Lesson 1

Ferris Bueller
Ben stein in ferris bueller- social loafing the kids didnt care
I dont have to because someone else will
Reduce effort as group gets larger
Kin 247 general purpose
Human behavior from physical activity perspective
Physical activity is the behavior of interest
Exercise is a behavior- topics can be applied to all behaviors
Sport and exercise psychology
People and their behavior in sport and exercise
Two objectives
1. How psychological factors affect an individuals performance
2. How participation in sport/exercise affects developemt health and well being
Physical affects psych self affects physical self
What do Sports psychs do
1. Educational- basic idea
a. Consults with athletes to develop psychological skills that enhance
performance
i. Batter in a slump goes to a sport psych for help
2. Academic
a. Teach in kin and psych- the instructor
3. Research
a. Contribute to and extend body of knowledge kin and psych
b. Understand, explain, predict, sport and exercise behavior
i. Examine how personal factors affect participation in sport or exercise
while assessing influence of physical activity on mental health
Research methods in sport psychology
How do humans acquire knowledge?
1. Common sense- social philosophy
a. Doesnt need to be taught to you
b. How to punish infractions in sport
i. a player misbehaving in practice
1. punish by single him out, make him run laps
c. how to get pumped up for games
i. big speeches, jump around, fun music
2. Practical experience ( social empiricism)
a. Knowledge from experiences- generalities
Ex Californians- tan surfers, long hairs, movie stars, stoners
New Yorkers- self-centered, rude, mean, loud, obnoxious, fast paced lives
Practical experiences can be flawed
See/experience, judgement, settle on preconceived notions
b. Boxing, golf, archery, ping pong- most intelligent?
i. Skiing, sprinting, tennis, bowling- most attractive?
3. Scientific knowledge (social analysis)
a. Most accurate

b. Systematic, controlled, empirical, investigations about relationships among

phenomena peer review
c. Experiment
d. Scientific method- designed to challenge accuracy of myths
Sport and exercise: psychology as a science
Goal of science- to explain, understand and predict behavior through systematic
theory building
Theory- general rule or principle about the relationships among variable that
describe, explain, and predict phenomena about behavior
Scientific method- ex what is the relationship between physical activity and anxiety?
Answer: physical activity makes people less anxious
Variables of interest: physical activity and anxiety
Observed relationship: higher levels of activity are associated with less anxiety
Inverse relationship
Hypothesis
The scientific method is
Systematic- does the relationship hold under all conditions?
Controlled- potential external influences are taken into account and controlled
so as not to influence the key relationship activity-anxiety
Empirical- relationships are based on observation; therefore, there must be
objective evidence to support the relationship being tested
Critical- the method is open to rigorous evaluation by the researcher and other
scientists; ensures reliability of conclusions
How would we test our theory using the scientific method?
Variety of settings
Does it work other uncontrolled conditions besides controlled lab
Different indiviudals- children, college students, race, ethnicity, demographic
Different measures
Why?- to determine the relationship is reliable or not (does it actually exist?)
Construct- a concept defined for a specific scientific purpose
Cannot see constructs, only inferred through behavior- how do you know when someone
is anxious?
Operational definitions- defining constructs in observable and measurable terms
Both are critical to the scientific method- anxiety- negative emotional state in whichi
feelings of worry, apprehension, tension are associated with activation or arousal of the body
Anxiety cannot be seen but it can be measured with self-surveys or blood samples
Research settings- Studies and experiments
-help build, support, and refute theory
Studies- often involve observation of relationships in naturalistic settings
Example: study for physically activity and anxiety- meausure anxiety levels
and activity levels. If you find they are correlated have you answered the
question? No you have not established causality.
Studies only allow us to make conclusions about relationships and
associations amongst variables
Experiments- involves the manipulation of variables as well as observing them

Researchers intervene and try to influence variables of interst how changes in one
variable causes change in another
Uses a control group
Experiment for anxiety and activity?
Assign subjects to exercise group or resting control group
Assess anxiety prior to and after period. Then you can say it is causal
Summary of scientific method
Highly reliable
Systematic and controlled
Objective and unbiased
Criticisms- reductionistic- experiments are isolated to smaller parts- no big picture
Lack of external validity (generalizability), conservative (slow to evolve)
However without the scientific development of knowledge, it is impossible to effectively use
sport and exercise psychology in applied settings
Integrating professional experience and scientific knowledge enhances application and
performance
Lesson 2
Describing your personality
Where does it come from- born with it or environment?
Sum total of an individuals characteristics which make him or her unique
Each person is like others, like some others, and like no others
Like all others- food water affiliation
Like some others- you have inherited certain physical and psychological characteristics
Like no others- sum total makes you unique
What makes up personality? - Diagram
Base- psychological core- internal and constant
Basis of personality
Your basic values- who you really are
Values- family religion sport
Middle- typical responses
How we adjust and respond to the world around us
Reflect your core values
Top- role related behavior- external and dynamic
Can change from situation to situation- nrequire you to be different roles
Behavior changes accordingly
A very changeable aspect of personality
Meet demands of that situation
Social environment influence personality
Will vary in degree from component to component
Characteristics of personality
Relatively stable- behavior may change
Traits/dispositions
Likely to respond the same way among situations

From internal and constant at the base to being influenced by the social
environment and dynamic at the apex
Why study personality?
The stable aspect (core values) of personality is important for effective functioning in
society
The dynamic aspect (role-related) is important for learning and adaptation
Assessing and understanding personality
Main theories- psychodynamic - Freud
Focus is on internal unconscious processes that are constantly in conflict with one
another
Study of the interrelationship of various parts of the mind, personality or psyche as they
relate to the mental emotional motivational forces at the unconscious level
Views the individual as a whole rather than on individual characteristics
Weakness- little support for its utility in sport and physical activity, hard to test, ignores
influence of the social environment
Trait theory
Behavior is determined by relatively stable traits which are fundamental units of
personality
Traits predispose to act in a certain way, regardless of the situation
Weaknesses- approach that behavior is consistant and generalizable- not always so in
sport, ignores social environment
Might be able to asses traits but ignores social environment and situations
Situational theories
Behavior is determined largely by the situation or environment
Important effects of modeling and social reinforcement
Watching what other people do, we can acquire new ideas and behavior
Bobo doll experiment- bandura
Studied influence of modeling and social influence on behavior
Children watched adults beat up a doll and they did exactly as they adults did
Reran experiment watching on tv and results were the same
Weakness- ignores genetics, stable core, station cannot influence everyones behavior
at least not in the same way
Interactional approach
Behavior is determined by persona and situational factors, as well as interaction
Behavior = f (person, environment)
Most useful approach for understanding sport and exercise behavior
Sport personality research
Why measure personality in sport? Certain traits be beneficial for certain atheltes.
Aggression good for wrestling, not ballet
Measuring personality
Clinical approaches
Interviews, projective tests
Inkblots and interp of drawing
Vary from assessor to assessor
Behavioral measures
Intensive observation and detailed coding behaviors

Time consuming requires extensive training- CBAS coaching behavior assessment

system
Subjective measures structured responses measuring overall personality or selected
aspects of personality
Sport confidence inventory- trait- how athletes feel in competition. State- how they feel
prior to event
General vs sport specific measures of personality
General measures indicate how you are likely to respond across a variety of situations
Sport- how you will respond in the context of sport
Allows better understanding and prediction of sport behavior
Sport competition anxiety test
Who will respond to competitive sport situation with high degree of state anxiety?
High score more likely to have anxiety
Trait anxious- across many situations
State anxious- at any one moment
High trait leads to high state anxiety
Traits of success and unsuccessful athletes
Positive mental health and iceberg profile
Profile of mood states (POMS)
Assessment on tension, vigor, depression, fatigue, confusion, anger
Provides a profile that represents positive mental health
Profile of mood states (POMS)
William Morgan: profiles reflecting positive mental health discriminated between
successful and unsuccessful athletes. Mental health of athletes should differ from others
Athletes are below norm is depression anger tension, confusion, fatigue. Above norm in
vigor to population
Problems of iceberg profile
Original poms developed for mental health patients. Not developed for sports
Only one positive mood state
Sport specific- used on only individual sport athletes
Accounts for little variance for prediction of success
Athletes with dissimilar profile maybe as successful (too general)
Perhaps success in sport enhances positive mental health profile. not other way around
What should be in effective selection model
Physiological capacity- how fast can run how far can throw jump highest
Past performance data- stats
Psychological profile- sport specific
Performance during practice
Possible uses of POMS
Method of self-reflection
Early problem indication- might be indicative of some things burnout
When to return to play
Monitoring emotional response to injury
Problems with sport personality research
Conceptual
Lack of basic underlying theory

Many studies take shotgun approach

Methodological
Inappropriate use of measures
Over-generalization
Interpretive
Most studies are correlational
Unable to infer cause and effect
Can still use personality info to better understand team members?
Yes but you must consider traits and situations be an informed consumer, good
communicator, observer and knowledgeable about mental strategies. Nature and nurture
contribute to personal development
Summary
Personality info is useful if it employed within theoretical and interactional framework consider
both person and situation
Impossible to ignore strong influence the environments has in sports
Lesson 3
Defining and Understanding Motivation
Motivation- the direction and intensity if ones effort
Direction- approach or avoid competitive settings
Intensity- effort expended
Intentionally broad- many additional factors
Common definitional approaches
Where does motivation come from?
Trait- highly motivated person
External influence- can be distracted need something to motivate me
Consequential-wasnt motivated enough or wanted it too much
Consider all three when looking at motivation
Interactional approach
Behavior= f (person, environment)
Person- needs, inters, goals, personality
Environment- leader-coach style, facitlity features, win/loss record
Together they = motivated behavior
Guidelines to build motivation
Guideline 1; both situations and traits motivate people
Not always one or the other (interaction)
Avoid fundamental attribution error
Attribute motivation to personal characteristics
Situation is easier to change than the person
Personality is constant- motivation levels change
Guideline 2: people have multiple motive for involvement
Youth: develop, skills, belongingness, challenge
Adults: health, body image, social
Guideline 3: know how to change the environment to enhance motivation
Competitive or recreational environment
Provide for multiple motives
Adjust to individuals within the group

Cant treat everyone the sameGuideline 4: Leaders (coaches) influence motivation

Directly - feedback interaction
Indirectly- mood personality. Hard to assess coaches dont know theyre doing it
Guideline 5- use behavior modification to change undesirable participant motives
Structure environment to reinforce desirable motives
Top 10 team plays bad team. Change starters to keep motivation
Types of motivation
Achievement tendency- seek out challenges or avoid evaluation and challenges
Achievement motivation- disposition to strive for task success persist in the face of failure and
experience pride in ones accomplishments
High- driven to accomplish tasks, rival and surpass others
Historically viewed as a personality factor
Atkinsons model of achievement motivation b=f(p,e)
2 personality factors
Ms- Motive to approach success
Degree to which you experience pride or satisfaction your accomplishments
Maf- motive to avoid failure
Degree to which you experience shame or humiliation as a consequence of failure
Ms and Maf are personality factors
(Person factors) = Ms - Maf B= f ({Ms - Maf},E)
Ex. Lisa- ms=9 mf=2 Bart ms=5 maf=4
Lisa- 9-2=7 high achiever Bart 5-4=1 low achiever
High achievers- high in ms, low in maf
Seek out challenging situatuoins, strive hard for success
Success is important, but these individuals do not worry about failure. They keep trying
Low achievers- Low in Ms high in Maf
Worry about failure
Prefer to avoid achievement situations to avoid anxiety and failure
Atkinsons model: Situational factor
Primary situational factor in this model is task difficulty- has 2 companants
Probability of success (Ps) the likelihood
Incentive value of success (Is) how much its worth, how important is winning
Ps and Is for tom in tennis vs Roger Federer
Ps= .05 so Is=.95
Tom vs Joe
Ps= .5 so Is=.5
Tom vs kid
Ps= .9 so Is=.1 not a lot to gain
Determining the situational component
Overall sit component= (Ps*Is)
Situation to have greatest impact on achievement motivation-maximum uncertainty 50-50
Components of task difficulty
Ps and Is are inverse, range from 0-1, Is=(1-Ps)
The product of the Is and Ps is key determinant of achievement behavior
The higher the product, the stronger overall tendency to engage in achievement behavior

Person factor is relatively stable

Resultant achievement tendancy
B= f ({Ms-Maf}), {Ps*Is })
Achievement tendancy = (ms-maf)*(ps*is)
If environmental compaent is as high as possible, will we all engage in equal levels of
achievement behavior? No= person facor differs for everyone we are all different
Sport specific equivalent of Ms and Maf
Ms- how competitive you are
Maf= how compeptitive trait anxiety
Ms>maf and ps= .5 will seek out competition, perform well in evaluative settings, foucs on
pride of success
Maf> Ms and ps =.5 avoid competition, perform poorly, focus on shame and failure, choose
easy tasks
Theories of motivation: attribution theory
What are the casual atrributions?
the reason why events occur
Answer why questions
Attribution theory
Nave analysis of action
We are continually engaged in the attribution theory
Important to understand what it is
Attribution Serena Williams
Unsportsmanlike conduct and she lost the match. She was fined a lot
Attribution process- what shes done(attribution) react to it (emotions) expect in the
future?
Several types of attributions to explain outcomes- four classic attribution
Ability, luck, task difficulty, effort, luck
Bartman
Ability, task difficulty, effort, luck
Not the only explanations for why outcomes occur
Therefore, the causal attributions are basically unimportant in and of themselves
Causal dimensions are important
The aspects or properties that are common across all atrributions
Help us make sense of outcomes
Motivate us to behave in certain ways in the future
Help us to identify how to change things
Locus of Control- cause internal or external
Stability- cause likely to change or stay same
Control- is the cause under the control or not under the control of the individual or people
Luck- not in control and unstable
Effort is dependent of person unstable because effort varies
Task difficulty- various among situations but stable because already set
Ability- internal but unstable because you can improve
Aptitude is internal and stable god given talent. Can practice bball all day but will never be drose
The innate ability
Consequences of attributions

Depending on the type of attribution responses will either be

Affective (emotional) and expectations for future
1.Event 2. outcome, post analysis (we won. Why?)3. Attribution (effort) affect
and expectations (feel proud and happy. New confidence for next year) motivation for
future participation (motivated to perform at best in future game) repeat (the next
event) cyclical each leads to and affects next step. We all engage in the process everyday
Attributional search
When is attributional search intensified?
Unexpected outcomes
Failure
Especially unexpected failure
Relevance example
Attributions made by coaches carry subtle but powerful messages
You have to work are and practice more and youll be fine
What is the coach attributing performance to? - Effort positive and transient
What does this suggest for future behavior? Performance can be improved with effort and
practice and athletes have control over the cause of the outcome and success is attainable
Youll never make it as a pitcher
Attributed to ability and aptitude
Suggests athlete has no control over the cause of the outcome and this reduces motivation
and effort (most of the time) some people try to prove you wrong
Attributions and motivations
Attribution made about you performance can reduce motivation if maladaptive
Following success got lucky
External and unstable for success
Following failure- Im useless
Internal and stable for failure leads to
Learned helplessness
Belief in the fact that no matter what the outcome you have no control
From motivational perspective very maladaptive cannot change behavior
Attribution theory is at the heart of most behavior change
Important to monitor and change maladaptive attributions
Evaluating your own attributions can create a sense of control over your behavior