Five Topics in Sports Psychology

This document is produced under two principles: 1.
The images are all available in the public domain (from http://openclipart.org). You are free to use this document, but, please, quote the source (Kevin Brewer 2013) and do not claim it as you own work. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution (by) 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/3.0/ or, send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 2nd Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
2. Details of the author are included so that the level of expertise of the writer can be assessed. This compares to documents which are not named and it is not possible to tell if the writer has any knowledge about their subject. Kevin Brewer BSocSc, MSc (http://kmbpsychology.jottit.com/) An independent academic psychologist, based in England, who has written extensively on different areas of psychology with an emphasis on the critical stance towards traditional ideas. Orsett Psychological Services, PO Box 179, Grays, Essex RM16 3EW UK orsettpsychologicalservices@phonecoop.coop
Five Topics in Sports Psychology
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
CONTENTS
Page Number
1. EXPERT PERFORMANCE 1.1. Expert performance and practice 1.2. Cognitive differences 1.3. Sports official 2. TEAM COHESION 2.1. 2.2. 2.3. 2.4. 2.5. 2.6. Task and social cohesion Measuring team cohesion Team cohesion and performance Attributions Role of coach Appendix 2A - Leadership and cohesion
3. HOME ADVANTAGE 3.1. 3.2. 3.3. 3.4. Factors in home advantage Research examples Home disadvantage Officiating
21
4. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PERFORMERS
27
4.1. Cognitive abilities 4.2. Anxiety and confidence 4.3. Mental toughness 4.3.1. Techniques to help confidence and performance 4.4. Extreme sports 5. EXERCISE AND HEALTH 44
5.1. Introduction 5.2. Improvements in exercise 5.2.1. Encouraging physical activity in children 6. REFERENCES 49
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
1. EXPERT PERFORMANCE
1.1. Expert performance and practice 1.2. Cognitive differences 1.3. Sports official 1.1. EXPERT PERFORMANCE AND PRACTICE "Nobody becomes an outstanding professional without experience, but extensive experience does not invariably lead people to become experts...Although everyone in a given domain tends to improve with experience initially, some develop faster than others and continue to improve during ensuing years. These individuals are eventually recognized as experts and masters. In contrast, most professionals reach a stable, average level of performance within a relatively short time frame and maintain this mediocre status for the rest of their careers" (Ericsson 2004 pS70). Why this difference? The traditional answer has been innate factors related to biology. Francis Galton first proposed this idea in the late 19th century particularly in relation to mental abilities. Ericsson (2004) argued for an alternative to nature - deliberate and continued practice (nurture) 1. This is different to experience alone as experienced individuals are not automatically better than novices (eg: computer programmes, wine tasters, financial advisors) (Ericsson 2004). Studying the superior performance of an expert over a novice or less skilled individual is not easy. This is partly because expert skills are many and varied (from chess masters to physical sporting abilities to medical diagnosis), and they are difficult to study in real-life. On the other hand, laboratory studies are artificial and reductionist. Thus the need to design controlled studies which use real-life elements that an expert is faced with. de Groot (1946/1978) was the first to design a controlled study of expertise using naturally occurring tasks. Chess players were presented with chess positions (taken from games) and asked to make the next move. The quality of the move chosen was better for world-class players as compared to club players. Subsequent use of this method 2 has standardised
Howard (eg: 2009) has challenged the importance of deliberate practice, and emphasised innate talent with a limit to the individual's performance. Playing the sport will improve performance up to the individual's limit. 2 Sometimes called the expert-performance approach (Ericsson and Ward 2007). Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 4
scoring, encourages the participant to think aloud as solving the problem, and uses measures like eye movement tracking (Ericsson and Ward 2007). Ericsson and Ward (2007) noted from research of activities like darts, music performance, and surgical procedure, that expert performance requires an extended period of skill development (eg: ten years). This is because physiological differences between experts and novices are often the product of training (eg: greater maximal oxygen uptake of endurance athletes or structure of ballet dancers' hip joints altered between 9-12 years old; Ericsson and Ward 2007). Intense training produces biochemical changes that trigger dormant genes, and these lead to physical changes. Deliberate practice (for thousands of hours) also improves performance through feedback of success. "The commonly held but empirically unsupported notion that some uniquely 'talented' individuals can attain superior performance in a given domain without much practice appears to be a destructive myth that could discourage people from investing the necessary efforts to reach expert levels of performance" (Ericsson and Ward 2007 p349). Ericsson (2004) summarised the evidence about the development of expert performance: Performance increases gradually over time and not in sudden bursts, even among child prodigies. Individuals reach their peak after many years of performance - eg: in late 20s in vigorous sports, but in 30-40s in non-vigorous activities. Deliberate practice should focus on a specific task with immediate feedback. Ericsson et al (1993) studied expert musicians at a music academy in Berlin, Germany. The best violinists spent around four hours every day on solitary practice of specific aspects of their performance. It was calculated that these players had spent more than 10 000 hours on practice by age 20 compared to half or three-quarters of that amount for less accomplished experts 3.
Accurately measuring the amount of practice of performers can be difficult. The most common method is self-report. But this is prone to recall error, particularly depending on the time period used. Ericsson et al (1993) asked the musicians to recall the preceding day as 15-minute segments, and this was supported by diary-keeping. There was a high degree of consistency between the sources of information. Less reliable is a general question like, "How many hours per week on average have you studied chess in the past year (eg: read chess books, studied computer databases, analysed games, and so on)?" in Howard's (2012) Internet survey. Ericsson and Moxley (2012) observed: "It must be very Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 5
1.2. COGNITIVE DIFFERENCES Asking individuals to think aloud (process-tracing) has shown the cognitive mechanisms involved in the acquisition of expert performance. For example, the ability to plan, monitor and reflect upon performance are different between experts and novices, but not "basic" abilities like intelligence or memory capacity (Ericsson and Ward 2007). Even if experts do not have better general memory than novices, they do have superior pattern recall for their area of expertise (eg: positions of pieces in chess) and similar areas (eg: position of pieces in draughts). For example, Abernethy et al (2005) found that expert netball players recalled details of clips of netball games better than novices, but so did experts from other sports (eg: basketball, hockey). This is taken as evidence of transfer of skills. Expertise in a domain also varies with the role. In sport, this refers to players, coaches, and referees/officials. Allard et al (1993) tested basketball coaches, players and referees on different aspects of their sport. Referees fared best on knowledge of rules, hand signals used by officials, and details of fouls, while coaches and players recalled more pictures showing different basketball plays. MacMahon et al (2007) compared the expertise of seven Belgian elite association football referees with 34 Belgian elite clubs' academy players. The participants were shown twenty short clips of tackles and given ten seconds after each one to decide if it was not a foul, a foul only, a foul requiring a yellow card, or a foul worthy of a red card (as previously determined by a FIFA panel of experts). This was called the referee tackle assessment task. The referees had a mean accuracy of 81% compared to 55% for the players (p<0.001). Among the referees, hours per week in refereeing practice was
difficult for the respondents to retrieve all the relevant information about all these different activities for a complete year and generate an answer rapidly" (p652). Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 6
related to accuracy. MacMahon et al (2007) noted: "Put simply, referees observe players perform game-related actions and react by applying the rules, whereas players perform game-related actions and observe or react as referees apply the rules. Players do not regularly make rule application decisions, and thus referees should outperform them" (p66). Individuals become experts through deliberate practice of their skills, but how does that apply to referees? MacMahon et al (2007) questioned seven Belgian and 26 English elite association football referees on the type of training undertaken throughout their careers (including physical fitness training, and activities undertaken by coaches and players). Other than the obvious need for physical fitness, refereeing games was seen as most relevant for improving performance (figure 1.1).
10 - High relevance Refereeing league matches (9.3) Technical refereeing skills (8.9) Speed endurance (8.7) 5.9 - Overall mean Playing football (3.1) Player meetings (2.4) 1 - Low relevance
(In brackets = mean score) (Data from MacMahon et al 2007 table II p75)
Figure 1.1 - Examples of training activities rated as significantly relevant or not relevant by referees. 1.3. SPORTS OFFICIALS Sports officials included judges who score athletes' performance (eg: gymnastics) and referees/umpires who enforce rules (eg: football). Both groups can show varying degrees of expert performance (ie: accuracy of officiating). The expert performance of officials will be influenced by external factors like the crowd, and internal factors like the official's experience. The experience can be visual (from watching many games as an official or spectator) as well as motor (having played the sport) (Pizzera and Raab 2012). Pizzera and Raab (2012) found that the different types of experience varied in importance depending on the sport. They studied 370 officials from football (n = 77), handball (n = 107), ice hockey (n = 121), and
Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 7
trampolining (n = 65) in Germany. Details of the officials' experience were collected - officiating (years as judge or referee), motor (years playing the sport which now officiate), and visual (years watching as a spectator). Performance measures of the officials were made by expert referee coaches. Officiating experience was significantly related to performance in handball and ice hockey, while motor experience was important in ice hockey and trampolining. Football refereeing was associated with visual experience.
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
2. TEAM COHESION
2.1. 2.2. 2.3. 2.4. 2.5. 2.6. Task and social cohesion Measuring team cohesion Team cohesion and performance Attributions Role of coach Appendix 2A - Leadership and cohesion
2.1. TASK AND SOCIAL COHESION The sports team is a specific type of group, and a key element is cohesion. This is "an individual's sense of belonging to a particular group and his or her feelings of morale associated with membership in groups" (Bollen and Hoyle 1990 p482), or "a dynamic process that is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of its instrumental objectives and/or for the satisfaction of member affective needs" (Carron et al 1998 p213). Cartwright (1968) used the term, "we-ness", where "members all work together for a common goal, or one where everyone is ready to take responsibility for group chores" (p70). Team cohesion is sub-divided into task cohesion (working together to achieve the goals) and social cohesion (liking each other) (Cota et al 1995). The ideal is to have high task and social cohesion - individuals who like each other working for a common goal, but there will be variations in reality (eg: low task/high social; low social/high task). Team cohesion will be influenced by: i) External factors - outside the team (eg: social environment). ii) Internal factors - inside the team. a) Personal - eg: team homogeneity (Widmeyer and Williams 1991). b) Stability - length of time playing together. c) Leadership (appendix 2A). d) Team size
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
2.2. MEASURING TEAM COHESION Carron et al (1985) developed the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ) to measure team cohesion 4. The 18 items measure two dimensions - individual team member's perception of the team, divided into group integration (perception of how well the team works together) and individual attraction; and the player's group orientation (divided into social and task cohesion) 5. This gives four sub-scales: i) Group integration/social cohesion (GIS) - an individual's perceptions of the unity of the group in relation to social aspects of the group. ii) Group integration/task cohesion (GIT) - an individual's perceptions of the unity of the group in relation to tasks of the group. iii) Individual attraction/social cohesion (ATG-S) an individual's perceptions of their involvement in social aspects of the group. iv) Individual attraction/task cohesion (ATG-T) - an individual's perceptions of their involvement in tasks of the group.
The first stage in designing the GEQ involved asking undergraduates at a Canadian university who played team sports to say why people join, leave, or stay in groups. Open-ended questions were used. Then sixty students who were part of swimming, cross-country running, or cheerleading teams were asked the same questions. The most popular responses were combined with definitions of cohesion from 29 articles found in a literature search to produce the item pool. A total of 354 items were reduced to 53 by five experts. This was GEQ version 1. Two hundred and twelve university players from twenty teams were given this questionnaire to complete. Item analysis reduced the items to 24 which discriminated most between respondents. The final version of the GEQ was reduced to eighteen items with more respondents. The use of both positively and negatively worded items combats "response acquiescence" or "agreement (or disagreement) tendency", where individuals give the same answer without paying attention to the question. But how the positive wording is changed to negative wording is important. For example, "I am satisfied with my job" rephrased to "I am not satisfied with my job" leaves the possibility of misreading, so "I hate my job" would be better (Eys et al 2007). Eys et al (2007) compared the responses to the GEQ using the official version (12 negatively and 6 positively worded items), and a modified version (with all positively wording). For example, "I do not enjoy being part of the social activities of this team" changed to "I enjoy being part of the social activities of this team". The meaning of the items was not altered. The 276 participants were undergraduate team sports players at a Canadian university. The modified version was found to have better internal reliability. 5 18 items divided into 4 for ATGT, 5 for ATGS, 5 for GIT, and 4 for GIT. Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 10
2.3. TEAM COHESION AND PERFORMANCE The social cohesion model predicts that groups "which succeed in reaching their goals, should be more cohesive than those which do not. Failure, defeat, deprivation, or other negative outcomes related to group membership should reduce intra-group cohesiveness" (Turner 1981 quoted in Taylor et al 1983). Martens and Peterson (1971) was the first well-known study of the relationship between team cohesion and performance. Based on interviews with 1200 male university athletes in the USA, it was found that highly cohesive teams were more successful than low cohesive ones, and this produced more satisfaction and cohesion. A "circular relationship between satisfaction, cohesiveness, and success" (figure 2.1).
Figure 2.1 - Circular relationship between cohesion, performance and satisfaction. Twenty years later, Widmeyer et al (1993) reviewed the studies finding that 83% of them supported a positive relationship between cohesion and performance: "athletes on successful teams perceive the team to be more cohesive, while athletes on unsuccessful teams perceive the team to be less cohesive" (Turman 2003) 6. But Mullen and Copper (1994) suggested that the relationship between cohesion and success was only modest. While Grieve (2000) fund that performance had more impact on cohesion than cohesion on performance 7.
Why does team cohesion lead to team success? Paskevich (1995; quoted in Carron et al 2002) suggested that cohesion creates a collective efficacy (a feeling of being able to succeed) that leads to the team success. 7 Carron et al (2002) highlighted problems with many studies of team cohesion and success, including small sample size (eg: less than eight teams), not real sports teams (ie: artificially created groups), measurement of cohesion with psychometrically established tests or not, and whether to compare cohesion or task cohesion with success. Hoyle and Crawford (1994) pointed out that a "single score that represents the thoughts, feelings, or behavioural tendencies of the group results in a loss of Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 11
In studies of this relationship, what should be the unit of analysis? Carron and Spink (1995) replied: "The answer, of course, is that there is no definitive answer - it depends on the nature of the question. Cohesion is a cognition that exists in the minds of individual group members. If the question of interest is centred on the relationship of cohesiveness to individual behaviour adherence for example - then the individual's cognition about cohesion is the critical consideration... Conversely, if the focus was on a group behaviour - group performance for example - then the average level of cohesion in the group would be the appropriate unit of analysis" (quoted in Carron et al 2002 p120). Carron et al (2002) preferred to concentrate on the relationship between task cohesion and team success, using 294 Canadian university male and female players from eighteen basketball and football teams. Team success was operationalised as the percentage of games won in the regular season, and task cohesion was measured by the GIT and ATG-T items of the GEQ completed two weeks before the end of the season. The GEQ scores were found to be significantly positively correlated to the team success overall (r = 0.57 GIT; r = 0.67 ATG-T), and also for each sport separately. Cox (1990) suggested that the relationship between cohesion and performance was mediated by the level of interaction of the players in the team - high (eg: football, basketball) or low (eg: golf, bowls) 8. High team cohesion in high interaction sports leads to good performance, but produces poor performance in low interaction sports (figure 2.2). For example, Landers and Luschen (1974) found a negative relationship between cohesion and success among ten-pin bowling teams. Mullen and Copper's (1994) meta-analysis of 49 studies of different types of groups did not find that interaction was a moderating factor.
information about the character of the group" (quoted in Carron et al 2002 p124). 8 Also known as coacting sports. Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 12
Figure 2.2 - The relationship between cohesion and performance in high and low interaction sports. Stogdill (1972) emphasised the importance of group norms, particularly for productivity, as interacting with cohesion to influence performance. Norms for high productivity (all players working hard) and high team cohesion produces good performance, but high team cohesion and low productivity norms leads to poorer performance (figure 2.3).
Figure 2.3 - The relationship between productivity norms, cohesion, and performance.
Taylor et al (1983) presented an example of a losing team that continued to have high team cohesion. The attribution of the cause of failure was important (ie: group-serving attributions by individual members). The researchers found that responsibility for losing was attributed to the whole group rather than to individuals or sub-groups (diffusion of responsibility), while individuals took responsibility for failure themselves at the same time. Taylor et al followed a college men's ice hockey team over a 25-game season, and interviewed each player soon after each game. The questionnaires explored the attributions made for winning or losing based on three types - internal (the whole group, my sub-group - attack or defence, self), external within-group (other individual players, other sub-group), and external (eg: luck, referee). The team won three games in the season. The rating of team cohesion remained high throughout the season with similar ratings after each game. Taylor et al concluded: "This pattern is not typical of shortterm laboratory experiments, suggesting that good interpersonal relations, which are more crucial in longstanding groups, may explain the predominance of the group-serving pattern" (p197). 2.4. ATTRIBUTIONS An attribution is "an explanation advanced to account for a specific outcome or behaviour" (Martin and Carron 2012 p157). Individuals and teams will make attributions about their wins and losses. Weiner (1972) outlined four types of attribution ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck (table 2.1).
ATTRIBUTION
Ability Effort Task difficulty Luck
WIN
More skilled than opponents. More effort by us. We mastered course. We were lucky.
LOSS
Opponents more skilled. More effort by them. Course very difficult. We were unlucky.
Table 2.1 - Four types of attribution for winning and losing. Weiner (1985) preferred to use three dimensions of attribution: i) Locus of causality - The extent to which the cause of winning or losing is down to the individual (internal) or other reasons (external).
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
14
ii) Stability - Whether the causes change over time (stable/unstable). iii) Controllability - The extent to which an individual has control over the causes of winning or losing (controllable/uncontrollable). Winners are more likely to attribution their success as internal, stable, and controllable (eg: work harder), and losers as external, unstable, and uncontrollable (eg: bad refereeing decisions). This is called the "selfserving bias" (Martin and Carron 2012) (table 2.2).
CONTROLLABLE
STABLE I lost because my tactics were poor, and that will not change decline in future performance. I lost because my tactics were poor, but that can be changed improved performance in future.
UNCONTROLLABLE
I was unlucky and that will not change - decline in future performance. I was unlucky, but I could be lucky next time - performance unchanged in future.
UNSTABLE
Table 2.2 - Attributions of loss and future performance. Coffee and Rees (2011) tested experimentally the prediction that a single failure would not lead to poorer future performance if individuals believed the circumstances were controllable and/or unstable, but would reduce performance if attributions of uncontrollable and stable were made. Participants, who were students in England, were asked to throw three darts at a dartboard while blindfolded. The first set of throws established the baseline performance of each participant (a score out of 30), but was also used to give negative feedback. All participants were told that they had scored six points, and were given a reason why (based on four conditions): Controllable/stable (CS). Controllable/unstable (CU). Uncontrollable/stable (US). Uncontrollable/unstable (UU). The participants then threw the darts again. The participants in the CS and CU conditions showed improvements in performance between the baseline and the second throwing, while participants in the US showed a decline. The participants in the UU condition showed an improvement. Subsequently, the participants were given contrary feedback before a third set of throws. For example, individuals in the US condition were given information that put them in the CS condition. Performance on the
last throwing improved when the feedback was linked to controllable and/or unstable attributions. Much research has looked at this process for individual athletes, but it also occurs with the performance of a team ("teamserving bias") (Mullen and Riordan 1988). Team-oriented attribution is usually measured by questionnaires like the Causal Dimension Scale for Teams (CDS-T) (Greenlees et al 2005). Martin and Carron (2012) performed a meta-analysis on twenty-one studies of team-serving bias confirming its existence in a variety of team sports 9. Thus individuals emphasise internal factors like team ability as the cause of the win, and downplay these for a loss. Team-serving bias occurs in relation to "self-threat" ("when favourable views about oneself are questioned, contradicted, impugned, mocked, challenged, or otherwise put in jeopardy") (Baumeister et al 1996). Social Identity Theory (Tajfel and Turner 1979) has also been applied to explain the bias. This is where individuals gain their sense of self from group membership, while being motivated to enhance their selfesteem. These are achieved by seeing their own group (ingroup) as better than other groups (outgroups). This is confirmed after winning, but threatened after losing. So, in the latter case, the need to blame external reasons for the loss. 2.5. ROLE OF COACH Coaches' feedback to players and their interactions with them (including the "motivational climate" and "goal-reward structure) influence the players' beliefs and behaviours. In a mastery (task-involving) climate, coaches emphasise effort, learning, self-improvement, and skill mastery as compared to the focus on comparisons between players and mistake punishment of the performance (ego-involving) climate. Players in the former climate defined success in terms of learning and improvement rather than outperforming others (even showing more prosocial behaviours), while the opposite was the case in the performance climate (Stuntz and Garwood 2012).
The meta-analysis found no gender differences in team serving bias, nor age differences, nor team size (<12 vs >12 players), nor skill level (competitive vs recreational). Previous research had found, for example, that male teams only use it. Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 16
In terms of motivational climate and goal-reward structures, Stuntz and Garwood (2012) compared competitive (rewards for beating others), individualistic (self-improvement), and co-operative (success of group) types. One hundred and ninety-eight US students were randomly divided into one of these three conditions to play a social dilemma game in pairs. Each player made a choice from a payoff matrix presented (figure 2.4). In the competitive condition, participants were told that scoring more points than the partner was the goal of the game, while the instructions in the individualistic condition emphasised self-improvement. In the cooperative condition, the goal was the most points for the pair. Participants played three sets of ten games.
(Based on Stuntz and Garwood 2012 figure 1 p264)
Figure 2.4 - Payoff matrix used
10
The participants tended to describe success and failure in the game based on the instructions given. However, interestingly, the co-operative group scored most individual points (mean: 89.01) followed by the individualistic group (mean: 74.31) and the competitive group last (mean: 62.06). So, in team sports at least, promoting co-operative goals appears to produce better results than emphasising competitive or individualistic ones. 2.6. APPENDIX 2A - LEADERSHIP AND COHESION Leadership by coaches/managers based on social support, training and instruction, positive feedback, and being democratic is better at producing team cohesion than an autocratic leadership style (Turman 2003). Among professional basketball players in Iran, Moradi (2004) found that a player's perception of team
Choice A was viewed as more collaborative as more points are scored for group, and choice B as more competitive as it brings more points for the individual (Stuntz and Garwood 2012). Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 17
10
cohesion was associated with perception of the coach showing democratic behaviour, training and instruction, social support, and positive feedback, and not being autocratic or using punishment-oriented feedback. The coach's leadership behaviour can be measured using the Leadership Scale for Sport (LSS) (Chelladurai and Saleh 1980) 11 which has five dimensions - training and instruction (TI), positive feedback (PF), social support (SS), democratic behaviour (DB), and autocratic behaviour (AB) (table 2.3). There are 40 items (13 measuring TI, 9 for DB, 5 AB, 8 SS, and 5 PF). Items include: "My coach sees to it that athletes work to capacity", rated on a five-point scale from "always" to "never". There are three versions of the LSS - the athlete's preference for coaching behaviour, the athlete's perception of coaching behaviour, and the coach's perception of their own behaviour.
Training and instruction - coach's role in improving the performance level of the player; eg: "specify in detail what is expected of each athlete", "figure ahead on what should be done", "point out each athlete's strengths and weaknesses". Democratic behaviour - coach permits participation of players in decision-making; eg: "let his athletes share in decision-making", "let athletes work at own speed", "let the group set its own goals". Autocratic behaviour - coach keeps apart from team and emphasises their authority; eg: "not explain his action", "keep to himself", "refuse to compromise a point". Social support - coach's role in satisfying interpersonal/social needs of team and members; eg: "look out for the personal welfare of the athlete", "invite athletes to his home", "do personal favours to the athletes". Positive feedback - coach uses positive comments; eg: "tell an athlete when he does a particularly good job", "give credit when credit due", "see that an athlete is rewarded for a good performance".
Table 2.3 - Dimensions of the LSS. Ramzaninezhad and Hoseini Keshtan (2009) gave the LSS and the GEQ to 264 players in twelve football teams
In the first stage of the development of the LSS, 160 physical education students at a Canadian university responded to 99 items about the ideal coach taken from existing leadership scales and adapted. Thirty-seven items were taken as relevant and added to thirteen new items. This revised questionnaire was given to 102 more physical education students and 223 university athletes from different team sports at other Canadian universities. Analysis of the responses lead to 40 items for the LSS. Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 18
11
in the Iranian professional league at the end of the 2006-7 season. Positive leadership behaviours (TI, DB, SS, and PF) were significantly positively correlated with task and social cohesion, and significantly negative correlated with AB (figure 2.5). Comparing successful and unsuccessful teams, the former were more cohesive and their coaches had higher levels of DB and SS.
(Data from Ramzaninezhad and Hoseini Keshtan 2009 table 2 p116)
Figure 2.5 - Correlations between leadership behaviours and cohesion. Turman (2003) surveyed fifteen male athletes from six sports (eg: baseball, swimming) and fifteen female athletes from six sports (eg: gymnastics, volleyball) at an Iowa university in the USA about what coaching behaviours motivated or demotivated them. Turman (2003) also interviewed in-depth twelve male college US football players. The most important motivating behaviours were inspiration, the quality of personal relationship, and support. While the athletes were demotivated by abusive language and ridicule, a superior-subordinate relationship, and unequal treatment of players. Among the US football players, joking and team prayer were also reported as motivating as well as the coach's enthusiasm. As one player said: "When we see one of our coaches get pumped up it usually pumps the team up and we will usually pump each other up so we kind of together everybody pulls together and kind of pump each other up in a way that it will help you. You are kind of saying that you are getting pumped up so that I can get out there and play for you not only myself. So it brings unity a majority of the time" (Turman 2003 p99). Effective leadership involves good relationships with team members, which can produce greater individual enthusiasm and team cohesion (Van Breukelen et al 2012).
But coaches may behave differently towards different members of the team. This includes support, attention, positive and negative feedback (social-related differential treatment), and "career opportunities" (eg: captaincy, playing time, substitution) (task-related differential treatment). This is covered by the leadermember exchange (LMX) theory (Graen et al 1982). Sias and Jablin (1995) explored this idea in a work situation with 29 employees. Employees with poor relationships with their supervisors (low-quality LMX relations) perceived differential treatment by the supervisors as unfair, while employees with high-quality LMX relations saw the treatment as fair. Van Breukelen et al (2012) investigated the effect of differential treatment on team atmosphere and performance among 605 players in 69 amateur sport teams in the Netherlands, including hockey, football and volleyball. The researchers hypothesised that players who perceived a high degree of task-related and/or socialrelated differential treatment by the coach of their team would view the team atmosphere and performance as less positive than players who perceived a low degree of differential treatment. Differential treatment by the coach was measured on a five-point scale in response to the following four questions for social-related: "Does your coach express his/her sympathy more often to some players than to others?"; "Does your coach prefer some players in your team to others, based upon their personality?"; "Is your coach more likely to point out the mistakes of certain players than those of others?"; "Is your coach more likely to give compliments to some players than to others?". Task-related differential treatment was measured by perceived differences in playing time, and number of times substituted in the season. Data were collected towards the end of the season in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Team members who perceived a high degree of differential treatment rated the team atmosphere less positively in relation to social-related and not taskrelated treatment, but no difference in perception of team performance. Such team members also had a lowerquality LMX relationship. Van Breukelen et al (2012) concluded: "The results of the present study indicate that team leaders should, therefore, refrain from social differential treatment" (p59). Van Breukelen et al admitted that the measures were all self-reports at one point in the season, and the direction of causality could not be established.
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
20
3. HOME ADVANTAGE
3.1. 3.2. 3.3. 3.4. Factors in home advantage Research examples Home disadvantage Officiating
3.1. FACTORS IN HOME ADVANTAGE Teams perform better at home compared to away. This is known as the home advantage 12, and has been observed in many US professional sports (eg: basketball, baseball) as well as elsewhere (eg: football in UK). Home teams win approximately 60% of games (compared to 50% by chance) (Jamieson 2010) 13. Research has found moderating variables for the home advantage (Jamieson 2010): Sport type - individual/team (both show home advantage). Level of competition - amateur/professional (both show). Time era - home advantage stronger before 1950. Season length - longer season reduces advantage. Game type - home advantage stronger for important games. Sport - less for baseball, golf, cricket, and US football, and highest for football 14 15. An explanation for the home advantage includes factors associated with location which influence the players', coaches' and officials' psychological state (Carron et al 2005) 16 17. This model includes:
Defined as "the term used to describe the consistent finding that home teams in sport competitions win over 50% of the games played under a balanced home and away schedule" (Courneya and Carron 1992 p13). 13 In the English football Premiership, home teams had an advantage on average of 1.5 goals to 1.1 by the away team (1992-2006 data) (Boyko et al 2007). 14 Courneya and Carron (1992) calculated the following percentage of wins for home teams - baseball 53.5%, US football 57.3%, ice hockey 61.1%, basketball 64.4%, and football 69.0%. 15 Carron et al (2005) included the following factors - gender (both show), international competitions (greater than national ones), and judged events (eg: figure skating) have more home advantage than objectively determined events (eg: speed skating). 16 Originally proposed by Courneya and Carron (1992) as feed-forward model. Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 21
12
Game location - home/away. Game location factors - crowd (size, density, behaviour, noise, perception of competitors); learning/familiarity 18 (pitch size, pitch type - eg: artificial turf) 19; travel (distance, "jet lag", time together - eg: team stays in hotel); rule (local variations in playing conditions). Critical psychological states - players (eg: less anxious, more self-confident), coaches (eg: belief that home support important), and officials. Critical behavioural states - players (eg: level of aggression), coaches (eg: different tactics), and officials (eg: correct decisions). Performance outcomes - primary (fundamental level of performance - ie: skills involved in sport), secondary (scoring), and tertiary (ultimate outcome - win/loss). 3.2. RESEARCH EXAMPLES Balmar et al (2001) used data from twenty Winter Olympics in twelve different countries between 1908 and 1988. Home advantage was calculated controlling for nation strength and number of medals on offer, and the removal of non-hosting nations. This left 12 sports and three countries to compare home and away - France (host on three occasions), Norway (twice), and Japan (twice). Overall, there was a significant home advantage for both medals won and points (eg: gold = 3 points etc). In subjectively scored events, like figure skating, there was a stronger home advantage than for objectively measured sports (eg: time taken to complete race). Familiarity with local conditions had some effect in alpine skiing, but not bobsled and luge. Distance travelled in terms of time zone crossed had no relationship to performance. Home advantage may be explained by social
Jamieson (2010) saw game-context factors (eg: season length, type of size) as influencing the size of the home advantage. 18 This variable is moderated by the quality of the team such that "moving to a new facility was beneficial for low-quality teams but reduced the home advantage of high-quality teams" (Carron et al 2005 p399). 19 Home advantage from familiarity with local conditions has not been found in sports where local conditions vary little, like basketball and baseball, but some advantage in football with artificial playing surfaces (eg: Barnett and Hilditch 1993) or unusual pitch characteristics (eg: Clark and Norman 1995). Variations in venue are prominent in alpine skiing, for example, where there is a clear home advantage (Bray and Carron 1993). Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 22
17
facilitation. Zajonc (1965) proposed that the presence of others improves dominant responses (ie: familiar/welllearned or simple tasks) and reduces non-dominant responses (ie: unfamiliar/novel or complex tasks). Based on this, Henningsen et al (2007)predicted that high-ability basketball teams would have a stronger home advantage than low-ability teams. Data from the 2000-1 US college basketball season were used. High-ability teams had a greater home advantage for general shooting, but not for free-throw or three-point throwing. Studying real-life sports competition means that researchers have limited control over variables compared to artificial tasks in laboratory conditions. However, there are circumstances when a "natural experiment" is possible. For example, due to a measles epidemic, two US university basketball teams had to play eleven games without spectators. Their performance improved (eg: total points scored) compared to the presence of the spectators (Moore and Brylinsky 1993). This challenged the idea that the crowd explains the home advantage. Moore and Brylinsky (1995) seized the opportunity to study US college basketball teams who had to play their home games at different venues while a new facility was being built. These teams still showed the home advantage, and this challenges the role of familiarity in it. 3.3. HOME DISADVANTAGE In high pressure situations like finals, home advantage can be detrimental as in the home "choke" (Baumeister and Steinhilber 1984). "In high-pressure situations, where the outcome of the game is on the line, home team competitors may be attempting to carry out their performance, whilst worrying about the possibility of disappointing and/or losing support from their fans, trying to live up to perceived audience expectations, and dealing with the physiological stress that arises in such situations. This 'attention-induced disruption' has been shown to result in poor performances, as the elevated pressure may increase self-consciousness and anxiety and/or result in a shift of attentional focus to distracting stimuli..." (McEwan et al 2012 p279). This is less of an issue for away teams. There is contrary evidence about home advantage and disadvantage. McEwan et al (2012) used data from the National Hockey League (NHL) shootouts 20 in North America between 2006-7 and 2010-11. Only outcome-imminent games
20
This is like a penalty shootout in football when the scores are tied at full time, involving the best of three shots (ie: three shooters per team). IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 23
were used (ie: those that determine a team's season). The shootouts were categorised as loss-imminent (LI) (scoring ties the game and missing means a loss), win-imminent (WI) (scoring means a win), or non-outcomeimminent (NOI) (scoring or missing does not determine the outcome of the game) (table 3.1).
Type of shot
Lose-imminent (one goal down) Lose-imminent (two goals down) Win-imminent (tied) Win-imminent (one goal up) Non-outcome-imminent
Team A
YYY YY YYX XYY
Team B
YY? X? YY? XY? ?
Y = score; X = miss; ? = shot to come; - = not taken yet
Table 3.1 - Examples of types of shots. Analysis of the data showed that away teams were significantly worse than home teams in LI situations (27% vs 36% success), but significantly better in WI situations (34% vs 27%) (figure 3.1). Thus there was a home advantage in the former situation (shooting to avoid a loss) and a home disadvantage in the shooting to win situation.
(Data from McEwan et al 2012 table 1 p581)
Figure 3.1 - Percentage success in shootouts.
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
24
3.4. OFFICIATING It seems that subjective decisions by officials favour home teams, but this generalisation is limited by variables like differences in performance between home and away teams (Carron et al 2005). The key moderating factor in "referee bias" seems to be crowd noise. Nevill et al (2005) showed this in a laboratory experiment. Forty qualified football referees (from North Staffordshire, England) made decisions on 47 incidents from the video-taped English Premier League match between Liverpool (home team) and Leicester City (away) (from 1998-9 season) in conditions of crowd noise or silence. Each incident was rated as home foul, away foul, no foul, or uncertain. The number of fouls called against the away team did not vary between the two conditions (mean: 9.9 with noise and 9.3 in silence), but less fouls were given against the home team in the noise than the silent condition (mean: 12.5 vs 14.8). Boyko et al (2007) focused on the performance of 50 individual football referees in the English Premiership between 1992 and 2006 (using data from statistical databases). Overall, home teams received fewer cautions and dismissals than away teams (1.2 vs 1.6 yellow cards, and 0.06 vs 0.09 red cards per game) 21. Increasing crowd size led to significantly less yellow cards to home teams, and increasing crowd density (number of people in crowd relative to stadium's capacity) produced more yellow cards to away teams. At an individual level, referees varied in the number of cautions/dismissals and penalty kicks given to home and away teams, such that some referees were "responsible for at least some of the observed home advantage" (Boyko et al 2007 p1192). But this effect declined with years of refereeing experience. Boyko et al (2007) concluded: "Most commentators accept home advantage as a legitimate and fair part of the game, presumably because most people assume that the crowd's main effect is to inspire their players to perform better. While subconscious referee bias does not necessarily make home advantage unfair, our finding of significant variation in home advantage by referee is hard to accept as fair" (p1193). Ansorge and Scheer (1988) observed that the "effects of biased officiating are potentially most dramatic in sports in which the officials actually score the points through judging the performance of athletes with some combination of objective and subjective criteria" (quoted
21
Yellow cards are given in football as a first offence, and two yellow cards equal a red card (dismissal from the game). A red card can be given immediately for certain offences (eg: dangerous tackles). IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 25
in Balmer et al 2001). Gymnastics is one such sport. Ansorge and Scheer (1988) reported that, in the 1984 Olympic Games, judges scored their own gymnasts higher than the mean of the other judges 282 times and lower only 29 times. Furthermore, in the case of gymnasts in close competition to their own country's, they scored the other country's athlete lower than the mean 399 times and higher 190 times.
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
26
4. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PERFORMERS

4.1. Cognitive abilities 4.2. Anxiety and confidence 4.3. Mental toughness 4.3.1. Techniques to help confidence and performance 4.4. Extreme sports 4.1. COGNITIVE ABILITIES "In sport, as in other domains such as science, music and the arts, the attainment of excellence is the primary goal of many individuals. Spectators marvel at expert performance, coaches endeavour to nurture their proteges towards new heights of achievement and athletes aspire to reach 'greatness'" (Williams and Reilly 2000 p657). Talent is a scarce commodity, which has an innate element as well as being able to be developed if spotted early. Its detection is "the discovery of potential performers who are currently not involved in the sport in question" (Williams and Reilly 2000). "Talent identification" is the general name given in sports psychology to the search for particular traits or variables that predict successful sport behaviour 22. The variables studied include body type and size 23, speed and endurance, and anxiety. "However, as for personality traits, no clear correlations between these variables and sport success have been established" (Vestberg et al 2012). Perceptual-cognitive skills are another set of variables studied. These relate to how information is processed, particularly in a complex and quickly changing environment (eg: pattern recognition, strategic decisionmaking, and "knowing where and when to look"; Mann et al 2007) 24. Sport specific cognitive skills have been compared in novices and experts. For example, expert footballer players can recognise and recall patterns of
Williams and Reilly (2000) defined talent identification specifically as "the process of recognising current participants with the potential to become elite players". Talent development is the provision of a suitable environment to help the individual reach their potential, and talent selection "involves the ongoing process of identifying players at various stages who demonstrate pre-requisite levels of performance for inclusion in a given squad or team" (Williams and Reilly 2000). 23 For example, young players have "greater biological age" (ie: physically mature), and have better physiological fitness (Williams and Reilly 2000). 24 Mann et al (2007) defined perceptual-cognitive skills as "the ability to identify and acquire environmental information for integration with existing knowledge such that appropriate responses can be selected and executed" (p457). Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 27
22
play better than inexperienced players (Williams 2000)
25
Vestberg et al (2012) were interested in the difference between novices and experts in general cognitive skills - for example, "executive functions", which include the division of attention, the ability to adapt quickly, multi-tasking, and dealing with novelty. The researchers recruited male (n = 14) and female (n = 15) players from the top football league in Sweden (high division - HD), and male (n = 17) and female (n = 11) players from the lower leagues (lower division - LD). The players completed standard tests of executive functions including joining all the dots in a square with one line in sixty seconds (known as "design fluency"). This was done several times, which tested creativity, memory and inhibition of automatic responses as the same solution could not be used twice. The HD players had significantly higher scores (mean: 15.52) than the LD players (mean: 13.18), who, in turn, were higher than the population means (mean: 10.0) (figure 4.1).
(* = significantly different; p<0.0005) (Source: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0034731.g001)
Figure 4.1 - Mean scores on design fluency test.
25
Skilled players as compared to less skilled ones: Have faster and more accurate recognition and recall of patterns of play; Anticipate better opponents' actions from visual cues; Have more effective visual search behaviours (eg: spotting player available to receive pass); Have a more accurate assessment of outcomes from certain circumstances (Williams and Reilly 2000). IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 28
Then data on the players' goals scored and assists in the next two seasons were collected. The scores on the executive function tests significantly correlated with goals and assists (r = 0.54). Thus general executive functions are important in success in football. "In ballsports like soccer there are large amounts of information for the players to consider in every new moment. The successful player must constantly assess the situation, compare it to past experiences, create new possibilities, make quick decisions to action, but also quickly inhibit planned decisions. Thus, several core-features of executive functions such as planning, sustained and divided attention, suppression of previous responses, and working memory capacity are important for a team player in soccer" (Vestberg et al 2012). In a meta-analysis of 42 studies, Mann et al (2007) reported that experts in different sports were better than non-experts in picking up perceptual cues (eg: measured by response accuracy and response time 26), and in visual search behaviours (eg: measured by fewer visual fixations of longer duration). "These findings support the interpretation that experts in sport extract more task-relevant information from each fixation than do lesser skilled performers" (Mann et al 2007). 4.2. ANXIETY AND CONFIDENCE Competitive sportspeople face stress in competition. Martens et al (1990a) defined stress as "the process that involves the perception of a substantial inbalance between environmental demand and response capabilities under conditions in which a failure to meet demands is perceived as having important consequences and is responded to with increased levels of cognitive and somatic state anxiety". These anxieties can sometimes produce a decline in performance, and this is called "choking" at the extreme. Thus the interest in understanding anxiety in sport. Initially, performance was seen as an inverted-U on sports anxiety (or arousal) (Yerkes and Dodson 1908). Too much or too little anxiety/arousal produced poor performance, and a moderate level was optimal. This view saw anxiety as unidimensional. Martens et al (1990a) argued that sports anxiety was multi-dimensional, and involved different relationships with performance. Cognitive anxiety has a negative
There was a larger difference between experts and non-experts in response time in interceptive sports (eg: tennis) and strategic sports (eg: football), but the type of sport had no effect on response accuracy. Larger differences were also found in more realistic studies (Mann et al 2007). Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 29
26
correlation with performance, and is the "mental component of anxiety" caused by "negative expectations about success or by negative self-evaluation" (Martens et al 1990a). Somatic anxiety, defined as "the physiological and affective elements of the anxiety experience that develop directly from autonomic arousal" (Martens et al 1990a), has a relationship to performance similar to Yerkes and Dodson's idea (Craft et al 2003). Martens et al (1990b) added self-confidence as a third component 27, and performance has a positive correlation with it (figure 4.2).
Figure 4.2 - Predicted relationship between three components of CSAI-2 and performance. The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) (Martens et al 1990b) was designed to measure these three components. It has 27 items, like "I am concerned about this competition" (cognitive anxiety), "I feel tense in my stomach" )somatic anxiety), and "I feel at ease" (self-confidence), which are answered on a four-point Likert scale 28. A number of studies have investigated the relationship between CSAI-2 scores and performance, with some supporting the reliability and validity of the
Vealey (1986) defined sport confidence as "the belief or degree of certainty individuals possess about their ability to be successful in sport" (p222), and divided it into trait (general) and state (situational). 28 Lane et al (1999) criticised the use of the word "concerned" in many items. "An athlete may respond as being concerned about the competition, but that concern may represent the athletes acknowledgment of the competition as an important challenge rather than anxiety. Lane et al. argue that using a term such as 'worried' would better assess anxiety, as this term is more reflective of the negative thoughts or expectations associated with anxiety" (Craft et al 2003 p49). Jones and Hanton (2001) argued that the CSAI-2 did not measure anxiety, only the symptoms associated with anxiety, "and that due to the wording of the inventory, it may actually be measuring other 'mislabelled' affective states" (Craft et al 2003). Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 30
27
questionnaire, and others not. One criticism has been that "cognitive and somatic anxiety may not be independent of one another, and that cognitive anxiety can have either a facilitative or a debilitative effect on performance, depending on the performer's level of physiological arousal" (Craft et al 2003). For example, Edwards and Hardy (1996) found that, for self-reported netball performance among female players over a season, as self-confidence increased, more cognitive anxiety was perceived as helping performance. In studies with the CSAI-2, the operationalisation of "performance" is an issue. It can be measured by objective outcomes (eg: finishing time in a race), subjective outcomes (eg: evaluation by a judge), or selfperceptions. Each type of measure could correlate in a different way with anxiety (Craft et al 2003). Anxiety and performance may also vary with team/individual sports, the type of skill involved in the sport, the amount of contact with an opponent (eg: tennis is directly facing them while gymnastics is competing against them without contact), and when the CSAI-2 is administered (Craft et al 2003). Craft et al's (2003) meta-analysis of 29 studies (up to October 1999) found only a weak correlation between the three components of the CSAI-2 and performance. The overall correlation between cognitive anxiety and performance was 0.01 29, between somatic anxiety and performance was -0.03, and 0.25 for self-confidence and performance. Self-confidence and performance was the strongest relationship, particularly for individual sports, and for administration of the CSAI-2 at 31-59 minutes prior to competition 30 31. In terms of individual variables, the relationship between anxiety and performance was stronger for "open skills" (those performed in changing environments; eg: tennis, basketball, netball) than "closed skills" (those performed in unchanging
Craft et al (2003) proposed a number of reasons for this finding including that there is no negative relationship between cognitive anxiety and performance, the CSAI-2 is unable to measure the relationship, or cognitive anxiety in isolation is not a good predictor of performance. 30 Craft et al (2003) wondered why the CSAI-2 was not predictive if completed just prior to competition: "Perhaps, in the time just before competition, athletes are not focused on answering the questionnaire or are already cognitively immersed in game preparation, game strategy, etc.... [or] athletes may be reluctant to report feelings of anxiety just prior to competition when they are planning for the performance at hand or trying to reach some favourable pre-performance state. In addition, for practical purposes the CSAI-2 could be distracting to the athlete if administered too close to competition" (p61). 31 Soyer (2012) found that sport confidence correlated with particularly strategies for coping with stress - namely, "refuge in religion" (eg: praying), "external assistance" (eg: asking for help), "cognitive restructuring" (eg: thinking about the problem in a different way), and "active planning". The latter two are problem-focused strategies, and the first two are emotion-focused strategies. Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 31
29
environments; eg: golf, gymnastics, rowing, weightlifting). While among higher-level sportspeople (eg: elite/professional), cognitive anxiety had a positive correlation with performance (but no relationship for lower-level athletes) (Craft et al 2003). 4.3. MENTAL TOUGHNESS Mental toughness (MT) has its origins in the personality dimension, toughmindedness (tendermindedness) proposed in Cattell's (1957) 16PF theory, and in Kobasa's (1979) hardiness in response to stress (Crust 2007) 32. MT "represents the ability of a person to cope with the demands of training and competition, increased determination, focus, confidence, and maintaining control under pressure" (Nicholls et al 2008 p1183) 33. Mentally tough individuals "tend to be sociable and outgoing; as they are able to remain calm and relaxed, they are competitive in many situations and have lower anxiety levels than others. With a high sense of self-belief and an unshakeable faith that they control their own destiny, these individuals can remain relatively unaffected by competition and adversity" (Clough et al 2002 p38 quoted in Crust 2007 p275) 34 35. Overall, the characteristics attributed to MT by researchers, players, and coaches include coping effectively with pressure and adversity, recovering or rebounding from setbacks, persistence, being competitive, having unshakeable self-belief, and being resilient (Crust 2007) 36. Middleton et al (2004 quoted in Crust 2007) divided twelve characteristics found through interviews with elite athletes and coaches into "mental toughness orientations" (personality characteristics like selfbelief) and "mental toughness strategies" (actions like emotion control). The latter being easier to train 37.
Clough et al (2002) saw MT as a "sport-specific form of hardiness" (Crust 2007). Kobasa (1979) described three elements to hardiness - commitment (involvement in task), control (feeling of influence over events), and challenge (belief that change is a challenge). 33 MT is "one of the most overused but least understood terms" in sports psychology (Crust 2007). 34 Many coaches see MT as the key characteristic in sporting success (eg: 82% of wrestling coaches; Gould et al 1987). Among Olympic champions, MT was rated as the most important mental skill in sporting success (Gould et al 2002). 35 For example, Jones et al (2002) listed twelve attributes of MT, with the most important being unshakeable self-belief in ability, and bouncing back from setbacks. 36 Thelwell et al (2005) asked professional footballers to rate the attributes of MT, and "having total self-belief at all times that you will achieve success" was most popular. Clough et al (2002) confirmed the perceived importance of such confidence among elite coaches and players of rugby league. 37 Though there is a nature-nurture debate about MT (Crust 2007). Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 32
32
Furthermore, these researchers saw different combinations of attributes for different sports with a core set of characteristics. For example, tolerating physical pain will be more important in rowing than snooker, whereas coping with the emotional pain of failure is relevant to both (Crust 2007). Bull et al (2005) preferred the existence of different types of MT. For example, "'final-putt' mental toughness in golf is likely to be more related to mind-set and perhaps coping skills, whereas the mental toughness of a racing car driver taking calculated risks in a dangerous sport requires a somewhat different form of mental toughness. Furthermore, according to Bull et al, an aspiring Olympic swimmer would need to show yet another form of mental toughness to endure high volumes of training and peak in a one-off event (in contrast to season-long sports) in order to achieve his or her goals" (Crust 2007 p278). One measure of MT is the Psychological Performance Inventory (PPI) (Loehr 1986). It has 42 items 38 and seven sub-scales of self-confidence (in abilities), negative energy control (dealing with feelings like frustration and coping with events outside of own control), attention control (ability to focus), visualisation and imagery control (eg: picturing success), motivation (eg: perseverance), positive energy (eg: enjoyment), and attitude control (eg: positive thinking). Each item is scored on a five-point Likert scale giving a minimum score of 42 (low MT) and a maximum score of 210 (high MT) (table 4.1). Middleton et al (2004 quoted in Crust 2007) questioned the validity of the PPI.
Golby and Sheard (2004) compared 115 rugby league players on MT and hardiness. Three levels of players were recruited with convenience sampling. International players came from four teams in the quarter finals of the 2000 Rugby League World Cup, and SuperLeague and Division One players from clubs without international players. MT was measured by the PPI, and hardiness by the Personal Views Survey III-R (PVS III-R) (Maddi and Khoshaba 2001), which has eighteen items, each rated on a four-point Likert scale.
Eg: "I believe in myself as a player" (self-confidence); "I can remain calm during competition when confused by problems" (negative energy control); "I can clear interfering emotion quickly and regain my focus" (attention control); "Before competition, I picture myself performing perfectly" (visualisation and imagery control); "I can keep strong positive emotion flowing during competition" (positive energy control); "I am a positive thinker during competition" (attitude control). Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 33
38
International players scored significantly higher than other players on two elements of MT - negative energy control and attention control - and on hardiness. There were no significant differences between SuperLeague and Division One players.
(Data from Golby and Sheard 2004 table 1 p937)
Figure A - Mean scores of three groups of rugby players.
Table 4.1 - Example of study using PPI. Middleton et al (2004 quoted in Crust 2007) developed the Mental Toughness Inventory (MTI) with 67 items based on twelve characteristics of MT 39. Clough et al (2002) produced the Mental Toughness Questionnaire 48 (MTQ48) with forty-eight items 40 focused on four areas - control (perceived control of circumstances), commitment (becoming involved in an event), challenge (to view change as an opportunity), and confidence (high self-belief) 41. High scores on the MTQ48 significantly correlate with physical endurance (criterion validity) (eg: Clough and Earle 2002; table 4.2). Crust and Clough (2005) reported a significant positive correlation between MTQ48 scores and endurance time when forty-one undergraduate male sports students were asked to hold a weight (1.5% of body weight) for as long as possible. Levy et al (2006) compared athletes undergoing sport injury rehabilitation on the MTQ48. Higher scorers (ie: higher levels of MT) were more positive about the challenge of recovery, able to cope with pain more, and
Eg: "I focus on the task without getting distracted" and "I turn negatives into positives". Eg: "I generally feel in control" and "I am generally confident in my own abilities". 41 An alternative measure of MT to the self-reported questionnaires is observation. Davis and Zaichkowsky (1998) asked coaches and talent scouts to rate ice-hockey players on behaviours like response to adversity, effort, and enthusiasm. These ratings, however, are subjective (Crust 2007).
40
39
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
34
had a better attendance at a clinic for physical therapy than low scorers. Clough et al (2002) tested the resilience element in an experimental task. High MT scorers performed the same whether given false positive or negative feedback, whereas low scorers performed significantly worse after negative feedback. MT correlates with coping strategies for dealing with stressful events as well as optimism (Nicholls et al 2008). Norlander and Archer (2002) reported that optimism ("continual striving" rather than "giving up and turning away"; Scheier and Carver 1985) was the best predictor of performance in young elite skiers, ski-marksman, and swimmers. Among ten-pin bowlers, higher skilled players (average 170 pins) showed higher MT than lower skilled players (average 135 pins), along with more planning, greater confidence in equipment and technique, more competitiveness, and fewer attributions to luck (Thomas et al 1996).
The individual VO Max (maximum oxygen uptake) was determined for 23 participants, who had to cycle for thirty minutes at 30%, 50%, and 70% VO Max. They were asked at five, fifteen, and 25 minutes during the task to report the perceived physical demands of exercise, the perceived mental demands, and overall effort required. Based on MTQ48 scores, the participants were divided into two groups for analysis (a split at the median score). High and low MTQ48 scorers did not vary on their perceptions of the task during the easiest workload condition (30% VO Max). In the middle condition, there was some difference, but it was significant in the hardest workload condition (70% VO Max) with the high MTQ48 scorers reporting less perceived physical and mental demands and less effort required.
Figure B - Mean ratings of overall effort (out of 20) in two conditions.
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
35
Crust (2007) listed some limitations with the study: No details about the participants (which limits extrapolation to different groups). No details of controls for confounding variables (eg: some participants may have undergone mental skills training). Relatively small sample. Split of group into two for analysis, whereas it would have been better to compare the highest and the lowest scorers only. Two individuals close to the median may be in different groups but have scores very close together. The study is a correlation (which means that it is not possible to say that MT caused perceptions. Crust (2007) pointed out that "although differences are noted between the high and low toughness groups at the high workload, it is not clear whether this is due to those who possess high levels of mental toughness under-rating the demands of the task, the low mental toughness group overrating, or a combination of the two" (p284).
Table 4.2 - Clough and Earle (2002). Nicholls et al (2008) recruited 677 athletes of varying ages (15-58 years), abilities (beginner international level), sports, and gender (454 males and 223 females) in the UK and Iceland. The volunteers completed a number of questionnaires including the coping inventory for competitive sport (CICS) (Gaudreau and Blondin 2002), the MTQ48, and the Life Orientation Test (LOT) (Scheier and Carver 1985). The CICS has 39 items that cover different strategies for coping - taskorientated (thought control, mental imagery, relaxation, effort expenditure, logical analysis, and seeking support), distraction-orientated (distancing, and mental distraction), and disengagement-orientated (disengagement/resignation, and venting of unpleasant emotions). The LOT has four positively worded items to measure optimism and four negatively worded for pessimism (and four fillers) (table 4.3).
QUESTIONNAIRE NUMBER OF ITEMS
39
RESPONSE OPTIONS
SCORE RANGE
CICS
5 point scale: (1) "does not correspond"; (5) "corresponds very strongly" 5 point scale: (1) strongly disagree; (5) strongly agree 4 point scale: (1) agree a little; (4) totally agree
min = 39 max = 195
MTQ48
48
min = 48 max = 200 optimism: min = 4; max = 16 pessimism: min = 4; max = 16
LOT
12
Table 4.3 - Details of questionnaires used by Nicholls et al (2008).

MT (high MTQ48 score) was significantly correlated with more task-orientated coping and less of the other two types (figure 4.3). MT was also significantly positively correlated with optimism on the LOT (r = 0.56) and significantly negatively correlated with pessimism (r = -0.46).
(Rectangle = p<0.01; oval = p<0.05; no box = not significant) (Data from Nicholls et al 2008 p1187 table 2)
Figure 4.3 - Correlations between MTQ48 and different types of coping with stress. Among forty Wushu (martial arts) at the 2006 Malaysian Intervarsity championships, medallists scored significantly higher on the self-confidence and negative energy control sub-scales of the PPI than non-medallists (Kwan and Roy 2007). This study also looked at goal profiles of the athletes. Nicholls (1989) explained behaviour in a competitive situation, say, as influenced by personal goals (described as task or ego related). Task (T) related goals are focused on the self (eg: "I work really hard") and the ego (E) related ones on beating others (eg: "I can do better than may friends"). Together these two types of goals produce four goal profiles - high T/high E, high T/low E, low T/high E, and low T/low E. Kwan and Roy (2007) found no difference in competition success in Wushu between the different goal profiles 42. However, a high T/moderate E profile was significantly correlated with better negative energy control and better positive energy control (figure 4.4). This profile also had a higher overall PPI score than
These were measured by the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ) (Duda and Nicholls 1992). It has 13 items measured on a five-point Likert scale. Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 37
42
moderate T/low E and moderate T/moderate E profiles.
(A higher score = more self-confidence and greater control over negative energy) (Data from Kwan and Roy 2007)
Figure 4.4 - Mean scores on two sub-scales of PPI. Crust (2007) felt that, overall, MT "appears to be multidimensional and most often associated with unshakeable self-belief, the ability to rebound after failures (resilience), persistence or refusal to quit, coping effectively with adversity and pressure, and retaining concentration in the face of many potential distractions" (p288). 4.3.1. Techniques to Help Confidence and Performance
43
Sport confidence can be improved by mental imagery . But the type of imagery varies with the skill level of the athlete. Callow and Hardy (2001) explored the relationship between confidence and imagery with 110 female netball players in the UK. All the players had represented their county (one level below international), and they were divided into those from lower ranked counties (lower skill level) and those from higher ranked counties (higher skill level). The State Sport-Confidence Inventory (SSCI) (Vealey 1986) was used to measure sport confidence. This has thirteen items (scored on a ninepoint Likert scale) on beliefs about sporting ability. The Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ) (Hall et al 1998) was used to measure how often (from rarely (1) to often
Sport confidence was predicted from belief in internal locus of control, subjective well-being, and optimism among over 400 athletes in Turkey (including football, badminton, boxing, and volleyball). Internal locus of control was most important (Sar and Isiklar 2012). Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 38
43
(7) that five different types of mental imagery (table 4.4) are used prior to a match.
Cognitive-general (CG) - strategies of the game (eg: "I can imagine executing entire plays/programs/sections just the way I want them to happen in an event/game"). Cognitive-specific (CS) - specific skills (eg: "I can easily change an image of a skill"). Motivational general-mastery (MG-M) - dealing with challenging situations (eg: "I imagine myself working successfully through tough situations"). Motivational general-arousal (MG-A) - arousal and anxiety (eg: "I imagine the excitement associated with competing"). Motivational specific (MS) - goal achievement oriented (eg: "I image myself winning a championship").
Table 4.4 - Five types of mental imagery. For lower skilled players, sport confidence was linked to MG-M and CG types of imagery, while highly confident higher skilled players used more MS imagery than lower confidence players in this group. State sport-confidence can be influenced by "selftalk" - positive or negative thoughts of the athlete. Self-talk also includes thoughts about an opponent, which can be viewed as "facts". For example, a tennis player about to serve thinks that the opponent knows where the server will serve the ball. This is negative self-talk or "mind-reading" in neuro-linguistic programming; NLP). The server's performance is affected because they subsequently change their behaviour. NLP (Bandler and Grinder 1975) proposes different techniques to deal with behaviours like negative selftalk. For example, the meta-model method challenges and re-structures the language used in negative self-talk in order to replace it with more positive ideas (eg: how do you know the opponent knows that?). Savardelavar and Bagheri (2012) taught this technique to half of thirty boxers at a club in India. The SSCI was used as the outcome measure. The SSCI score of the experimental group showed a significant improvement between baseline and post-NLP training. 4.4. EXTREME SPORTS Extreme sports with the large risk-taking element are becoming increasingly popular. In terms of individual differences between participants and non-participants,
sensation-seeking scores are significantly higher (as measured by Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale 44). Sensation-seeking is "the need for varied, novel and complex sensations and experiences and the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake of such experience" (Zuckerman 1983). Castanier et al (2010) found that men participating in high-risk sports like downhill skiing, rock climbing, and skydiving, had low conscientiousness scores with high extraversion and/or high neuroticism scores compared to controls. Monasterio et al (2012) explored the personality of 68 BASE jumpers who were recruited through one of the researchers being a BASE jumper 45. BASE jumping involved jumping off fixed objects with an adapted parachute 46. It is much riskier (5-16 times) than skydiving, and has an average of one death per sixty participants (Monasterio et al 2012). Personality was measured with Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) (Cloninger et al 1994a), which is a 235-item questionnaire (TCI-235) that assesses four dimensions of temperament and three of character (table 4.5) 47. Items include (Cloninger et al 1993): I often feel that I am the victim of circumstances (self-directedness); People involved with me have to learn how to do things my way (cooperativeness); I seem to have a "sixth sense" that sometimes allows me to know what is going to happen (self-transcendence);
Respondents choose from two options for each item - eg: "when I go on a vacation I prefer the comfort of a good room and bed" vs "when I go on a vacation I prefer the change of camping out"; "I enjoy the thrills on watching car races" vs "I find car races unpleasant" (Zuckerman et al 1964). 45 87% were male and 58% single with a mean age of 34 years old (range 21 - 68 years). The mean number of years jumping was 5.8 (range 0.5 - 17 years) with the mean total jumps being 286 (range 122300). 46 BASE = building, antenna, span (of bridges, for example), or earth (eg: cliffs). 47 Cloninger (1987) argued for a genetic basis to these dimensions. For example, novelty seeking has been linked to differences in dopamine transmission (as in the DRD4 gene) (Keltikangas-Jarvinen et al 2004). In a large-scale study in Finland, Keltikangas-Jarvinen et al (2004) showed an interaction between the DRD4 gene and the environment during childhood. A NS score (as measured by the TCI) was collected from 2149 20-35 year-olds on the 1997 Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. The top 10% highest scorers and the 10% lowest scores (n = 154) were further analysed. Mothers reported details of the childhood environment of this sample including emotional distance, disciplinary strictness, and level of tolerance of child's normal activity. Completed data were only available for 92 individuals. There was a significant interaction between the environment and the DRD4 gene. Children raised in a more hostile environment, who had a particular version of the DRD4 gene, were more likely to be high NS scorers, but not if the environment was not hostile. Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 40
44
Often I feel that my life has little purpose or meaning (self-directedness).
TEMPERAMENT
Novelty seeking (NS) - a tendency to activate or initiate new behaviours with a propensity to seek out new or novel experiences, impulsive decision-making, extravagance, quick loss of temper, and active avoidance of frustration. Harm avoidance (HA) - a tendency to inhibit behaviours with a propensity to worry in anticipation of future problems, fear of uncertainty, rapid fatigability, and shyness in the company of strangers. Reward dependence (RD) - a tendency to maintain behaviours manifested by dependency on the approval of others, social attachments, and sentimentality. Persistence (P) - a tendency to be hard-working, industrious, and persistent despite frustration and fatigue. (Source: Monasterio et al 2012 p392-393)
CHARACTER
Self-directedness (SD) - which refers to self-determination, personal integrity, self-integrity, and willpower. Cooperativeness (C) - which refers to individual differences in identification with and acceptance of other people. Self-transcendence (ST) - which refers to feelings of religious faith, or viewing oneself as an integral part of the universe in other ways.
Table 4.4 - Dimensions of personality measured by TCI235. The BASE jumpers showed significant differences to 181 age-matched controls (Cloninger et al 1994b) (figure 4.5): Higher - novelty-seeking (NS) (p<0.001) directedness (SD) (p<0.05) 49.
48
, self-
Lower - harm avoidance (HA) (p<0.001), reward dependence (RD) (p<0.05) 50, self-transcendence (ST) (p<0.001) 51.
These individuals enjoy exploring unfamiliar places and situations, are easily bored, and are impulsive, seeking out thrills. 49 "As SD refers to self-determination and maturity, or the ability of an individual to control, regulate and adapt behaviour to fit the situation in accord with individually chosen goals and values, it is unsurprising that BASE jumpers scored high on this measure. High SD with an emphasis on discipline and skill acquisition may also help to explain why BASE jumpers engage in risk-taking behaviours by normative rather than impulsive/disorganised antisocial means (such as drug use and criminal behaviour)" (Monasterio et al 2012 p397).. 50 Manifest as less concern about the approval of others. 51 "ST is a character trait that in general denotes a propensity to religious and transpersonal experience, and a tendency to self-forgetfulness. As BASE jumping requires a high level of performance under extreme stress, meticulous attention to detail and split-second decision-making, a capacity for sustained focus over prolonged periods of time, and in situations of physical and psychological stress is Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 41
48
(Data from Monasterio et al 2012 table 3 p395)
Figure 4.5 - Mean scores of BASE jumpers and age-matched controls on seven dimensions. However, the spread of scores among the jumpers was quite large, which meant that the researchers could not establish a "tightly defined personality profile". The exception was harm avoidance (HA), where 40% of the jumpers had a score of 4 or less (compared to 5% of the general population) 52. Low scorers are described as "carefree, relaxed, daring, courageous, composed, and optimistic even in situations that worry most people. These individuals are described as outgoing, bold, and confident. Their energy levels tend to be high, and they impress others as dynamic, lively, and vigorous. The advantages of low HA are confidence in the face of danger and uncertainty, leading to optimistic and energetic efforts with little or no distress. The disadvantages are related to unresponsiveness to danger, which can lead to foolhardy optimism" (Monasterio et al 2012). This attitude is seen in that 72% of the jumpers had witnessed a serious or fatal accident, and 42% had suffered a severe but not life-threatening injury (eg: broken arm,
important. High ST with its attendant propensity for self-forgetfulness and openness to transpersonal experience is likely to be disadvantageous to BASE jumpers as it may lead to distractibility and diminished focus on a highly specific task. Individuals who score low on ST tend to be proud, impatient, unfulfilled, self-aware, and generally struggle to accept failure..." (Monasterio et al 2012 p397). 52 Five individuals scored 0, five scored 1 and 2, and seven individuals three (Monasterio et al 2012). Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 42
leg, ribs) from their sport. The methodology of the study can be evaluated on two issues - the sample and the personality questionnaire. a) Sample Not random sample, but volunteers who had a minimum of ten jumps and/or six months doing the sport. Only active jumpers - not those who had stopped voluntarily (who may have been more cautious) or died (who may have been riskier). Sample small, but it was 5-10% of the total BASE jumping population (estimated at 700; Monasterio et al 2012). Sample recruited via an "insider" (researcher who BASE jumped) which might have increased the willingness to participate in the study more than if approached by an "outsider". Recruitment occurred at jump meetings, via personal communication among the jumping community, and on adventure website forums. b) TCI Establish validity and reliability. Each item only offered a forced choice response of true/false, which limited the options, particularly if the respondent wanted a "maybe" or "sometimes" answer or could not decide. A lot of questions (235) to complete, particular for individuals who are sensation-seekers and get bored easily. Monasterio, Alamri and Mei-Dan (2012; quoted in Monasterio et al 2012) reported that experienced mountaineers scored higher on NS and SD and lower on HA and ST than population means on the TCI. The TCI has been given to non-extreme sports players. For example, high school students involved in endurance, combat, power or team sports had higher HA scores than non-athletes (Han et al 2006). While French elite racing cyclists scored than higher on RD than control cyclists (Seznec et al 2003).
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
43
5. EXERCISE AND HEALTH

5.1. Introduction 5.2. Improvements in exercise 5.2.1. Encouraging physical activity in children 5.1. INTRODUCTION Cardio-respiratory fitness (CRF) is declining among English schoolchildren in recent years (Sandercock et al 2010), and the reasons given are increased body mass and decreased physical activity. In the latter case, it is due to more sedentary behaviour including "screen-time" (time spent in front of television or computer for leisure purposes). In a two-year study, Aggio et al (2012) founded lower CRF among schoolchildren reporting more than two hours daily screen-time. The sample of 1500 11-12 yearolds at baseline were assessed in 2008 and 2010 (as part of the East of England Healthy Hearts Study). Physical activity and screen-time were self-reported for a sevenday period. CRF was measured using incremental twentymetre shuttle runs until exhausted or unable to maintain required pace. Low physical activity and high screen-time at baseline and follow-up were associated with over twice as likely to be unfit (low CRF). Over the period of the study, 6% of participants became unfit and individuals with more than two hours daily screen-time were twice as likely to be in that group than lower screen-time. 5.2. IMPROVEMENTS IN EXERCISE Physical activity has health benefits. However, structured exercise programmes for adults have high dropout rates (up to 50% within six months) (Burke et al 2006). This has led to interest in the context of physical exercise - ie: group or individual-based. Burke et al (2006) undertook a meta-analysis of 44 studies of programmes to increase physical activity/exercise using categories of outcome like adherence to programme, quality of life, and physiological effectiveness. The types of programme were divided into four contexts: Home-based alone. Home-based with contact from health-care professionals. Group exercise classes. Group exercise classes that encourage social interaction and group identity ("true groups").
The effectiveness of the context was a continuum with the "true group" as best through to home-based alone as poorest. Put simply, social support and contact produces better adherence to exercise programmes. The intention to exercise is a predictor of actual exercise, and the intention is influenced by attitude towards exercise, perceived behavioural control (eg: how easy or difficult to do it), and subjective norms (eg: social pressure/social support). This is according to the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen 1991) (figure 5.1).
Figure 5.1 - Theory of planned behaviour. Plotnikoff et al (2012) applied this model in a long-term follow-up of 1427 participants of the 1981 Canadian Fitness Survey (CFS) (table 5.1). Physical activity was measured by average time in last twelve months in nineteen activities, while intention to exercise referred to the coming year (from "never" to "six or more times per week"). Participants were also asked how easily they could participate in exercise three or more times a week for at least twenty minutes each time (on five-point scale), and about the degree of support to exercise from family and friends (seven-point scale). Data were collected in 1988 and 2003. The intention to be active in 1988 significantly correlated with physical activity in 1988 (r = 0.29) and 2003 (r = 0.24). The intention to be active significantly correlated with attitudes towards exercise, perceived behavioural control, and subjective norms. But this model was more predictive for women than men. The level of exercise is an important variable. Moderate and regular exercise boosts the immune system whereas regular strenuous exercise produces immunosuppression and the increased risk of upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) (a "J-curve") (Moreira et al 2009). In a literature search, Moreira et al (2009) found thirty studies of physical activity and URTI, which
STRENGTHS
1. Random, national representative sample. The CFS was a multi-stage representative cluster sample of Canadian households, and this study used a random sample of 20%. 2. Prospective design (eg: intention in 1988 predicted exercise in 2003). 3. Fifteen-year follow-up. 4. Separate analysis based on gender.
WEAKNESSES
1. Self-reports of physical activity only. 2. Asking about previous year difficult to recall accurately. 3. Relatively small number study compared to original individuals approached and completed data in 1988 and completed sample (23 397 1427 provided 2003).
4. The intention to exercise asked about the coming year whereas data collected after fifteen years: "...time referent... not specifically aligned to prospective behaviour measure..." (Plotnikoff et al 2012 p526).
Table 5.1 - Main strengths and weaknesses of Plotnikoff et al (2012). included 8595 athletes and 1798 non-athletes. Among nonathletes, increasing physical activity was found to reduce the risk of URTI, whereas athletes had higher rates of URTI after training and competition than less active individuals. However, elite athletes may have a reduced risk due to factors like genetics, and nutrition (eg: vitamin supplements). 5.2.1. Encouraging Physical Activity in Children Physical activity (PA) and exercise by children is influenced by their parent(s) in a number of ways including (Edwardson and Gorely 2010): Parental encouragement. Role modelling. Practical aid (eg: transport to activity venue). Studies, however, are inconsistent in their findings on the relationship between parental support and the child's PA at home. Most of them are cross-sectional studies comparing different groups at one point in time. Lin and Biddle (2012) saw longitudinal studies as better, and they set out to review such studies. The literature review found eleven relevant studies 53, of which the majority involved White middle-class individuals in Europe or the Americas. Three sets of parental variables were found to correlate with children's PA:
The length of the studies varied from less than 1 year to 12 years, and the sample size was anything up to 5000. Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 46
53
a) Demographic correlates Higher socio-economic status (SES) positively correlated with PA, especially father's SES. Mother's employment negatively correlated with PA, especially for girls' PA. b) Behavioural correlates Parent(s)' participation in PA encouraged children's PA (example). Parent(s)' transport support encouraged PA (ie: driving child to venue). c) Psychological correlates Children's PA was associated with parent(s)' perception of their child as competent, and independent. Parent(s)' enjoyment of PA encouraged active children 54 . Lin and Biddle (2012) noted that many of the studies used volunteers: "It can be assumed that this method recruited mostly families/parents who are either concerned with the level of physical activity their child is involved in or are conscious of health issues they felt PA are related to" (p217). Other studies have found that social variables, like ethnicity and SES, are important. For example, Kimm et al (2002) found that Black girls were less influenced by parent(s)' PA than White girls. Example - Yang et al (1996)
Yang et al (1996) reported the results of a twelve-year followup of 1881 9-15 year-olds in 1980 on the "Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns" study (aged 21-27 in 1992). Offspring of active parents, particularly fathers, were more physically active as children, adolescents, and young adults than of non-active parents (figure). This finding is used as evidence of social learning (ie: imitation and modelling). Children imitate the behaviour modelled by their parents. Yang et al measured physical activity of the children with a series of questions about frequency and time spent, for example, giving the physical activity index (PAI), whereas the parents'
Parents' expectations of their children's participation in sport can be a positive encouragement particularly if moderate, but cause a reduction in motivation if too high (Yang et al 1996). Five Topics in Sports Psychology IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8 Kevin Brewer 2013 47
54
activity was only measured on a three-point scale (from "a little" to "regularly"). The participants were interviewed every three years from 1980 (baseline) - 1983, 1986, 1989, and 1992. Overall, physical activity among boys/men declined with age, while it was stable after age 15 for girls/women.
(Data from Yang et al 1996 table 2 p279) Figure C - Significant correlations between parents' physical activity in 1980 and offspring's physical activity.
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
48
6. REFERENCES
Abernethy, B et al (2005) Transfer of pattern recall skills may contribute to the development of sport expertise Applied Cognitive Psychology 19, 1-14 Aggio, D et al (2012) Temporal relationships between screen-time and physical activity with cardio-respiratory fitness in English Schoolchildren: A two-year longitudinal study Preventive Medicine 55, 37-39 Ajzen, I (1991) The theory of planned behaviour Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes 50, 179-211 Allard, F et al (1993) Declarative knowledge in skilled motor performance: By-product or constituent? In Starker, J.L & Allard, F (eds) Cognitive Issues in Motor Expertise Amsterdam: Elsevier Ansorge, C.J & Scheer, J.K (1988) International bias detected in judging gymnastic competition at the 1984 Olympic Games Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 59, 103-107 Balmer, N.J et al (2001) Home advantage in the Winter Olympics (19081988) Journal of Sports Sciences 19, 129-139 Bandler, R & Grinder, J (1975) The Structure of Magic I CA: Science and Behaviour Books Palo Alto,
Barnett, V & Hilditch, S (1993) The effect of an artificial pitch surface on home team performance in football (soccer) Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 156, 39-50 Baumeister, R.F & Steinhilber, D (1984) Paradoxical effects of supportive audiences on performance under pressure: The home field disadvantage in sports championships Journal of Personal and Social Psychology 47, 85-93 Baumeister, R.F et al (1996) Relation of threatened egotism to violence and aggression: The dark side of high self-esteem Psychological Review 103, 5-33 Bollen, K.A & Hoyle, R.A (1990) Perceived cohesion: A conceptual and empirical examination Social Forces 69, 479-504 Boyko, R.H et al (2007) Referee bias contributes to home advantage in English Premiership football Journal of Sports Sciences 25, 11, 1185-1194 Bray, S.R & Carron, A.V (1993) The home advantage in alpine skiing Australian Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport 25, 76-81 Bull, S.J et al (2005) Towards an understanding of mental toughness in elite English cricketers Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 17, 209-227 Burke, S.M et al (2006) Group versus individual approach? A metaanalysis of the effectiveness of interventions to promote physical activity Sport and Exercise Psychology Review 2, 1, 13-29 Callow, N & Hardy, L (2001) Types of imagery associated with sport confidence in netball players of varying skill levels Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 13, 1-17 Carron, A.V & Spink, K.S (1995) The group size-cohesion relationship in minimal groups Small Group Research 26, 86-105 Carron, A.V et al (1985) The development of an instrument to assess cohesiveness in sport team: The group environment questionnaire Journal of Sports Psychology 7, 244-266 Carron, A.V et al (1998) The measurement of cohesiveness in sport groups. In Duda, J.L (ed) Advances in Sport and Exercise Psychology Measurement Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
49
Carron, A.V et al (2005) The home advantage in sport competitions: Courneya and Carron's (1982) conceptual framework a decade later Journal of Sport Sciences 23, 395-407 Carron, A.V et al (2002) Team cohesion and team success in sport Journal of Sports Sciences 20, 119-126 Cartwright, D (1968) The nature of group cohesiveness. In Cartwright, D & Zander, A (eds) Group Dynamics: Research and Theory (3rd ed) New York: Harper & Row Castanier, C et al (2010) Who takes risks in high-risk sports? A typological personality approach Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 81, 4, 478-484 Cattell, R.B (1957) Personality and Motivation Structure and Measurement New York: Harcourt, Brace and World Chelladurai, P & Saleh, S (1980) Dimensions of leader behaviour in sports: Development of leadership scale Journal of Sport Psychology 2, 3445 Clark, S.R & Norman, J.M (1995) Home ground advantage of individual clubs in English soccer The Statistician 44, 509-521 Cloninger, C.R (1987) A systematic method for clinical description and classification of personality variants: A proposal Archives of General Psychiatry 44, 573-588 Cloninger et al (1993) A psychobiological model of temperament and character Archives of General Psychiatry 50, 975-990 Cloninger, C.R et al (1994a) Basic description of the personality scales. In Cloninger, C.R (ed) The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI): A Guide to its Development and Use St.Louis, MO: Center for Psychobiology of Personality, Washington University Cloninger, C.R et al (1994b) Norms and demographic correlates of the TCI. In Cloninger, C.R (ed) The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI): A Guide to its Development and Use St.Louis, MO: Center for Psychobiology of Personality, Washington University Clough, P.J & Earle, K (2002) When the going gets tough: A study of the impact of mental toughness on perceived demands Journal of Sports Sciences 20, 1, p61 Clough, P.J et al (2002) Mental toughness: The concept and its measurement. In Cockerill, I (ed) Solutions in Sport Psychology London: Thomson Coffee, P & Rees, T (2011) When the chips are down: Effects of attributional feedback on self-efficacy and task performance following initial and repeated failure Journal of Sports Sciences 29, 3, 235-245 Cota, A.A et al (1995) The structure of group cohesion Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 21, 512-580 Courneya, K.S & Carron, A.V (1992) The home advantage in sport competitions: A literature review Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 14, 28-39 Cox, R.H (1990) Sports Psychology: Concepts and Applications (2nd ed) Dubuque, IA: W.M.Brown Publishers Craft, L.L et al (2003) The relationship between the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 and sports performance: A meta-analysis Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 25, 46-65 Crust, L (2007) Mental toughness in sport: A review International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 5, 270-290 Crust, L & Clough, P.J (2005) Relationship between mental toughness
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
50
and physical endurance Perceptual and Motor Skills
100, 192-194
Davis, H & Zaichkowsky, L (1998) Explanatory style among elite ice hockey athletes Perceptual and Motor Skills 87, 1075-1080 Duda, J.L & Nicholls, J.G (1992) Dimensions of achievement motivation in schoolwork and sport Journal of Educational Psychology 84, 290-299 de Groot, A (1946/1978) Thought and Choice in Chess The Hague: Mouton
Edwards, T & Hardy, L (1996) The interactive effects of intensity and direction of cognitive and somatic anxiety and self-confidence upon performance Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 18, 296-312 Edwardson, C.L & Gorely, T (2010) Parental influences on different types and intensities of physical activity in youth: A systematic review Psychology of Sport and Exercise 11, 522-535 Ericsson, K.A (2004) Deliberate practice and the acquisition and maintenance of expert performance in medicine and related domains Academic Medicine 79, 10, S70-S81 Ericsson, K.A & Moxley, T.H (2012) A critique of Howard's argument for innate limits in chess performance or why we need an account based on acquired skill and deliberate practice Applied Cognitive Psychology 26, 649-653 Ericsson, K.A & Ward, P (2007) Capturing the naturally occurring superior performance of experts in the laboratory Current Directions in Psychological Science 16, 6, 346-350 Ericsson, K.A et al (1993) The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance Psychological Review 100, 3, 363-406 Eys, M.A et al (2007) Item wording and internal consistency of a measure of cohesion: The group environment questionnaire Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 29, 395-402 Gaudreau, P & Blondin, J.P (2002) Differential associations of dispositional optimism and pessimism with coping, goal attainment, and emotional adjustment during sport competition International Journal of Stress Management 11, 245-269 Golby, J & Sheard, M (2004) Mental toughness and different levels of rugby league Personality and Individual Differences 37, 933-942 Gould, D et al (1987) Psychological foundations of coaching: Similarities and differences among intercollegiate wrestling coaches Sport Psychologist 1, 293-308 Gould, D et al (2002) Psychological characteristics and their development in Olympic champions Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 172-204 14,
Graen, G.B et al (1982) The effects of leader-member exchange and job design on productivity and satisfaction: Testing the dual attachment model Organisational Behaviour and Human Performance 30, 109-131 Greenlees, I et al (2005) Team referent attributions among sport performers Research Quarterly in Exercise and Sport 76, 477-487 Grieve, F.G (2000) An experimental examination of the cohesionperformance relationship in an interactive team sport Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 12, 219-235 Hall, C.R et al (1998) Imagery use by athletes: Development of the Sports Imagery Questionnaire International Journal of Sport Psychology 29, 73-89 Han, D.H et al (2006) Influence of temperament and anxiety on athletic performance Journal of Sports Sciences and Medicine 5, 381-389
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
51
Henningsen, D.D et al (2007) A test of social facilitation as a predictor of home performance advantage Journal of Sports and Recreation 1
1,
Howard, R.W (2009) Individual differences in expertise development over decades in a complex intellectual domain Memory and Cognition 37, 194209 Howard, R.W (2012) Longitudinal effects of different types of practice on the development of chess expertise Applied Cognitive Psychology 26, 3, 359-369 Hoyle, R.H & Crawford, A.M (1994) Use of individual-level data to investigate group phenomena: Issues and strategies Small Group Research 25, 464-485 Jamieson, J.P (2010) The home field advantage in athletics: A metaanalysis Journal of Applied Social Psychology 40, 1819-1848 Jones, G & Hanton, S (2001) Pre-competitive feeling states and directional anxiety interpretations Journal of Sports Sciences 19, 385-395 Jones, G et al (2002) What is this thing called mental toughness? An investigation of elite sport performers Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 14, 205-218 Keltikangas-Jarvinen, L et al (2004) Nature and nurture in novelty seeking Molecular Psychiatry 9, 308-311 Kimm, S.Y.S et al (2002) Decline in physical activity in black girls and white girls during adolescence New England Journal of Medicine 347, 10, 709-715 Kobasa, S.C (1979) Stressful life events, personality and health: An enquiry into hardiness Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37, 111 Kwan, G & Roy, J (2007) Goal profiles, mental toughness and its influence on performance outcomes among Wushu athletes Journal of Sports Science and Medicine 6, 28-33 Landers, D.M & Luschen, G (1974) Team performance outcome and cohesiveness of competitive coacting groups International Review of Sport Sociology 9, 57-69 Lane, A.M et al (1999) Confirmatory factor analysis of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 Journal of Sports Sciences 17, 505-512 Levy, A et al (2006) Mental toughness as a determinant of sport injury beliefs, pain and rehabilitation adherence Journal of Sports Rehabilitation 15, 246-254 Lin, C & Biddle, S.J.H (2012) Longitudinal and prospective studies of parental correlates of physical activity in young people: A systematic review International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 10, 3, 211220 Loehr, J.E (1986) Mental Toughness Training for Sport: Achieving Athletic Excellence Lexington, MA: Stephen Greene Macmahon, C et al (2007) Decision-making skills and deliberate practice in elite association football referees Journal of Sports Sciences 25, 1, 65-78 Maddi, S.R & Khoshaba, D.M (2001) Personal Views Survey (3rd ed rev) Newport Beach, CA: The Hardiness Institute Mann, D.T.Y et al (2009) Perceptual-cognitive expertise in sport: A meta-analysis Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 29, 457-478 Martens, R & Peterson, J (1971) Group cohesiveness as a determinant of success and member satisfaction in team performance International Review of
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
52
Sport Sociology
6, 49-61 Champaign, Il:
Martens, R et al (1990a) Competitive Anxiety in Sport Human Kinetics
Martens, R et al (1990b) Development and validation of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2). In Martens, R et al (eds) Competitive Anxiety in Sport Champaign, Il: Human Kinetics Martin, L.J & Carron, A.V (2012) Team attributions in sport: A metaanalysis Journal of Applied Sports Psychology 24, 157-174 McEwan, D et al (2012) "With the game on his stick": The home (dis)advantage of National Hockey League shootouts Psychology of Sport and Exercise 13, 578-581 Monasterio, E et al (2012) Personality characteristics of BASE jumpers Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 24, 391-400 Moore, J.C & Brylinsky, J.A (1993) Spectator effect on team performance in college basketball Journal of Sport Behaviour 16, 77-84 Moore, J.C & Brylinsky, J.A (1995) Facility familiarity and the home advantage Journal of Sport Behaviour 18, 302-311 Moradi, M (2004) The relationship between coach's leadership style and group cohesion in Iran basketball clubs professional league Kinetics Journal 29, 5-16 Moreira, A et al (2009) Does exercise increase the risk of upper respiratory tract infections? British Medical Bulletin 90, 111-131 Mullen, B & Copper, C (1994) The relationship between group cohesion and performance: An integration Psychological Bulletin 115, 210-227 Mullen, B & Riordan, C (1988) Self-serving attributions for performance in naturalistic settings: A meta-analytic review Journal of Applied Social Psychology 18, 3-22 Nevill, A.M et al (2002) The influence of crowd noise and experience upon refereeing decisions in football Psychology of Sport and Exercise 3, 261-272 Nicholls, A et al (2008) Mental toughness, optimism, pessimism and coping among athletes Personality and Individual Differences 44, 1182-1192 Nicholls, J.G (1989) The Competitive Ethos and Democratic Education Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press Norlander, T & Archer, T (2002) Predicting performance in ski and swim championships: Effectiveness of mood, perceived exertion, and dispositional optimism Perceptual and Motor Skills 94, 153-164 Pizzera, A & Raab, M (2012) Perceptual judgments of sports officials are influenced by their motor and visual experience Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 24, 59-72 Plotnikoff, R.C et al (2012) A fifteen-year longitudinal test of the theory of planned behaviour to predict physical activity in a randomised national sample of Canadian adults Psychology of Sport and Exercise 13, 521-527 Ramzaninezhad, R & Hoseini Keshtan, M (2009) The relationship between coach's leadership styles and team cohesion in Iran football clubs professional league Brazilian Journal of Biomotricity 3, 2, 111-120 Sandercock, G et al (2010) Ten year secular declines in the cardiorespiratory fitness of affluent English schoolchildren are largely independent of changes in body mass index Archives of Disease in Childhood 95, 46-47 Sar, A.H & Isiklar, A (2012) Examination of locus of control,
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
53
subjective well-being and optimism as the predictors of sport confidence Nigde University Journal of Physical Education and Sport Sciences 6, 1, 7684 Savardelavar, M & Bagheri, A.H (2012) Using NLP in sport psychology; neuro-linguistic programming affects on boxer state-support confidence by using meta-models method Journal of Experimental Biology 2, 5, 1922-1927 Scheier, M.F & Carver, C.S (1985) Optimism, coping, and health: Assessment and implications of generalised outcome expectancies Health Psychology 4, 219-247 Seznec, J.C et al (2003) Dimensional personality assessment of the members of the French junior national team of road cycling L'Encephale 29, 1, 29-33 Sias, P.M & Jablin, F.M (1995) Differential superior-subordinate relations, perceptions of fairness and co-worker communication Human Communication Research 22, 5-38 Soyer, F (2012) Relationship between coping strategies with stress and sport confidence HealthMED 6, 4, 1315-1326 Stodgill, R.M (1972) Group productivity, drive and cohesiveness Organisational Behaviour and Human Performance 8, 26-43 Stuntz, C.P & Garwood, K.E (2012) Enhancing social goal involvement through co-operative instructions Journal of Applied Sports Psychology 24, 260-274 Tajfel, H & Turner, J.C (1979) An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In Austin, W.G & Worchel, S (eds) The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole Taylor, D.M et al (1983) Group performance and cohesiveness: An attribution analysis Journal of Social Psychology 119, 187-198 Thelwell, R et al (2005) Defining and understanding mental toughness within soccer Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 17, 326-332 Thomas, P.R et al (1996) Psychological and psychomotor skills associated with prowess at ten-pin bowling Journal of Sports Sciences 255-268 Turman, P.D (2003) Coaches and cohesion: The impact of coaching techniques on team cohesion in the small group sport setting Journal of Sport Behaviour 26, 1, 86-104 Turner, J.C (1981) The experimental social psychology of intergroup behaviour. In Turner, J.C & Giles, H (eds) Intergroup Behaviour Oxford: Blackwell Van Breukelen, W et al (2012) Differential treatment within sports teams, leader-member (coach-player) exchange quality, team atmosphere, and team performance Journal of Organisational Behaviour 33, 43-63 Vealey, R.S (1986) Conceptualisation of sport-confidence and competitive orientation: Preliminary investigation and instrument development Journal of Sport Psychology 8, 3, 221-246 Vestberg, T et al (2012) Executive functions predict the success of top-soccer players PLoS ONE 7, 4, e34731 (Freely available at http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0034731) Weiner, B (1972) Theories of Motivation: From Mechanism to Cognition Chicago: Markham Weiner, B (1985) An attribution theory of achievement motivation and emotion Psychological Review 92, 548-573 Widmeyer, W.N & Williams, J.M (1991) Predicting cohesion in a coaching sport Small Group Research 22, 548-570 14,
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
54
Widmeyer, W.N et al (1993) Group cohesion in sport and exercise. In Singer, R.N et al (eds) Handbook of Research on Sport Psychology New York: Macmillan Williams, A.M (2000) Perceptual skill in soccer: Implications for talent identification and development Journal of Sports Sciences 18, 9, 737-750 Williams, A.M & Reilly, T (2000) Talent identification and development in soccer Journal of Sports Sciences 18, 657-667 Yang, X et al (1996) Parents' physical activity, socioeconomic status and education as predictors of physical activity and sport among children and youths - a twelve-year follow-up study International Review for Sociology of Sport 31, 3, 273-291 Yerkes, R.M & Dodson, J.D (1908) The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit/emotion Journal of Comparative Neurology of Psychology 18, 459-482 Zajonc, R.B (1965) Social facilitation Science 149, 269-274
Zuckerman, M (1983) Sensation seeking and sports Personality and Individual Differences 4, 3, 285-294 Zuckerman, M et al (1964) Development of a sensation-seeking scale Journal of Consulting Psychology 28, 6, 477-482
IBN: 978-1-904542-69-8
Kevin Brewer
2013
55

Five Topics in Sports Psychology

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Five Topics in Sports Psychology

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

This document is produced under two principles: 1.