Introduction to Sports

Psychology
Afework A. (Assi. Prof )
 SPORT PSYCHOLOGY BASICS
 What is sport psychology?
 What sport psychologists do?
 How old is the profession?
 What are the key events in the history of
sport psychology?
 What career options are available?
 ORIGINS OF SPORT PSYCHOLOGY
 Psychology has a Greek derivation
• Psyche means “mind or spirit”
• Logos means “sayings or speaking's of”
• Literally means “speaking's of the mind”
 Definitions of Psychology
• William James (1890): “The science of mental life”
• Current Definition: “The study of behavior”
 Scope of Discipline
• from animals to humans
• from nerve cells to attitudes and personality
 4 GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY

 To describe what people do

 To explain why people think, feel

and act the way they do

 To predict what, when and how

they will do it
 To change the parts of human

behavior that cause us pain

 This is how the sports psychologist applied
the goals of psychology to help Scott.
 1.Observe and describe behavior
Measured Scotts heart rate in and out of
big game situations.
 2. He explained that in game
situations Scott has increased heart
rate and nervousness and has too
much anxiety to do his best.
 3.Then, the psychologist predicted
that if Scott could control his anxiety
he could kick better during games
 4. The psychologist helped Scott to

block out the crowd and use positive

thinking to reduce his anxiety during
the game so he can kick more field 
goals!
 Sport psychology is an interdisciplinary
science that draws on knowledge from
many related fields including biomechanics,
physiology, kinesiology and psychology.
It involves the study of how psychological
factors affect performance and how
participation in sport and exercise affect
psychological and physical factors.
 Sport psychologists teach cognitive and
behavioral strategies to athletes in order
to improve their experience and
performance in sports. In addition to
instruction and training of psychological
skills for performance improvement,
applied sport psychology may include
work with athletes, coaches, and parents
regarding injury, rehabilitation,
communication, team building, and
career transitions.
ACADEMIC ORIGINS OF SPORT
PSYCHOLOGY
Physical Sciences Biological Sciences Social Sciences

Psychology Sport Sociology

Biomechanics Exercise
Cultural Anthropology
Physiology

Sports Psychology
Social Psychology of Sport
Motor Learning
Motor Development
Motor Control
 We often hear that the game is 90%
mental or more
 The reality is that the mental game of
sports affects every athlete, no matter
what their strengths or weaknesses may
be.
 The field of sports psychology is an
interesting and ever evolving area in
the world of sports. Athletes and
teams regularly consult with
psychologists on how to help players
in all sports perform better.
Success
 GOALS FOR
SPORT PSYCHOLOGISTS
 Observe the best coaches and teachers, record
the psychological principles they use and
convey these principles to new teachers and
coaches.
 Adapt the information gained in the
psychological lab to sport.
 Use the scientific method and the experimental
lab to discover principles which will aid in
answering specific problems of teachers and
coaches.
 Definitions
 Psychology: The study of human and
animal behavior
 Sports psychology: It is the principles of
psychology used in a sport setting
 Through sport psychology, an athlete can
gain the “mental edge” to reach their
goals, recover from injury, or gain
confidence.
 Sport psychology is the bridge that links
the mental and physical aspects of
training.
 Definitions
 Mental imagery: Clear pictures in
your mind of your performance
using all the senses (sight,
sound, taste, smell and touch) to
successfully imagine successful
performances
 Motivation: the drive or action

towards a goal
 Goal of Sports Psychologists or
Sports Psychology Coaches
 Teach athletes techniques that are
commonly used in sport psychology such
as mental imagery, relaxation, goal
setting, building confidence, learning to
focus, create a positive self-talk and
regulating energy levels and becoming
more optimistic.
 Through learning and practicing these
techniques, an athlete or person has the
ability to reach their potential, achieve
peak performance or what is called “flow”.
Positive Quotes
 History of Sports Psychology
 The first sports psychologist has
said to be Norman Triplett a
North American man from
Indiana, born in 1898. Triplett’s
first finding as a sport
psychologist was that cyclists
cycle faster in pairs or a group,
rather than riding solo.
 History of Sports Psychology
 Carl Diem, a German who lived in
Berlin, founded the world’s first
sports psychology laboratory in 1920.
 In 1925, Cloman Griffith opened the

first sports psychology lab in North

America. He began his research in
factors that affect sport performance
in 1918, and in 1923, offered the first
ever sports psychology course.
 History of Sports Psychology
 Today, sport and exercise psychologists
have begun to research and provide
information in the ways that
psychological well-being and vigorous
physical activity are related.
 Just recently have sport psychologists
begun to be recognized for the valuable
contributions they make in assisting
athletes and their coaches in improving
performance during competitive
situations.
 Positive Quote

Act as if it were impossible to fail.

 Understanding sport and
exercise psychology
 Sport psychology is a science in
which the principles of psychology
are applied in a sport and exercise
setting. Sport and exercise
psychology is the scientific study of
people and their behaviors in sport
and exercise contexts and the
practical application of that
knowledge (Gill &Williams, 2008).
 Sport and exercise psychologists identify
principles and guidelines that professionals
can use to help adults and children
participate in and benefit from sport and
exercise activities. Hence, most people
study sport and exercise psychology with
two objectives in mind:
 To understand how psychological factors
affect anindividual’s physical performance
and
 To understand how participation in
sport and exercise affects a person’s
psychological development, health, and
well-being.
 Specializing in sport
psychology
 The clinical/ Counseling Sport
Psychologist: is a person trained in
clinical or counseling psychology and may
be a licensed psychologist:
 The Educational Sport Psychologist: their

academic training through departments

of physical education considers
themselves to be educational sport
psychologists
The Research Sport Psychologist
UNDERSTANDING PARTICIPANTS
 Personality & Sport
 Many theorists have attempted to define
personality, and they agree on one
aspect: uniqueness. In essence,
personality refers to the characteristics or
blend of characteristics that make a
person unique. One of the best ways to
understand personality is through its
structure. Personality is the sum of the
characteristics that make a person
unique.
 THEORIES OF PERSONALITY
 Psychodynamic

 Trait

 Situation

 Interactional

 Phenomenological approach
 Psychodynamic
 Popularized by Sigmund Freud and neo-
Freudians such as Carl Jung and Erik Erikson,
the psychodynamic approach to personality
is characterized by two themes.
 First, it places emphasis on unconscious
determinants of behavior, such as what Freud
called the id, or instinctive drives, and how
these conflict with the more conscious aspects
of personality, such as the superego (one’s
moral conscience) or the ego (the conscious
personality). Second, this approach focuses on
understanding the person as a whole rather
 Trait
 The trait approach assumes that the
fundamental units of personality—its traits
—are relatively stable. That is, personality
traits are enduring and consistent across a
variety of situations. Taking the trait
approach, psychologists consider that the
causes of behavior generally reside in the
person and that the role of situational or
environmental factors is minimal. Traits
are considered to predispose a person to
act a certain way regardless of the
situation or circumstances.
 Situation
 The situation approach argues
that behavior is determined
largely by the situation or
environment. It draws from
social learning theory (Bandura,
1977), which explains behavior
in terms of observational
learning (modeling) and social
reinforcement (feedback).
 Phenomenological approach
 Like the interactional view, the
phenomenological approach contends
that behavior is best determined by
accounting for both situations and
personal characteristics. However, instead
of focusing on fixed traits or dispositions
as the primary determinants of behavior,
the psychologist examines the person’s
understanding and interpretation of
herself and her environment
 MOTIVATION
 Motivation can be defined simply as
the direction and intensity of one’s
effort (Sage, 1977). Sport and
exercise psychologists can view
motivation from several specific
vantage points, including
achievement motivation, motivation
in the form of competitive stress, and
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Approaches to Motivation
 The trait-centered orientation to
motivation
 The situation-centered orientation

The interactional orientation
The trait-centered orientation
to motivation
 The trait-centered view (also called the
participant-centered view) contends that
motivated behavior is primarily a function
of individual characteristics. That is, the
personality, needs, and goals of a
student, athlete, or exerciser are the
primary determinants of motivated
behavior. Thus, coaches often describe an
athlete as a “real winner,” implying that
this individual has a personal makeup
that allows him to excel in sport.
 The situation-centered
orientation
 In direct contrast to the trait-centered
view, the situation-centered view
contends that motivation level is
determined primarily by situation.
 Probably you would agree that situation
influences motivation, but can you also
recall situations in which you remained
motivated despite a negative
environment
 The interactional orientation
 The view of motivation most widely
endorsed by sport and exercise
psychologists today is the
participant-by-situation interactional
view. Interactionists contend that
motivation results neither solely
from participant factors (e.g.
personality, needs, interests, and
goals) nor solely from situational
factors (eg. a coach’s or teacher’s style
or the win–loss record of a team).
 Building Motivation
 Consider Both Situations and Traits in
Motivating People
 Understand People’s Multiple Motives

for Involvement
 Change the Environment to
Enhance Motivation
 Influence Motivation

 Use Behavior Modification to Change

Participants
 Developing Achievement
Motivation and Competitiveness
1. Autonomous competence stage. In this
stage, which is thought to occur before
the age of 4 years, children focus on
mastering their environment and on self-
testing.
2. Social comparison stage. In the social
comparison stage, which begins at about
the age of 5 years, a child focuses on
directly comparing his performance with
that of others.
 3. Integrated stage. The integrated stage
involves both social comparison and
autonomous achievement strategies. The
person who fully masters this integration
knows when it is appropriate to compete
and compare herself with others and
when it is appropriate to adopt self-
referenced standards. This stage, which
integrates components from the previous
two stages, is the most desirable. There is
no typical age for entering this stage.
 Arousal, Stress and Anxiety
 Although many people use the terms
arousal, stress, and anxiety
interchangeably, sport and exercise
psychologists find it important to
distinguish among them.
Psychologists use precise definitions
for the phenomena they study in
order to have a common language,
reduce confusion, and diminish the
need for long explanations.
 Arousal
 Arousal is a blend of physiological and
psychological activity in a person, and it refers to
the intensity dimensions of motivation at a
particular moment. The intensity of arousal falls
along a continuum ranging from not at all
aroused (i.e., comatose) to completely aroused
(i.e., frenzied; (Gould, Greenleaf, & Krane,
2002). Highly aroused individuals are mentally
and physically activated; they have increased
heart rates, respiration, and sweating. Arousal is
not automatically associated with either pleasant
or unpleasant events.
 Anxiety
 In sport settings, anxiety refers to “an
unpleasant psychological state in reaction to
perceived stress concerning the performance of
a task under pressure” (Cheng, Hardy, &
Markland, 2009). Anxiety has a thought
component (e.g. worry and apprehension) called
cognitive anxiety. It also has a component
called somatic anxiety, which is the degree of
physical activation perceived. In addition to the
distinction between cognitive and somatic
anxiety, it is important to distinguish between
state and trait anxiety.

Stress
Stress is defined as “a substantial imbalance
between demand (physical and/or
psychological) and response capability, under
conditions where failure to meet that demand
has important consequences” (McGrath, 1970).
It is a process or a sequence of events that will
lead to a particular end. According to a simple
model that McGrath proposed, stress consists of
four interrelated stages, which are:
environmental demand, perception of demand,
stress response, and behavioral consequences