personality

• Social Facilitation


  The positive influence of others, who may be watching or competing, on sports performance
• Social Inhibition


  The negative influence of others, who may be watching or competing, which leads to a decrease in sports performance
• Coaction Effect


  The effect of others performing the same activity
• Coactors


  The other performers
• Zajonc's 4 factors affecting performance


  • The presence of an audience or coactors increases performers arousal
  • The increase in arousal increases the likelihood of the performers dominant response
  • If the skill is simple, or the performer is an expert, performance will improve
  • If the skill is complex, or the performer is a beginner, performance will decrease
• Evaluation Apprehension (Cottrell, 1968)


  • The presence of an audience / others alone did not increase arousal levels
  • Arousal levels only increase when the performer is being evaluated by those present, or if the performer believes they are being evaluated by those present
• Presence of audience


  May cause anxiety, especially if inexperienced
• Anxiety


  Increased further if being judged by e.g. parents, peers, scouts
• Effects of social facilitation on performance


  • Home vs Away effects
  • Personality Factors
  • Levels of experience
  • Types of skills / activities
  • Other influences
• Home vs Away effects


  • Teams often win more games at home than they do away
  • Backing of their own fans / more of their own fans
  • Opposition fans can become intimidated
  • Could be negative; e.g. more pressure to perform in front of home fans
• Personality Factors


  • 'High Anxiety' (type a) people perform worse in the presence of others
  • Therefore 'Low Anxiety' (type b) people will perform better
  • Extroverts tend to seek social situations with high arousal levels and perform better with an audience
  • Introverts shy away as they already have high internal arousal. Therefore an audience will decrease their performance
• Levels of Experience


  • Positive past experience - Improved performance
  • Negative past experience - Decreased performance
  • Elite / highly skilled performers are more likely to perform well in front of an audience (Due to dominant responses being correct in experienced athletes)
  • Effects of peers / family in audience
  • Effects of crowd's knowledge while evaluating you
• Type of skills / activities


  • Simple or Gross = High arousal will facilitate performance (due to lack of perceptual processing)
  • Complex or Fine = Low arousal is more desirable. Crowd presence will inhibit performance (due to more decision making and concentration)
• Other influences


  • The nature of the audience: e.g. noisy crowd = increased aggression and anxiety / pressure to succeed
  • The physical proximity of the audience: e.g. how close the crowd is to the pitch
• Self-confidence


  The belief of certainty that individuals possess about their ability to succeed in sport
• Self-efficacy


  The self-confidence we have in specific situations
• Self-esteem


  The feeling of self-worth that determines how valuable / competent we feel
• High sports confidence


  Better performance (due to increased motivation)
• Low sports confidence


  Reduced participation in sport
• High sports confidence


  High self-esteem
• Sports experience from an early age can affect our self-esteem. This can be both positive and negative
• Effects of high self-esteem


  • Reduced anxiety / more optimistic view on life / fewer personal problems / better body image / less likely to give into social pressure / less likely to engage in risky behaviours (e.g. Drug use etc...)
• Effects of low self-esteem


  • Depressed / eating disorders / engage in risky behaviours / not participate in sport / get bullied or become a bully
• Vealey's Sports Confidence Model

  • Investigates the relationship between competitiveness and self-confidence in sport
  • Sporting Context
  • SC - Trait
  • SC - State
  • Competitive Orientation
  • Behavioural Response
  • Subjective outcome
• The more confidence a person has in general (trait) and in that specific situation (state), the more successful they will be
• Vealey's Model

  1. Give the athlete's name and the sporting situation

  2. Explain the stages of Vealey's model

  3. At each stage, link to your athlete
• Bandura's Theory of Self-Efficacy

  • Self-confidence can be specific to a particular situation
  • Self-efficacy can vary from situation to situation and can affect performance
  • If someone expects to be confident in a specific situation, they are more likely to choose that activity (and vice versa)
• Bandura's 4 types of information that influence self-efficacy

  • Success in the past = high levels of self-confidence
  • What we have observed before
  • Encouragement = Higher self-efficacy
  • Perceptions of our arousal
• Personality

  The patterns of thoughts and feelings and the way in which we interact with our environment and other people that make us a unique person
• Applying Bandura's Model

  1. Name of Bandura's model

  2. Name the 4 influences / define self-efficacy

  3. Individually explain the 4 influences, linking them to your example
• What personality can include

  • Behavioural characteristics
  • Character and temperament
  • Emotional manner
  • Personal traits
• Type A personality

  Impatient, intolerant and stressful
• Ways to raise self-efficacy in sport

  • Ensure success to start with
  • Demonstrate using someone with the same ability level
  • Verbal encouragement
  • Explain that it is natural to be worried, which prepares the body
• Type B personality

  Relaxed, tolerant and low levels of stress
• Summarise the key information learned today
• Personality traits we will be looking at

  • Stable Personalities
  • Unstable Personalities
  • Extroversion
  • Introversion
• Practically apply all the AO1 notes made to sporting examples (AO2)
• Stable personality

  Someone who is constant in their emotional behaviour (doesn't swing from one emotion to another)
• Stable personality

  • Remain calm at all times
  • Always anxious in a game
• Unstable personality

  A personality trait of someone who is highly anxious and has unpredictable emotions