Sport Psychology

Performance Enhancement, Performance Inhibition, Individuals, and Teams

Nicholas T. Gallucci

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781134641710
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Sport Psychology, 2nd Edition provides a synthesis of the major topics in sport psychology with an applied focus and an emphasis on achieving optimal performance.

After exploring the history of sport psychology, human motivation, and the role of exercise, there are three main sections to the text: Performance Enhancement, Performance Inhibition, and Individuals and Teams.

The first of these sections covers topics such as anxiety, routines, mental imagery, self-talk, enhancing concentration, relaxation, goals, and self-confidence.

The section on Performance Inhibition includes chapters on choking under pressure, self-handicapping, procrastination, perfectionism, helplessness, substance abuse, and disruptive personality factors.

While much of the information presented is universally applicable, individual differences based on gender, ethnicity, age, and motivation are emphasized in the concluding section on Individuals and Teams.

Throughout, there are case studies of well-known athletes from a variety of sports to illustrate topics that are being explored.

Part I
Introduction

Chapter 1
Introduction to Sport Psychology

Chapter Outline

What Is Sport Psychology?

History of Sport Psychology

Research and Training in the United States

Research and Training in Europe and Canada

Professional Activities of Sport Psychologists

Evolution of Consultation

Athletes’ Views of Consulting Sport Psychologists

Professional Associations and Journals

Accreditation

Sport Psychology and the Scientific Method

Summary and Application

“I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women: suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it” (Hornby, 1994, p. 1).

Getting started

And so it goes with sport. This sentiment expressed by an Englishman about the sport Americans call soccer has undoubtedly been experienced by millions of men and women throughout the world. Regardless of the specific sport, gender, ethnicity, or nationality, interest and passion in sport endures. For example, recent estimates are that 23 million youth in the United States (U.S.) between the ages of 5 and 16 participate in sports after school and another 6.5 million play sports that are sponsored by their schools (Participation Survey, 1999–2000).

Likewise, interest in psychology is widespread and enduring. In the year 2000, 74,060 Americans received bachelor’s degrees with psychology majors (U.S. Department of Education, 2002). Sport psychology brings together these widespread interests.

What is Sport Psychology?

Sport psychology is defined as the application of the knowledge and scientific methods of psychology to the study of people in sport and exercise settings. This knowledge is also applied to enhance sport performance and enjoyment, and the health and fitness of sportspersons. The scope of sport psychology includes understanding how psychological factors affect performance and how involvement in sport and exercise activities relates to psychological development, adjustment, and well-being (Williams & Straub, 2010). It is not surprising that college students have a keen interest in sport psychology, as college students have consistently demonstrated the greatest interest in topics in psychology that have direct applications in their daily lives (Ruch, 1937; Zanich & Grover, 1989).

History of Sport Psychology

By the start of the 20th century, theories about the benefits of sport were well-established. Theories to explain human motivation for involvement in sport and play were also developed. For example, play and sport were seen as inherently pleasurable, or as outlets for surplus energy (Hermann, 1921). Edward W. Scripture developed a widely recognized theory at the psychological laboratory of Yale University. According to Scripture (1900), involvement in sport built character, or fostered the development of favorable qualities of personality. He studied the effects of athletics, calisthenics, and manual training on the development of self-control among young felons in the Elmira Reformatory. Scripture argued that character strengths developed by motor activity could be transferred to areas of everyday living. Scripture was not alone in concluding that sport and play were methods by which people developed skills and qualities that would prepare them for life. Sport was said to develop alertness, judgment, and the capacity to react to changing environments. In scientific and popular literature, parallels were drawn between strong bodies and strong minds and sportspersonship and ethical conduct in other areas of life functioning (Bailey et al., 2009; Davis, Huss, & Becker, 1995).

Research and Training in the United States

Norman Triplett (1898) is credited with conducting the initial research in sport psychology at the University of Indiana. Triplett discerned that bicycle racing performances were faster when cyclists competed in the presence of other cyclists who functioned as pacemakers or as competitors. Racing performances were slowest when cyclists rode alone. Triplett reasoned that the presence of pacemakers or competitors was “dynamo-genic,” or served as stimuli to release energy that was latent when cyclists rode alone. Visual and auditory cues from the other cyclists were also seen to inspire additional effort from cyclists. Triplett replicated these findings with children who were timed winding fishing reels, either alone or with another child. These results were later described as the social facilitation effect (Zajonc, 1965). This research was conducted while Triplett was in graduate school. He did not continue this research, as his professional career was spent in teaching and administration.

Sport and character strengths—Diego Forlan

The first American psychologist to devote a significant portion of his career to research, teaching, and service in sport psychology was Coleman Roberts Griffith (Gould & Pick, 1995). Griffith and his students had a major impact on the field between the years of 1920 and 1940, as his was the first program for systematic research and training in sport psychology. He also championed sport for its capacity to develop virtues of character such as courage, honor, fair play, and team work (Green, 2006). He has been called the father of American sport psychology, and was the director of the Research in Athletics Laboratory at the University of Illinois. This lab was founded in 1925, five years after the first sport psychology laboratory in the world was established at the Institute of Physical Education by Robert Werner Schulte in Berlin, Germany. Griffith offered the first course in sport psychology, “Psychology and Athletics,” in 1923 (Green, 2006).

Diego Forlán Keeps His Promises

Diego Forlán’s older sister, Alejandra, was left paralyzed at age 17 due to injuries suffered in a car accident. Although only 13 years of age, he promised that he would provide for her. “I told her while she was in her hospital bed that I would become a star so that I could ensure that she still has a good life,” said Forlán.

Forlán pursued stardom in soccer. He left his native Uruguay at age 17 to play professional soccer with Argentina’s Independiente. After scoring 40 goals in 91 games for Independiente, he was signed by Manchester United in the English Premier League at age 23. Subsequently he played for Villarreal and Atletico Madrid in Spain, and twice won scoring titles. He developed the Fundación Alejandra Forlán, and became an out-spoken critic of dangerous driving.

Forlán led Uruguay, a country of approximately 3.3 million, to a fourth-place finish in the 2010 World Cup of soccer. He won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player (Woitalla, 2010).

In addition to his research in his laboratory, Griffith functioned as an educator and consultant, and his career therefore presaged the roles of future generations of sport psychologists. In 1926 and 1928, his books Psychology of Coaching and Psychology of Athletics were published, and are considered classics. He also consulted with the Chicago Cubs professional baseball team and corresponded with the renowned Notre Dame Football coach Knute Rockne. Philip Knight Wrigley, the owner of the Chicago Cubs, advocated for Griffith’s application of scientific rigor in the training and preparation of professional baseball players. However, the managerial and coaching staff of the Cubs undermined Griffith’s efforts, perhaps fearing that their authority and influence would be diminished (Green, 2003).

Application

Griffith’s experience with the Chicago Cubs illustrates the importance of working alliances between sport psychologists and coaching and managerial staffs. Griffith’s efforts to impose scientific rigor on the homespun style and haphazard practices of manager Charlie Grimm resulted in division and conflict. Griffith’s assistant John E. Sterrett summarized the atmosphere:

I am convinced that Grimm is knocking our work as much as he can. Grimm said to one of the players that he was afraid we might say or do something worthwhile and that if the players or the head office knew about it, it would put him in a bad light (cited in Griffith, 1939, p. 48).

In turn, Griffith became increasingly critical of Grimm, and his successor at manager, Gabby Hartnett. Ultimately, Griffith had little influence with the Cubs, and Griffith’s association with the Cubs came to an end in 1940 after only two years.

Griffith’s sport psychology laboratory at the University of Illinois was also shut down in 1932. Ostensibly, budgetary restraint necessitated by the onset of the Great Depression was responsible for its closing. However, it was also rumored that Griffith lost the support of Illinois football coach Robert Zuppke (Green, 2003).

Griffith developed a view of the scope of sport psychology. First, he recommended that sport psychologists study the techniques and principles practiced by the best coaches of their day. Sport psychologists were then to abstract and summarize these principles and communicate them to young and inexperienced coaches. In this way, sport psychologists could help in the development of more effective coaches.

Second, Griffith studied psychomotor learning and the relationship between personality factors and physical performance and called for the integration of this information into sport psychology research. This practice has continued to the present day, and the extension of this practice is emphasized in this book. Third, Griffith recommended scientific, psychological research specific to sport psychology (Weiss & Gill, 2005). This research was to have practical applications in supporting improved athletic performance. Among the topics of research in his laboratory were the learning of athletic and motor skills and the influence of personality traits on athletic performance. Personality traits refer to ways of responding and behaving that are consistent over time and across situations.

Griffith introduced the concepts of automated responses and the development of optimal states of arousal for competitions. Automated responses occur without conscious or deliberate thought and are characteristic of sophisticated and elite motor responses and athletic performance (see Chapter 5). With the identification of optimal states of arousal, it was recognized that athletic performance could be inhibited if physiological activation was too low or too high. Arousal refers to the activation of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. This activation is measured on the bases of heart rate, rate of breathing, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and galvanic skin response. Higher readings on these measures were considered indicative of players being ready for, or “up” for, games. Successful performance was seen to be associated with the majority of the team being prepared for competition. Current literature concerning the relationship between arousal and performance will be reviewed in Chapter 4. Griffith was also interested in the psychological growth that could be fostered by sport and physical training.

Rapid growth in sport psychology occurred between 1950 and 1980 (Landers, 1995; Wiggins, 1984). Topics in sport psychology that were identified during this period remain active areas of scientific inquiry. These areas include: optimal states of arousal and performance, mental imagery and performance, modeling of adaptive motor and psychological responses, performance anxiety, and achievement motivation. Between 1950 and 1965 there was an emphasis on personality factors associated with involvement in athletics. This literature was not especially conclusive, probably due in no small part to methodological limitations, such as reliably measuring the personality factors. More recent and promising research is reviewed in Chapter 15.

In the 1970s, the interactionism paradigm, or the interaction between individuals and their environments, was emphasized in sport psychology research (Williams & Straub, 2010). Research in sport venues rather than university laboratories was also emphasized in the 1970s. Rainer Martens’s 1979 article “About Smocks and Jocks” was credited with stimulating research in sport settings. Research in sport settings was considered more ecologically v...