual environment.     

Consequences of prosocial and antisocial behavior for the recipient

Statement of problemAlthough studies have examined antecedents of prosocial and antisocial behaviors in sport, little is known about the potential consequences of these behaviors for the recipient. In this research, we examined: (a) whether teammate prosocial and antisocial behaviors are related to athletes’ effort, performance, enjoyment and anger during a match and the mediating role of enjoyment and anger (Studies 1 and 2); and (b) whether prosocial and antisocial behaviors are related to commitment to play for one’s team and whether enjoyment and performance mediate these relationships (Study 2).MethodRight after a game, football/soccer (N = 203; Study 1) and basketball (N = 281; Study 2) players completed a multi-section questionnaire measuring the aforementioned variables.ResultsProsocial teammate behavior was positively related to effort, performance, and enjoyment, and enjoyment mediated the relationship between prosocial teammate behavior and effort and performance; prosocial teammate behavior was also positively related to commitment directly and indirectly through enjoyment and performance. Antisocial teammate behavior was positively related to anger and negatively related to effort and performance. Anger and performance mediated the effects of antisocial teammate behavior on effort and commitment, respectively.ConclusionsOur findings demonstrate the importance of acting prosocially and not acting antisocially toward one’s teammates and have implications for enjoyment, effort, performance, and commitment in sport.     

The role of the Self in assessing doping cognition: Implicit and explicit measures of athletes’ doping-related prototype perceptions

ObjectivesTo examine athletes’ implicit and explicit prototype perceptions of performance enhancing substance (PES) users and non-users.DesignA cross-sectional mixed-method study.MethodsCompetitive athletes from 39 sports (N = 226; mean age = 27.66 ± 9.74 years; 59% male) completed four self-report questions and two Brief Implicit Association Tests online, assessing prototype favourability and similarity of PES users and non-users.ResultsAthletes explicitly associated themselves with a non-user (M = 3.13 ± 0.92) more than a PES user (M = 0.56 ± 0.88) and perceived a non-user (M = 89.92 ± 14.98) more favourably than a PES user (M = 13.18 ± 21.38). Indexing behaviour on self-reports, doping contemplators did not differ from ‘clean’ athletes in their perceptions of PES user prototypes while dopers perceived PES users favourably and similar to themselves. In comparison, doping contemplators paired the concept of 'dopers' easier with themselves than with others, while clean athletes and dopers had no preference for either pairing (D = −0.33, -0.08 and 0.01, respectively). All groups demonstrated some degree of preference for ‘good and doper’, moving from slight to moderate to strong preference in the groups of clean athletes, dopers and contemplators, respectively (D = −0.20, −0.37 and −0.80, respectively).ConclusionsResults suggest that doping contemplators may have a positive bias towards doping which is not endorsed in self-reports. Implicit preferences, along with the disparity between the implicit and explicit measures of athletes’ doping-related prototype perceptions advance understanding of doping behaviour and make a unique contribution to research methodology. Factors influencing the interplay between explicit and implicit endorsements of PES user prototypes warrant further research.     

Development and validation of an in-competition emotion measure: The Brief In-Competition Emotion (BICE) scale

ObjectivesWe aimed to develop a concise psychometric scale to assess athletes’ in-competition emotions, which would reduce the practical and conceptual limitations of previous measures.DesignFour studies were designed to develop and assess the validity of the new Brief In-Competition Emotion (BICE) scale.MethodIn Study 1, the content validity of 39 emotion adjectives was investigated using expert analysis, 9 adjectives were subsequently removed. In Study 2, 402 university athletes used the remaining 30 adjectives to record their in-competition emotions and confirmatory factor analyses and a reliability removal method was used to create the 10-item BICE scale. Study 3 (N = 109) and Study 4 (N = 74) consisted of both concurrent and predictive validity assessments of the BICE scale.ResultsConstruct validity, reliability and confirmatory factor analyses completed during Study 1 and Study 2 resulted in the development of the 10-item BICE scale, consisting of five composite emotion factors: anger, anxiety, excitement, dejection and happiness. The findings from Study 3 and Study 4 showed that the BICE scale presented acceptable levels of concurrent and predictive validity.ConclusionsThe BICE scale is a rigorously developed parsimonious scale which offers researchers new opportunities for investigation and provides applied practitioners with a new method of evaluating in-competition intervention efficacies.     

Effet du télétravail sur la santé psychologique et la performance des travailleurs durant la pandémie de la Covid-19

The aim of this study was to examine how the widespread use of telework during the COVID-19 pandemic may have created a specific work context influencing employees’ psychological health and performance. Results of analyses conducted on a sample of 3771 Canadian teleworkers revealed that telework created additional demands such as task interdependence and professional isolation. These demands had negative effects on telework performance by increasing the frequency of perceived stress. However, the presence of resources such as organizational support appeared to play a buffering role in moderating the direct effect of professional isolation on telecommuting performance.     

In the context of a sports match,the goal to win is most important,right? Suggestive evidence for a hierarchical achievement goal system

When evaluating one’s own or others’ performances, there is a strong tendency to rely on social comparison information. Remarkably, however, the extant achievement goal research suggests that the prevalence of other-based goals is very low, also in sport contexts. In the present research, we argue and demonstrate that in the context of a sports match: (1) most athletes’ overarching achievement goal is an other-based approach goal (i.e., the goal to win), and (2) athletes with an overarching other-based approach goal also rely on self-based criteria (referring to one’s personal performance trajectory) and task-based criteria (referring to the absolute demands of the task). Survey data was collected among 647 competitive korfball players (69.4% women), ranging in age from 16 to 56 years. As expected, for most athletes (51.6%), to win matches was their overarching achievement goal, and pursuing self-based and task-based approach goals added to their competence satisfaction. In such a hierarchical achievement goal system, subordinate goals likely help athletes to increase their awareness of what actions and means facilitate their focal objective: Coming out victorious.     

Sleep interventions for performance,mood and sleep outcomes in athletes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Sleep is fundamental to sports performance and other health outcomes such as mental wellbeing. This systematic review explored the effects of sleep interventions implemented among athletes on performance, sleep, and mood outcomes. Five databases were searched, returning 5996 records for screening. Of these, 27 articles met the inclusion criteria (16 controlled deigns, 11 uncontrolled; athletes n = 617; male n = 432, female n = 93, non-binary/other n = 0 or not reported n = 92). Narrative synthesis of all studies based on intervention type suggested that sleep hygiene, assisted sleep, and sleep extension interventions may be associated with improved sleep, performance, and mood outcomes. Twelve controlled trials were eligible for quantitative meta-analysis, investigating the effect of sleep interventions on athlete sleep, performance, and negative affect, compared to controls post-intervention. Utilizing random-effects meta-analyses, sleep interventions improved subjective sleep quality (g = 0.62, 95% CI [0.21, 1.02]), reduced sleepiness (g = 0.81, 95% CI [0.32, 1.30]) and decreased negative affect (g = 0.63, 95% CI [0.27, 0.98]), but did not appear to influence subjective sleep duration. No effects were identified for objective sleep measures (e.g., actigraphy), or aerobic/anaerobic performance indices. While sleep interventions may offer some benefit to athletes, caution is warranted given limitations of the extant research relating to small, non-representative studies with methodological concerns.