Sport and Exercise Psychology

Sport and Exercise Psychology

What issues and areas in sport & exercise psychology might have a useful application for EACH of the individuals identified?

Sport and exercise psychology refers to the scientific study of people and their behaviors in the contexts of exercise and sport and the practical application of that knowledge (Weinberg & Goud, 2010). This study is intended to provide guidelines and principles which professionals can apply in helping children and adults participate and benefit from sport and exercise activities. This study is important for semi professional adult athletes, youth coaches and fitness instructors. These people study sport and exercise psychology with two objectives in mind. The first objective is to understand how psychological factors affect the physical performance of an individual. The second objective is to know the effects of participation in sport and exercise to an individual’s psychological development, well-being and health (Weinberg & Goud, 2006).

There are different areas of sports and exercise psychology: health psychology, rehabilitation psychology, exercise psychology and sports psychology. Sports psychology will be useful to a semi professional adult basketball player and a youth coach in soccer, while exercise psychology will be useful to a fitness instructor. It is important to note that the content in each of the areas is connected to the discipline of psychology. In addition, the study of relevant issues involves the application of various techniques and models from a wide range of psychological aspects such as personality, social, experimental, psychophysiology and clinical. The four areas of exercise and sports psychology are different but significantly interrelate with each other. Exercise psychology deals with athletic personality, the relationship between anxiety and performance, the effect of attention on performance, psychological predictors of athletic injury, the role of relaxation in improving sports performance, the importance of self-confidence in predicting sports performance, and the optimal balance between the level of mental practice and the amount of physical practice required to produce best performance. Jim Gavin, a professor of applied human sciences at Concordia University has been involved in health promotion for over 35 years. He points out that a fitness instructor must be able to pay attention to the experiences of the participants in order to understand the best technique that can be applied on each of them depending on their individual personalities (Gavin, 2005).

There are various important aspects of sport psychology for a coach. The first aspect relates to the relationship of the coach with his athletes. The 2009 study by the Canadian Olympic Committee indicated that a strong coach-athlete relationship was the key contributor to a medal winning performance or a personal best performance at the Beijing Olympics. Jose Mourinho, Chelsea’s football coach points out that his methodology coaching methodology involves tailoring communication to each individual (Haugstad, 2012). Another issue that the coach is supposed to understand is the behavioural patterns and individual personality of an athlete. Such knowledge about athletes enables a coach to develop constructive communication and build an effective environment for them. Jose Mourinho admits that in order to balance motivational act with 22 to 23 players twice a week, a coach must be a masterful communicator, with deep knowledge about the emotions and personal goals of every player, what drives them and what gets them going.The coach will also be in a position to help athletes understand themselves better which enables them to self-assess and monitor their performance. Another issue that a coach will be interested in is with regard to helping athletes in mental visualization, goal setting, feedback and self-talk. Jose Mourinho admits that being a psychologist is not an easy task because it requires stimulation of all players, from fragile personalities to near-divine self images. It is also continually challenging to ensure to ensure that the mood of each player is judged from game to game. He says that, “A coach must be everything: a tactician, motivator, leader, methodologist, and psychologist”.

Jerry Reynolds was coached by Ron Hoffman after his freshman year of varsity basketball (Weinberg & Goud, 2006). Jerry had been a very successful basketball player while in high school. On his full scholarship program at Southeastern, Jerry worked very hard and improved his skills that Coach Johnson decided to him into the game. Jerry became nervous as he moved to the scorer’s table. The nervousness grew more, with his heart pounding and “he could not shut off the chatter in his mind”. His performance was disastrous. After the game Jerry’s teammates and coaches encouraged him that it was just nerves and he needed to relax. However, Jerry failed to relax and a series of high anxiety and deteriorating performance followed. When Jerry visited a sport psychologist, he found that it was normal to have anxiety while transitioning from high school to college ball. During off-season, Jerry practiced psychological techniques extensively and refined them during early-season scrimmages and practices. He quickly resumed playing to his full potential and became very helpful to the team with his solid performance (Weinberg & Goud, 2006).

What are the potential cognitive (mental), affective (emotional) & behavioural  (performance) benefits that stem from the appropriate application of knowledge derived from studying sport  & exercise psychology?

Cognitive (Mental) Benefits

Physical exercise is growing in acknowledgement as a means of maintaining and enhancing good mental health. Generally, research findings show that exercise is greatly associated with improvements in health including self-esteem and mood state, though a causal connection has not been established (Raglin, 1990). Research on acute exercise shows that 20 to 40 minutes of aerobic exercise leads to improvements in mood, and state anxiety which persist for several hours. These transitory changes in mood are evident in both people with elevated or normal levels of anxiety, although they tend to be limited to aerobic forms of exercise. Research found that “aerobic exercise programs lasting at least a few months seem best for reducing reports of chronic stress”. The mechanism by which this positive effect occurs tends to be short-term disruption from distasteful thoughts and enhanced feelings of commitment or control which buffers the effect (Weinberg & Goud, 2006).

According to Raglin (1990), exercise may play a significant role in managing mild to moderate health diseases, particularly anxiety and depression. Aerobic exercise is beneficial to individuals with different anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and panic disorder. Though depressed individuals are often less physically active than non-depressed individuals, increased strength training or aerobic exercise has proved to be beneficial in significantly reducing depressive symptoms. Symptoms of anxiety and panic disorder also improve with regular exercise, and beneficial changes occur to equal meditation or relaxation. The benefits of exercise on state anxiety are attributable to factors such as increased social support, improved self-concept, heightened sense of competence and achievement or distraction from symptoms or sources of anxiety.

With regard to long-term exercise programmes, enhancements in the mental health of “normal” individuals may not be noticeable or they may be modest in magnitude. The changes for individuals with elevated depression or anxiety are more conspicuous. Research involving clinical samples found that the psychological benefits connected to exercise are relative to gains obtained from standard forms of psychotherapy. Thus in the case of healthy individuals, the major psychological benefit of exercise may be in terms of prevention, while for those suffering from mild to moderate emotional illnesses, exercise may benefit the individual by functioning as a means of treatment (Raglin, 1990).

Another benefit of physical activity and exercise is that it increases self-confidence, cognitive function and self-esteem. As with regard to athletes, it is believed that the performance in sport is 75%-90% mental. This clearly indicates that athletes who are better prepared mentally have higher chances of succeeding. A coach will be assured of the success of his team if he has helped each team member develop superior confidence, have a fearless approach, a razor focus and ability to access inner resources of strength and power. Jerry was able to benefit from sport psychology because his performance improved to his full potential.

Affective (Emotional) Benefits

There is evidence that exercise is beneficial in improving and enhancing positive psychological states. One of the highly reported befits of exercise of even mild intensities is the increase in feelings of energy. Another aspect of mental health which is increasingly gaining attention is the concept of psychological well-being. In simple terms, psychological well being refers to the predominance of positive emotions over negative emotions besides favorable thoughts, including satisfaction with life. Improved psychological well-being is brought about by the fact that exercise reduces negative emotions such as depression and anxiety and enhances positive emotions such as vigor and energy (Weinberg & Goud, 2006).

The distraction hypothesis is the most often used psychological explanation for affective changes that occur with exercise. The basic premise for this hypothesis is that improved emotional profile after exercise is attributable to the fact the act of exercising distracts the normal worries and cares which often result into negative emotions and stress. Essentially, “exercise provides a time-out from such these concerns; a chance to leave them behind for some time” (Brown, 2001). According to the endorphin hypothesis, the reason why exercise makes people feel better is that the body produces its own natural painkillers during the exercise. Exercise is a stressor to the body, and as a result, the body produces more endorphins in response, even if the exercise is of mild intensities. After the exercise, the elevated endorphins remain for some time. Since it is the same time that individuals report feeling better, with less depression and anxiety, it has become a popular claim that the endorphins produced in the course of the exercise are the result of the improved mood (Weinberg & Goud, 2006).

Behavioural (Performance) Benefits

Attention is associated with consciousness, concentration and focalization. It refers to withdrawal from some things in order to effectively deal with others. An athlete with the ability to focus on specific environmental stimuli while disregarding immaterial stimuli is in a better position to perform better than an athlete with the inability to focus appropriately. Through the use of self- hypnosis, positive suggestions, visualization and techniques for building mental toughness, an athlete can use the power of mind to take his or her performance in sport to another level. Jerry Reynolds was able to realize his full potential and reach his best performance because of the sport psychology. Mental health can also affect the performance of an athlete (Anshel, 2007).

Sport psychology can help an athlete to explore and assess the beliefs and thoughts that are creating the current experiences. Sport psychology also helps in reversing and releasing negative thoughts that may block an athlete from achieving best performance. The coach helps the athlete to be psyched-up and engage in positive self-talk that is motivational and promotes performance. Accordingly, sport psychology helps the athlete in programming effective auto-suggestions for improving optimal states. It also enables the athlete to anchor positive states for easy future access (Anshel, 2007).

How can these potential benefits be maximised? Are there any potential costs or negatives that could result from inadequate understanding or misapplication of knowledge of sport & exercise psychology for EACH of the individuals identified?

The potential benefits of exercise can be maximized through the maintenance of the exercise habit. It is contented that maintaining the habit of exercise is very difficult. However, there are major guidelines for encouraging individuals who have started exercising to maintain their exercise habit. The fitness instructor needs to address the psychological dispositions of the exerciser which may prompt dropping out, such as fear of failure, intrinsic motivation, need achievement, perfectionism, self-consciousness, depression or chronic anxiety, and even clinical concerns like eating and mood disorders. Secondly, fitness instructors should promote a feeling of need through quantitative data and initial testing which provides a sense of urgency about the need to exercise as well as the consequences of remaining sedentary. Thirdly, it is important to foster the perceptions of optimism, perceived competence and enhancement in both setting and meeting realistic goals that are exercise-related. The fourth strategy of maximizing benefits is providing instruction and both constructive and positive feedback which improves techniques and skills, thus improving performance and reducing unpleasant manifestations of intense physical exertion. Sixth, the fitness instructors should provide social support either through personal coaching or making the individual exercise with a friend. It is also essential to provide relevant resources related to appropriate exercise techniques, exercise benefits and improved nutrition.  Lastly, it is necessary to work with the exercising individual in establishing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle related to reduced stress, nutrition and other desirable habits (Anshel, 2007).

According to Raglin, exercise can cause either beneficial or detrimental effects on mental health depending on the “dosage” employed (1990). The potential negative that could result from exercise psychology is that the exercise can lead to detrimental effects in mental health. This is due to the fact that some people can become overly addicted to the physical exercise to an excessive level. Such abuse of exercise may lead to worsened physical health and disturbances in mood. With regard to athletes, excessive training can lead to increased mood disturbances. This concept is called exercise addiction or dependence. Though there are debates by psychologists and researchers on whether addiction can be positive, most of them are of the view that addictions generally seem to be undesirable and unhealthy (Anshel, 2007). It is said that addictions are a manifestation of behaviors which are beyond the control of an individual, such as the need for social isolation, low physique self-esteem or an eating disorder. For instance, the motivation for weight training or running may be driven by the need to improve body image. Though it is normal to improve one’s physical features, the huge amount of time invested in the exercise at the expense of other routine activities and social interactions may result into dysfunctional or abnormal behavior. People who allow exercise to control their lives are negatively addicted because they feel compelled to exercise at the expense of their health and life satisfaction (Anshel, 2007).

Research has found that excessive training changes the psychological state of the athlete. In essence, the athlete encounters increased depression and tension and decreased feelings of energy and vigor (Brown, 2001). Extreme training can lead to the staleness syndrome; a condition which results in deteriorating performance and behavioural disturbances such as clinical depression (Raglin, 1990). Where the athlete goes into clinical depression, the only solution to such a situation is for the athlete to stop training completely since reducing the load of training does not help at this point (Brown, 2001). Raglin (1990) contends that more systematic investigation is needed to help in understanding the programmatic aspects of exercise, that is, setting, intensity, frequency, duration and mode, on changes in mental health. Brown (2001) suggests that there should be psychological monitoring of the athletes in the course of their season to help in preventing situations of more severe psychological disturbances.

In respect of performance benefits, both scientists and coaches are of the view that excessive self-talk and thinking distract performance. The most appropriate mind-set for maximum performance is one which is free of self-conscious and analysis concerns with details of the skill.

Cognitive strategies involve the mental process aimed at improving a certain behavioural outcome. Behavioral strategies refer to any activity which favorably affects the quality of performance or a thought process (Anshel, 2007). These strategies are used in sport psychology by athletes and coaches to maximize the benefits of exercise. Cognitive strategies include: visualization, positive self-talk, psyching up and attribution training. Visualization involves thoughts which form mental manifestations of physical performance. Visualization is a common and effective technique used in improving performance by helping the athlete reduce tension and anxiety, learn new exercise routines and gain confidence. Positive self-talk involves avoidance of negative self-talk. The coach engages the athlete in positive self-talk to uplift and motivate the athlete (Anshel, 2007). This will lead to increased effort and intensity, improved concentration and greater enjoyment of the training. Another cognitive strategy is psyching-up. This involves thinking about the task ahead and developing thoughts which make one feel excited, engaged, connected, challenged. Physically, psyching-up involves engagement in tasks which require increased somatic responses such as physical readiness, respiration rate and heart rate. Mentally, a person may engage in thoughts which increase mental processes such as concentration, motivation and confidence. Examples of thoughts that promote psyching-up include “I’m ready”, “let’s do it” (Anshel, 2007).

Behavioural strategies include ways in which environmental influences may help in maximizing performance. They include proper equipment and environment, educational materials, rewards, social contacts and interactions, goal-setting and scheduling. According to Anshel (2007), human beings are creatures of routines to get them through the day. The chances of training or exercising are higher if the task is planned in advance. The more specific the plan, the higher chance it will occur. It is important to choose the time of day that an exercise or coaching session is most available and it feels best. The second behavioural strategy is goal-setting. Athletes or exercisers should be helped to set realistic expectations about the outcomes of the coaching or the fitness exercise. Anshel (2007) suggests short-term, performance-based goals which are minimally challenging as they help in lifting confidence and encouraging an individual to adhere to the program.

 References

Anshel, M. (2007). Conceptualizing Applied Exercise Psychology. The Journal of the American Board of Sport Psychology, 1(2).

Brown, P, (2001). Introduction to Exercise Science. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Haugstad, T. (2012). The Psychology of Jose Mourinho. Retrieved on August 10^th, 2013 from: http://www.haugstadfootball.net/2012/06/05/the-psychology-behind-jose-mourinho/

Gavin, J. 2005. Lifestyle Fitness Coaching. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Raglin, S, J. (June 1990). Exercise and Mental Health. Sports Medicine, Vol 9, Issue 6, pp323-329.

Paluska, A, S & Schwenk, L. T., (2000), Physical Activity and Mental Health. Sports Medicine, Vol 29, Issue 3, pp167-180. DOI. 10.2165/00007256-200029030-00003.

Weinberg, S. R., & Goud, D. (2006). Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology. Human Kinetics.

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