PSYC 3301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Sociology Of Sport, Sport Psychology, Exercise Physiology
Sport and performance psychology definitions
• Scientific study of people and their behaviours in sport and exercise contexts
and the practical application of that knowledge
• Interdisciplinary scientific and applied field that embraces the integration of
sport sciences and psychological knowledge
• Numerous areas of psychology have contributed to sport and performance
psychology
o Cognitive psychology– how do we problem solve? Our beliefs?
o Counselling and clinical– athletes, exercisers, performers experience
bumps as well, i.e. adjustment issues, eating disorders
o Health psychology– long tradition in sport psyc, focus on health
promotion side, nudging to adopt healthier lifestyles
o Positive psychology– understanding resilience, optimism, creativity,
positive adaptation, successful adaptation and coping
o Personality– in terms of helping to develop sports psychology
o Psycho physiological– what is going on the brain when developing
image of successful performance?
o Social– leadership, team and fitness, how do you structure the
environment?
The academic context
• Sport psychology is most typically located in a department of kinesiology,
which is the study of human movement
• Any department of kinesiology has multiple disciplines
• Variety of different names: physical education (not appropriate, i.e. thinking
of gym class)
o Biomechanics on the science side, physics to the study of human
movement
o Exercise physiology, the understanding of human anatomy to
understand human movement. Looking at things like respiration,
immune system, etc
o Sociocultural sport studies, a liberal arts approach, a social-science
based. This may look at the history, philosophy, gender use in sports
o Finally, sport psychology
o
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Goals: understanding
• Trying to understand how psych factors affect and individual’s participation
and physical performance
• Understand the effects of physical activity participation on psychological
development, health, and well-being
• We are trying to understand processes and phenomenon
Goals: doing
• Improve performance
o One goal of psychological interventions is to learn to consistently
create the ideal mental climate that unleashes those physical skills that
allow athletes to perform at their best
o Creating an environment that will increase success and thrive
• We cannot be completely dependent on others
• Need personal agency
• Promote personal growth of athletes and physical activity of participants
o Humanistic goal
o We each have potential, help realize the potential
History of sport psych
• Early years 1895-1920
o G Stanley Hall: physical education is for the sake of mental and moral
culture and not an end in itself. It is to make the intellect, feelings and
will more vigorous, sane, supple and resourceful
o Normal Triplett 1898: focused on bike-racing enthusiast. Will pour
over the bicycle racing records. Noticed that a lot of cyclists tend to
race faster when racing with a partner
▪ Triplett wondered if this was a consistent finding
o Social influence and performance
▪ Triplett developed a competition machine
▪ Brought in children to the lab, the kids would reel as much
fishing line as possible within time-constraints
▪ At times, the child would be by themselves, other times, there is
another competitor
▪ There is a device calculating how much was being wound
▪ Triplett found that the participants wound more when there was
a second participant: social influence
o George Fitz 1895: motor responses
▪ Reaction times specifically
▪ Could this suggest an underlying intellectual capacity?
o Isolated labs scattered in North America
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