Sport and Exercise Psychology: The Key Concepts

Ellis Cashmore

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN: 9781134071159
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Now including exercise psychology terms for the first time in its second edition, Sport and Exercise Psychology: The Key Concepts offers a highly accessible introduction to this fascinating subject, its central theories and state-of-the-art research. Over 300 alphabetically-ordered entries cover such diverse terms as:

• adherence
• aggression
• emotion
• exercise dependence
• home advantage
• kinesiphobia
• left-handedness
• motivation
• retirement
• self-confidence.

Cross-referenced, with suggestions for further reading and a full index, this latest key guide contains invaluable advice on the psychology of sport and exercise. A comprehensive A-Z guide to a fast-moving field of inquiry, this book is an essential resource for scholars, coaches, trainers, journalists, competitors, exercisers; in fact anyone associated with sport and exercise.

SPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY

Second Edition

ABILITY

The capacity, competence, faculty, quality, or power that enables a person to achieve something with no further learning or training at a particular moment in a particular place is ability, or an ability, which is derived from the Latin habilitas for able. Ability is always context-dependent: because someone has ability to accomplish an action in one CONTEXT carries no implication that he or she can duplicate the same action in another. Coaches are often said to lose their ability to motivate players; yet, they often move to different clubs at which they regain that ability. Ability also waxes and wanes, increasing and decreasing in time. The ability to run a sub-three-hour marathon might be positively correlated to the amount of high-quality training. Over the years, that ability declines, regardless of the amount or quality of training.

In sport and exercise psychology, ability is frequently prefixed, as in, for example, George Rebok and Dana Plude’s study of physical activity and memory in AGING adults, which included cognitive ability among its measures. By contrast, Molly Moran and Maureen Weiss assessed athletic ability and its links with various other characteristics. (Both studies used SELF-RATING as a method.)

Aptitude, while often used interchangeably with TALENT, is actually a potential to perform: latent qualities that might be developed into ability given the right conditions for training or learning. Without those conditions, aptitude might remain undeveloped.

Further reading

Ericsson, K. Anders and Charness, Neil (1994). Expert performance: its structure and acquisition. American Psychologist, 49, 725–47.

Moran, Molly M. and Weiss, Maureen R. (2006). Peer leadership in sport: links with friendship, peer acceptance, psychological characteristics, and athletic ability. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 18, 97–113.

Rebok, George W. and Plude, Dana J. (2001). Relation of physical activity to memory functioning in older adults: The memory workout program. Educational Gerontology, 27: 241–59.

See also: ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVE; AUTOMATICITY; DELIBERATE PRACTICE; GIFTEDNESS; INTELLIGENCE; LEADERSHIP; LEFT-HANDEDNESS; MASTERY CLIMATE; MENTAL TOUGHNESS; SELF-ACTUALIZATION; SELF-CONFIDENCE; SELF-EFFICACY; SKILL; SOCIALIZATION; STEREOTYPE

ACHIEVEMENT GOAL THEORY

Purports to explain MOTIVATION orientations in terms of how individuals define their goals.

See also: ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVE; APPROACH; AVOIDANCE; GOAL; GOAL ORIENTATION; GOAL SETTING; TASK/EGO ORIENTATION; 2×2 ACHIEVEMENT GOAL FRAMEWORK

ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVE

Striving for success is often seen as a manifestation of an achievement motive (or MOTIVATION), something that induces a person to direct his or her behavior toward the attainment of certain goals. Motive is from motus, Latin for move. The whole field of sport is guided by an achievement ethos, or climate: Victory is sought-after, and defeat is to be avoided in every endeavor. Competitors are energized by an achievement motive in the sense that they personally seek success rather than failure and are prepared to defeat others in their pursuit of that GOAL. Exercisers too are typically motivated to attain specific results.

The influential research of John W. Atkinson—especially withD. C. McClelland, J. W.Atkinson, R. A.Clark and E. C.Lowell, in The Achievement Motive, published in 1953—shed light on the composition of the achievement motive. It was the combination of two dispositional personality constructs: the motive to approach success and the motive to avoid failure. According to Atkinson, all humans have both; it is the way in which they combine that affects whether one person will be achievement-motivated. Atkinson’s research involved testing subjects for both the motives to succeed and to avoid failure. For example, would they look for challenges, show persistence, remain unafraid to lose and blame themselves when making the attribution for success or failure? Or would they try to avoid failure, dodge challenges, preferring to compete against easy opponents, dislike being evaluated by others and attribute their performance to external factors, such as luck or hard opponents? Those who scored big on the first scale were said to have an achievement motive.

Situations also factor into Atkinson’s model, which rates probability of success from 0 (no chance) to 1 (certainty) and builds in an incentive value (the lower the chance of success, the greater the incentive). An achievement-motivated football kicker faced with a 50-yard field goal chance to win a game and no time left on the clock would relish the opportunity. A kicker without a strong motive would prefer either an easier, more certain task, such as a 25-yard attempt, or an impossibly tough kick from outside field goal range—to avoid being blamed for the failure. So, the type of situation determines whether the behavioral tendencies of the achievement-motivated player will come to the fore. As many situations in sport have a midrange chance of success without a very high incentive value, the high achievement-motivated athlete is not always an asset; many situations demand a more conservative performer—a “safe pair of hands.”

M. L.Maehr and J. G.Nicholls rejected many of Atkinson’s assumptions about the invariance and objectivity of success and failure. Instead, they proposed that they are much more subjective, based on the perception of reaching or not reaching goals. There is, according to Maehr and Nicholls, “cultural variation in the personal qualities that are seen to be desirable.” In other words: Success and failure will be viewed differently in different cultures. While they do not examine the relationship between the achievement ethic and the achievement motive, Maehr and Nicholls acknowledge that it is necessary to understand the meanings of achievement rather than assume there is a single definition that holds good for all. Their interest was in exploring how, for example, winning may be only criterion of achievement for some, while pleasing a coach by performing well may constitute achievement for others. Different goals give rise to different perceptions of success and failure. But, significantly, all individuals use goals of some kind to evaluate their achievements.

Achievement goals can be grouped into three kinds, according to Maehr and Nicholls: (1) to demonstrate ability; (2) to be taskinvolved (mastering a competence rather than assessing oneself against others); and (3) to seek social approval. The same competitor may have a different goal for each different sport, or at different times in his or her life, or even have several goals at once.

While much research has focused on achievement motives in sport, their relevance in exercise has been revealed in a number of studies in recent years, for instance Robert LaChausse’s study of cycling offering an exploration of how cyclists who rode for fun differed markedly in their motives from competitive cyclists: “Non-competitive cyclists were more likely to endorse weight concerns and affiliation as motives. Road cyclists were more likely to endorse goal achievement and COMPETITION, while mountain bikers endorsed life meaning as a motivation for cycling.”

Other studies have evidenced the presence of the achievement motive among exercisers but suggest, as does LaChausse’s work, that there is a hierarchy of motives, and one which changes as exercisers progress through various stages of participation.

Further reading

LaChausse, Robert G. (2006). Motives of competitive and non-competitive cyclists. Journal of Sport Behavior, 29, 304–15.

Maehr, M. L. and Brascamp, L. A. (1986). The motivation factor: A theory of personal investment, Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books.

Maehr, M. L. and Nicholls, J. G. (1980). Culture and achievement motivation: a second look. In Warren, N (Ed.) Studies in Cross-Cultural Psychology, pp. 221–67. New York: Academic Press.

McClelland, D. C., Atkinson, J. W., Clark, R. A., and Lowell, E. L. (1953). The achievement motive, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Schmalt, Heinz-Dieter (2005). “Validity of a short form of the achievement-motive grid (AMG-S): Evidence for the three-factor structure emphasizing active and passive forms of fear of failure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 84, 172–84.

See also: ABILITY; APPROACH; AVOIDANCE; COMMITMENT; COMPETITION; CONCORDANCE; CONTEXT; DOPING; EGOCENTRISM; EXERCISE MOTIVATION; EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION; FEAR OF FAILURE; GENDER; GOAL; GOAL ORIENTATION; HOPE; INCENTIVE; MOTIVATION; MOTIVATIONAL CLIMATE; TASK/EGO ORIENTATION; THEORY; 2×2 ACHIEVEMENT GOAL FRAMEWORK

ACTION CONTROL

An attempt to CONTROL intentional behavior.

See also: SELF-REGULATION

ADHERENCE

Behaving according to a plan is adherence, from the French adhérer, to stick. It should not be confused with compliance, as C. A.Shields et al. stress: “Adherence implies a more active or collaborative role in behavioral DECISION-MAKING for the participant, allowing for some choice and adjustment of plans.” By contrast: “Compliance infers the participant is in a more passive role in which they either obey the recommended activity guidelines or they do not.”

Explanation. 1: Intention and results. “Stickabil...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• List of Key Concepts
• Introduction
• KEY CONCEPTS