Sport Psychology Summary – Book + Articles done by SL
Chapter 1: Welcome to Sport and Exercise Psychology
Defining Sport and Exercise Psychology
Sport and exercise psychology is the scientific study of people and their behaviors in sport and exercise
context and practical application of that knowledge. Sport and exercise psychologists help people by
examining the ABCs of psychology: affect (one’s feelings), behavior (one’s actions), and cognitions (one’s
thoughts) within a dynamic and an ever-changing environment. There are two objectives in mind when
studying sport and exercise psychology:
1. To understand how psychological factors affect an individual’s physical performance
2. To understand how participation in sport and exercise affects a person’s psychological
development, health and well-being
Specializing in Sport Psychology
There are three primary roles in this area:
1. Conducting research
2. Teaching
3. Consulting
> Consult athletes to develop psychological skills to enhance performance
Distinguishing Between Two specialties
-Clinical sport psychologists have extensive training in psychology and are licensed to treat individuals
with emotional disorders and have additional training in sport and exercise psychology and the sport
sciences.
-Educational sport psychology specialists have extensive training in sport and exercise science, physical
education, and kinesiology and they understand the psychology of human movement. They have
advanced training in psychology and counseling, but they are not licensed psychologists. They educate
athletes and exercisers about psychological skills and their development.
Chapter 2: Science and Professional Practice of Sport and Exercise Psychology
Bridging Science and Practice
Evidence-based practice is important:
-Practitioners integrate the best available research with their expertise when working in applied settings.
Scientifically Derived Knowledge
General guidelines for scientific research:
-A systematic approach to studying a question: Involves standardizing the conditions (e.g. assess
variables under same conditions)
-Control of conditions: Key variables are the focus of study, and other variables are controlled so they do
not influence the primary relationship.
-Empirical: Based on observation
,-Critical: Involves rigorous evaluation by the researcher and other scientists. It ensures that conclusions
are reliable.
Studies vs. Experiments
A study is an observation with the limitation of identifying an actual causal relationship. In an
experiment, variables are manipulated and you have an experimental and a control group. A causal
relationship can be deducted. A goal of scientists is to collect unbiased data, which is data that speaks
for themselves and are not influenced by the scientists’ personal feelings. However, science is slow and
conservative because reliability must be judged by others. Scientific knowledge is reductionistic, because
it is too complex to study all the variables of a situation simultaneously, the research may select isolated
variables that are of the most critical interest. When a problem is reduced to smaller, manageable parts,
however, our understanding of the whole picture may be compromised or diminished. Another
limitation is its overemphasis on internal validity, because external validity gets overlooked. If a theory
has no external validity, its internal validity doesn’t count for much.
Professional Practice Knowledge
Professional practice knowledge is knowledge gained through experience and is guided by trial-and-
error learning, but errors or miscalculations also become sources of information. Professional practice of
knowledge comes from many sources and ways of knowing, including these:
-Scientific method
-Systematic observation
-Single case study
-Shared public experience
-Introspection (examining your thoughts or feelings)
-Intuition (immediate understanding of knowledge in absence of a conscious, rational process)
Advantages of practical knowledge:
- It is more holistic, reflecting the complex interplay of many factors – psychological, physical, technical,
strategic, and social.
-Innovative: Tends to absorb novel or innovative practices.
-Immediate: Do not have to wait for theories derived from science
Limitations of practical knowledge
-Lack of explanations and more affected by bias, thus is less objective
-Less reliable: Often teacher knows a method works but not why. This can be a problem if the teacher
wants to use the method in new situations.
Integration of Scientific and Professional Practice Knowledge
RE-AIM model outlines five factors that interact to affect knowledge transfer:
-Reach – who the program affects, the degree to which the program affects the target audience
-Efficacy – positive and negative outcomes of the program
-Adoption – who actually uses the completed program
-Implementation – assessment of whether the program is delivered as specified
-Maintenance – sustaining the program over time
,Taking an Active Approach to Sport and Exercise Psychology
An active approach means applying the scientific principles to your practice environments. Modify and
update them when needed by keeping current on the latest scientific findings. In using this active
approach, however, you must have realistic expectations of the research findings.
Choosing from Many Sport and Exercise Psychology Orientations
Psychophysiological Orientation
In a psychophysiological orientation the 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 activity,
and muscle action potentials are typically assessed to determine relationships between these
psychophysiological measures and sport behavior.
Social-Psychological Orientation
A social-psychological orientation assumes that behavior is determined by a complex interaction
between the environment and the personal makeup of the athlete. It examines how an individual’s social
environment influences behavior and how behavior influences the social-psychological environment.
Cognitive-Behavioral Orientation
A cognitive-behavioral orientation emphasizes the athlete’s cognitions or thoughts and behaviors and
believe that thought is central in determining behavior. Often, self-confidence, anxiety, goal orientations
and intrinsic motivation are assessed and how these are linked to changes in an athlete’s behavior.
Article 1. Implicit motor learning, reinvestment and movement disruption
What you don’t know won’t hurt you
In this chapter, we discuss one of the acknowledged contributors to performance disruption: verbally
accessible, task relevant knowledge. Our view is based on the premise that motor skills can be acquired
without an early dependence on working memory and that the recruitment of working memory
resources in explicitly learned skills can interfere with the efficient control of movement. Working
memory provides a temporary storage space where incoming information is held and manipulated, and
from which verbal mediation of knowledge emanates. It is made up of a central executive, which
controls attention, overseeing cognition, and subordinate ‘secretarial’ systems, which hold verbal or
visual information until it can be acted upon.
Reinvesting the wheel
The constrained action hypothesis proposes that when performers focus attention on their movements
they may constrain or interfere with automatic control processes that would normally regulate the
movement.
Once skilled, the performer is said to execute complex responses with minimal attention to the specific
‘declarative’ knowledge involved, because the underlying information processing has become
automatized. In certain circumstances, however, the declarative knowledge that initially supported
performance, can, in a sense, be recovered by attention (voluntarily or otherwise) and reapplied to the
task in hand. This knowledge is manipulated by working memory and may interfere with the execution of
automatic processes, regressing the normally fluent movements of the expert to the rather erratic style
,of the beginner.
A researcher attempted to unite various descriptions of this process under one expression –
reinvestment – which refers to the propensity for manipulation of conscious, explicit, rule-based
knowledge, by working memory, to control the mechanics of one’s movements during motor output.
High scores on the reinvestment scale predict a greater propensity for reinvestment and people are
more likely to choke under pressure. Not do only do high reinvesters perform poorly under pressure but
they may also exhibit performance decrements during learning. The reinvestment score was also
positively correlated with the number of technical rules learners reported using to control their putting
action, suggesting that high reinvesters rely on explicit knowledge to control their actions more than low
reinvesters. High reinvesters reported using more explicit information to control their actions than low
reinvesters during a stressed performance phase, suggesting that conscious processing mediates skill
breakdown. The more technical rules the learner acquired during learning the worse he performed
under pressure, implying that people who pick up more explicit knowledge of their movements during
learning are under greater threat of disruption from reinvestment. The use of verbal instructions to
convey information about the task requirements during skill acquisition both hindered learning and
performance under stress.
Reinvestment prevention
Explicit processes rely on working memory for the storage and manipulation of information of
information and are, therefore, verbally based and open to introspection. In other words, we are
consciously aware of the information being processed and can share that information with others.
Implicit processes are typically unavailable for conscious inspection and difficult to verbalize. Lack of
verbalizable knowledge has been taken as the primary indication of implicitly held knowledge.
Additionally, implicit processes are more resistant to the effects of psychological stress, disorders and
dysfunctions and may be more durable, or less prone to forgetting over time than explicit processes.
Implicit processes are also non-attentionally demanding or independent of working memory and
relatively independent of age and IQ, whereas explicit learning and memory degrade with age and are
closely correlated with IQ.
During the unskilled, declarative stages of learning, motor output is characterized by a predominance of
explicit processing. In the highly skilled autonomous stages, implicit processes predominate as a result of
the gradual release from explicit control during the course of learning. Reinvestment, therefore, can be
seen as an abandoning of elusive implicit processing in favor of explicit processes, which offer the
performer a sense of security as a result of their availability for conscious inspection in working memory.
Preventing the use of working memory
Researcher argued that the learning experience should reduce the amount of explicit knowledge that the
learner accumulates so that implicit processing predominates and the possibility for reinvestment is
eliminated or, at least, reduced. The researcher based his original implicit motor learning paradigm on
the simple premise that by (over)loading working memory capacity with a demanding second task the
accumulation of accessible task-relevant knowledge could be prevented. Participants learned a complex
motor skill either without simultaneous performance of a secondary task, to permit the use of working
memory, or with simultaneous performance of a secondary task, to preclude the use of working
memory. The secondary task prevents the acquisition of explicit knowledge by preventing the
rehearsal/storage of task-relevant information in working memory. By showing learning in the presence
of only very limited verbal knowledge, the researchers demonstrated the possibility for implicit motor
,learning. It is also demonstrated implicitly learned motor skills were robust to disruption from
evaluation-induced anxiety to perform well, whereas explicitly learned skills were not. Participants with
implicitly learned skills had little explicit knowledge with which to reinvest and were, therefore, immune
to the effects of this form of anxiety.
In a study they found that, under conditions that generated high anxiety, the processing of task-relevant
information by skilled players led to a greater decrement in performance than was apparent when
processing task-irrelevant information. This finding supports the belief that it is the reinvestment of task-
relevant knowledge that is responsible for breakdown of performance under pressure, rather than a
general overload of processing capacity.
Circumventing working memory during early learning
It is proposed that explicit processes deploy working memory to identify and correct errors during
learning and performance, whereas implicit processes encode frequency information without the
involvement of working memory and are unable to correct errors – accounting for the poor performance
of implicit learners. If errors are absent, the contribution from working memory should be
correspondingly low, and learning should be more implicit in nature. Providing guidance or prompting
during learning leads to better performance than trial and error learning.
Participants learning under errorless conditions appeared to acquire their skills in a passive manner,
reminiscent of implicit learning, whereas learners in trial and error conditions seemed to actively test
hypotheses, reminiscent of explicit modes of learning. Working memory serves to manipulate the explicit
information required for the hypothesis testing process. When errors are absent, hypotheses are less
likely to be tested because the movement is effective (successful). Errorless learners are, therefore, more
likely to adopt a passive, implicit mode of learning by default and are not reliant on the availability of
working memory. Reliance on working memory can be measured in two ways. First, the generation of
verbalizable rules should be possible when working memory has been involved in skill acquisition.
Second, if working memory is not utilized to perform the primary task it should be available to perform a
secondary task; however, if working memory is being utilized to perform the primary task, the
introduction of a secondary task should result in a decrement in the performance of the primary task,
the secondary task or both.
Prevention of hypothesis testing by withholding outcome feedback
It is hypothesized that performing a novel movement without access to visual sensory feedback
pertaining to the outcome would result in the adoption of an implicit learning strategy, because without
information about the outcome of their actions the performer would be unable to formulate
hypothetical rules or appraise performance strategies. Thus, two processes were proposed, one
dependent, the other independent, of working memory. Working memory dependent learning should be
characterized by reportable (declarative) knowledge and subsequent performance breakdown under
secondary task loading, due to reliance on working memory for control of the primary task. In contrast,
working memory independent learning should be characterized by poor explication of the (motor)
processes required to accomplish the task and robust performance under secondary task loading.
In an experiment, participants either performed a golf putting task with (WMD) or without (WMI) visual
sensory feedback. The combination of absent visual feedback and surrogate attentional load (visual
search task) between trials prevented the build up of declarative knowledge in the WMI treatment
condition. It is indicated that at the end of the learning phase participants in this condition had accrued
significantly fewer rules than those in the WMD condition. This result supports the contention that they
,did not utilize working memory to process primary task information during the learning phase.
When performing a secondary tone-counting task whilst putting, the performance level of the WMI
group continued to rise, supporting the hypothesis that there was no manipulation of explicit declarative
knowledge by working memory to support performance of the primary task. The WMD group suffered a
decrease in performance reflecting their reliance on working memory.
An analysis illustrated that during learning the WMI and WMD conditions experienced similar changes in
acceleration profile, jerk and smoothness. Under secondary task loading, however. The WMD condition
exhibited adverse changes in jerk associated with disrupted performance, whereas performance
remained robust in the WMI condition, with no changes in smoothness or jerkiness.
It was concluded that the replacement of visual outcome feedback with an irrelevant visual search task
during learning prohibits the build-up of task-relevant explicit information. Motor output improves, but
is independent of working memory, as demonstrated by robust performance under secondary task
loading.
Behavioral adaptation to unconsciously perceived environmental information
Information in the environment has the potential to influence behavior without us being consciously
aware of that information. Unconsciously perceived information has an effect on subsequent action.
Information used to guide prehension is unavailable to consciousness because it is processed in a
separate pathway from the information of which we become aware. The ventral pathway transmits
‘what’ information to the inferior temporal cortex and results in conscious awareness of environmental
cues, whereas the dorsal pathway transmits ‘how’ information to the posterior parietal cortex, which
remains unconscious and is used to guide action.
In addition, the subjective physical ability of the performer may affect conscious judgments but not
action driven judgments. Participants in a study adjusted their arm position to reach a target but were
unaware that their visual field had been displaced. These demonstrations of successful visually-guided
actions, despite a misguided conscious perception of the environment, provide evidence that adaptive
behavior need not depend on awareness of the precise stimuli that instigate movement and establishes
the basic premise that we can act upon feedback of which we are not fully aware.
Presentation of marginally perceptible outcome feedback
It was hypothesized that presentation of outcome feedback at the subjective threshold would result in
learning even though performers believed that they were not receiving useful information. It was argued
that, due to the lack of conscious access to the outcome information, working memory would be unable
to generate explicit, task-relevant information. Learning in the subjective threshold condition was
expected to be implicit. The group that received feedback at their objective threshold reported that they
were unaware of using any strategies and that they had no idea of how well they had performed. Their
performance did not increase over trials, which suggests that learning did not occur. The group which
received feedback at its subjective threshold was also unable to provide verbal accounts of its
performance; however, its putting performance increased over trials. The performance of subjective
threshold was robust under secondary task loading, suggesting independence from working memory.
Heuristic instruction
No differential effect of learning condition on performance was observed during the learning phase or in
the delayed retention test. However, the performance of the Explicit Instruction group was impaired by
secondary task loading, whereas the performances of the other two groups remained robust. These
,results were interpreted as support for the assertion that, as a simple heuristic, learning by analogy
places fewer demands on working memory than learning by more complex, explicit algorithms of
instruction. Performance in the explicitly instructed condition deteriorated under pressure, whereas
performance in the analogy learning condition remained robust. Limiting the amount of accessible,
explicit knowledge of the motor task, by introducing an analogy that implicitly conveys a substantial
amount of information, would appear to reduce the possibility for reinvestment. Simple rules or
heuristics are as effective as complex rules and algorithm for imparting new data. In motor learning
terms, the analogy is a simple instructional heuristic with which to present new rules and techniques to
novice learners implicitly.
A working model of implicit and explicit learning
The novice who has received a set of verbal instructions from a coach will utilize predominantly explicit
control of output. As learning progresses, the balance tends to shift to the right side as implicit
knowledge accumulates. Implicit motor learning interventions are designed to promote primarily right-
sided control by diminishing the role of working memory and preventing the accumulation of unwieldly
explicit knowledge. Working memory remains accessible, however, and can be re-introduced into control
of output strategically.
The dynamical systems approach attempts to describe physical principles that underlie complex
interactions, such as motor coordination. Groups of muscles are hypothesized to work together in
coordinated units or structures independent of metacognition. For example, when one abducts the arm,
postural adjustments automatically occur to compensate for the change in center of gravity. The arm
and postural muscles from a functional unit. It is possible that conscious control of action breaks down
these functional synergies into their component parts. This would result in a dramatic increase in the
number of degrees of freedom that have to be controlled by the performer. The increased complexity
that additional degrees of freedom incur is likely to exceed the attentional resources available to the
performer, thus disrupting performance.
The evolution of verbal and motor skills
There is the theory that the earliest memory system was procedural, and that declarative memory
evolved later. Mimicry was an evolutionary antecedent of verbally-based communication and it is
predicted that observation should have an advantage over verbal instruction during motor learning,
particularly if verbally-based working memory resources are prevented from interfering with the mimetic
process.
Chapter 5: Arousal, Stress, and Anxiety
Defining Arousal and Anxiety
Arousal
Arousal is a blend of physiological and psychological activity in a person, and it refers to the intensity
dimensions of motivation at a particular moment. Intensity of arousal falls along a continuum ranging
from not at all aroused to completely aroused. Highly aroused individuals are mentally and physically
activated; they experience increases in heart rate, respiration, and sweating. Arousal is not automatically
associated with either pleasant or unpleasant events.
,Anxiety
Anxiety is a negative emotional state characterized by nervousness, worry and apprehension and
associated with activation or arousal of the body. It does not necessarily affect performance negatively.
In sport settings, anxiety refers to “an unpleasant psychological state in reaction to perceived stress
concerning the performance of a task under pressure”. Anxiety has two components: cognitive anxiety
(e.g., worry) and somatic anxiety, which is the degree of physical activation perceived.
State anxiety
State anxiety refers to the ever-changing mood component and is characterized by subjective,
consciously perceived feelings of apprehension and tension. Accompanied by or associated with
activation or arousal of the autonomic nervous system. The level of state anxiety can change from
moment to moment during a sports game.
Cognitive state anxiety concerns the degree to which one worries or has negative thoughts and somatic
state anxiety concerns the moment-to-moment changes in perceived physiological activation. Somatic
state anxiety is not necessarily a change in one’s physical activation but rather one’s perception of such a
change. There is a perceived control of state anxiety; that is, the degree to which one believes one has
the resources and ability to meet challenges is an important component of state anxiety as well.
Trait anxiety
Trait anxiety is part of the personality. It predisposes an individual to perceive as threating a wide range
of circumstances that objectively may not actually be physically or psychologically dangerous. The person
then responds to these circumstances with state anxiety reactions or levels that are disproportionate in
intensity and magnitude to the objective danger.
Measuring Arousal and Anxiety
Arousal can be measured by physiological signs: heart rate, respiration, skin conductance and
biochemistry. To measure anxiety both global and multidimensional self-report measures are used.
A direct relationship exists between person’s level of trait anxiety and state anxiety. Those who score
high on trait anxiety measures also have more state anxiety in highly competitive, evaluative situations.
This relationship is not perfect. A highly trait-anxious athlete may have a lot of experience in a particular
situation or learned coping skills and thus not perceive a threat and the corresponding high state anxiety.
Also, anxiety can fluctuate throughout competition.
Defining Stress and Understanding the Stress Process
Stress is defined as “a substantial imbalance between demand (physical and/or psychological) and
response capability, under conditions where failure to meet that demand has important consequences”.
It is a process/sequence of events that will lead to a particular end. Stress consists of four interrelated
stages.
1. Environmental demand 2. Perception of demand
3. Stress response 4. Behavioral consequences
Stage 1: Environmental Demand
First, some type of demand is placed on an individual and might be physical and/or psychological.
Stage 2: Perception of Demand
,Second is the perception of the demand. People do not perceive demands exactly the same way. A
person’s level of trait anxiety greatly influences how that person perceives the world. Highly trait-anxious
people tend to perceive more situations – especially evaluative and competitive ones – as threatening
than people with low trait anxiety do.
Stage 3: Stress response
Third, is the physical and psychological response to a perception of the situation. If someone’s
perception of an imbalance between demands and his response capability causes him to feel threatened,
increased state anxiety results, bringing with it increased worries (cognitive state anxiety), heightened
physiological activation (somatic state anxiety), or both. It also brings changes in concentration and
increased muscle tension.
Stage 4: Behavioral Consequences
Fourth is the actual behavior of the individual under stress. The final stage of the stress process feeds
back into the first. For example, if a student becomes overly threatened and performs poorly in front of
the class, the other children may laugh; this negative social evaluation becomes an additional demand on
the child (stage 1). The stress process, then, becomes a continuing cycle
Identifying Sources of Stress and Anxiety
There are many stressors including performance issues, environmental issues, organizational issues,
issues outside of sport and etc. Studies found that high pressure in a highly ego motivational climate (i.e.
focus on outcome) increased perceptions of anxiety but high pressure in a highly mastery motivational
climate (i.e., focus on improvement) decreased perceptions of anxiety. The many specific sources of
stress for those participating in sport and physical activity contexts fall into some general categories
determined by both situation and personality.
Situational Sources of Stress
Two common sources of situational stress are importance placed on an event and the uncertainty that
surrounds the outcome of that event.
Event Importance
The more important the event, the more stress provoking it is. The more critical the situation, the more
stress and nervousness the young athletes exhibit. The importance placed on an event is not always
obvious, however. An event that may seem insignificant to most people may be very important for one
particular person.
Uncertainty
The greater the uncertainty, the greater the stress. Often, we cannot do anything about uncertainty.
There is maximum uncertainty when two evenly matched teams play, but little can be done about it.
Also, at times coaches create unnecessary uncertainty by not informing athletes. Uncertainty is not
limited to sport settings and uncertainty also come from athletes lives in general.
Personal Sources of Stress
There are three personal sources: high trait anxiety, low self-esteem and social physique anxiety.
, Trait anxiety
Trait anxiety predisposes a person to view competition and social evaluation as more or less threatening.
Individuals with high trait anxiety have a cognitive bias to pick out more threat-related information in the
same situation than their peers with low trait anxiety do.
Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is also related to perceptions of threat and corresponding changes in state anxiety. Athletes
with low self-esteem have less confidence and more state anxiety than do athletes with high self-
esteem. Strategies for enhancing self-confidence reduces the amount of state anxiety.
Social Physique Anxiety
Social physique anxiety is a personality disposition defined as the degree to which people become
anxious when others observe their physiques. It reflects people’s tendency to become nervous or
apprehensive when their body is evaluated. There is a negative relationship between social physique
anxiety and exercise behavior and perceived physical ability and social physique anxiety is related to
need satisfaction, physical activity motivation, and behavior. People with high social physique anxiety,
then, are likely to avoid fitness settings or struggle with motivation when they participate because they
fear how their bodies are evaluated by others. Women are especially susceptible to social physique
anxiety. To reduce social physique anxiety people can exercise in less revealing clothing.
Connecting Arousal and Anxiety to Performance
Drive theory
Drive theory see performance as direct and linear. As arousal or state anxiety increases, so too does
performance. However, little support exists for this theory.
In social facilitation theory, there is no need for an audience, but coaction (two people performing
simultaneously) is enough to produce arousal effects. When people perform well-learned or simple skills,
the dominant response is correct (positive performance) and the increased arousal facilitate
performance. When people perform complex or unlearned skills, the presence of others increases
arousal and more often causes their dominant responses to be incorrect (poorer performance). It is
recommended to eliminate audiences and evaluation as much as possible in learning situations. When
people are performing well-learned or simple tasks, you might encourage people to come watch.
Inverted-U Hypothesis
The inverted-U hypothesis holds that at low arousal levels, performance will be below par; the athlete is
not psyched up. As arousal increases, so too does performance – up to an optimal point where best
performance results. Further increases in arousal, however, cause performance to decline.
Individualized Zones of Optimal Functioning
The individualized zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) model found that top athletes have a zone of
optimal state anxiety in which their best performance occurs. Outside this zone, poor performance
occurs. Hanin’s IZOF view differs from the inverted-U hypothesis in two important ways:
1. First, the optimal level of state anxiety does not always occur at the midpoint of the
continuum but rather varies from individual to individual. Some athletes have a zone at the
lower, middle or upper range of the continuum.
