Sports Psychology

Personality = the sum total of an invididuals characteristics

Trait: innate, stable, enduring characteristics that are consistant over a variety of situations

Eysenck; Extroversion - Outgoing/Lively | Introversion - Quiet/Unsociable | Stable - Calm/Peaceful | Unstable - Moody/Anxious

Cattell's 16PF; eg reserved - outgoing / relaxed - tense

Girdano; Type A - Competitive, Desire to Success | Type B - Unambitious, Uncompetitive

SLT: Behaviour is determined by the environment. We observe and copy behaviour of significant others.

Interactionist: Behaviour is determined by a mix of a persons traits and the situation.

B = f(P) (Trait) | B = f(E) (SLT) | B = f(PxE) (Interactionist)

An attitude is a pre-disposition/belief towards something.

Affective = Emotions   Behavioural = How You Act    Cognitive = Knowledge/Belief

Eg, I like jogging // I jog 5 times a week // I know jogging will help me stay fit

If all 3 are congruent the attitude is strong.

Changing Attitudes:  Cognitive Dissonance - Changing one componant to create disharmony then an attitude will change. usually the behavioural element

Persuasive Communication -

The Persuader - needs to be significant

The Message - needs to be positive

The Situation - Easier if other persuaders are present

The Recipient - Needs to want to change their attitude

How?? -> 1) Observations  2) Interviews  3) Psychometric Testing

Problems

- Lack of Proof that E & P are linked to sport

- Lack of Evidence about ideal sports personality

- Subjective as it is interpretations and is influenced by opinions

- Results are often Invalid

- Performers may change behaviour to fit a certain profile

- Self Report Questionairres are not often truthful

- Danger of stereotyping a person/performer

Attribution - reasons given by a performer to explain success or failure

Weinars Model - Internal(you) / Extenal(env.) | Stable(cant change) / Unstable(change)

This wants to be attributed to Internal, Unstable reasons like 

Attributional Retraining - changing the perception of causes of failure

Mastery Orientation - the strong desire to succed. Failure is a stepping stone to success

Learned Helplesness - the belief that failure is inevitable