sports 3

• Self-efficacy and sports confidence


  • Imagery and sports orientation
• Intrinsic motivation is highly important when deciding whether to participate in sport and in achieving a good performance
• Self-efficacy


  Our belief about our sporting abilities, often situation-specific
• Ashford (1993) interviewed 336 English adults to find out why they participate in sport and found 4 main intrinsic motivators: physical well-being, psychological well-being, improvement of performance, assertive achievement
• Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation


  • Intrinsic motivation comes from within the individual, while extrinsic motivation comes from external sources
• Motivation refers to what drives us to do particular things
• Bandura believed that self-efficacy derives from our experiences
• High self-efficacy is important when it comes to motivation
• Factors affecting self-efficacy: Previous personal achievement acts as reinforcement that increases self-efficacy, vicarious experience from role models, verbal persuasion from encouraging feedback, emotional arousal
• Sports confidence


  Our abilities to succeed, i.e. to win
• Trait sport confidence


  • Belief in general sports ability, relatively stable and related to previous experiences. Increases with high motivation levels
• Robin Vealey (1986): 'suggests that there are two types of sport confidence (trait and state) involved in the Model of Sport Confidence'
• Sport confidence


  Defined as 'the belief or degree of certainty individuals possess about their ability to be successful in sports'
• Sport confidence


  • Sport confidence is subtly different from self-efficacy. It refers to the belief in abilities to succeed, i.e., to win. For example, a gymnast may have high self-efficacy in skill but low self-confidence in winning competitions
• Anxious athlete will lack self-efficacy

  Supporting evidence: factors affecting self-efficacy
• Confidence is believed to be one of the most consistent factors predicting success in competition
• State sport confidence


  • Ability to perform in a particular sporting context. Can alter motivation levels
• Factors influencing sport confidence

  • Prior achievement
  • Self-regulation
  • Climate
• Sport orientation


  Role of motivation in sport, measured by the Sports Orientation Questionnaire (SOQ) which includes factors like competitiveness, win orientation, and goal orientation
• Competitive orientation added to sports confidence theory

  Competitiveness of the situation impacts motivation
• Imagery can enhance self-confidence and self-efficacy


  Imagery involves mental practice/rehearsal of successful sport performance
• Imagery

  MG-A - Motivation-General Arousal, involves reflecting on feelings of stress, anxiety, or arousal in relation to sport. MG-M - Motivation-General Mastery, reflects on feelings about the sport
• Gill and Deeter: 'tested the SOQ on a large group of athletes and non-athletes, showing interesting individual differences'
• MG-A stands for Motivation-General Arousal - A type of imagery which involves the athlete reflecting on feelings of stress, anxiety or arousal in relation to sport. In other words, imagining their feelings about the sport
• Imagery


  A mental practice/mental rehearsal of the sport being performed successfully
• MG-M stands for Motivation-General Mastery - A type of imagery which involves seeing ourselves coping with difficult situations and mastering them
• Background content

  Supports debates such as Individual/situational debate, Free will/determinism debate, Reductionism/holism debate
• SIQ-C items

  • I see myself as mentally strong
  • I imagine how calm I’ll be before I compete
  • I see myself doing my best
  • I can usually control how a skill looks in my head
  • I make up new routines in my head
• Types of imagery

  • MG-M imagery, PETTLEP imagery
• Results hypothesis 2: The relationship between MG-M imagery use and self-confidence and self-efficacy is stronger in competitive athletes than recreational athletes
• Results showed that all imagery types tested correlated positively with self-efficacy and self-confidence, supporting the first hypothesis
• The use of MG-M imagery is a strong predictor of self-efficacy and self-confidence
• PETTLEP imagery


  Physical - imagine the relevant physical characteristics, Environment - e.g. football pitch, Task - try to imagine details relevant to the task and appropriate level of expertise, Timing - real-time but slow motion to emphasise more difficult aspects of the skill
• Training athletes to use imagery should be encouraged to improve their self-confidence and self-efficacy
• PETTLEP imagery

  Learning - continually adapt and review over time to match changing task demands, Emotion - include the same emotions that would be felt in the physical situations, Perspective - first or third
• Effective PETTLEP


  • Found to be effective with both novices, experts, children, and adults, Positive working relationship with the athlete is crucial for personalized intervention, More motivated performers will find the technique more effective at increasing self-confidence and motivation
• Usefulness of PETTLEP

  • Very applied in nature with practical implications for planning and execution of imagery interventions, Coaches find it most useful when providing innovative, creative, and exciting imagery interventions
• Positive self-talk


  • Cognitive technique in psychology used by athletes to concentrate, control anxiety, and judge performance
  • Five strategies for self-talk: short and special statements, positive words, instructional self-talk, friendly affirmations, repeat statements
  • Can be used before, during, or after performance, devised by players themselves, and reviewed with the coach
• Instructional self-talk in sports


  Enhances performance by triggering desired actions through proper attentional focus, technical information, and tactical choices
• Usefulness of self-talk

  • Motivational nature creates confidence, motivation, effort, and controls anxiety and arousal
  • Coaches should understand different types of self-talk to personalize interventions
  • Acknowledged as widely used cognitive technique, occurring unconsciously and consciously, usable with or without prior training