Sports Psychology Term Paper

Sport’s are an aspect of life that affect societies across the globe. Athletics affect everyone's life, whether that be playing the sport, watching games, or hearing about a sporting event. There is a big difference between playing an individual sport and players relying on their own athletic abilities versus a team sport when members of the team rely on their teammates to complete each individual's specific responsibility to reach the team's goal. Team sports bring people together in countless ways, and they teach many life skills for the athletes that participate in them. Some of these skills include communication, teamwork, discipline, work ethic, dedication, leadership, and numerous more that will help them in their personal and work

In addition, this is also displays that the team is outcome oriented, meaning that their main focus is on the result of competitions (Horseman). Being outcome oriented is apart of the achievement goal theory. The achievement goal theory is how someone evaluates and perceives themselves in a sport (Horseman). It is normally broken up into two categories: outcome oriented and task-mastery oriented (Horseman). The difference is that one who is outcome oriented, mainly focuses on the result of competition and someone who is task-mastery oriented has their main focus on perfecting a skill and evaluating their own skill level. Benny in “The Sandlot” is an outstanding example of someone who is task-mastery oriented. Benny is constantly trying to perfect his skills in baseball and is highly motivated to learn from his mistakes in order to improve. During the movie, Benny was seen practicing his batting while the other players seemed to be losing interest because he had been practicing for so long.

Motivation in sports is why people do what they do. It is also the direction and intensity of one’s effort and determination to achieve. The more motivated one is, the more likely one is to succeed.

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

Some people believe that dedication, persistence, and time people can accomplish any goal. Everyone should have goals when striving to achieve a specific task. Goal setting is used by top level athletes, successful business man, and achievers in all fields. A wise athlete once said, “Without time and effort put towards ones goal for the sport, you are nearly wasting your time and your teams time and you will never achieve ones goal for that

There are many terms that we use in our everyday lives that also have their own application to the field of Sport and Performance psychology. For example, performance is simply performing a sport, whether it is team or individual. Commonly, athletes are striving to increase performance. Researchers record how the athlete performed at during a set task, then compare it to an equal measure and performance at a different time. An example would be, how many free throws were made out of shooting 10 shots, or how many passes were recorded in a game.

The movie “The Blind Side” originally written by: Michael Lewis is about a highschool boy named Michael Oher who gets adopted by the Tuohy family. The family financially help Michael with his school grades in order to play football, after his grades went up Michael got the proper training to play in his school team. Eventually, he struggles but Sean motivates Michael training him using Football strategies. Sean recorded a video of his sports performance Therefore it made him famous and received a scholarship.

There are a lot of aspects that should be taken into account when determining what makes an athlete successful. One could argue that natural ability is one of the determining factors which leads to success. For example, if an athlete has dreams of playing in the NBA then height makes a difference. There aren’t many successful players in the league under six feet tall. One could argue that level of competition plays a role in the development of an athlete. This could include the skill level of the opponent or outside factors such as playing conditions or game circumstances. These types of arguments play a role in athlete success, but will not be used in this paper because they are factors that are out of the athlete’s control. This paper

The male swimmers in the GST program had higher levels of satisfaction, confidence, and perceived ability; however, there was not a statistically significant difference between their performance and the performance of the non-GST group. Although Burton was not able to confirm a causal relationship between goal setting and performance from the data he collected, he did find that the GST program was an effective approach to modifying athletes’ goal setting patterns. In turn, this helped enhance perceived ability and confidence, which improved performance (Burton

Common intervention procedures that have been applied include, but are not limited to, positive reinforcement, praise, error correction, goal- setting, performance feedback, public posting, modelling, and self- monitoring (Luiselli, Woods, & Reed, 2011; Martin, 2015; Smith, Smoll, & Curtis, 1979). These methods of ABA, singly or in combination, have been proven to be effective behavior change procedures among athletes of varying ages, different skill levels, and across a variety of sports (Smith, Smoll, & Curtis, 1979; Martin, 2015). Upon implementing these intervention procedures to young elite athletes, behaviorists must consider the operant relations associated with skill and performance, as well establishing appropriate measurement tools to assess behavior change

For most athletes making it to the professional level is a dream, the NBA, NFL or even NHL. Some realize that dream, while others never get the chance, but for all it starts from a very young age and usually culminates at the college level.

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.

In earlier days sports psychology was mostly concerned with developing assessment methods that would identify those people with the potential to become serious superior athletes. Today the focus is on psychological training, exercises that strengthen the mental skills that will help athletic performances on the path to excellence. These skills include mental imagery and focus training. If an athlete is serious about becoming the best he or she can possibly be, the most essential ingredient is commitment to practice the right things. It takes incredible commitment to reach the top: a commitment to rest and train the body so it can perform under the most demanding conditions and a commitment to train the mind to

The goal setting process has two components: skill development and psychological development. The outcome sought is that the "coachee" will achieve the goals set, and will thereafter feel able and confident to set personal goals for themselves (Passmore2003,p31).4ed

Motivation is crucial for an athlete in order to want to win. It is hard to want to win if you have no motivation. The main aspect of motivation in terms of the self-determination theory is intrinsic motivation. The self-determination theory can be defined as “a highly appropriate conceptual framework from which to study sport persistence and dropout” (Calvo, Cervelló, Jiménez, Iglesias, & Moreno Murcia, 2010). Intrinsic Motivation can be defined as “an athlete taking up playing a sport just for the enjoyment of playing a sport” (Pelletier, Tuson, Fortier, Vallerand, & Briére, 1995). It is important to realize that the self-determination theory affects an athlete’s motivation intrinsically (internally) because the self-determination theory uses factors like “autonomy” and “competence” to motivate an athlete to play better in their sport. Most athletes, now and in the past, find it easier to motivate themselves intrinsically if they enjoy the sport or have fun while playing the sport (Ryan & Deci, 1985).