Sports Psychology: Motivation, Aggression, Anxiety and Personality
Psychology questions ask for definitions plus a theory, then a short applied scenario. Learn one theory per topic and how to apply it.
Motivation
Intrinsic motivation comes from within (enjoyment, mastery); extrinsic from outside (trophies, money, praise). Maslow’s hierarchy runs physiological → safety → belonging → esteem → self-actualisation; sport satisfies higher needs once basic ones are met. Achievement motivation explains why some athletes seek competition while others avoid it.
Aggression
- Hostile (reactive) aggression - intent to harm; penalised.
- Instrumental aggression - force used within the rules to achieve a goal (a firm tackle); acceptable.
- Assertiveness - legitimate, rule-governed effort with no intent to harm. Causes include frustration, provocation, crowd pressure and heat; control through relaxation, self-talk, fair-play rules and refereeing.
Anxiety
Trait anxiety is a stable personality tendency; state anxiety is situational. Cognitive anxiety is worry, somatic anxiety is the bodily response (racing heart, sweating). The inverted-U hypothesis says performance rises with arousal to an optimum and then falls; the optimum is lower for fine skills (golf putting) than for gross, explosive skills (weightlifting).
Personality
Freud: id, ego, superego. Trait theory: stable characteristics predict behaviour. Sheldon’s somatotypes - endomorph (relaxed, sociable), mesomorph (assertive, competitive, risk-taking), ectomorph (introverted, anxious, tense).
Worked example
A basketball player misses free throws after the crowd noise rises. Reasoning: the skill is fine and closed, so the optimal arousal level is low; the player is above it, showing somatic anxiety. Remedies: breathing control, a pre-shot routine, self-talk, and simulated crowd noise in practice.
Traps
- Calling all aggression bad - instrumental aggression is distinct and sometimes legitimate.
- Mixing trait with state anxiety.
- Applying the same arousal optimum to putting and to shot-putting.