Question: Focus on a success and failure in professional sport. Research why these occurred linking them to attribution theories and processes. The Attribution theory has developed as a way of explaining how individuals and teams evaluate their levels of success and failure in performance situations. In addition, it seeks to show how the reasons given by an individual or team for their success or failure may affect future achievement motivation in similar situations. Attributions are seen as being what an individual or team interprets or perceives as being the causes of theirs or others’ particular behaviour, particular outcomes or events. … Continue reading Attribution Theory

Question: Using the peak flow stimulus, explain how a team/performer have won important games A psychologist named Csikszentmihalyi proposed that a high quality skill is achieved when a performer is fully focused and controlled. When an athlete is in this peak zone, they experience an optimal performance as well as an optimal feeling. The performer is rewarded by the movement performance and also experiences emotions of happiness and self-fulfillment. This sensation is known as the ‘peak flow experience’. The ‘peak flow’ stimulus shows the link between arousal and cognitive anxiety. In order to achieve optimal performance or ‘peak flow’, a … Continue reading The Peak Flow Stimulus

Arousal has been defined by Gould and Krane as ‘a general physiological activation of the organism (personal) that varies on a continuum from deep sleep to intense excitement’. Arousal can impact an individual’s performance in a variety of manners, and an elite performer and a novice are likely to have different optimal arousal levels. There are a number of theories that suggest both the positive and negative effects of arousal on performance, including: The Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning  The Drive Theory  The Inverted U Theory The Catastrophe Theory Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning: This theory concludes that different performers … Continue reading The Impact of Arousal on Sporting Performance

Personality can be best defined as the total sum of an individual’s characteristics which makes them unique. There are a number of theories, of varying validity, used to measure and assess personality traits and there are ongoing queries as to whether we are born with these characteristics (nature) or whether they are learned or changed through the process of growing up (nurture). Trait theories believe personality is innate and in our genes. Eysenck, Cattell Social learning theories believe we learn how to act or react from observing others. Bandura Interactionist theories perceive we learn our behaviour from others but we also have our own traits. Hollander … Continue reading Aspects of Personality and Sport