Meaning of Psychology:

The scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those
affecting behavior in a given context.
1. study of the mind
2. science of the mind
3. science of the personality
4. study of the mental processes

The mental characteristics or attitude of a person or group

Psychology definition:
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior, according to the American
Psychological Association. It is the study of the mind, how it works, and how it affects behavior.

Educational Sports Psychologists:

An educational sports psychologist uses psychological methods to

help athletes improve sports performance. This includes teaching them how to use certain techniques such
as imagery, goal setting, or self-talk to perform better on the court or field.

What Is Sports Psychology?

Sports psychology is the study of how psychological factors influence
sports, athletic performance, exercise, and physical activity. Sports psychologists investigate how
participating in sports can improve health and well-being. They also help athletes utilize psychology to
improve their athletic performance and mental wellness.

IMPORTANT PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS WHICH AFFECT THE PHYSICAL

PERFORMANCE ARE:

Individual differences among the athletes:

Each athlete is unique to oneself. In addition to
physiological variations like height, weight, respectively, psychological differences are also related. Some
athletes may be bold and extrovert, while others may be shy, introvert and retreat, & their level of
awareness may also vary. Certain athletes are born psychologically healthy, while others are weak. Weak-
determined athletes are unable to do their work.

Personality:

The human personality is an incredibly complex system, deeply woven into a pattern that
balances the draws & pushes of the outside world through motivations, emotions, behaviors & thoughts.
It is his being's totality that comprises his physical, mental, emotional & temperamental composition. He
is personally defined by his experiences, perceptions, memories, fantasies, instinct, behaviors, thoughts &
feelings.
Intelligence:
Intelligence is an individual's combined mental ability or resources for purposeful action,
critical thought & efficient handling of one's environment & intelligence requires consciousness, an
objective, and a meaning. It is a capacity for taking on complicated, dynamic tasks that contribute to the
development of new and different things.

Stress:
Stress is described as a physical, mental or emotional need to disrupt the body's homeostasis. It's a
daily part of life, we could probably 'discourage' if there were no tension. Stress in life and in sport is
unavoidable, and all performers, musicians & athletes perform their duties at various levels of stress. The
word can refer to any strain, whether because of your career, schoolwork, marriage, illness or a loved
one's death. In all these, shift is the common denominator.

Attitude:
Attitudes are about thoughts and feelings. Attitude is often thought to predict behavior
attitudinal responses are also evaluative in nature. They are significant in deciding the kind and extent of
the learning that takes place and reflect the likes and dislikes concerning a specified object of action. For
example, if a child says “I like running”, it reflects his attitude towards running, and if a child says, “I
don’t like running” it shows this child’s attitude towards running.

Motivation:
Motivation is strength, a force that motivates a person to act or to act in a particular way, at a
specific time, to achieve the defined purpose. In the absence of motivation, either there will be no
learning, or very little learning, and the learned activity or skill will be forgotten very soon.

Aggression:
Aggression is an aspect of man's actions and is required to survive and fight for greater
accomplishments. Clearly, competing for supremacy, supremacy & sport excellence means violence. In
one way or the other, violence is natural and unavoidable in sports. When animosity overcomes violence,
the situation becomes disturbing & anti-social.

Arousal and Activation:

The term arousals reflect the varying degrees of readiness to perform
physically, intellectually, or perceptually. Activation is a short term change of energy mobilization, and
implies raising of energy above an individual’s arousal, baseline, for a brief period. Arousal and
activation are the bodily states and feelings that indicate the degree to which an athlete is physically and
emotionally ready to perform.

Anxiety:
Anxiety means an unexpected & uncomfortable state of mind; emotional reactivity; excitement;
nervousness; & unreality. Anxiety is a central component of any competitive situation & competitive
success cannot take place without a certain amount of anxiety. Nor does it lead to athletic success either
too high or too low anxiety. Appropriate fear results in good results. Sports people would struggle to
achieve their target if they did not learn to deal with challenging competitive conditions by controlling
anxiety.
 Attention and Concentration:
Attention is the emphasis of awareness on one thing. It's the mechanism
of clearly before the mind getting the object or thought. It helps bring mental alertness & preparation and,
thus, you are alert & alive and try as effectively as possible to exercise your own mental & physical
strength. Giving high quality attention to the skill /task during sports competition is important for
effective performance.

Mental Imagery:
Athletes may mound their emotional condition and how they approach their physical
efforts through mental capacity & imagery. Such mental practice helps the athlete by thinking about &
imagining the efficiency and accuracy of the specific skill or task. Mental imaging of competitive critical
circumstances is important for improving the battle spirit in order to help an athlete organize himself
better.

Group Dynamics:
A sports team includes different individual athletes, each with a different emphasis &
interpretation, often interfering with the team's success. Better results can be achieved if every team
member incorporates his personal feelings & expertise into a complete team effort.

Sports psychology importance in physical education field:

A Sportsperson has some physical
limitations in displaying his performance. To overcome these handicaps capacity psychological approach
may help the individual to perform beyond his capacity. Physical educationists. Coaches and trainers have
realized the importance of psychological preparation of athletes, before, during and after the competition.
Hence, psychology is emerging as a new branch termed as sports Psychology to achieve better results in
sports like: 
1. Analyze the behavior of sportsman and his psychic state. 
2. Identify talent for specific sports. 
3. Create better learning situation. 
4. Stabilizing the performance for a longer period. 
5. Assessing and correcting psychological disorders. 
6. Encouraging the players to make a comeback in professional sports.

Mind a concept:
The mind is an abstract concept used to characterize thoughts, feelings, subjective states, and self-
awareness that presumably arise from the brain.

Cognitive mean in physical education:

Cognitive. The purpose of physical fitness-related cognitive activities is to build knowledge about the
effects of exercise on health, to engage in practices that develop and maintain physical fitness, and to
value physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression, and/or social interaction.

 Cognition refers to a range of mental processes relating to the acquisition, storage, manipulation, and
retrieval of information.
 It underpins many daily activities, in health and disease, across the age span.
 Cognition can be separated into multiple distinct functions, dependent on particular brain circuits and
neuromodulators.
 Computerized cognitive testing has been developed and validated as tapping into particular brain regions
with many advantages over older ‘pen/paper’ methods.
 The ability to test, measure and monitor cognitive performance across the lifespan opens up the chance
for patients to be identified earlier, access treatments faster, and stay healthy for longer, improving quality
of life and reducing cost

Cognitive processes:
Cognitive processes may include attention, perception, reasoning, emoting, learning, synthesizing,
rearrangement and manipulation of stored information, memory storage, retrieval, and metacognition.

Affection:
Affection or fondness is a "disposition or state of mind or body" that is often associated with a
feeling or type of love. It has given rise to a number of branches of philosophy and psychology
concerning emotion, disease, influence, and state of being.

Conation in psychology:
The proactive (as opposed to habitual) part of motivation that connects
knowledge, affect, drives, desires, and instincts to behavior. Along with affect and cognition, conation is
one of the three traditionally identified components of mind.

Conative thinking:
A person with high conative ability has the ability to think about his or her current
interpretation, predict the outcome of that interpretation, and change course, if necessary. Cultivating a
growth mindset. Conative skills help people develop a growth mindset, rather than its opposite

Conative process:
An Overview of the Conative Domain

Conation is defined as the mental process that activates and/or directs behavior and action. Various terms
used to represent some aspect of conation include intrinsic motivation, goal- orientation, volition, will,
self-direction, and self-regulation.

Difference between cognitive and conative:

The cognitive construct contains declarative and procedural
knowledge. The distinction between these two is that the first refers to the way we link concepts together
and the second to our abilities to apply this knowledge. The conative construct includes impulse, desire,
and purposive striving.
 Conative types:
Kolbe identified four conative styles:
 “Quick starters” swing into action, using trial and error.
 “Fact finders” need information and research.
 “Follow through-ers” use methodical systems.
 “Implementers” figure things out by building models or using tools.

Example of conative:
Denoting a word or structure that expresses attempted action as opposed to action
itself, for example at in he was kicking at the bicycle. 'Although they do not explicitly speak of an
ingressive imperfect, they do mention the conative imperfect. '

3 levels of the mind:

Sigmund Freud divided human consciousness into three levels of awareness:
The conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.

The conscious mind:

The conscious mind involves all of the things that you are currently aware of and
thinking about. It is somewhat akin to short-term memory and is limited in terms of capacity. Your
awareness of yourself and the world around you are part of your consciousness.

Example of conscious mind:

'Freud described the conscious mind as consisting of all the mental
processes of which we are aware, and this is seen as the tip of the iceberg. For example, you may become
aware of feeling thirsty so you decide to get a drink

4 parts of the conscious mind:

According to C.G. Jung consciousness is comprised of four aspects -
thinking, feeling, sensing and intuiting. It is almost impossible to separate one aspect from another for
they are inextricably joined in our body-mind. MARI accesses all four functions of consciousness.