Sports Psychology
Domain focus
Sports psychology tests motivation, arousal, anxiety, concentration, confidence and team processes. The exam asks you to apply theory to a performance problem, not just name it.
Core concepts
- Motivation: intrinsic (enjoyment, mastery) vs extrinsic (medals, money).
- Arousal: general activation; drive theory predicts performance rises with arousal; inverted-U predicts an optimum; individual zones of optimal functioning allow different optima.
- Anxiety: cognitive (worry) and somatic (physical symptoms); state vs trait.
- Concentration: selective attention, distraction control, pre-performance routines.
- Interventions: goal setting (SMART), imagery, self-talk, breathing, relaxation.
- Team cohesion: task and social cohesion; roles and communication.
Worked example
A free-throw shooter misses when the crowd noise rises. Arousal is above the individual optimum, so attention narrows and technique rushes. Intervention: slow breathing, a fixed pre-shot routine, a cue word and simulated crowd noise in practice. Reasoning: the problem is not lack of skill but arousal and attention control; the fix must target both.
Traps
- Claiming arousal always helps or always harms.
- Mixing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
- Treating cognitive and somatic anxiety as identical.
- Using distraction as a cure for poor technique.