lew hardy institute for the psychology of elite performance school of sport, health & exercise...
TRANSCRIPT
Lew HardyInstitute for the Psychology of Elite
PerformanceSchool of Sport, Health & Exercise Sciences,
Bangor University, Wales, UK
Some Future Directions for Sport Psychology Research
OVERVIEW
Self-indulgent selection of domains
Previous research what do we know what are the limitations?
Future researchWhat would it be interesting to
explore?
HEALTH WARNING
Contrary view of the world - “Good, the new bad ...”
Simple additive (main effect) models of the world are just wrong
The world is full of complex interactions
STRESS AND PERFORMANCE
Cue utilisation – narrowing and selectivity
Processing efficiency theory, attention control theory
Regression effects - conscious processing, degrees of freedom
Ironic effects – doing the very thing you least want to do
Motivational effects – when and in what direction?
STRESS AND PERFORMANCE II:THE HIDDEN GREMLINS
Multiple stressors, mechanisms & task demands:
Ego, physical harm, interpersonal, fatigue, financial, daily hassles
Perceptual changes, cognitive deficits, regression effects, ironic effects, motivational effects, emotion
Batting against spin, power lifting, ultra marathons, sailing dinghies
What is causal and what correlational?
MENTAL TOUGHNESS
Disposition to be robust and resilient to a wide range of stressors
Limitations of current research – poor conceptualisation, lack of theory, self-report questionnaires, interviews
Conceptualisation – mental toughness vs mental perfection
Informant or objective measures Reinforcement sensitivity theory Performance vs health?
OTHER ASPECTS OF PERSONALITY IN SPORT Shotgun approach of early research Limited research in sport – goal
orientations, competitive anxiety
Performers are people first:Big five factors – conscientiousness, openness, extraversion &
neuroticism overdone?Narcissism – training vs the big
occasionPsychopathy – single point of focusInteractions
A DARKER SIDE TO MOTIVATION
Achievement goal theory Self-determination theory Is high level performance always
underpinned by a mastery focus and self-determined regulation?
Obsessive motivation – extremely high training volume, emotional dependence on success, training when injured, serial medallists, loss of identity on retirement?
Williamson & Gogarty (2009)
A DARKER SIDE TO DEVELOPMENT
Nurturing environments – high self-esteem, confidence, highly skilled, mastery focused
Learning from failure – experimenting and making mistakes, learning what consequences are and how to deal with threat ... Punishment
Insecure attachments and striving Experiencing loss, pain, defeat,
humiliation
TRAINING Performers spend 95% of time in training Very little research
To what extent is competitive performance predicted by training behaviour?
What are the most important training behaviours for different sports?
What are the determinants of training behaviour?
How can we influence training behaviour?
GROUP DYNAMICS
Leadership – decision making and “recognition” styles
Transformational leadership and other theories – mechanisms vs “boxology”
Coaching vs instructing Effective teamwork – moving beyond
group cohesion and role variables ... How exactly do teams interact
effectively?
SOME METHODOLOGICAL OPPORTUNITIES
Cognitive neuroscience Psychophysiology Genetics
Statistical methods to identify patterns in very complex datasets
High quality participant observation studies
Institute for the Psychology of Elite Performance
School of Sport, Health & Exercise Sciences, Bangor University, Wales, UK
Thank you