Sport Psychology

A young footballer frequently dissents at referees. Explain how the trait, social-learning and interactionist approaches would each account for this behaviour.

1. 01Trait

   The trait approach would say the player has an innate, stable disposition (e.g. high neuroticism or a Type A personality) that makes them react this way consistently.

2. 02Social learning

   The social-learning approach would say the player has observed and imitated high-status models (professionals, team-mates) dissenting, and has been reinforced (not punished) for it.

3. 03Interactionist

   The interactionist approach would say the behaviour arises from the interaction of the player's disposition with the situation - a competitive, high-pressure match triggers the trait, following B = f(P, E).

4. 04Best explanation

   The interactionist account is preferred because it explains why the dissent appears in some situations but not others.

Result: Trait (innate disposition), social learning (imitated and reinforced) and interactionist (disposition triggered by the situation) each explain the dissent; the interactionist view best fits the situational pattern.

A gymnast believes conditioning work is pointless and boring and skips it. Explain how a coach could use cognitive dissonance to change this attitude.

1. 01Identify the components

   Cognitive: 'conditioning is pointless'; affective: 'it is boring'; behavioural: 'I skip it' - all three are negative and consistent.

2. 02Introduce conflicting information

   The coach challenges the cognitive component by showing evidence that conditioning improves the gymnast's specific skills, and challenges the affective component by making the sessions varied, social and enjoyable.

3. 03Create dissonance

   The new positive experiences and information conflict with the existing negative attitude, creating an uncomfortable mismatch (dissonance).

4. 04Resolve it

   To remove the discomfort, the gymnast adjusts their attitude towards a more positive one and begins to attend.

Result: By introducing evidence and enjoyable sessions that conflict with the negative beliefs and feelings, the coach creates dissonance the gymnast resolves by adopting a more positive attitude.

A coach must prepare a powerlifter for a maximal deadlift and a snooker player for a frame-deciding shot. Use the inverted-U hypothesis to advise on the arousal each needs.

1. 01Classify the skills

   The deadlift is a gross, simple, well-learned power skill; the snooker shot is a fine, complex skill requiring precise control.

2. 02Powerlifter's optimum

   Gross power skills have a high optimal arousal, so the coach should 'psych up' the lifter to a high level of arousal to maximise force.

3. 03Snooker player's optimum

   Fine, precise skills have a low optimal arousal, so the coach should keep the snooker player calm and controlled - high arousal would cause tremor and error.

4. 04General principle

   The optimal arousal is higher for gross/simple skills and experts, and lower for fine/complex skills and beginners.

Result: The powerlifter needs high arousal (a gross power skill), the snooker player low arousal (a fine, precise skill) - the optimal level depends on the skill type.

Before a cup final a normally relaxed footballer reports a racing heart and sweating palms but no negative thoughts about the game. Classify this anxiety and suggest how it should be measured and managed.

1. 01Type

   The player is 'normally relaxed', so this is state anxiety (temporary, situational) rather than trait anxiety.

2. 02Dimension

   The symptoms are a racing heart and sweating (bodily) with no negative thoughts, so it is somatic rather than cognitive anxiety.

3. 03Measurement

   A physiological measure (heart rate) would capture the somatic response objectively; a questionnaire could confirm the low cognitive component.

4. 04Management

   Because it is somatic, a somatic technique such as breathing control or progressive muscular relaxation is appropriate.

Result: This is somatic state anxiety; it can be measured physiologically and managed with a somatic relaxation technique such as breathing control.

A basketball player, repeatedly blocked and fouled by an opponent, elbows them off the ball. Explain the incident using two theories and suggest strategies to prevent a recurrence.

1. 01Frustration-aggression

   Being repeatedly blocked frustrated the player (a blocked goal), and this frustration led to the aggressive elbow.

2. 02Aggressive-cue / social learning

   The aggressive, fouling opponent and perhaps a hostile crowd acted as aggressive cues; the player may also have learned that retaliation is rewarded by imitating models.

3. 03Strategies

   The coach can reinforce assertive, non-aggressive responses, teach stress-management (self-talk, breathing) to control the frustration, set process goals to refocus attention, and, if needed, substitute the player to remove them from the cues.

Result: Frustration from being blocked, combined with aggressive cues and learned behaviour, produced the aggression; reinforcing assertion, stress-management, process goals and removal from cues would help prevent it.

A coach is developing a nervous young gymnast and also managing an experienced champion. Using social facilitation theory, advise how each should train and compete with respect to audiences.

1. 01Explain the mechanism

   An audience raises arousal and makes the dominant response more likely, and evaluation apprehension strengthens this effect.

2. 02The young gymnast

   As a beginner the dominant response is often an error, so an evaluative audience causes inhibition; the coach should let them learn and be assessed in private until skills are well learned, then gradually introduce small audiences.

3. 03The champion

   As an expert the dominant response is the correct skill, so an audience facilitates performance; the champion can train and compete before crowds, using the raised arousal to reach their optimum.

4. 04General rule

   Grove skills before exposing beginners to evaluation; expose experts to audiences to raise arousal.

Result: Protect the beginner from evaluative audiences until their skills are grooved (to avoid inhibition), but expose the expert to crowds to facilitate performance.