Cognitive Psychology: Annotated Bibliography

In other words, cognitive psychology refers to the study of human mental processes and their role in thinking, feeling and behaving (Bernstein, 2013). According to Jones (2004), the cognitive approach was developed from the basis of Wundt and Titcher’s (1927) theory of structuralism.

The connection of the mental game and the athletes for any rank of sports has been extremely underestimated. While some believe that all athletes are “all brawn and no brain,” this disregards how much mental activity is brought into any sport. It connects to the fear and separation of mental health for athletes. If an athletes is showing signs of any type of mental issue or disorders, their spot on the team has been threatened. The coaches and staff sometime cannot simply understand the importance of treatment for an athlete. Depression, anxiety, burnout and other disorders causes athletes to do poorly with their mental game, making them appear that these athletes would not be

For many years, the mental aspect of sports performance has received considerable attention in sports psychology. The cognitive processes in elite and less skilled athletes have been studied extensively, in an attempt to shed light on the variables arbitrating task execution during performances (Beilock, Carr, Machon & Starkes, 2002). This essay investigates how cognition differs in elite and less skilled athletes. Firstly, it considers elite-novice- differences in attentional focus; which suggests that where athletes direct their attention while performing differs across skills. Moreover, the essay closely examines the difference in elite and novice athletes ' ability to make effective decisions during performances (Milazzo, Farrow, Ruffault & Fournier, 2016).

Sports psychology deals with the mental and emotional aspects of physical performance. It involves describing, explaining and predicting attitudes, feelings and behaviours in an attempt to improve performance. In the film 'Coach Carter,' directed by Thomas Carter, sport psychology is used effectively to enhance the performance of a high school basketball team. However, this improved performance is not limited to the basketball court, it extends into the classroom where the students use goal setting, motivation, concentration and confidence control, ultimately to become accepted into college, avoiding a life of drugs, gangs and prison.

Starting from my freshman year in high school I have always been more intrigued by the human mind and how it operates. Thanks to the study of psychology my curiosity only flourished even more as I got older. I find the observations psychology gives about human behavior very interesting, and I have been fascinated by it for as long as I can remember. I’ve been caught in between approaching the journey of being a sports psychologist and an industrial organizational psychologist. I am passionate about sports and studying Psychology. I plan on extending my knowledge in the mixture of the two and contributing it towards my future. I want to examine the various areas of sports psychology and also learn more about the idea of improving quality performance

It has been identified that through sports psychology one can improve their physical ability and performance. Sports psychology is the study of how the mind, mental states and behaviour effect sporting performance. There are several sport psychology techniques, which have helped me become a better volleyball player. These techniques include planning for performance, controlling arousal levels, mental rehearsal and concentration.

Sports—which involve emotion, competition, cooperation, achievement, and play—provide a rich area for psychological study. People involved in sports attempt to master very difficult skills, often subjecting themselves to intense physical stress as well as social pressure. research has expanded into numerous areas such as imagery training, hypnosis, relaxation training, motivation, socialization, conflict and competition, counseling, and coaching. Specific sports and recreational specialties studied include baseball, basketball, soccer,

The 20th century saw a response to Edward Titchener’s critique of Wundt’s experimentation. This contributed to the study of behaviorism by John Watson. Behaviorism was proposed to emphasizing the study of obvious behavior. In the final decades of the 20th century saw a rise of the cognitive science which is a interdisciplinary approach to studying the human mind. Cognitive science considers the mind as subject for investigation

82 male and female undergraduate students from Princeton University were randomly assigned to a sports intelligence condition, or a racial primed/not primed condition (Stone et al., 1999). Participants who were assigned to the sports intelligence condition read instructions that stated that the true purpose of the test was to measure personal factors that were related to the ability to think strategically during the performance of a task (Stone et al., 1999). Participants who were assigned to the racial prime/no prime condition were given instructions that stated the purpose of the test was to measure psychological factors that were related to general sports performance (Stone, Lynch, Sjomeling & Darley, 1999). Additionally, all participants were asked to fill out a five-item self-report measure on anxiety along with a demographic questionnaire where they were asked to indicate their age, race, gender, and year in school (Stone et al., 1999). This demographic questionnaire was presented first for the racial primed condition and last for the condition that did not receive any racial priming (Stone et al., 1999). During the performance task, participants were given a golf club and ball and were asked to hit the ball into one of three holes using the fewest strokes possible (Stone et al., 1999).

At Clear Choice Coaching we are changing our thought process and model from devoting ourselves to winning. We have recognized that this visual is not a long lasting fruitful one to use because there is more to life than the score of the game. We wanted to use a model that provided results and addresses an engaging model for our coaches and athletes to follow. We wanted to address player’s lives in and out of the competitive arena. With this thinking becoming a part of the fabric of our organization we recognized that individuals can choose the way they think and these thoughts can be achieved through the application of specific cognitive strategies and ultimately impact our administrative and athletic performance. With the help of a sport psychology

In focus of the modern world today, cognitive behavior theory is one of the most widely practiced of the theories. The technological level and ability that could diagnostically reveal a portion of the inner workings and functionary process of the mind has undoubtedly contributed to the cognitive research. For the psychological community to experience a large gain in the professional practice of assessing and correcting inappropriate behavior is to assume that they know what the correct behavior is. Still it becomes a subjective belief that one might think to be appropriate, while there remains to possibility of uncertainty exposed by any new discovery that could have a revelation of evidence in fact.

Behaviorism on learning and memory occupies an important position in the history of psychology. John B. Watson is the father of behaviorism while B.F. Skinner is the most famous behaviorist of the twentieth century. Watson’s methodological behaviorism means that it is only the behaviors of an individual that can be objectively observed. Skinner’s radical behaviorism emphasized that behaviors of human and animals are blindly influenced by environment. In this case, Watson and Skinner share similar views of behaviorism. For instance, they believe that the proper objectives of behavioral research include prediction and control (Staddon and Bueno, 1991). However, there are remarkable discrepancies in their views of human equality and freedom. Watson promoted the progressive process of human equality by maintaining concept of “tabula rasa”, whereas Skinner insisted that freedom is an illusion, so that he provided the adverse effect to the dictatorial institution. The fact is that the potential ambiguity produces a strong influence on people’s thinking and has a practical significance on society.

Something that has always been in my life and repeatedly been said to me, or mentioned is that during a sporting event everything is mental. Now what I have always wondered was that everything in the mental game is based on one’s own preferences, the way one thinks and processes information and how he reacts to a situation. There are various components of an athlete’s mental game such as motivation, agility, confidence; all of which contribute in actual competitions, games or even at practice. More importantly, confidence is more complex because it is what is affected most of the mental game, that’s what makes or breaks an athlete, and that can be affected by a coach, parent, or negative teammate, it’s not just personal thoughts reflecting

The changes in how different psychological processes were identified and understood in the 1950s and 1960s is what many refer to as the “cognitive revolution.” The introduction of research in problems that have already been met - for instance, studying problems of memory and decision making - led to the new approach of theorizing. The cognitive revolution focused on just a couple of key concepts. One idea that stemmed during the cognitive revolution is that the science of psychology cannot direct study the mental world. Another idea that grew during the cognitive revolution was that in order to understand behavior, the science of psychology has to study the mental world (Cognition, pg. 8).

Cognitive psychology is a pure science based mainly on laboratory experiments and began to revolutionize psychology in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s and became the dominant approach in psychology by the late 1970’s [ (McLeod, 2007) ] according to Saul McLeod. An example of the cognitive perspective would be when one learns to take blood pressure. First you must learn how to manipulate the blood pressure manometer, learn how to hear blood pressure sounds and understand the meaning of the sounds. As each time you practice these activity, you will gain more confidence and competence in performing the task. The strong point of this perspective is that it mostly uses rigorous scientific methods and the approach has had many practical applications. The weakness of this perspective is that it is to simplistic. It ignores the complexity of the human function, biological influences of the human function and it ignores the emotions, conscious experience and free will.