Attitudes

• Attitude


  A value aimed at an attitude object
• Attitude object


  Something that you think about
• Attitude


  An opinion
• Attitude


  A mental and neural state of readiness towards an 'attitude object'
• Attitudes in sport


  • Individuals involved in sport will have their own thoughts about sporting issues
  • Some premier league managers have very strong opinions about referees
• Attitude formation

  • Attitudes are formed by associating with others and picking up their opinions and values, a process called socialisation
  • We learn from friends, parents and our role models
  • Attitudes are likely to be formed if the behaviour we see in those significant others is reinforced or repeated many times
  • We can almost become familiar with the attitudes of others and accept those attitudes and beliefs as normal
  • Attitudes can become conditioned by behaviour that is successful and reinforced
• Components of Attitude (triadic model)

  • Cognitive
  • Affective
  • Behavioural
• Cognitive component

  The most deep-rooted part of the attitude and it is 'what you think'. It is your beliefs!
• Affective component

  Concerns the 'feeling and emotions' of the player and how those feelings are interpreted
• Behavioural component

  Reflects 'what you do'. Shown by the actions and habits of the performer
• Cognitive Dissonance

  The coach attempts to put pressure on one or more of the attitude components so that the performer becomes uneasy and is motivated to change their existing attitude
• Cognitive Dissonance methods

  1. Challenge a belief

  2. Make training fun

  3. Use reinforcement

  4. Use role models

  5. Point out the benefits of a new technique
• Persuasive Communication

  • Sports performers can be talked into changing their attitudes but this is not easy
  • Attitudes are fairly stable and set as core beliefs and the performer could be quite resistant to change, so attempts at persuasion need to be more than just talk
  • The communication to the performer needs to be understood! It has to have real quality
  • The giver of the message also needs to be of high status, perhaps a role model or expert so the impact of the message is high
  • The coach may also think of their timing when attempting to persuade the athlete to change their attitude – i.e. just after a loss or poor performance, when the player realises that something needs to change, might be the right time to step in
• Positive attitudes give positive outcomes so learning and controlling attitude behaviour is an important way of ensuring sporting success