Sport and Exerise Psychology
Sport and Exerise Psychology
Sport and Exerise Psychology
Exercise
Psychology
Topics in Applied Psychology
Andrew M. Lane
www.hoddereducation.com
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Contents
Contributors vii
Series Preface ix
Preface xi
References 227
Index 247
Contributors
Chris Beedie, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK
Graham Davey
University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
September 2007
Preface
Sport and Exercise Psychology is both an academic subject and a profession. As
an academic topic it makes an important contribution to undergraduate degree
programmes at all levels. A substantial proportion of undergraduate students
applying to read psychology do so because they have a career in applied
psychology in mind. As a profession, sport and exercise psychology is an
important component of the provision of scientific support aimed at increasing
performance for professional and elite athletes of most countries. It is also an
important component in terms of increasing and maintaining exercise adoption,
working alongside private and public sectors. Professionally-trained Sport and
Exercise psychologists carry out an increasing range of duties within those
services, including tasks of assessment, intervention and evaluation.
As with all the books in the Topics in Applied Psychology series, this text is
written as a support for a one-term or one-semester course in Sport and
Exercise Psychology, and contains all the teaching and learning features
appropriate to the series including coverage of research methods and ethical
issues. Activity boxes provide the student with the opportunity to engage in
active learning. Each chapter also ends with extensive support for further
reading, including relevant journal articles, books and web-sites, and this
should enable the interested student to engage with a topic in some depth.
Andrew M. Lane
University of Wolverhampton, UK
December 2007
1
Applied sport psychology:
Enhancing performance using
psychological skills training
Richard Thelwell
Given that the stakes in modern day sport are so high and the margins
between success and failure so narrow, one might question whether it is strange
that some performers do not utilize the services of a sport psychologist. As you
will see from the chapters within this book, athletes at the top of the sporting
ladder have a number of challenges put before them; these take the form of
opponents, environmental conditions and their own mindset, to name but a few.
One excellent example of this comes from Steve Harmison, one of England’s
fastest bowlers who, in July, 2005, started England’s Ashes Test Series against
Australia at Lords with a hostile and accurate ambush on the Australian top-
order batting, and in particular Justin Langer. However, some 18 months later,
Harmison bowled the first ball of the 2006–2007 Ashes series in Brisbane to
Langer, and instead of bowling a hostile delivery to set the tone for the series, he
misdirected the first delivery that went for four wides via second slip! After the
events, and unfortunately a very disappointing series for both England and
Harmison, he revealed that he had frozen before the first ball in the Test match.
Harmison commented that this negative experience was driven by the enormity
of the occasion which made his entire body tense, leading him to have no rhythm
and to perform poorly. Of course, one does not know the extent to which
Harmison engaged with a sport psychologist or whether he employed
psychological skills, but what we do know is that employing psychological skills
increases the chances of positive performance experiences.
With this in mind, the purpose of this chapter is to explore how sport
psychologists can help athletes enhance their performance via the use of
psychological skills training (PST), which for this chapter will primarily focus on
the skills of self-talk, imagery, relaxation and goal-setting. Throughout, we will
explore the concept of PST with a specific focus on whether it enhances
performance. To enable this to be achieved, we will commence the chapter by
reviewing some of the literature that has supported the use of PST in sport and
provide suggestions as to why performers have been resistant to the use of such
skills. We will then turn our attention to the examination of two models of PST
development that link the assessment process to the integration and
implementation of psychological skills. Having reviewed the models, the final
section of the chapter will focus on the different research approaches that have
examined the impact of PST on performance. In addition to the above,
throughout this chapter, readers will be asked to reflect on their own experiences
with reference to the material presented.
2 | Applied sport psychology: Enhancing performance using psychological skills training
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to:
1. Evaluate the literature that has suggested PST to be of benefit to the
sports performer.
2. Evaluate some of the models of PST delivery and appraise how such skills
can be implemented.
3. Critically evaluate the contemporary approaches to researching PST and
performance.
Activity 1.1
Think back to your sporting experiences and the psychological skills that
you either do, or could, employ to benefit your performance. As you work
through the skills, consider whether you do, or could, use them in training
as well as competition. Also, consider how such skills have enhanced your
performance when you have used them compared to when you have not.
More recently, the effectiveness of PST has been documented within the
emerging research area of mental toughness, which is now widely regarded as a
fundamental prerequisite for successful performance (Gould et al, 2002a; Jones
4 | Applied sport psychology: Enhancing performance using psychological skills training
Figure 1.1 The Olympic Games. For some athletes seeing the Olympic stadium
will be an exciting thought; for other athletes, it represents the cauldron of
anxiety.
Source: Photograph courtesy of Professor Greg Whyte.
et al, 2007). Although to date the definitions of mental toughness have been
varied, recent researchers (e.g. Jones et al, 2002; Thelwell et al, 2005) have
contended that it includes attributes such as an athlete’s ability to recover from
setbacks, persistence when faced with failure, maintaining focus despite
performance (and other) distractions and an ability to cope with excessive
pressure. Further to this, recent research by Connaughton et al (2008)
examining the development and maintenance of mental toughness has indicated
the use of PST to be critical for both aspects. Therefore, with mental toughness
contributing to the attainment of sporting success and PST enabling the
development of mental toughness, this provides further justification to the
benefits of employing such skills.
Given that the above presents an evidence-based argument for PST enhancing
performance, it seems perplexing that there are many athletes who choose not
to practise such skills. The following serves to provide an insight to why this
might be the case.
First, many athletes neglect PST due to simply misunderstanding it. This is a
concern on a number of levels, the first being that many athletes perceive PST
(and as such mental toughness) to be inherent rather than developed. This is an
awkward assumption given that even the most talented individuals in the
sporting world spend endless hours practising their skills, even though they may
have been blessed with a high level of innate talent. Another misunderstanding
is that many athletes expect immediate success following the implementation of
an intervention and as such do not understand that, like physical skills,
psychological skills require a great deal of time and practice to develop.
Evaluating some of the models of PST delivery and how such skills can be implemented | 5
A further reason why athletes may neglect psychological skills has to do with
time. Specifically, many athletes struggle with not being able to devote enough
time to the development of physical skills let alone psychological skills. This was
one of the key findings reported by Gould et al (1999b) who examined some of
the roadblocks to the development of psychological skills from the perceptions
of junior tennis coaches. This does, however, seem counter-intuitive given that
many of the reasons provided for performance failure are attributed to
psychological factors. For example, how many times have you finished a
performance and then said ‘I felt too tense before the shot’ or ‘I just bottled it,
just couldn’t get it right at that crucial time … my confidence had gone’? As a
result, one could suggest that even though psychological skills may impact quite
significantly on performance, they do not appear to be of utmost importance to
the athletes in terms of the time allocated; hence they become neglected.
There are also some myths that pervade athletes’ use of PST (Weinberg &
Gould, 2007) such as suggestions that psychological skills are for ‘athletes with
problems’ or only for ‘elite athletes’. The vast majority of athletes use a sport
psychologist for educational rather than clinical purposes. Despite this, there is
still sometimes a negative stigma associated with consulting a sport psychologist,
the main issue here being the view that if you need to see a sport psychologist,
then you are unable to cope with the climate and demands of elite sport (see
Chapter 5). This view was demonstrated by Australian fast bowler Glenn
McGrath who, prior to the 2006–2007 Ashes series, heard that the new English
spin bowler Monty Panesar was seeing a sport psychologist. McGrath
commented that it was ridiculous that Panesar was seeking such support prior to
the series and that he must be ‘soft’. Conversely, England football goalkeeper
David James argues that the benefits of seeing a sport psychologist outweigh any
negative public perception. James contends that psychology is one of the
building bricks to being a top athlete, so it should be normal for athletes to use
such expert support. In James’ experience, developing athletes should work with
psychologists. With regard to PST being for elite athletes only, it may be that
support is most readily available to those with funding (i.e. through governing
bodies, bursaries etc.), but this is not to say that young, recreational athletes or
athletes with disabilities are not able to seek such support. A further myth
associated with PST is that it provides ‘overnight’ performance solutions.
Obviously, the achievement of this accelerated success is not possible due to the
time required to develop the skills in a variety of pressurized environments, prior
to being employed within competition.
In transferring the process to the sporting environment where athletes are able
to develop their psychological skills alongside their physical and technical skills
in the training and competition environment, Sinclair and Sinclair (1994)
advocate a seven-step approach. Each step will now be worked through prior to
Activity box 1.2 where you will have an opportunity to develop the seven steps
for a skill of your choice.
Step 1: Goal-setting
Before any action takes place, it is necessary to identify the objective that is
being targeted. Goal-setting requires specific, realistic and measurable goals.
through’. As the bowlers become more proficient at bowling, the cues will
become more refined to a point at which only a couple of ‘key words’ are used.
In addition to focusing skills, refocusing skills may also be developed. For
example, if a bowler has bowled a poor delivery or has not achieved the intended
goal, each delivery will require a refocus to consistently achieve the desired
outcome. If task-irrelevant cues are being focused on, an appropriate prompt
from the coach can make the player aware of how their attention has shifted
inappropriately.
Activity 1.2
Think of a physical/technical skill that you conduct that would benefit from
additional psychological skills. Consider how you learnt the skill and how
you would develop it if you had worked on your psychological skills at the
same time. When thinking about the skill, work through the seven steps
and identify the psychological skills you would attempt to develop and how
they would fit into the overall development of the skill.
When reviewing Sinclair and Sinclair’s (1994) model, would the overall
skill be enhanced via the ‘add-on’ approach or via effective mental
management throughout the long-term development of the skill?
are relatively long in duration, they have very different physical demands. They
also have very different skill requirements: golf is a sport requiring precision
while the 10,000 m requires gross motor movements. Alternatively, consider a
100 m swimmer who requires explosive power. Evidently, each sport has
contrasting demands, especially in terms of their time, physical and technical
characteristics, which, according to Taylor, will influence the psychological
demands placed on the athletes. For example, because the 10,000 m is long in
duration, uses gross motor movements and is aerobic in nature, the psychological
priorities may be to overcome low motivation, pain control and boredom-related
issues. As such, the psychological skills may include key words (motivational/
focus/instructional), relaxation strategies and goal-setting, each of which is
specific to the demands of the sport (see Lane, 2006). The golfer, for example,
may have psychological priorities that are driven by the need to maintain
concentration and intensity levels, possibly due to the length of a round where
the performance time is minimal and the idle periods between shots could be
lengthy. Accordingly, skills such as arousal regulation, imagery and a variety of
skills put together to develop pre- and post-shot routines would be of benefit.
Activity 1.3
Consider three sports of your choice and work through Taylor’s (1995)
conceptual model. In doing so, consider the physical demands of each
sport, the psychological priorities and the psychological skills that will be
most appropriate. To enable you to complete this task you may wish to
read the associated paper.
Having worked through the three sports, you should now be able to see
that it is not advisable to approach all three sports in the same manner,
especially because we have not considered the specific needs of the
athletes.
10 | Applied sport psychology: Enhancing performance using psychological skills training
Focus 1.1
There are differing approaches to how PST can be delivered and
implemented. Despite the contrasts in the two models discussed, the key
messages are summarized as follows:
1. Psychological skills are best developed alongside physical and
technical skills.
2. Psychological skills need to be evaluated and developed over time.
3. Sports have varying physical and technical demands, therefore we
need to be aware of the differing psychological demands.
4. Practitioners need to be aware of the athlete’s needs when developing
PST.
debilitative) and how they influence sporting performance. Although the single-
skill studies examining self-talk and imagery have been more numerous in recent
years, studies examining the effectiveness of relaxation or goal-setting strategies
on performance are less frequent. Maynard, Hemmings and Warwick-Evans
(1995) reported the positive impacts of a relaxation intervention on competitive
state anxiety and performance relationships in soccer. Swain and Jones (1995)
examined the impacts of a goal-setting intervention on specific basketball
components. Here they reported goal-setting to be of benefit in enhancing
targeted performance behaviours. Few studies have followed a similar design,
and this represents a gap in the literature.
The above represent some studies that have adopted a single-skill approach.
Together, they have undoubtedly provided practitioners with a wealth of
knowledge on the merits of developing a single skill over time to enhance
performance. However, there are also a number of potential shortfalls to the
adoption of such approaches. For example, it is common to find that several
skills benefit each other. This has been reported on numerous occasions: Rushall
(1984), Zeigler (1987) and Rushall et al (1988) all concluded that self-talk,
when combined with imagery, enhanced performance in rowing, tennis and
cross-country skiing, respectively. Ostensibly, self-talk allowed performers to
focus on relevant and correct cues during the imagery session. Other researchers
(e.g. Kirschenbaum and Bale, 1984; Hamilton and Fremouw, 1985) have
acknowledged the success of relaxation and self-talk when combined with other
mental skills, such as imagery, modelling, attentional focus, game plans and
feedback mechanisms.
More recently, researchers have combined skills and reported positive effects
in ice hockey (Rogerson and Hrycaiko, 2002: centering and self-talk) and darts
performance (Cumming et al, 2006: imagery and self-talk). A further potential
shortfall of single-skill interventions is that many sports require multiple skills,
which was clearly articulated earlier in the discussion of both Sinclair and
Sinclair’s (1994) and Taylor’s (1995) models of psychological skill delivery and
implementation. Much of the research now tends to adopt a ‘package’ approach
to the study of psychological skills (e.g. Thelwell and Maynard, 2003; Barwood
et al, 2007) which brings with it a different set of concerns. The most notable of
these is the uncertainty surrounding the order in which skills should be
developed and how they interact with each other to provide an ‘additive’ effect
towards performance improvement. It is fair to say that the ‘jury is still out’ with
regard to this matter and although this remains a challenge for future research,
one thing that practitioners can argue with some confidence is that individual
differences here will often dictate the effectiveness of certain skills.
statement has now become reality as researchers have tended to prefer the use
of single-subject designs (that enable the tracking of an individual’s performance
both pre- and post-intervention to detect small changes in performance) rather
than more traditional group designs where the effects of interventions may be
masked by the use of statistics. On this point, it is also important to note that at
an elite level, performance changes may be very subtle and as such may not be
apparent within a group design. Also, even though the performance changes may
be relatively small, at the higher level of performance, these small changes are
mostly significant. Finally, the role of applied sport psychologists is to provide an
intervention based on the person and sport in question. To facilitate this,
research designs have progressed to enable practitioners to link research to
practice, which itself was commented on some 20 years ago by Frank (1986: 24)
who stated ‘nomothetic science can never escape the individual … its findings
must [eventually] be applied to the individual’.
Another development in the recent research is related to the fact that the
majority of applied studies have focused on the measurement of performance
outcomes alone, and have neglected performance subcomponents. Although it is
acknowledged that this is not always appropriate, there are a number of sports
where a more detailed insight of performance subcomponents may give a better
understanding of overall performance achievement. One such study was
conducted by Thelwell, Greenlees and Weston (2006) who examined the impact
of a soccer, midfielder-specific psychological skills intervention on position-
specific performance measures (first-touch percentage, pass completion
percentage and tackle success percentage). In this particular study, a total of five
participants had their performances monitored across nine competitive matches
where each, in turn, received the intervention. The results indicated that the
intervention, designed with specific positional roles in mind, enabled at least
small improvements on the three performance measures for each participant. In
discussing the findings, the authors reinforced the potential benefits of using not
just sport-, but position-specific interventions that examine position-specific
measures.
Conclusions
We have seen that there is a wealth of literature suggesting that psychological
skills can be beneficial to athletic performance. Evidence is drawn from studies
using successful professional and Olympic athletes combined with experimental
research examining either single-skill or package interventions. It is also evident
that there is no exact way in which psychological skills should be delivered, and
Conclusions | 13
In the two figures below, we can see data for two participants who had
their five minute running performance assessed over a 10 session/week
period (the blocked line reports actual performance while the dotted line is
the average performance). The first participant had their baseline period for
sessions 1 to 4, when they then received the intervention. The post-
intervention period for participant 1 was from sessions 5 to 10 where it can
be seen that the intervention enabled an improvement in performance
(denoted by actual and average performance). The second participant
received the intervention after five baseline sessions, and again the post-
intervention performance effects were positive.
2000 2000
1975 1975
1950 1950
1925 1925
1900
Distance (m)
Distance (m)
1900
1875 1875
1850 1850
1825 1825
1800 1800
1775 1775
1750 1750
1725 1725
1700 1700
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Session Session
. . . Continued
visual inspection of data should look for the following: the number of
overlapping data points between pre- and post-intervention phases (the
fewer the number, the greater the intervention effect); the immediacy of
the effect; the size of the effect after intervention; the number of times the
findings are replicated across participants (the greater the number, the
greater chance that the intervention will work irrespective of when it is
delivered, thus giving some external validity); and, the consistency around
the mean. Although the first four approaches to visual inspection of data are
critical, the final approach is important for the practitioner in a different way.
For example, it may be that while there is no discernable improvement in
average performance, the actual performance may become more consistent
and closer to the mean scores. Ideally, though, we would like to see
improvements in actual performance, average performance and consistency
of performance, post intervention. However, for some performers, achieving
greater consistency is often a difficult hurdle and practitioners should be
encouraged to monitor this.
Further reading
Journal articles
Fletcher, D., and Hanton, S. (2001). The relationship between psychological
skills usage and competitive anxiety responses. Psychology of Sport and Exercise,
2, 89–101.
Further reading | 15
Frey, M., Laguna, P.L., and Ravizza, K. (2003). Collegiate athletes’ mental skill
use and perceptions of success: An exploration of the practice and competition
settings. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 15, 115–128.
Gould, D., Guinan, D., Greenleaf, C., Medbury, R., and Peterson, K. (1999a).
Factors affecting Olympic performance. Perceptions of athletes and coaches
from more and less successful teams. The Sport Psychologist, 13, 371–394.
Focus 2.1
Definition of mood
Lane and Terry (2000: 16) defined mood as ‘a set of feelings, ephemeral
in nature, varying in intensity and duration, and usually involving more
than one emotion’ (Journal of Applied Sport Psychology).
Parkinson et al (1996: 216) proposed that ‘mood reflects changing non-
specific psychological dispositions to evaluate, interpret, and act on past,
current, or future concerns in certain patterned ways’, a definition used
in Lane et al (2005a) in response to issues raised by Mellalieu (2003).
Definition of emotion
Anecdotal quotes from athletes, coaches and fans allude to playing and
watching sport being an emotional experience. The elation of celebrating players
is matched by the despair of losing. In the UK, national elation followed
regaining the Ashes in 2005 and winning the rugby World Cup in 2003;
disappointment, upset and anger followed exiting the soccer 2006 World Cup.
Winning athletes typically refer to experiencing intense emotions during
competition, and it is their ability to control these emotions that helps bring
about success.
listening to the show. In the space of two conversations, anxiety was described
as helpful and harmful for sport performance. Former England cricket captain
Mike Gatting described feelings of nervousness when batting that gave him an
edge. He suggested his concentration would not be so sharp without
experiencing these feelings. Following this, a caller described a situation in which
a Manchester United player looked nervous in the tunnel before an important
Premier League game. He argued that high anxiety led to defeat. I responded by
trying to reconcile these seemingly differing positions using theory and empirical
evidence to guide my answer. Sport psychologists should be able to offer
reasonable explanations on why mood states influence sport performance, and
practising sport psychologists should be able to help athletes develop emotional
control techniques.
The aims of this chapter are twofold. The first aim is to describe mood–
performance relationships in the literature. Evidence indicates that mood–
performance relationships are strong in some studies and weak in others. A
second aim is to describe and evaluate a conceptual model of mood–performance
relationships. At least two important themes run throughout this chapter, the
first being measurement issues: how mood is assessed has an important bearing
on subsequent mood–performance relationships. If the methods we use are not
valid and reliable, results using the methods should be interpreted cautiously.
The second theme running through the chapter is ethical issues. Researchers and
practitioners should care for their participants and use methods that minimize
possible harm.
Mood and sport performance | 21
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to:
1. Evaluate mood–performance relationships and methodological factors that
influence this relationship.
2. Evaluate the conceptual model of Lane and Terry (2000) and describe the
revised conceptual model proposed by Lane (2007a).
3. Be aware of relevant ethical issues in either the research or practical
application of mood and performance.
Activity 2.1
Think carefully about when you participated in an important competition.
Select one situation or competition that was personally important to you.
This should be a competition where performance really mattered. Now
think back to that situation, try to remember what was around you, who
was with you, and try to see these images as clearly as possible. Now try
to recall the sounds, hear them as clearly as possible, try to sharpen the
sounds so that they are crystal clear, as if you are there. Now remember
how you felt before the competition started, consider how you felt
physically, what you were thinking about and what emotions you
experienced.
Write down all the emotions you can recall experiencing. Use single words
such as nervous, calm, excited, downhearted, happy, sad, vigorous or
tired. Use a sentence if you wish. ‘I was excited because I thought I would
perform well’ . . . ‘I was sad because I knew I would not meet my
expectations’. When you have completed this list, rate the extent to which
you experienced these emotions as either ‘a little’, ‘somewhat’,
‘moderately’, or ‘very much so’.
Read Lane (2007a) and Jones et al (2005) for the emotions experienced
before competition and the impact of these on performance. Compare the
emotional states you listed with those reported by Jones et al. Read how
Jones et al summarized these emotions and, importantly, note that words
sometimes considered as emotions (feeling motivated, confident) were not
considered to be an emotion using the criterion specified.
22 | Mood and sport performance
80
60
T scores
40
20
0
Tension Depression Anger Vigour Fatigue Confusion
Figure 2.2 The iceberg profile: successful (iceberg) and unsuccessful (inverse
iceberg) athletes as proposed by Morgan (1980).
Activity 2.2
Go back to those emotions listed for the task in Activity box 1.1. Develop
a profile associated with success, and a profile associated with failure. Pay
close attention to unpleasant emotional terms such as ‘angry’ and
‘downhearted’. Based on your experiences, is anger or anxiety helpful for
performance, or are these unpleasant affective states harmful to your
performance. Consider how you control your emotions when you feel
anxious before performance. What do you do? By writing these
experiences down you will start to learn about how you experience mood,
how you control mood states that could hamper performance, or how you
psych yourself up to perform successfully.
Evaluating mood–performance relationships and methodological factors that influence this relationship | 23
By 1995, there was considerable debate concerning the utility of mood states
(Renger, 1993; Rowley et al, 1995; Terry, 1995a). In a narrative review, Renger
(1993) questioned the utility of iceberg profiling, citing studies where elite
athletes did not uniformly report an iceberg profile, or non-athletes that showed
an iceberg profile. Renger argued that the POMS was a poor tool in
distinguishing elite from non-elite athletes or from distinguishing athletes from
non-athletes. In a meta-analysis (a method of re-analysing data that seeks to
answer a similar research question), Rowley et al found that POMS measures
accounted for approximately 1 per cent of the variance in performance. With 99
per cent of performance variance unexplained, Rowley et al suggested that
researchers ‘abandon the POMS’. They argued that despite over 200 studies
published, evidence was so equivocal that a more fruitful line of investigation lay
elsewhere.
While both research groups (Renger, 1993; Rowley et al, 1995) are critical of
evidence pertaining to POMS–performance relationships, neither article asks the
question ‘why should mood states relate to sport performance?’ A second review
of mood literature in 1995 by Peter Terry (1995a) outlined methodological
reasons to explain inconsistent mood–performance relationship. Terry
considered why mood states might predict performance and demonstrated that
mood is an effective predictor of performance under certain conditions. Terry
argued that mood states predict performance in cross-sectional studies when a
self-reference measure of performance was used, and when participants were
similar in skill and fitness. He argued that mood has a subtle influence on
performance and that the research design needs to account for this. Beedie, Terry
and Lane (2000) conducted an updated meta-analysis to test Terry’s proposals.
the POMS using a ‘past month’ response timeframe, that is, to think back over
the previous month and provide a single score that summarized these feelings.
However, no consideration of situational factors was undertaken. The athlete
completed the POMS, indicated their level of athletic ability and posted this
information back to the researcher. Consider the following example to illustrate
the problem as reported by Lane (2007a). Athlete A, who is a club level athlete,
receives the POMS in the post on a day when he also receives an enormous gas
bill (negative mood). Athlete B, who is an elite athlete, receives the POMS in
the post on a day when he receives a huge tax rebate (positive mood). If both
complete the POMS when they receive it, athlete A should report a negative
mood and athlete B should report a positive mood. If we compare mood with
performance, it would show that elite athletes report more positive mood states
than non-elite athletes. Clearly, mood states were influenced by what was in the
post. If the researchers do not know the situation in which the measure was
completed, then they will not know what factors influenced mood at the time of
completion. Given the number of factors that influence mood, what might be
more surprising is that mood has predicted performance in some studies. The
following section offers further methodological limitations of some of the early
studies.
How you ask the question shapes the answer you receive: A case for
looking at the response timeframe
Mood states vary from situation to situation. Therefore, researchers should
use a response timeframe of ‘how do you feel right now?’ to assess the transient
nature of mood. The POMS has two principal response timeframes: ‘How have
you been feeling over the past week?’ including ‘today’ and ‘right now’. A great
deal of mood research used the ‘past week’ response timeframe, or did not
specify the response timeframe used. Lane and Terry (2000) highlighted
problems with using a ‘past week’ response timeframe. Consider the issue
through the example contained in Table 2.1. Both athletes report the same
score for anger scores over the past week; however, one athlete is feeling angry
at the time of testing, whereas the other athlete is recalling feelings of anger
from memory.
The key point is that mood states are transitory, and research that explores
mood–performance relationships should ideally assess mood during competition.
However, this is difficult and ethically inappropriate as it could interfere with an
athlete’s performance. The most appropriate time to collect mood data is
approximately one hour before competition using the response timeframe ‘how
do you feel right now?’. Mood researchers should seek to capture the mood
states experienced before competition and so should not use the past month
response timeframe which assesses memories of mood across multiple situations.
Taking psychological state assessments one hour before competition is the
standard approach in anxiety research (see Martens et al, 1990) and should be
applied to mood (see Lane, 2007a). Many of the studies in the meta-analysis by
Rowley et al (1995) do not report the response timeframe used, which is a major
limitation of the early work in this area.
Evaluating mood–performance relationships and methodological factors that influence this relationship | 25
Activity 2.3
Measurement issues
Both Athlete A and Athlete B have the same mood profile for the past
week response timeframe. Athlete A is angry at the time of testing and
Athlete B is not, and the mood states currently being experienced will be
more influential than mood states stored in the memory in terms of their
relation with behaviour in this situation. However, anger scores are
identical for the past week response timeframe, so using this timeframe
leads to an unclear measure as the individual could be angry at the time of
testing, or recalling a memory of a mood, and these affect behaviour and
cognition differently. If both people are exposed to the same set of
frustrations, Athlete A is more likely to respond in an angry manner as he
or she is currently angry.
With reference to your own mood states, consider which would affect your
behaviour more:
individual’s mood (and not the team’s) and analyse performance by win/loss. For
example, a soccer goalkeeper performing in a negative mood may perform
badly but not concede any goals due to good performances from the
surrounding defenders, or they may concede three goals but their team scores
four. It is also unrealistic to expect mood states to predict objective measures
of performance in cross-sectional research where participants are heterogeneous
in terms of skill and ability. Consider the following example to illustrate this
point.
There are two track athletes competing in a 100 m race. Athlete A, an elite
sprinter with a personal best time of 10.00 seconds, reports a negative
mood before the present race. Athlete B, a club sprinter with a personal best
time of 11.00 seconds, reports a positive mood before the same race. If
both athletes run 10.5 seconds and no consideration is given to the
relative quality of their performances, then results would indicate no
relationship between mood and performance. Contrastingly, if the same elite
athlete is compared to another elite athlete, with the same personal best, who
reports a positive mood before the present race and runs 10.00 seconds, the
result would suggest that mood and performance are related. It is therefore
important to develop a self-referenced measure of performance to detect the
relatively subtle influence of mood on performance (see Terry, 1993). Using
the example of the elite and club sprinters cited above, a self-referenced
measure of performance, e.g. comparing current performance against previous
performance, would show that the elite athlete underperformed and the novice
athlete performed above expectation, and this is reflected by variations in
mood.
Activity 2.4
Anger and/or performance relationships
Think carefully about when you have played your sport. What goals did
you set for yourself? What standard of performance would you be happy
with? Now imagine yourself playing in a competition, try to remember how
you felt. Write down the emotions you felt and rate these emotions as
either ‘a little’, ‘somewhat’, ‘moderately’, or ‘very much so’. Think of how
well you performed. Rate whether you performed to expectation or
underperformed. Performing to expectation should be related to positive
mood states and underperformance should be associated with negative
mood states. It might be that you experienced anger and anxiety when
performing successfully. We will look at the nature of anger and anxiety
later in the chapter.
Application 2.1
Meta-analysis results of Beedie et al (2000)
Continued . . .
28 | Mood and sport performance
. . . Continued
Answer: No. The mean effect size was 0.10, suggesting that the
relationship between mood and achievement was minimal. This concurs
with 1 per cent of variance of performance that could be explained by
variations in mood found by Rowley et al (1995).
Answer: Yes. A mean effect size = 0.31 indicates that mood measures
assessed before a single performance have some predictive validity.
Focus 2.2
Lane and Terry’s (2000) conceptual model
Lane and Terry (2000) explored the nature of each mood state assessed in the
POMS. They offered a definition on the nature of each construct, identifying its
antecedents and correlates, and describing its relationship with performance.
After exploring the nature of each mood state in the POMS, Lane and Terry
proposed that depressed mood should have the strongest influence on sport
performance. Depressed mood is characterized by themes such as hopelessness,
sadness and feeling miserable. Sport performance requires athletes to persevere
in the face of adversity, drawing on personal resources to maximize their
potential – in other words, depression is the antithesis of a mindset needed to
bring about optimal performance. However, meta-analysis results of Beedie et al
(2000) indicate a weak relationship between depression and performance.
Lane and Terry (2000) proposed four main hypotheses. The first hypothesis
is that anger, confusion, fatigue and tension will be higher and vigour will be
lower among athletes experiencing depressed mood. The second hypothesis is
that interrelationships among anger, confusion, fatigue, tension and vigour will
be stronger for athletes experiencing depressed mood. The third hypothesis is
that vigour will facilitate performance, and confusion and fatigue will debilitate
performance regardless of the presence or absence of depressed mood. The
fourth hypothesis is that anger and tension will be associated with debilitated
performance among individuals reporting symptoms of depression, whereas
anger and tension will show a curvilinear relationship with performance among
individuals reporting no symptoms of depression.
When viewed collectively, studies testing Lane and Terry’s model offer
reasonable support for the central hypotheses (see Mellalieu, 2003, vs. Lane et
al, 2005a, for a detailed discussion on the utility of the model). The model may
represent a plausible theoretical explanation for the apparently contradictory
findings highlighted in previous reviews of the mood–performance research.
Second, the model provides testable hypotheses relevant to the POMS, a
measure that despite much controversy is still widely used by researchers and
applied sport psychologists.
Increased
anger
Increased
tension Debilitative
Reduced effects
Depression happiness
Reduced
calmness
Reduced Reduced facilitative
vigour effects
Happiness
Vigour Facilitative
effects
Calmness
No depression Happiness
Anger
Curvilinear
Tension effects
Figure 2.3 Revised conceptual model of mood and performance (see Lane,
2007a).
Conclusions
Athletes commonly report that emotional states influence thoughts and
behaviour during competition. Research that has used appropriate methods has
Further reading | 33
found support for the notion that mood states influence performance. A great
deal of research investigated whether mood states of athletes were different to
the mood states of non-athletes, or whether elite athletes have a better
mood than non-elite athletes. I have argued that there is no theoretical basis
for this research question and that it is not surprising that mood–performance
relationships are weak. Lane and Terry (2000) developed a conceptual model
for mood–performance relationships that emphasized the importance of
depressed mood in interpreting POMS scores. Terry et al (1999) developed a
valid and internally reliable scale for assessing athletes before competition,
and thus between the studies, theoretical and methodological issues were
clarified. Lane (2007a) reviews studies that have tested Lane and Terry’s
model and found support for the switching effect for anger–performance
relationships.
Further reading
Books
Lane, A.M. (2007a). ‘The rise and fall of the iceberg: Development of a
conceptual model of mood-performance relationships.’ In: A.M. Lane (Ed.),
Mood and Human Performance: Conceptual, Measurement, and Applied Issues.
Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science, 1–34.
Lane, A.M. (2007c). ‘Developing and validating psychometric tests for use in
high performance settings.’ In: L. Boyar (Ed.), Psychological Tests and Testing
Research. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science, 203–213.
Parkinson, B., Totterdell, P., Briner, R.B., and Reynolds, S. (1996). Changing
Moods: The Psychology of Mood and Mood Regulation. London: Longman.
Journal articles
Beedie, C.J., Terry, P.C., and Lane, A.M. (2000). The profile of mood states and
athletic performance: Two meta-analyses. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 12,
49–68.
Beedie, C.J., Terry, P.C., and Lane, A.M. (2005). Distinguishing mood from
emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 847–878.
Lane, A.M., and Terry, P.C. (2000). The nature of mood: Development of a
conceptual model with a focus on depression. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology,
12, 16–33.
Lane, A.M., Beedie, C.J., and Stevens, M.J. (2005a). Mood matters: A response
to Mellalieu. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 17, 319–325.
Mellalieu, S.D. (2003). Mood matters: But how much? A comment on Lane and
Terry (2000). Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 15, 99–114.
Rowley, A.J., Landers, D.M., Kyllo, L.B., and Etnier, J.L. (1995). Does the
Iceberg Profile discriminate between successful and less successful athletes? A
meta-analysis. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 16, 185–199.
Terry, P.C. (1995a). The efficacy of mood state profiling among elite
competitors: A review and synthesis. The Sport Psychologist, 9, 309–324.
3
Anxiety in sport: Should
we be worried or
excited?
Mark Uphill
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to:
1. Describe the main characteristics and causes of anxiety.
2. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of anxiety measures.
3. Evaluate theories that address the anxiety–performance relationship.
4. Describe some strategies that an applied sport psychologist might use to
help athletes deal with anxiety.
Defining anxiety
An enduring problem in sport psychology research has been the inconsistent
and imprecise use of the terms ‘arousal’, ‘stress’ and ‘anxiety’ (cf. Woodman and
Hardy, 2001a). Given that inconsistent definitions are likely to lead to divergent
conclusions, it is important to be clear about the terminology used. Anxiety
refers to an unpleasant emotion which is characterized by vague but persistent
feelings of apprehension and dread (Cashmore, 2002). According to
Frederickson (2001), there is consensus that an emotion is a cognitively
appraised response to an event, either conscious or unconscious. This is likely to
‘trigger a cascade of response tendencies across loosely-coupled component
systems, such as subjective experience, facial expression, cognitive processing
and physiological changes’ (Frederickson, 2001: 218).
36 | Anxiety in sport: Should we be worried or excited?
Arousal has been defined as ‘the extent of release of potential energy, stored
in the tissues of the organism, as this is shown in activity or response’ (Duffy,
1962: 179). Such a response has been viewed as lying on a continuum from deep
sleep to extreme excitement. This rather vague and imprecise definition of
arousal has given way to increasingly sophisticated conceptualizations. For
example, rather than arousal being considered a unitary response, evidence
suggests that at least three different forms of arousal can be differentiated
(Woodman and Hardy, 2001a): electro-cortical activity (electrical activity
measured in the cortex via an electro-encephalogram, or EEG), autonomic
activity (physiological indices such as galvanic skin response, heart rate or blood
pressure) or behavioural activity (overt activity).
Activity 3.1
We all know how it feels to be anxious, don’t we? Think about an
important competition, one in which your sport performance really
mattered. Think about the days leading up to the event, the day of the
competition, and the minutes immediately prior to competition. How do
you feel when you become anxious? What thoughts do you have? Do you
notice any bodily sensations? How do you behave? Write down all the
symptoms of anxiety that you can recall, whether it be single adjectives
Measurement of anxiety | 37
(e.g. uneasy, nervous) or complete sentences (e.g. ‘I was pacing round the
living room on the morning of the event’ or ‘I couldn’t keep still’). What, if
anything, changed as competition approached? How easy is it for you to
recall how you felt and how valid do you think such descriptions are?
Compare your responses to the items listed in the Competitive State
Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2; Martens et al, 1990). Do you think this
measurement instrument possesses ‘face validity’ (i.e. adequately captures
what you perceive to be anxiety?).
Measurement of anxiety
Since Spielberger’s (1966) seminal work distinguishing between trait and state
anxiety, several scales to measure these constructs have been developed. While
state anxiety concerns an individual’s response to a specific situation, trait
anxiety represents a general disposition to respond to a variety of situations with
heightened levels of state anxiety (e.g. Martens et al, 1990). A 15-item Sport
Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT; Martens, 1977) has historically been used to
measure a person’s level of trait anxiety in sport. This unidimensional measure
(i.e. assuming that trait anxiety has a single dimension) has however been
superseded by the Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS; Smith et al, 1990a). In contrast to
the SCAT, the SAS is a multidimensional (anxiety is comprised of several facets)
instrument comprising 21 items grouped into three sub-scales: worry, somatic
anxiety (one’s perception of physiological symptoms associated with the anxiety
experience) and concentration disruption.
Several studies have indicated that the SAS has at least three items that
illustrate measurement shortcomings (e.g. Prapavessis et al, 2005), particularly
when administered to child athletes. Accordingly, Smith et al (2006)
developed a revised version of the SAS, the Sport Anxiety Scale-2. The SAS-2
has 15 items which load onto three sub-scales each comprising five items:
somatic anxiety (e.g. ‘My body feels tense’), worry (e.g. ‘I worry that I will not
play well’) and concentration disruption (e.g. ‘It is hard to concentrate on the
game’), which, on initial testing, has been demonstrated to possess adequate
validity and reliability.
In sport, Mahoney and Avener (1977) first documented that anxiety could be
interpreted in different ways by athletes. A measure to assess the ‘direction’ of
anxiety – the CSAI-2(d) – was developed by Jones and Swain (1992). Similar to
assessing the frequency of anxiety symptoms, Jones and Swain attached a scale
(ranging from ⫺3, through 0 to 3) to each item of the CSAI-2, asking performers
to rate the extent to which they perceive each thought or feeling to either
debilitate or facilitate performance respectively. Indeed, a model of facilitative
and debilitative anxiety (Jones, 1995; Figure 3.1) presents coping and goal
attainment as important mediators of anxiety interpretation.
Stressor
Individual
differences
Control
Yes No
i.e. positive expectancies of i.e. negative expectancies of
(a) ability to cope (a) ability to cope
(b) goal attainment (b) goal attainment
Symptoms Symptoms
interpreted as interpreted as
facilitative debilitative
Activity 3.2
The three scoring systems of the MRF are provided. Based on your
understanding of anxiety, decide which instrument you would be most
likely to use, and justify why. Having done this, you may wish to refer to the
original article by Krane (1994), and perhaps consider whether by
combining the approaches an MRF-4 might be viable! Use the MRF to plot
your responses 2 weeks, 1 week, 1 day, and 30 minutes prior to a
forthcoming sport competition. What do you think will happen to your
scores and why? Some articles you may wish to refer to are Butt et al,
2003 and Hanton et al, 2004.
Continued . . .
40 | Anxiety in sport: Should we be worried or excited?
. . . Continued
Original MRF
My thoughts are:
My body feels:
I am feeling:
MRF Likert
My thoughts are:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Calm Worried
My body feels:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Relaxed Tense
I am feeling:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Confident Scared
MRF-3
My thoughts are:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Worried Not worried
My body feels:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Tense Not tense
I am feeling:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Confident Not confident
Sources of anxiety | 41
The CSAI-2, the CSAI-2R and the CSAI-2(d) are relatively long instruments
for athletes to complete prior to, or during, competition. The Mental Readiness
Form was developed by Murphy et al (1989) as a brief instrument that could
potentially be used immediately prior to, or even during, competition. Krane
(1994) later extended the MRF by examining three different methods of scoring
the instrument (see Activity box 3.2). Indeed a five-item measure of anxiety is
contained within the recently validated Sport Emotion Questionnaire (SEQ;
Jones et al, 2005). Although researchers (and practitioners) are not short of
instruments that purportedly assess anxiety, several of these instruments possess
a number of limitations that, at the least, demand a healthy dose of scepticism
when interpreting the results.
Sources of anxiety
According to Gould, Petlichkof and Weinberg (1984), if sport psychologists
could identify the antecedents of anxiety in a competitive situation then
appropriate interventions could be designed to help athletes. Owing to the
42 | Anxiety in sport: Should we be worried or excited?
Focus 3.1
Understanding the challenge of facilitative anxiety
ethical issues associated with the manipulation of variables that are hypothesized
to cause anxiety, researchers have tended to examine correlations between
factors that are thought to cause anxiety and the intensity of the anxiety response
(cf. Woodman and Hardy, 2001a). A brief selection of personal and situational
antecedents of anxiety is reported below.
Trait anxiety
Athletes who exhibit high levels of trait anxiety are more likely to interpret
sports situations as threatening compared to their less trait-anxious counterparts
(e.g. Spielberger, 1966). ‘High’ and ‘low’ trait-anxious individuals may not
represent homogeneous groups. Based on the seminal work of Weinberger,
Schwarz and Davidson (1979), some individuals exhibit physiological and
behavioural reactions that are not compatible with a paper and pencil test of trait
anxiety. Individuals who display this response are defined by (a) low scores on
trait anxiety, and (b) high scores on a measure of defensiveness (the Marlowe–
Crowne social desirability scale). This subgroup of low trait-anxious individuals
are labelled as ‘repressors’ in such research and are distinguished from the ‘truly
low anxious’, who score low on both measures of trait anxiety and defensiveness
(e.g. Brosschot et al, 1999). There is the suggestion that repressors are in fact
high anxious individuals (and may not necessarily be cognisant of their
symptoms) who claim not to be anxious on self-report measures. Similarly, high
trait-anxious individuals may also be subdivided into groups based on their
defensiveness scores. Most researchers in sport have not acknowledged this
distinction.
Sources of anxiety | 43
Perfectionism
How perfectionism influences sport performance is subject to considerable
debate. On the one hand, although some view perfectionism as a trait that makes
Olympic champions (e.g. Gould et al, 2002a), others see perfectionism as a
characteristic that undermines rather than facilitates performance (Anshel and
Mansouri, 2005; Flett and Hewitt, 2005). This apparent paradox has been
evidenced in several studies (e.g. Stoeber et al, 2007). Stoeber et al suggested
that perfectionism is a multifaceted construct, and while some dimensions may
be harmful or maladaptive, others may be benign or adaptive. The maladaptive
dimensions have the potential to adversely influence cognitive processes and, by
extension, the anxiety response (Stoeber et al, 2007).
Self-handicapping
Self-handicapping is a term used to describe the process of proactively
reducing effort and creating performance excuses to protect oneself from
potentially negative feedback in evaluative environments such as sport (Berglas
and Jones, 1978). According to Berglas and Jones (1978: 406), self-handicapping
involves ‘any action or choice of performance setting that enhances the
opportunity to externalize (or excuse) failure and to internalize (reasonably
accept credit for) success’. For example, a rugby player might buy a take-away
meal the night before a big game, making the excuse that, in the event of a poor
performance it is attributable to poor nutrition as opposed to any deficit in
personal ability. However, should a positive performance ensue, such a self-
handicap affords the opportunity to enhance one’s self-esteem (e.g. I must be a
good rugby player if I can perform well after eating what I did!)
Time to competition
Studies using the ‘time-to-event’ paradigm (i.e. measuring competitive state
anxiety in the time leading up to competition) support the multidimensional
44 | Anxiety in sport: Should we be worried or excited?
Appraisal
The basic premise of appraisal theories of emotion is straightforward:
emotions appear to be related to how people evaluate events in their lives
(Parrott, 2001). For example, imagine that you have just lost a hockey match by
a single goal and one of your parents is criticising you for poor positioning, which
allowed your opponent to score the critical goal. What emotion(s) would you
experience in response to this situation? Perhaps you would respond angrily if
you consider the criticism to be unjustified and that you were in a poor position
because a team-mate had lost possession. Alternatively, if you consider that your
error directly impacted upon the result you may feel guilty or disappointed.
Several appraisal theories (e.g. Lazarus, 1991; Roseman, 1991; Smith and
Ellsworth, 1985), although differing slightly in their detail, attempt to
understand the role of appraisal in the generation of emotion. One appraisal
theory in particular, cognitive motivational relational theory (CMR; Lazarus,
1991) has been purported to be applicable to sport (Lazarus, 2000a), is
increasingly being used to inform research (e.g. Skinner and Brewer, 2004) and
has received support for some of its tenets (Hammermeister and Burton, 2001;
Uphill and Jones, 2007a). However, in general there is a need for more research
examining the relationships between appraisal components and anxiety in
athletes.
Somewhat equivocal support has been obtained for Martens et al’s predictions
regarding components of anxiety and performance (Burton, 1988; Gould et al,
1984). Indeed, recent meta-analyses (Craft et al, 2003; Woodman and Hardy,
2003) are similarly inconclusive. Importantly, Hardy and Parfitt (1991) observe
that multidimensional anxiety theory attempts to explain the three-dimensional
Effects of anxiety on sport performance | 45
Performance surface
Cognitive
anxiety
Performance
Bifurcation
set
Physiological arousal
The butterfly catastrophe model (Hardy, 1990) contains the addition of two
further dimensions: a bias factor and a butterfly factor. A detailed consideration of
the butterfly catastrophe model is beyond the scope of the present chapter, as it
remains largely untested within sport (see Hardy, 1996b for an exception). The
inclusion of a bias factor is reported to have the effect of swinging the front edge
to the right or left. Although this is quite difficult to visualize, according to this
contention, under high levels of cognitive anxiety, highly self-confident performers
would be hypothesized to withstand a greater intensity of physiological arousal
46 | Anxiety in sport: Should we be worried or excited?
task). Performance effectiveness was maintained under threat although this was
at the expense of reduced processing efficiency, lending stronger support to the
predictions of processing efficiency theory. Besides these cognitive accounts of
how anxiety impacts performance, it is possible that the physiological arousal
associated with anxiety could impact directly upon performance (cf. Jones and
Uphill, 2004).
Application 3.1
‘What if’ scenarios
. . . Continued
Miller (Miller, B., 1997) described how the Australian women’s hockey
team practised under adverse conditions (e.g. gamesmanship, ‘poor’
umpiring decisions) as part of their preparation for the 1988 Olympics.
Why might simulation training reduce athletes’ anxiety? Using
SportDiscus™ or PsycInfo™ can you locate any articles that report the use
of simulation training to help athletes cope with anxiety? How confident
can you be that any reduction in anxiety can be attributed to the technique
of simulation training? Why do you reach this conclusion?
Application 3.2
Cognitive restructuring
For example, you might write, ‘I hate the pressure of trying to meet tight
deadlines, when I’ve not done enough preparation’, or ‘I hate the pressure
of my parents watching me perform a new gymnastics routine for the first
time’. Now recall that pressure situation again. On this occasion, however,
think about the situation in a different light, and attempt to complete the
following sentence:
Rather than merely repeating what you wrote above, you have to focus on
something else besides the fear of making a mistake in front of your
parents in the above example.
Implications and further directions | 49
Focus 3.2
Ethical issues involved in examining the emotion–performance
relationship
Further reading
Books
Lavallee, D., Kremer, J., Moran, A.P., and Williams, M. (2004). Sport psychology:
Contemporary themes. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Further reading | 51
Uphill, M.A., and Jones, M.V. (2007b). ‘“When running is something you
dread”: A cognitive-behavioural intervention with a club runner.’ In: A.M. Lane
(Ed.), Mood and human performance: Conceptual, measurement and applied issues.
New York: Nova Science, 271–295.
Woodman, T., and Hardy, L. (2001). ‘Stress and anxiety.’ In: R.N. Singer, H.A.
Hausenblas, and C.M. Janelle (Eds), Handbook of sport psychology, (2nd Ed.).
Chichester: Wiley, 290–318.
Journal articles
Lane, A.M., Sewell, D.F., Terry, P.C., Bartram, D., and Nesti, M.S. (1999).
Confirmatory factor analysis of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2.
Journal of Sports Sciences, 17, 505–512.
Mellalieu, S.D., Hanton, S., and Jones, G. (2003). Emotional labelling and
competitive anxiety in preparation and competition. The Sport Psychologist, 17,
157–174.
Uphill, M.A., and Jones, M.V. (2007a) Antecedents of emotions in elite athletes:
A cognitive motivational relational perspective. Research Quarterly for Exercise
and Sport, 78, 79–89.
4
Kate Hays
Self-confidence in a
sporting context
One of the most consistent findings in the peak performance literature is the
direct correlation between high levels of self-confidence and successful sporting
performance (Zinsser et al, 2001). Many great athletes attribute their successes
to elevated levels of self-belief, and their failures to a lack thereof, as illustrated
here by Great Britain javelin thrower Steve Backley, ‘if you’re slightly down and
doubting yourself then you’ve lost . . . you’ve lost that battle with yourself to
create a highly skilled performance’ (Jones and Hardy, 1990: 273).
Learning outcomes
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to:
1. Describe and evaluate the integrative model of sport confidence (Vealey,
2001).
2. Identify the sources and types of confidence utilized by athletes.
3. Propose confidence profiling as an assessment method.
Demographic and
Organizational Culture
Personality Characteristics
Achievement
Affect Behaviour
Cognition
Affect
Confidence has been consistently associated with positive emotions such as
excitement and happiness, whereas a lack of confidence has been associated with
anxiety, worry and depression (e.g. Hays et al, 2005). Self-confidence has also
been identified as a moderating factor in the interpretation of pre-competition
Identify the sources and types of confidence utilized by athletes | 55
Behaviour
Self-confidence has also been linked to productive achievement behaviours
such as increased effort and persistence. Research would seem to suggest that
athletes will exert maximum effort in the pursuit of their goals, but only if they
believe they have a reasonable chance of success. A strong sense of confidence
has also been associated with challenging goals being set and the expenditure of
maximal effort and persistence in the achievement of those goals (Bandura,
1997). Thus, athletes that are high in confidence are likely to succeed due to
their productive achievement behaviours.
Cognition
Confident individuals have also been found to be more skilled and efficient in
using the cognitive resources necessary for sporting success (Vealey, 2001). For
example, Bandura and Wood (1989) found that confident individuals remain
task-diagnostic when faced with obstacles and seek process solutions to
problems, whereas less confident individuals become self-diagnostic and focus on
their inadequacies. Furthermore, confidence has been found to influence the
coping processes of athletes. More specifically, athletes who possess a strong
belief in their ability have reported being able to peak under pressure and cope
successfully with adverse situations during competition (Cresswell and Hodge,
2004).
to look back over the months of hard training that they had done and reinforced
their improvement from season to season (see Hays et al, 2007 for an example).
Gender was also found to influence the types of confidence identified by the
athletes. For example, superiority to opposition was identified as a type of
confidence by six of the seven male athletes, as opposed to only one of the seven
female athletes. This type of confidence related to the athlete’s belief that they
were better than their opposition and included technical, physical and
psychological factors. By contrast, female athletes derived confidence from
perceived competitive advantages such as seeing their competitors perform
badly, or crack under the pressure of competition.
It was evident that the sources of confidence identified by world class athletes
might influence the types of confidence they possess. The majority of athletes were
confident about ‘skill execution’, their ability to perform sport-specific skills
technically correctly and fulfil the requirements of their sport or position. It would
seem logical then to view types of sport confidence as evidence-based belief systems
grounded in athletes’ sources of sport confidence. Thus, for an athlete to develop a
robust sense of sport confidence, they would perhaps be best advised to derive their
types of confidence from several sources, as one Olympic medallist highlighted:
As I grew up I was told that I was naturally a great athlete. That gave me
confidence but when I lost why couldn’t I just turn it around? Because that
bubble had burst, I hadn’t won . . . So the confidence has obviously got to be
coming from lots of places otherwise it’s very easily broken just by not winning
once. (Hays et al, 2007: 449)
Activity 4.1
Compare the sources of sport confidence identified by the world class
athletes to the sources of sport confidence identified by the high school and
collegiate athletes in Vealey et al’s (1998) study. What conclusions can you
draw about the organizational culture of these two different athlete groups?
58 | Self-confidence in a sporting context
The first thing I’ll always blame is me, I always look to me first but if I think
‘no it wasn’t me there was something else’, then I look to what else was going
on . . . So yeah, we try to be as objective as possible and as honest as possible,
if I’ve got something wrong I’ve got to admit it . . . we’ve got to be very careful
that we don’t undo ourselves like that (Hays et al, 2005: 1290).
Taken collectively, evidence suggests that protecting and maintaining high sport
confidence levels in the lead-up to competition is desirable. Since research has
shown that the factors responsible for debilitating an athlete’s sport confidence are
associated with the sources from which they derive their confidence, the most
successful interventions might involve identifying an athlete’s particular sources
and types of confidence, and ensuring that these are intact during competition
preparation phases. However, since demographic and organizational factors
influence the sources and types of sport confidence utilized by athletes, and the
factors responsible for debilitating their confidence levels, these factors need to be
considered when assessing the confidence of sport performers.
In addition to the TSCI and SSCI, Vealey et al (1998) developed the Sources
of Sport Confidence Questionnaire (SSCQ) to measure nine sources of
confidence particularly salient to athletes in competitive sport (41 items divided
into nine sub-scales). The SSCQ is at present the only questionnaire designed
specifically to assess athletes’ sources of sport confidence. However, validation of
the SSCQ is based upon high school and collegiate athletes and cannot be
generalized to any other athlete group. In a study examining the sources of sport
confidence in master athletes, Wilson et al (2004) failed to replicate the
proposed nine-factor structure of the SSCQ (Vealey et al, 1998), suggesting
potential inconsistencies between different athlete groups. Their exploratory
factor analyses revealed an eight-factor structure with similar factors to the
SSCQ, but with fewer items and the elimination of the situational
favourableness factor. Thus, demographic and organizational factors need to be
considered when assessing the confidence of sport performers.
1 Originallydeveloped within the realm of clinical psychology, the central tenet of PCT is that individuals strive to make sense of
themselves and their environment by devising theories about their world, testing these theories against reality and then retaining or
revising their theories depending upon their predictive accuracy (Fransella, 1981).
Describe and evaluate confidence assessment measures in sport | 61
Encouraging the athlete to identify a time in their career when they had felt
particularly confident often enables them to construct their types and sources of
sport confidence more easily. The athlete is also asked to recall the time that they
had felt least confident going into an important competition and highlight the
factors responsible for debilitating their sport confidence, which are also
recorded. Finally, the athlete is given the opportunity to add any other important
information that might have been overlooked during the process. Any additional
sources and/or types of confidence generated from this discussion are also
entered into the athlete’s sport confidence profile.
asked ‘What changes do you think you would have to make in order to be a 6 or
a 7?’, ‘How might you go about making these changes?’ and ‘What would be a
good first step?’. Thus, the athlete is prompted to make an accurate evaluation
of their current confidence levels and identify possible strategies using a client-
centred approach to change (see Focus box 4.1)
Focus 4.1
A mini case study example to contextualize the confidence
profiling process
Competition
performances 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Fast start – ability to gain a
Training – getting better good position
of training partners
Competition experience
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Ability to execute an
Feedback from coach appropriate race plan
Describe and evaluate confidence assessment measures in sport | 63
Competition experience
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Level of opposition – low
level = high confidence
Ability to handle nerves
Feedback from coach,
team-mates and parents
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Training in lead-up to
competition
Competition preparation
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Feedback from coach Running style – relaxed
shoulders
Continued . . .
64 | Self-confidence in a sporting context
. . . Continued
The confidence profiling process enables athletes to give an accurate and in-
depth account of their sources and types of confidence, and consider how these
might influence their levels of confidence and subsequent competition
performance. Enabling athletes to talk about their confidence in context (i.e.
why they had felt confident on a particular day, or what had happened in the
lead-up to an event that had facilitated/debilitated their confidence) ensures that
they are able to identify their sources and types of sport confidence with ease.
The identification of confidence debilitators is a particularly important part of
the confidence profiling process, since the factors responsible for debilitating the
athlete’s sport confidence seem to provide the basis from which intervention
strategies might be explored.
The resulting profiles are specific to the individual athlete and also specific to
the sport in which they compete. Consequently, the confidence profiling process
enables individual differences in confidence to emerge. For example, one athlete
might exhibit low confidence in several areas, whereas another might exhibit high
confidence but be over-reliant on specific sources and types of confidence. Each
of these examples would require a different intervention strategy. For example,
sport psychology support might be targeted towards increasing the range of
sources and types of confidence utilized, or enhancing confidence in the areas
already identified, depending upon the individual confidence needs of the athlete.
Describe and evaluate confidence assessment measures in sport | 65
Activity 4.2
Using the confidence profiling process described above (and the
consultancy schedule provided below), conduct a role play consultation
with a classmate to assess their confidence in sport. Reflect upon your
consultancy experience and try to identify any positive and/or negative
aspects of the confidence profiling process. Consider how the information
obtained through this applied approach might differ from information
obtained through more traditional confidence inventories. Can you think of
any way in which confidence profiling might be modified or improved to
best meet the needs of an athlete, sport psychologist and/or coach?
Consultancy schedule
Stage 1: Introducing the idea
5. Show the athlete the profile which will be completed during the
consultancy and explain.
4. Can you think of the time that you felt most confident going into an
important competition? This may not be the time when you produced
your best ever performance.
5. What were you confident about as you stepped onto the track, rink,
poolside, etc? What were you confident about on that day?
6. Can you tell me about anything that happened or any factors that influ-
enced your feelings of confidence during the lead-up to competition?
Continued . . .
66 | Self-confidence in a sporting context
. . . Continued
7. Can you tell me about anything that happened or any factors that
influenced your levels of confidence on the day of competition?
8. Please could you describe to me the time when you felt least
confident going into an important competition? This may not be a time
when you performed unsuccessfully.
9. Can you tell me about anything that happened or any factors that
affected your feelings of confidence during the lead-up to
competition?
10. Can you tell me about anything that happened or any factors that
affected your levels of confidence on the day of competition?
10. Specific probe questions: ‘What do you think was the main factor
responsible for your low levels of confidence?’, ‘What do you think
were the most important factors affecting your confidence?’
11. Are there any areas that you think we have failed to cover relating to
your confidence in sport?
Stage 3: Assessment
Ask the athlete to rate themselves on each of their identified types of sport
confidence.
2. Why do you feel that you are a 3 (for example) on that rather than a
7 (for example)?
would be to ask Sandy to review her self-talk and identify the kind of thinking that
she found helpful, any thoughts that appeared to be harmful, her consequential
feelings and behaviours, and the situations or events that were associated with her
self-talk. Once Sandy had become aware of her maladaptive thoughts, she would
be shown how to modify them through a process of countering. Countering is an
internal dialogue that uses facts and reasons to refute the underlying beliefs and
assumptions that lead to negative thinking (Zinsser et al, 2001). With the help of
the sport psychologist, and through a process of self-reflection, Sandy would be
required to identify and describe the evidence necessary to change her attitudes
and beliefs, and develop a list of alternative positive self-statements to replace her
negative cognitions. For example, instead of thinking ‘I am nervous, I can’t do
this’, Sandy might think ‘I am well prepared and ready to compete’.
Activity 4.3
Repeat the role-play consultation with another classmate and compare the
two profiles. What are the similarities/differences between the confidence
profiles of the classmates you consulted with?
Ethics
Before implementing any scientific support programme, or conducting
research in sport psychology, it is necessary to consider the ethical
implications of such work. For example, while the confidence profiling
process encourages athletes to discuss their most confident experiences in
sport, they are also asked about times when they were not feeling confident
and might have underperformed. It is possible that some athletes might
experience a degree of discomfort in answering these questions.
Consequently, the consultancy should be structured to ensure that it
concludes with the athlete discussing positive sporting experiences. If
completing the confidence profiling process with a participant under the age
of 18, it is vital that parental consent is obtained and that the consultancy
takes place in a public setting where both you and the athlete are in full view
of a third party at all times. Finally, the sport psychologist must ensure that
the athlete is fully informed of the risks associated with the applied work and
completes an informed consent form. It should be made clear to the athlete
Continued . . .
68 | Self-confidence in a sporting context
. . . Continued
that they are free to withdraw consent or participation from the consultancy
at any time, that they are free to refuse to answer any of the questions put to
them, and that no disadvantage would arise from a decision not to complete
the consultancy.
Conclusions
There is a magnitude of research and anecdotal evidence pertaining to the
important relationship between high sport confidence and successful sport
performance. Recent advancements in sport confidence research have provided
evidence for the conceptualization of sport confidence as a multidimensional
construct derived from several sources and comprising several types. These
sources and types are influenced by organizational and demographic factors and,
as such, are unique to each individual athlete. This has implications for
nomothetic confidence inventories designed and developed as research tools.
Consequently, confidence profiling is presented for use in an applied context as
an alternative assessment measure and basis for intervention development.
Further reading
Books
Vealey, R.S. (2001). ‘Understanding and enhancing self-confidence in athletes.’
In: R.N. Singer, H.A. Hausenblas, and C.M. Janelle (Eds), Handbook of Sport
Psychology. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 550–565.
Further reading | 69
Zinsser, N., Bunker, L., and Williams, J.M. (2001). ‘Cognitive techniques for
building confidence and enhancing performance.’ In: J.M. Williams (Ed.),
Applied Sport Psychology: Personal Growth to Peak Performance. Mountain View,
California: Mayfield, 284–311.
Journal articles
Butler, R.J., and Hardy, L. (1992). The performance profile: Theory and
application. The Sport Psychologist, 6, 253–264.
Hays, K., Maynard, I., Thomas, O., and Bawden, M. (2007). Sources and types
of confidence identified by world class sport performers. Journal of Applied Sport
Psychology, 19, 434–456.
Hays, K., Thomas, O., Maynard, I., and Bawden, M. (2005). Sport confidence in
successful and unsuccessful world class performances: A comparison of affect,
behaviour and cognition. Journal of Sports Sciences, 23, 1289–1290.
The future of sport arguably lies in the extent to which athletes can be
nurtured to fulfil their potential. Consider the case of Jennifer Capriati,
encouraged and coached to play tennis as a small child by her father, the family
then moved to Florida so that 10-year-old Capriati could begin an intense
training programme. In her first professional tournament at the age of 13
(Virginia Slims tournament, 1990), she progressed to the finals, losing to
Gabriela Sabatini, who at the time was rated second in the world. The following
year, at 14 years of age, Jennifer reached the semi-final of the French Open and
then won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. At this point she was
experiencing personal difficulties and was reported to say ‘I wasn’t happy with
myself, my tennis, my life, my coaches, my friends . . .’ (cited in Hello Magazine,
www.hellomagazine.com/profiles/jennifercapriati/ accessed 8 July 2005). In
1993 she was arrested for shoplifting and in 1994 was arrested for marijuana
possession. Jennifer withdrew from the sporting world for two years and did not
fully reassert herself on the tennis world until 2001.
Focus 5.1
Commonly used definitions of stress, cognitive appraisal and coping
used in the coping literature are as follows:
Definition of stress
Definition of coping
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to:
1. Identify the common antecedents and consequences of stress among
athletes.
2. Describe key issues in the transactional model of stress and coping.
3. Describe coping classifications and the features of effective coping.
4. Be familiar with coping interventions and considerations of application.
Focus 5.2
Stress is a common experience in sport
Andrew Murray (18 years old) lost in straight sets to Juan Ignacio Chela
in the first round of the Australian Open 2006 (tennis). After making
the biggest jump of any player in 2005 as he surged from 514 to number
65 by the end of the year, Murray has been touted as a future champion.
‘It’s difficult for me to go out there and try and perform to the best that
I can when I’m expected to win all these matches. If you guys [the
media] expect me to play well every single match and every single
tournament then it’s not going to happen.’
‘You don’t think there’s any pressure on me?’ Murray answered after it
was suggested in the media conference that he had received nothing but
good press since he arrived on the circuit. ‘Well, if you don’t think that,
then I’m obviously going to disagree on something. If you guys don’t
think you’re putting pressure on me, then that’s fine. I’ll forget about it.’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/4620592.stm (accessed 3
February 2007)
76 | Stress and coping among competitive athletes in sport
Activity 5.1
Reflect on your personal experiences and identify the extent to which you
agree with the stressors identified, offering a justification for your decision.
stressor identified was in fact stressful for you, offering a brief justification for
this decision.
Decreased sex
drive
During primary appraisal the individual essentially asks themselves ‘What are
the implications of this for me? Does it have potential to harm, hinder or
benefit?’. Primary appraisal results in an event being interpreted in one of three
ways: 1) irrelevant, where there are no implications for well-being, 2)
benign/positive where the event is perceived to preserve or enhance well-being,
and 3) stressful where there is a perceived harm/loss, threat and/or challenge to
well-being. Appraisals of harm/loss are characterized by perceptions that damage
has already been sustained. A threat appraisal occurs when harm or loss is
possible. A challenge appraisal reflects a perception that there may be an
opportunity for mastery and gain (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). The primary
appraisals of harm/loss, threat or challenge are not mutually exclusive, thus it is
possible for an individual to appraise an event in more than one way at the same
time.
Cognitive appraisal
Primary appraisal:
• Irrelevant
• Benign/positive (preserves
or enhances well-being)
• Threat and/or challenge
Secondary appraisal:
• Coping options
• Available resources
Emotional response
Behavioural response
Figure 5.2 Transactional model of stress and coping (adapted from Lazarus and
Folkman, 1984).
You can probably recall having experienced stress yourself, and such self-
reflection is usually quite revealing in determining the underlying causes of these
feelings. There are many factors that may increase the probability of stress
perceptions, however it is not possible to review them all within the context of
this chapter. As such, those antecedents of stress perceptions that are commonly
cited in contemporary coping literature will be reported. These include personal
goals, gender and a sample of situational factors.
Personal goals
There is growing acceptance of the importance of establishing the impact of
personal goals on stress appraisal, and subsequent coping processes (Lazarus,
1999; Hatzigeorgiadis, 2006). Lazarus (1999) suggests that goal commitment is
the most important appraisal variable because, without this, an individual has
nothing at stake. Any threat to goal achievement may motivate an individual
towards a course of action that can reduce the threat and sustain coping efforts.
Carver and Scheier (1998) proposed the control process model of behaviour.
This proposes that during the execution of a task, individuals constantly monitor
their performance in relation to their goal(s). When discrepancies between a goal
and performance are detected (attainment of goal or rate of progress towards
goal) the individual experiences worry. When they perceive they can attain a
goal, approach-focused coping strategies are adopted (planning, effort increase),
whereas when the perception is that they will not attain a goal, avoidance coping
strategies (behavioural and mental disengagement) are utilized (Hatzigeorgiadis,
2006).
Research completed with a male elite cricketer (Holt, 2003) and four elite
female footballers (Holt and Dunn, 2004) found that stress perceptions occurred
when situational demands appeared to threaten seasonal goals. These findings
concur with those of Lewthwaite (1990) who found that higher levels of anxiety
in sport are encountered when personally relevant goals are believed to be
endangered.
Gender
Gender has been well researched in the coping literature as a personal factor
that may impact upon coping. Two main hypotheses have been forwarded in an
attempt to explain gender differences in coping: the socialization hypothesis and
the role-constraint hypothesis (Rosario et al, 1988; Ptacek et al, 1994). The
socialization hypothesis predicts that men are socialized to use more active and
80 | Stress and coping among competitive athletes in sport
instrumental coping behaviours, and women are socialized to use more passive
and emotion-focused behaviours (Ptacek et al, 1994). The traditional female
gender role prescribes dependence, affiliation, emotional expressiveness, a lack
of assertiveness and the subordination of personal needs to those of others. The
traditional male role prescribes attributes such as autonomy, self-confidence,
assertiveness, instrumentality and being goal-oriented. These attributes make it
difficult for men to accept and express feelings of weakness, incompetence and
fear, while for women it would be more difficult to take a proactive problem-
solving stance (Matud, 2004).
Situational factors
There are a range of situational factors that may impact upon coping. Lazarus
(1999) placed these into the four broad categories of demands, constraints,
opportunity and culture. However, within these four categories reside situational
factors including novelty of the situation (Nisbett and Ross, 1980), temporal
factors (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984), duration of the stressor (Lazarus, 1999)
and ambiguity of the situation (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). The most
extensively examined situational factor among coping researchers to date is social
resources. The functional support model (Wills, 1990) suggests that resources
from an individual’s social network, including information, practical assistance
and emotional support, can contribute positively to the construction of
individual coping strategies. For example, Thoits (1995) suggests that social
resources may provide information that can alter perceptions of meaningful
aspects of stressful situations. Research also suggests that the connection
between social resources and coping is stronger in women and girls than in men
and boys. This is partially attributed to cultural influences whereby women,
more than men, are expected to be sensitive to the needs of others (Frydenberg
and Lewis, 1993).
Activity 5.2
Having explored the transactional model of stress and coping, reflect back
on your own experiences. What personal and situational factors do you
believe influence your appraisal of stress and subsequent coping?
Continued . . .
82 | Stress and coping among competitive athletes in sport
. . . Continued
There are conditions emerging that are seemingly influential on the outcome
of coping efforts. It is important to be aware of these conditions when advising
and helping individuals cope with a stressful event. These are as follows:
■ Those coping strategies used with acute (short-term) stressors may become
less effective if the stressor becomes chronic stress (long-term) (Wethington
and Kessler, 1991). For example, avoidance strategies may be effective for
short-term stressors, but non-avoidant strategies may be effective for long-term
stressors.
■ Individuals typically use more than one coping strategy at any point in time
(Gould et al, 1993). Research indicates that those individuals who possess a
wider range of coping responses adapt more effectively to stress than those
with fewer coping options (Gould et al, 1993). However, it should not be
assumed that using lots of coping strategies within a short timeframe is
adaptive. It may be because the coping strategies individuals try are not
effective, and as such they try many different coping strategies (Carver et al,
1993).
■ In order to cope effectively an individual must deal with any emotions resulting
from a stressful encounter. Strong emotions may lead to poor performance
Coping interventions and considerations of application | 83
Smith (1999) suggests that the generalization of coping skills training should
become a focal rather than an incidental consideration. A number of factors are
believed to enhance the generalizability of coping:
■ The extent to which a person believes that a new coping situation calls for the
same coping behaviours learned in training will promote the use of the learned
coping behaviours in the new situation.
84 | Stress and coping among competitive athletes in sport
■ The extent to which newly acquired coping skills can be successfully applied
across a wide range of situations.
Isrealasvili (2002) explored the use of this approach with Israeli adolescents
facing a school-to-army transition. The programme was implemented by school
counsellors with the support of teachers, parents, school graduates and army
representatives. The programme addressed anticipated sources of stress in the
civilian to basic training transition, and the acquisition of coping skills through
group discussion. The intervention also addressed a person’s awareness of their
goals and of the relationship between these goals and possible ways of coping.
The intervention was found to increase enlistees’ self-efficacy to adjust to
military life. It was concluded that coping is effective only if it adequately relates
to the person’s goals.
Table 5.3 Use of maladaptive and adaptive coping strategies by Ellis over the
duration of The Mentor Programme.
88 | Stress and coping among competitive athletes in sport
Having qualitatively explored the views of Ellis regarding each of the coping
packs, she felt they all offered benefits. Ellis set goals to improve her
communication on court. These goals were agreed by mentor and mentee,
having established during the emotional intelligence pack that her emotional
regulation could be improved. Both Ellis and her mentor commented that the
resultant improvements had accrued positive effects for her on-court
performances. Regarding the planning and time management pack, Ellis
surmised ‘the wall planner was good … Jasmine (mentor) set out agendas for me,
like we’d do titles of what I wanted to achieve, when by, what I had on that
month and how I could sort out what I wanted to achieve and things like that’.
When reflecting on the problem-solving pack, Ellis felt this pack structured
thinking and increased options, ‘she just used to branch off with all these
different options and it made me kind of understand like a wider picture’.
Finally, regarding the communication pack, Ellis and her mentor would use it to
work through ‘different scenarios, and also outside of netball things, like how
will it affect me? what will I do? … that was quite good it made me put things
more in perspective’. Ellis concluded that The Mentor Programme had been
beneficial for her because ‘I think I’m a lot more organised … and again that’s
‘cause of mentoring where I just had to organise myself and think what am I
going to achieve and things like that’.
The final activity for this chapter is designed to pull all the preceding
information together. Read through the task presented in Activity box 5.3, and
then re-read the chapter as necessary, identifying the information that will assist
you in its completion.
Activity 5.3
Consider the potential sources of stress, and coping options, for an
individual in the following situation:
An athlete is about to play in their first rugby game having returned from
injury. What are the possible sources of stress for this individual? What
can be done in the months, weeks, days and minutes leading up to the
competition to prevent or cope with these potential stressors? What
coping strategies can be utilized during and post performance to manage
stressors that may occur?
Bear in mind that individuals may use more than one coping strategy at
any point in time, and each strategy may have a different purpose. For
example, positive self-talk may be used to deal with the emotions of the
situation, whereas seeking advice may be used in a direct attempt to
change the situation. The combination of coping strategies used may vary
accordingly as the event unfolds (e.g. immediately post injury, when
discussing rehabilitation, various stages during rehabilitation).
Conclusions
There is a wealth of anecdotal and empirical evidence to suggest that athletes
commonly experience the debilitating effects of stress on performance (Hoar et
al, 2006). Research has sought to identify the sources of stress typically
encountered by athletes, and explore those coping strategies that appear to be
effective in the management of such stressors. This chapter has attempted to
summarize the stress and coping literature, and explore the coping interventions
that have resulted from such research. The main implications for the
construction and implementation of coping interventions have been highlighted
as the chapter draws to a conclusion. The tasks that have been set are designed
around the main contentions of Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional model of
stress and coping (1984). It is hoped that this will facilitate understanding and
subsequent application of this model.
90 | Stress and coping among competitive athletes in sport
Further reading
Books
Frydenberg, E. (2002). Beyond Coping: Meeting Goals, Visions, and Challenges.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hoar, S.D., Kowalski, K.C., Gadreau, P., and Crocker, P.R.E. (2006). ‘A review
of coping in sport.’ In: S. Hanton, and S. Mellalieu (Eds), Literature Reviews in
Sport Psychology. Hauppage, NY: Nova Science Publishers, 53–103.
Lazarus, R.S. (1999). Stress and Emotion: A New Synthesis. New York: Springer.
Journal articles
Ntoumanis, N., and Biddle, S.J.H. (1998). The relationship of coping and its
perceived effectiveness to positive and negative affect in sport. Personality and
Individual Differences, 24, 773–778.
Rees, T., and Hardy, L. (2004). Matching social support with stressors: Effects
on factors underlying performance in tennis. Psychology of Sport and Exercise,
5, 319–337.
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to:
1. Describe the traditional performance profiling technique and adaptations to
this procedure.
2. Describe and explain the theoretical roots of performance profiling.
3. Critically evaluate the profiling literature and outline the uses, impacts and
limitations of the technique.
Activity 6.1
In relation to the sport you are currently playing, identify the key attributes
or skills that help you to perform in that sport. What are the physical,
technical, attitudinal, mental and tactical skills that enable you to play well?
Continued . . .
92 | Performance profiling
. . . Continued
PERFORMANCE QUALITIES
Mental/ Other
Physical Technical Tactical
attitudinal qualities
Game
E.g. Strength Passing Concentration Hydration
awareness
One thing that strikes many athletes when completing this task is how
difficult it is to accurately identify the skills that enable them to perform well,
perhaps because they are rarely asked to consider what it takes to be
good in their sport. Second, the list of qualities that you have identified in
this first attempt is rarely a definitive list. Invariably you will need to reflect
over time and add to the list of skills before you can be sure that it closely
resembles those required for elite performance in your sport. This process
of self-reflection and self-awareness is at the heart of Butler’s (1989)
performance profiling technique and is discussed in more detail in the text.
brought the boxers together as a group to agree upon the 20 most important
qualities. Each boxer was finally asked to rate themselves on a scale of 1–7 to
help identify their perceived strengths and weaknesses. Butler called the final
product a ‘self perception map’, later termed the performance profile (Butler
and Hardy, 1992). Following reflection and several years consulting with the
British Olympic Boxing team, in 1992 he formalized the performance profiling
procedure, detailing specifically how the procedure can be employed within
individual and team settings in addition to defining its theoretical roots.
Performance Profile
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
In phase two, when generating the qualities to form the basis of the profile, the
procedure differs for group and individual settings. In a group setting, the
qualities are developed through brainstorming in small groups that are typically
based on positions within the team. A soccer squad, for example, would be split
into goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and attacker groups. Each group is then
asked to consider ‘what in your opinion are the qualities or characteristics of an
elite athlete in your sport?’ (Butler and Hardy, 1992: 256). Each group would
then spend 10–20 minutes discussing and recording the qualities they think are
essential for elite performance in their chosen position. Each group then presents
their findings back to the whole team with discussion where appropriate. Athletes
are then provided with a blank performance profile (see Figure 6.2) and asked to
identify, from all the qualities presented by the groups, the 20 most important
qualities related to their position and style of play. It is important at this stage that
athletes are asked to define each of the qualities. This is particularly important to
The traditional performance profiling technique and adaptations to this procedure | 95
Quality Meaning
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
make sure that any future ratings of profile attributes (by athlete and/or coach)
are based on the same definition. In doing so, consultants can be more confident
in any comparison of profile ratings over time or between athlete and coach.
The third and final profiling phase involves assessment of the qualities chosen
by the athlete(s) on a scale of 1 (lowest possible ability) to 10 (ideal level for each
quality). The ratings are in relation to the athlete’s current perception of their
96 | Performance profiling
Activity 6.2
Having identified the list of qualities for your sport in Activity box 6.1, now
choose the 20 most important qualities from that list. Using the blank
profile provided in Figure 6.2, enter your qualities into each segment on
the edge of the circular target and then rate yourself on the scale of 1
(lowest possible ability) to 10 (ideal level for each quality).
ratings, and provide a brief statement, in the final column, to explain what
you are going to do to maintain and/or improve these strengths.
ability on each of the qualities. The completed profile then provides a useful
visual display of the athlete’s strengths and weaknesses which can then be used
as a basis for identifying specific goals and training programmes to enhance those
areas of weakness.
There are a number of potential benefits and pitfalls with this coach/athlete
comparison approach. First, consultants should be wary of how much disparity
there is between ratings before getting athlete and coach to discuss the findings.
Clearly, if there is already a conflict or clash of personalities between the coach
and athlete, getting them to compare ratings may be problematic. Therefore
consultants need to use their judgement in determining the suitability for adopting
this profiling approach and look for circumstances when such comparisons will
facilitate a positive influence on the athlete’s performance development.
Activity 6.3
Based on your profile in Activity box 6.2, it would now be useful to examine
how the addition of an importance rating as used by Jones (1993)
influences the priority of qualities requiring improvement. Using the table
below, firstly record your qualities and their ratings in the first two columns.
Then determine an ideal rating for each quality (in most instances this is
likely to be 10) and rate the quality as to how important it is for performance
(1, not important at all, to 10, extremely important). In the final column, take
your current rating away from the ideal and then multiply by the importance
rating: the higher the score, the greater the priority for improving the quality.
The theoretical roots of performance profiling | 99
Butler and Hardy (1992) proposed that the autonomy supportive nature of
profiling in the initial assessment phase would help to reinforce the athlete’s
intrinsic motivation for their sport. Furthermore profiling, when repeated
over time, could help to reinforce improvements made on key
performance attributes, thereby helping to improve athlete perceptions of
competence. Finally, the group nature of the profiling procedure could
help facilitate greater perceptions of relatedness as athletes communicate,
interact and discuss performance-related issues with fellow team-mates and
coaching staff.
Enhanced self-awareness
Butler and Hardy (1992), in introducing the performance profile, suggest that
the technique increases the athlete’s self-awareness by encouraging the athlete to
explore the qualities that define a successful performer in their own sport. In an
examination of national under-21 netball player perceptions of the profiling
procedure, the majority of players indicated that profiling was useful, citing an
increase in self-awareness as a reason for its usefulness (Palmer et al, 1996).
102 | Performance profiling
Developing confidence
Bandura (1997) outlines four sources of efficacy information: performance
accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion and interpretation of
physiological arousal (see also Chapter 4). The use of performance profiling as
a monitoring and evaluation technique (see below) could help reinforce a
perception of performance accomplishment. For example, Butler et al (1993:
61) suggest that using the performance profile to monitor performance
improvements could improve athlete confidence ‘in that improvement
reinforces a belief in the preparation’. The authors do warn, however, that using
the profile to monitor progress could negatively influence an athlete’s
confidence if their profile ratings fail to improve, particularly in the lead-up to
competitions.
Increases the athlete’s Facilitates more internal Provides a useful basis for
self-awareness control over performance structuring training
development
Enhances the coach’s/
Provides a useful basis for
sport psychologist’s
the goal-setting process
understanding of the athlete
the case with athletes who have low self-awareness, are new to the sport or are
young in age (Weston, 2005). In these instances the practitioner must facilitate
coach involvement to enable greater accuracy in the construction of profile
attributes. Furthermore, with young athletes in whom brainstorming the key
qualities may prove difficult, it would be worthwhile providing them with a list
of appropriate qualities from which they can then choose. While not entirely
adhering to Butler and Hardy’s (1992) suggestions, this process still enables the
athletes to feel that they have been involved in the process of developing their
profile. A secondary issue relating to profile quality identification is that an
athlete’s profile rarely captures the true essence of an individual’s personal
constructs after the first attempt. Indeed, several additional reflections on the
profile are needed before an athlete can be reasonably sure that the profile fully
represents the necessary qualities needed for successful performance in their
sport/position. Thus the profiling procedure can be time consuming, potentially
resulting in a lack of engagement from both athlete and coach.
Limitations in the profile can also be found in the rating of profile attributes.
First, the subjective nature of athlete rating can result in issues with regard to the
accuracy of ability ratings. There may also be issues with athletes being dishonest
or self-serving in their ratings. Furthermore, continued rating of the profile over
time may result in a decrease in profile ratings, adversely affecting the athletes’
confidence. Finally, athletes have voiced concern at rating profiles in preseason
or early season when they have little playing experience in order to judge their
ability on each quality (Weston, 2005). Given these concerns it is important that
practitioners are wary of when (and when not) to profile athletes throughout a
season in order that accurate ratings can be produced. It is also important to
encourage athletes to choose a rating scale that is meaningful and easily
understood so as to increase the accuracy of ratings. Finally, it is critical that
athletes are clearly instructed as to the benefits that they will gain through
profiling and the confidential nature of the findings so as to encourage greater
honesty in profile ratings.
Doyle and Parfitt (1999), in examining the impact of mood state on profile
ratings, provide an important consideration when attempting to use the
technique. The authors found that a positive mood state prior to profile rating
would result in elevated responses to profile constructs whereas negative or
neutral mood states did not affect profile responses. Although this is not
necessarily a limitation of the profiling procedure, it is important that consultants
and coaches are aware that positive mood states prior to profile completion can
result in athletes overestimating their ability on profile qualities.
Conclusions
Initial assessment within sport psychology is fundamental to allow the
consultant to correctly ascertain an athlete’s key strengths and weaknesses and
thus determine intervention strategies to aid improvements in performance.
Performance profiling has been successfully employed across a range of ages,
abilities and sports, providing a useful method of assessment which places the
106 | Performance profiling
Further reading
Books
Butler, R.J. (1989). ‘Psychological preparation of Olympic boxers.’ In: J.
Kremer, and W. Crawford (Eds), The Psychology of Sport: Theory and Practice.
Belfast: BPS Northern Ireland Branch, 74–84.
Butler, R. (1997). ‘Performance profiling: Assessing the way forward.’ In: R.J.
Butler (Ed.), Sports Psychology in Performance. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann,
33–48.
Further reading | 107
Journal articles
Butler, R.J., and Hardy, L. (1992). The performance profile: Theory and
application. The Sport Psychologist, 6, 253–264.
Butler, R.J., Smith, M., and Irwin, I. (1993). The performance profile in practice.
Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 5, 48–63.
Dale, G.A., and Wrisberg, C.A. (1996). The use of a performance profile
technique in a team setting: Getting the athletes and coach on the ‘same page’.
The Sport Psychologist, 10, 261–277.
D’Urso, V., Petrosso, A., and Robazza, C. (2002). Emotions, perceived qualities,
and performance of rugby players. The Sport Psychologist, 16, 173–199.
Neither are the two arts of music and gymnastics really designed, as is often
supposed, the one for the training of the soul, the other for training of the body.
What then is the real object of them?
I believe, I said, the teachers of both have in view chiefly the improvement of
the soul. (Plato, The Republic)
This chapter describes the science underlying the effects of music in sport and
exercise. Recent theoretical advances pertaining to the effects of music in these
contexts are discussed, and relevant literature is critically appraised. Also, a new
instrument is presented – the Brunel Music Rating Inventory-3 – that can be used
to assess the motivational qualities of music in sport and exercise. The chapter is
peppered with examples of how music can be applied and concludes with some
suggestions for future research.
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to:
1. Describe the main constituents of music and its psychological,
psychophysical, psychophysiological and ergogenic effects.
2. Present and discuss the conceptual/theoretical models that have been
advanced to explain the effects of music in the domain of sport and
exercise.
3. Apply an objective method for the selection of music that is appropriate for
sport and exercise contexts.
4. Design some basic music-related interventions for athletes or exercise
participants.
During the last two decades, music has become almost ubiquitous in venues
associated with physical exercise, sports training or competition. It is played in
gymnasiums, athletic stadiums and even through underwater speakers in
swimming pools. Is such music played in order to promote greater work output
or does it simply make participation in an activity a little more pleasurable? If
music does indeed increase work output or enjoyment of an activity, how can we
go about maximizing such benefits? These are questions that will be addressed
in this chapter using, in part, the author’s own research findings and applied
practice.
Through a cursory examination of popular myth and folklore, one might reach
the conclusion that music has a profound influence on the human psyche. The
Pied Piper of Hamelin took revenge on the town’s dishonourable officials by
Introduction: An overview of music in sport and exercise | 111
Application 7.1
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
The use of anthemic chanting that reverberates around a rugby crowd can
be a tremendous source of inspiration to the players. Most great teams
have a signature chant or song. For example, England rugby fans sing the
rousing negro spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. This was
spontaneously adopted in March 1988 during a game against Ireland
when Chris Oti, a black player, scored a sensational hat-trick for England.
The recital of this hymn, whether in the stands or the players’ dressing
room, serves to promote feelings of patriotism, unity and pride.
In the decade since the review of Karageorghis and Terry (1997), there has
been a marked increase in the number of studies examining the effects of music
in sport and exercise. This is evidenced by the small number of related studies (k
⫽ 13) cited in Karageorghis and Terry’s review which covered research
conducted over the 25-year period since the review of Lucaccini and Kreit
(1972). In the subsequent decade, at least 42 related studies have been
published. As well as an increase in the quantity of studies, there has also been a
Music in sport and exercise – theoretical developments | 113
Some aspects of music selection have to do with how music is composed and
performed, whereas others have to do with how it is interpreted by the listener.
Rhythm response and musicality, which determine the energy and mood of the
music, are internal factors. This means they have to do with the way in which the
music has been put together: the composition, the tempo, the instrumentation
and so on. The cultural impact of the music and extra-musical associations are
external factors, meaning that they are associated with the listener’s
interpretation of the music and their musical experiences.
114 | The scientific application of music in sport and exercise
Karageorghis et al (1999) showed that it is the internal factors which are more
important in predicting how a person will respond to a piece of music and so the
four factors that contribute to the motivational qualities of a piece of music are
hierarchical in nature. The implication is that when selecting for a group with
different musical experiences, it is possible to select music with motivational
properties, as careful attention can be given to the internal factors. The
relationship between internal and external factors, the motivation qualities of
music and potential benefits can be seen in Figure 7.2.
Hierarchy
Arousal
1 Rhythmic control
response
Internal
factors
Exercise
2 Musicality adherence
Motivational Reduced
qualities RPE
Cultural Pre-event
3 impact routine
External
factors
Improved
4 Association mood
Activity 7.1
The Brunel Music Rating Inventory-3
Strongly disagree
Strongly agree
In-between
Add the six items for a score between 6 and 42. A score in the range 36–42
indicates high motivational qualities in the piece of music, a score in the
range 24–35 indicates moderate motivational qualities, while a score below
24 indicates that the rated track lacks motivational qualities or is oudeterous.
116 | The scientific application of music in sport and exercise
operationalized the term oudeterous music as music which is neither motivating nor
demotivating. This was necessary owing to the confusion that may have ensued
through using the term neutral music, which has connotations that transcend the
motivational qualities of music (cf. neutral colours, neutral emotions, neutral point
of view, etc.). Many subsequent studies used the BMRI and its derivatives to
objectively rate the motivational qualities of music used in experimental conditions
(e.g. Karageorghis and Lee, 2001; Atkinson et al, 2004; Elliott et al, 2004; Crust
and Clough, 2006; Karageorghis et al, 2006a; Simpson and Karageorghis, 2006).
Through their research and application of the BMRI, Karageorghis and his
collaborators found certain limitations in its psychometric properties and
applicability in exercise and sport. This led them to radically redesign and
revalidate the instrument (Karageorghis et al, 2006b). The process began with an
extensive qualitative appraisal of the scale by exercise participants. The results of
this contributed to a new item pool and each item was structured to refer to an
action, a time, a context and a target at the same level of generality (cf. Azjen and
Fishbein, 1977). The action concerned motivation, the time reference was during
exercise, the context was exercise and the target was a property of the music
such as melody or tempo. Hence, the generic form of each item was: ‘The
property [e.g. melody] of this music would motivate me during exercise’. For the
purposes of this chapter, in Activity box 7.1 there is a slightly modified version
of the BMRI-2 (the BMRI-3) included which can be used to rate the
motivational qualities of music for both exercise and sport contexts.
Improved mood
Rhythm Arousal control
response Dissociation
Personal Musicality Reduced RPE
factors Cultural Greater work output
impact Improved skill acquisition
Associations Flow state
Enhanced performance
Figure 7.3 Conceptual framework for benefits of music in sport and exercise
contexts.
Source: Reproduced with permission from Australian Psychological Society Ltd.
Modifiable music
music e.g., visual, auditory
Acoustical properties
1
Inspirational lyrics1
e.g., “I can climb a
mountain high”
2
Exposure
e.g., radio, music TV
Modifiable emotional
content and intensity
mediators (selection)
Figure 7.4 A model of young tennis players’ use of music to manipulate emotional state. 1= Interview data, 2 = Diary data,
3 = Questionnaire data, 4 = Interview observation data.
Source: Reproduced with permission from Human Kinetics. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 2007, 29, 584–607.
Pre-task music | 119
Application 7.2
Football’s Coming Home
When England football fans hear the chant ‘It’s coming home, football’s
coming home’ from the song Three Lions performed by popular TV
comedians Badiel and Skinner, they immediately think of the 1996
European Soccer Championships hosted by England and are reminded of
the sense of optimism and expectation that surrounded this event. The
lyrics alluded to the fact that England, the spiritual home of football, had
not won a major championship since the World Cup they hosted in 1966.
Unfortunately, it was not to be for England on this occasion, however, the
catchy lyric served to bridge the gap between a mere soccer tournament
and a stage for the nation’s hopes and dreams.
Pre-task music
A small number of studies have investigated music as a pre-task stimulant or
sedative. Pre-task music describes the introduction of music before, as opposed
to during, a task. For example, Karageorghis et al (1996) examined the effects of
fast tempo, energizing music and slow tempo, relaxing music on grip strength.
Participants produced significantly higher hand-grip dynamometer scores after
listening to stimulative music compared to sedative music or a white noise
control. White noise is a random sound with equal power at all frequencies (flat
power spectral density) which equates to featureless noise in the perception of
the listener. White noise is analogous therefore to white light in that it blocks
other frequencies and distracts the listener from other sounds in their
environment. Sedative music yielded lower scores than white noise. The authors
concluded that a simple motor task such as grip strength provides a sensitive
proxy measure of the psychophysiological effects of music.
Pates et al (2003) examined the effects of pre-task music on flow states and
netball shooting performance using an idiographic, single subject, multiple-
baselines, across-subjects design (n = 3). Two participants reported an increase
in their perception of flow and all three dramatically improved their shooting
performance. The netball players also reported that the intervention helped
120 | The scientific application of music in sport and exercise
them to control the emotions and cognitions impacting upon their performance.
Pates et al concluded that interventions including self-selected music and
imagery could enhance athletic performance by triggering emotions and
cognitions associated with flow.
Application 7.3
Olympic double-trap shooting champion, Richard Faulds
Asynchronous music
Most research has examined the impact of background music where it is used
simply to change the environment during the performance of a sport- or
exercise-related task. Asynchronous use of music, as this is known, occurs when
there is no conscious synchronization between movement and music tempo. That
is not to say that unintentional synchronous movement does not occur. For
example, the Brazilian football team has a large contingent of percussion players
among its supporters. Many observers have noted that the Brazilian style of play
often appears to emulate the lilting swing of the samba, a rhythm synonymous
with Brazilian culture. Indeed the national team are commonly referred to as the
Asynchronous music | 121
Application 7.4
Charlotte, the triathlete
A body of work has investigated the relationship between working heart rate,
usually during an exercise task, and preference for music tempo (e.g.
Karageorghis et al, 2006a). Such work stems from the notion espoused by many
exercise practitioners that music tempo should be allied to expected heart rate
(see Gfeller, 1988). Also, work in the field of experimental aesthetics (e.g.
Berlyne, 1971) indicates that the arousal potential of stimuli determines
preference. By arousal potential, Berlyne meant the amount of activity that
stimuli induce in areas of the brain such as the reticular activating system.
Stimuli that have a moderate degree of arousal potential are liked most and the
degree of liking decreases towards the extremes of arousal potential in a classic
inverted-U relationship.
Early research tested the hypothesis that people prefer auditory stimuli with
tempi within the range of normal heart rate patterning during everyday activity
(e.g. 70–100 bpm). For example, Iwanaga (1995a) required participants to
search for their favourite tempo through a process of self-regulation wherein
they adjusted the frequency of a 440 Hz pure tone. As predicted, the preferred
tempi were close to heart rate. Iwanaga (1995b) then sought to extend this line
of investigation to a musical stimulus through examining the relationship
between resting heart rate and music tempi preferences. Participants were able
to control the tempo of the music using a computer and, as in the previous study,
there was a significant positive relationship between heart rate and preferred
tempo.
Figure 7.7 Significant two-way interaction for exercise intensity ⫻ music tempo.
Note. * p ⬍ .05.
Source: Karageorghis et al, Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 26, 240–250. With permission.
35
30
25 Interest scores
Effort scores
20
Score
Pressure scores
15 Global flow scores
10 Preference scores
0
Fast tempi Medium tempi Mixed tempi No music
Test Conditions
Figure 7.8 Combined male and female mean scores for Intrinsic Motivation
Inventory sub-scales, global flow and preference ratings.
Source: Karageorghis et al, International Journal of Sports Medicine. DOI: 10.1055/s–2007-989226, Georg Thieme Verlag.
With permission.
suggested that there may be a step change in preference between 70 and 75 per
cent maximum heart rate in which participants express greater preference for
fast tempi music. This is also the point at which they begin to rely more upon
anaerobic pathways for energy production and become more acutely aware of
physiological sensations (Rejeski, 1985).
If you wish to find out the tempo of any given piece of music, you can try
searching on the internet. There are more and more websites in development
dedicated to presenting various characteristics of music that include tempo.
Examples of such websites include www.thebpmbook.com, www.ez-tracks.com
or, in the case of dance and hip hop selections, www.jamglue.com. There are also
various software packages such as Tangerine (www.potionfactory.com), which
can assess the tempo of each track on your PC and automatically add this
information to an iTunes™ library. Table 7.1 shows the tempi of a range of
music selections that have proved popular in the domain of sport and exercise.
Activity box 7.2 encourages you to create a music programme to accompany a
typical training or exercise session. You might use the internet sites presented
above to complete this exercise.
Szabo et al (1999) found that a switch from slow to fast tempo music yielded
an ergogenic effect during cycle ergometry. The practical implication of this
finding is that a change of music tempo from slow to fast may enhance
participants’ motivation and work output, especially when work level plateaus or
in the latter stages of an exercise bout. Similarly, Atkinson et al (2004) indicated
that the careful application of asynchronous music during a simulated 10 km
cycle time-trial could be used to regulate work output. The music was
particularly effective in the early stages of the trial when perceived exertion was
relatively low. Using the BMRI to rate the motivational qualities of
accompanying music, participants supported the prediction that rhythmical
components of music contribute more to its motivational qualities than melodic
or harmonic components (Karageorghis et al, 1999).
Activity 7.2
An example of how musical selections can be moulded around
the components of a typical training session
Now prepare your own version of the above table and use the music
programme to give your training sessions a boost.
128 | The scientific application of music in sport and exercise
study of anaerobic performance using the Wingate test (a maximal effort over
30 s) showed no benefit of music (Pujol and Langenfeld, 1999). It appears likely
that the intensity of physiological feedback would overwhelm the effects of
music at maximal and supramaximal intensities. This conclusion was
corroborated in a subsequent study (Tenenbaum et al, 2004) using a hill-running
task at 90 per cent V̇O2 max which showed that although motivational
asynchronous music did not influence perceptions of effort, it did shape
participants’ interpretations of fatigue symptoms.
Research has not always supported the benefits of motivational music. For
example, Elliott et al (2004) showed that, compared to a control condition,
motivational music enhanced affect during sub-maximal cycle ergometry, but
showed no benefits over oudeterous music; and neither music condition
influenced the distance cycled. However, the authors concede that the
motivational music tracks scored relatively low on the BMRI (M = 20.92; BMRI
max score = 33.33), which may explain the lack of support for theoretical
propositions.
Synchronous music
Synchronous music describes conscious synchronization between rhythmical
aspects of music (e.g. tempo) and movement patterns during sport- or exercise-
related tasks. People have a strong tendency to respond to the rhythmical
qualities of music. This tendency sometimes results in synchronization between
the tempo or speed of music and an athlete’s or exercise participant’s
movements. When movement is consciously performed in time with music then
the music is said to be used synchronously.
Application 7.5
Haile impressive
One of the earliest and arguably best-designed studies (Anshel and Marisi,
1978) compared synchronous and asynchronous music using a cycle ergometer
endurance task. The researchers found that endurance was prolonged by the use
of synchronous music relative to asynchronous music and a no-music control
condition. In both the non-synchronous conditions, a blinking light was provided
for participants to synchronize their pedal rate to, thus isolating the effect of the
music.
Another recent study (Karageorghis et al, 2007) examined the effects of two
experimental conditions, motivational synchronous music and oudeterous
synchronous music, and a no-music control on four dependent measures during
treadmill walking at 75 per cent maximal heart rate: time to exhaustion, RPE,
in-task affect and exercise-induced feelings states. The authors hypothesized that
132 | The scientific application of music in sport and exercise
10
RPE
5
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time (%)
2
Feeling Scale Scores
⫺1
⫺2
⫺3
⫺4
⫺5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time (%)
the motivational synchronous music condition would yield the most positive
outcomes followed by the oudeterous music condition. It was also expected that
RPE during the early stages of the task would be lower in the motivational music
condition when compared to the oudeterous and control conditions. The results
indicated that RPE was lowered, and in-task affect was enhanced at moderate
work intensity (first half of the exercise bout) during the motivational
synchronous music condition (see Figure 7.11). This condition also yielded a 14
per cent increase in endurance over a no-music control. Both experimental
conditions consistently yielded more positive outcomes than the no-music
control.
Until recently, there had been no research into the effects of synchronous
music on anaerobic endurance performance. Simpson and Karageorghis (2006)
sought to address this gap in the knowledge by testing the effects of synchronous
music during 400-metre track running. Their findings indicated that both
motivational and oudeterous music elicited faster times than a no-music control
(p2 ⫽ .24; see Figure 7.12), however times associated with the two
experimental conditions did not differ. This would suggest that the motivational
qualities of music are not of critical importance when it is used synchronously for
an anaerobic endurance task.
73.4
73.2 (1.29)
73.0
(1.20)
Mean time (s)
72.8
72.6
(1.39)
72.4
72.2
72.0
71.8
Motivational Oudeterous No-music control
Conditions
The body of work into asynchronous music has yielded some fairly robust
findings – particularly when used as an adjunct for sub-maximal exercise – and
it is perhaps time for the work to be extended to more externally valid, real-life
environments. In particular, interventions designed to enhance public health
could easily be structured around music programmes that correspond with
different ranges of expected heart rate. The health benefits and motivation
outcomes associated with such programmes should be investigated. Similarly,
there is tremendous scope for the use of music in physiotherapy rehabilitation
programmes. Indeed, the author is engaged in a quasi-experimental study with
the NHS (The Music in Rehab Project: www.westfocus.org.uk/Health/
p18_Music_in_Rehab.aspx) using an array of psychological and psychobiological
outcome measures.
The experimental work into exercise heart rate and preferred music tempo
should be extended to examine whether there is a step change somewhere
between 70 per cent and 75 per cent maximal heart rate at which fast tempi are
more likely to be preferred. Also, the music variable of intensity (volume) needs
to be examined in addition to tempo as this can be easily manipulated by the
listener. Moreover, the BMRI-2 requires further testing of its validity and
reliability; in particular, criterion validity and test-retest reliability which were
not examined as part of the initial validation process.
Conclusions
There are now three complementary conceptual approaches underlying the
study and application of music in sport and exercise contexts (Karageorghis et al,
1999; Terry and Karageorghis, 2006; Bishop et al, 2007). Music can be applied
to exercise, sports training and competition in many different ways. One of the
main benefits of music use is that it enhances psychological state, which has
implications for optimizing pre-competition mental state and increasing the
enjoyment of exercise. Used synchronously, music can boost work output and
makes repetitive tasks such as cycling or running more energy efficient. It is
hoped that through judicious application of the principles outlined in this
chapter, you will be able to harness the psychological, psychophysical,
psychophysiological and ergogenic effects of music with greater precision. The
author anticipates that in the next decade, music-related exercise interventions
will play a significant role in the battle against obesity and inactivity throughout
the developed world.
I put together a playlist and listen to it during the run-in. It helps psych me up
and reminds me of times in the build-up when I’ve worked really hard, or felt
good. With the right music, I do a much harder workout. (Paula Radcliffe,
marathon world record holder)
Acknowledgements
Much of the Brunel-based work presented in this chapter would not have
been possible were it not for the author’s longstanding collaboration with
Professor Peter Terry (University of Southern Queensland, Australia) and
Professor Andrew Lane (University of Wolverhampton, UK). He is most grateful
for their wise counsel, kindness and patience. The author would also like to
thank his graduate students from whom he has drawn, and continues to draw,
much inspiration: Dr David-Lee Priest, Dr Kelly Ashford, Dr Ruth Hewston, Dr
Daniel Bishop, Dr Georgios Loizou, Leighton Jones, Massimo Vencato, Roberto
Forzoni, Michael Kouzaris and Harry Lim.
136 | The scientific application of music in sport and exercise
Further reading
Books
Juslin, P.N., and Sloboda, J.A. (2001). Music and Emotion: Theory and Research.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lucaccini, L.F., and Kreit, L.H. (1972). ‘Music.’ In: W.P. Morgan (Ed.),
Ergogenic Aids and Muscular Performance. New York: Academic Press, 240–245.
North, A.C., and Hargreaves, D.J. (Eds) (2008). The Social and Applied
Psychology of Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Terry, P.C. (2004). ‘Mood and emotions in sport.’ In: T. Morris and J. Summers
(Eds), Sport Psychology: Theory, Applications and Issues, (2nd Ed.). Brisbane:
Wiley, 31–57.
Journal articles
Anshel, M.H., and Marisi, D.Q. (1978). Effects of music and rhythm on physical
performance. Research Quarterly, 49, 109–113.
Elliott, D., Carr, S., and Savage, D. (2003). Effects of motivational music on
work output and affective responses during sub-maximal cycling of a
standardized perceived intensity. Journal of Sport Behavior, 27, 134–147.
Karageorghis, C.I., and Terry, P.C. (1997). The psychophysical effects of music
in sport and exercise: A review. Journal of Sport Behavior, 20, 54–68.
Karageorghis, C.I., Terry, P.C., and Lane, A.M. (1999). Development and
validation of an instrument to assess the motivational qualities of music in
exercise and sport: The Brunel Music Rating Inventory. Journal of Sports Sciences,
17, 713–724.
Karageorghis, C.I., Jones, L., and Low, D.C. (2006a). Relationship between
exercise heart rate and music tempo preference. Research Quarterly for Exercise
and Sport, 77, 240–250.
Karageorghis, C.I., Priest, D.L., Terry, P.C., Chatzisarantis, N.L.D., and Lane,
A.M. (2006b). Redesign and initial validation of an instrument to assess the
motivational qualities of music in exercise: The Brunel Music Rating Inventory-
2. Journal of Sports Sciences, 24, 899–909.
Priest, D.L., Karageorghis, C.I., and Sharp, N.C.C. (2004). The characteristics
and effects of motivational music in exercise settings: The possible influence of
gender, age, frequency of attendance, and time of attendance. Journal of Sports
Medicine and Physical Fitness, 44, 77–86.
Simpson, S.D., and Karageorghis, C.I. (2006). The effects of synchronous music
on 400-m sprint performance. Journal of Sports Sciences, 24, 1095–1102.
8 Imagery and sport
performance
Dave Smith and Caroline Wright
Imagery is one of the hottest topics in sport psychology. This chapter explains
what imagery is and how it is commonly used by athletes to enhance
performance. We explain why imagery is such a potent tool for enhancing sports
performance, and provide guidelines based on sport psychology and
neuroscience research aimed at making imagery the most effective it can be.
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to:
1. Define imagery and explain how it is commonly used by athletes.
2. Identify the different imagery types and understand how these may be used
in different situations to improve sports performance.
3. Explain the key mechanisms and processes that increase the effectiveness
of imagery.
4. Name and describe the elements of the PETTLEP (physical, environment,
task, timing, learning, emotion and perspective) model and explain how
these could be integrated into an imagery intervention.
What is imagery?
Imagery can be defined as ‘using all the senses to recreate or create an
experience in the mind’ (Vealey and Walter, 1993: 201). One of the first
reported references to imagery was by Virgil in 20 BC. In his poem he explains
that ‘possunt quia posse videntur’ which translates as ‘they can because they see
themselves as being able’. More recently, many studies have focused on imagery,
the ways in which it can improve performance, the target population that would
benefit most from imagery, and different types of imagery that can be used.
Focus 8.1
A meta-analysis is a study which accumulates previous research on a
topic and draws general conclusions about the effectiveness of an
intervention from a number of different studies.
Activity 8.1
Jonny Wilkinson describes his imagery as a:
Imagery types
As noted above, imagery can be used to obtain various outcomes. Hall et al
(1998), in developing a questionnaire to measure imagery use, the Sport Imagery
Questionnaire, noted that there are five basic types of imagery that athletes can
perform. These are as follows:
■ Cognitive specific (CS): imagery of specific sport skills (e.g. taking a basketball
free throw).
■ Cognitive general (CG): imagery of strategies and routines (e.g. a golfer’s pre-
putt routine, a football team’s defensive strategy).
Research has shown that all five types of imagery are used by athletes, but
motivational imagery is used more than cognitive imagery. However, Hall et al
(1998) never claimed that their five imagery types represented all the imagery
used by athletes. Indeed researchers have uncovered other types of imagery used
in sport that do not fall easily into one of the above categories. For example,
Nordin and Cumming (2005) found that competitive dancers often use imagery
of body posture. Also, dancers reported imaging characters and roles related to
their dance pieces. Metaphorical imagery, where athletes image movements,
142 | Imagery and sport performance
sensations or pictorial images that are not necessarily possible, is also commonly
used by aesthetic sport athletes such as dancers and bodybuilders. According to
a study by Dreidiger et al (2006), injured athletes use physiological images of
their injuries healing.
Given the evidence presented, depending on the particular aim of the athlete,
various types of imagery can be used. Not surprisingly, CS imagery can enhance
performance of the specific skill being imaged, as per the studies mentioned in
the ‘What is imagery?’ section. However, as mentioned previously, there can be
other benefits too. For example, studies have shown that CS imagery can lead to
greater motivation to practise, and increase confidence. CG, MS and MGA
imagery can also be effective in enhancing confidence, and MGA imagery can be
very useful in psyching up or calming down athletes, and getting their arousal to
an optimal level so they can perform at their best. Athletes should, therefore, use
a combination of imagery types depending upon their specific preferences and
goals. However, if improved skill is the aim, CS imagery is usually the most
appropriate to focus on initially.
Focus 8.2
Neuroscience is a field in which concepts of neurobiology and cognitive
psychology are combined (Decety, 1996).
One way in which this can be tested is to measure cerebral activity. When
areas of the brain are being specifically used, the blood flow to these areas will
increase. This can then be mapped during imagery and actual performance to
assess whether the same areas are being activated. In a study by Decety,
Philippon and Ingvar (1988), the authors asked participants to image themselves
completing a writing task. They found that the equivalent areas of the brain were
active when imaging and actually completing the writing task. The only
difference was that the primary motor cortex was not active during imagery, but
this is responsible for the final execution of movements, so this finding was
expected. This indicates that the same areas of the brain are functioning during
real and imagined movements, suggesting that improvements gained from
imagery are occurring centrally within the brain structure.
Imagery types | 143
Focus 8.3
Whatever type of imagery is being used, it appears that athletes with a
greater imagery ability (i.e. who find it easier to image clearly) will benefit
most from imagery use. However, using structured and theoretically based
imagery techniques (such as those described in the section on PETTLEP
imagery below) will help athletes achieve vivid imagery.
Within the sports setting, Moran and MacIntyre (1998) completed a study
focusing on the kinaesthetic imagery experiences of elite canoe-slalom athletes.
As part of this study, the athletes were required to image themselves completing
a recent race. The time taken to image the race was then compared to the actual
race completion time with results showing a positive correlation between the
two. These studies indicate that a central mechanism is responsible for the timing
of motor imagery.
Focus 8.4
Electroencephalography (EEG) involves measuring the level and location
of electrical currents within the brain by placing electrodes on the skull
and measuring the trace of this current.
144 | Imagery and sport performance
Focus 8.5
Positron emission tomography (PET) involves injecting the participant
with radioactive molecules which, when broken down, can be detected
by a PET camera.
Research using all of the techniques described above supports the idea that a
functional equivalence exists between imagery and overt movement. There is
evidence that imagery shares a common mechanism (mental chronometry),
utilizes the same areas of the brain (EEG and cerebral blood flow), and produces
similar physiological responses (autonomic system). However, to date, this
research has not been considered fully within the sports setting and, as a result
of this, many athletes may not be completing imagery capable of having an
optimal effect on performance.
Smith and Collins (2004) agree that imagery is more effective when it
includes all of the senses and kinaesthetic sensations experienced when
How should imagery be performed? | 145
Focus 8.6
PETTLEP stands for:
■ Physical
■ Emotion
■ Task
■ Timing
■ Learning
■ Emotion
■ Perspective
performing the task. The inclusion of these sensations will lead to the imagery
being more individualized and may increase the functional equivalence between
imagery and actual movement. Holmes and Collins (2002) describe various
practical ideas that can be used to enhance the physical dimension of an athlete’s
imagery. These include using the correct stance, holding any implements that
would usually be held, and wearing the correct clothing.
The timing component refers to the pace at which the imagery is completed.
Some researchers advocate using imagery in slow motion to experience the
action fully (Whetstone, 1995). However, precise timing is often very important
in actual game situations and in the execution of specific skills. It would,
therefore, be more functionally equivalent if the imagery was completed at the
same pace at which the action would be completed.
146 | Imagery and sport performance
The learning component of the model refers to the adaptation of the imagery
content in relation to the rate of learning. As the performer becomes more skilled
at a movement, the imagery script should be altered in order to reflect this. Perry
and Morris (1995) explain how the complexity of imagery may change as the
athlete improves their performance of a skill. Holmes and Collins (2001) suggest
that regularly reviewing the content of the imagery is essential to retain
functional equivalence.
The emotion component refers to the emotions included within the imagery,
which should be closely related to those experienced during actual performance.
During the imagery the athlete should try to experience all of the emotion and
arousal associated with the performance. Weinberg and Gould (1999) point out
that athletes should remain focused on the sensations associated with performing
well, and the PETTLEP model advocates the inclusion of any emotion associated
with performance to aid the athlete in dealing with the emotions prior to
competition.
imagery group (who did their imagery sitting at home in their everyday
clothing). They found that the sport-specific group improved by the largest
amount, followed by the clothing-only group, and then the traditional imagery
group. This supports the PETTLEP model as, when adding components of the
PETTLEP model to the intervention, a greater improvement in performance was
apparent.
A study was completed by Smith and Collins (2004) to assess the effect of
including stimulus and response propositions in imagery on the performance of
two tasks. Stimulus propositions are units of information relating to the content
of a scene, whereas response propositions are units of information relating to the
individual’s response to being in that situation. For example, if a footballer was
imaging performing in an important match, stimulus propositions would include
the sight of the other players and the sound of the crowd, and response
propositions would include increased heart rate, sweating and feelings of
butterflies in the stomach. Smith and Collins compared groups using physical
practice, stimulus and response proposition and stimulus-only proposition
interventions. The task used was a contraction of the abductor digiti minimi (the
muscle responsible for moving the little finger away from the hand). They also
measured the late contingent negative variation (CNV) (which is a negative shift
that occurs in the brain prior to movement) to assess any differences between the
groups during the movement. They found that the physical practice group,
stimulus and response proposition group and the stimulus proposition only
group all improved significantly from pre-test to post-test. However, there was
no significant difference in the magnitude of their improvement. The CNV
waves were also apparent in all conditions.
Ethics
There are ethical issues to consider when administering any intervention.
Participants must give informed consent, and be free to withdraw from the
studies at any time without repercussions. Additionally, if the intervention
used can benefit the participant (from exam preparation to stroke
rehabilitation) then the intervention should be offered to all of the other
participants after the study has finished. This ensures that the group
allocation does not lead to a useful intervention being withheld from some
of the participants.
Conclusions
Imagery can be a very effective means of enhancing sports performance.
Although it is very commonly used by athletes, often they may not get the most
out of it as it is frequently performed in an unstructured and unrealistic (non-
functionally equivalent) way. There are several different types of imagery that
can be used by athletes, all of which may have different effects on performance
and self-confidence. To make the most of the various kinds of imagery that can
be performed, imagery needs to be practised consistently in a purposeful and
structured way, and also needs to be as realistic as possible. Using the guidelines
of the PETTLEP model can be very helpful in achieving these goals for imagery
training.
Further reading
Journal articles
Decety, J. (1996). Do imagined and executed actions share the same neural
substrate? Cognitive Brain Research, 3, 87–93.
Driskell, J.E., Copper, C., and Moran, A. (1994). Does mental practice improve
performance? Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 481–492.
Hall, C., Mack, D., Paivio, A., and Hausenblas, H. (1998). Imagery use by
athletes: Development of the sport imagery questionnaire. International Journal
of Sport Psychology, 29, 73–89.
Holmes, P.S., and Collins, D.J. (2001). The PETTLEP approach to motor
imagery: a functional equivalence model for sport psychologists. Journal of
Applied Sport Psychology, 13, 60–83.
Smith, D., and Collins, D. (2004). Mental practice, Motor performance, and the
late CNV. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 26, 412–426.
Smith, D., Wright, C.J., Allsopp, A., and Westhead, H. (2007). It’s all in the
mind: PETTLEP-based imagery and sports performance. Journal of Applied Sport
Psychology, 19, 80–92.
3 Leadership
9
Adrian Schonfeld
Leadership development
in athletes and coaches
The sporting world places significant emphasis on leaders. The success and
failure of a team is often attributed to the good or poor coach or manager,
charged with the responsibility of leading the team. Martin Johnson, the captain
of the Rugby World Cup winning team of 2003, is often praised and revered for
his leadership. Indeed, his leadership, along with that of Clive Woodward, is
often claimed as a critical factor in that tournament victory.
This chapter presents analysis of some of the research that has been conducted
into leadership in sport. It begins with a summary of some of the theoretical
approaches to leadership that have been applied to sport. Most research in sport
leadership has been conducted with the coach in mind and consequently the
evaluation of the theories presented relies heavily on coach-based evidence. The
second section presents a summary of some of the recent interesting research
occurring into leadership from the athlete role. The third section investigates
leadership development in coaches and athletes. Finally, ethical issues related to
leadership are presented through an examination of coaching dilemmas.
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to:
1. Describe the major theoretical perspectives underpinning leadership
research in sport.
2. Critique research that attempts to understand the development of
leadership in athletes and coaches.
3. Understand the principles behind ethical decision-making for leaders in sport.
Focus 9.1
Leadership definitions often include four components: a) a process;
b) influence; c) a group of people; d) taking action to a common goal
(Northouse, 2007). Research within sport has focused mainly on trying
to understand the structure of leadership, antecedents of leadership and
the consequences of leadership. A number of different theories have
been investigated in sport, mostly originating in other psychology
disciplines, particularly social psychology and organizational psychology.
Activity 9.1
Characteristics of leaders
On a separate sheet, write down the name of someone who is/was the
best leader you have known personally, i.e. the person you wanted to
follow the most. Again write down what it was about that person that
made them the leader they were.
Now working as a group, pool your sheets with famous leaders and look
for the common elements. Likewise, pool your pages of personal leaders
and look for the similarities between them. What do you notice? Are there
any differences between the famous and the personal leader qualities?
What does this tell us about popular portrayals of famous people?
Activity 9.2
Observation of coaches
Watch two different coaches for 20 minutes each and record how often
they respond to mistakes according to the classifications above.
Continued . . .
156 | Leadership development in athletes and coaches
. . . Continued
Reflect on the two coaches and ask yourself the following questions:
Research has looked to evaluate the level of congruence between the leader
behaviours (specifically preference and actual) to determine if they influence
performance and satisfaction. Generally, research in this domain is limited and
shows contradictory results (Riemer and Chelladurai, 1995; Riemer and Toon,
2001). Riemer and Toon (2001) hypothesize that many factors may contribute
to the inconsistency, including: a) that research has usually considered only the
head coach to provide leadership, yet in reality a number of sources of leadership
may exist in a team; b) that differences in situational characteristics (sport type,
team size) may affect the relationship between leadership and outcome to a
greater extent than previously thought; and c) there are different measures of
satisfaction.
Transformational
Group
leadership
performance
Leader Actual
and
characteristics behaviour
member
satisfaction
Member Preferred
characteristics behaviour
The Leadership Scale for Sport (LSS) measures five types of leader behaviours
split into three dimensions. There is one direct task factor (training and
instruction), two decision-making styles (autocratic and democratic) and two
motivational factors (social support and positive feedback). In contrast to the
CBAS, the LSS is a more traditional style ‘pencil and paper’ measure. Horn
(2002) suggests that observational field studies are needed to determine if
behavioural correlates can be identified for the sub-scales of the LSS. If these
could be demonstrated, it would enhance the credibility of the LSS as a measure
of sport leadership. Chelladurai and Riemer (1998) commented that the LSS has
limited scope as a true measure of coach leadership as the MMLS has undergone
further development since the measure was developed (to incorporate concepts
of transformational leadership theory; Chelladurai, 2001, 2007) and also the LSS
may not capture all relevant behaviours. Zhang, Jensen and Mann (1997)
attempted to expand the LSS to include two new scales, situation consideration
behaviours and group maintenance behaviours. The resultant statistical analysis
as part of the development process did not support the inclusion of the group
maintenance factor, and Chelladurai’s (2007) questioning of the development
process advocates continued use of the original five-factor LSS until a better
credentialed scale is developed.
settings (Northouse, 2007) but are yet to make a substantive impact in sport.
Vallée and Bloom (2005) use transformational leadership theory to understand
their results in exploring coaches of successful university sport programmes.
They identify four components of transformational leadership (inspirational
motivation, idealized influence, intellectual stimulation and individualized
consideration) as being closely aligned to the four common elements of the
coaches that they identified through the analysis of semi-structured interviews
(coaches’ attributes, individual growth, organizational skills and vision). These
results should lead to further exploration of transformational leadership in sport.
Chelladurai’s (2007) most recent version of the MMLS includes the influence
of transformational leadership on the leader, member and situational
characteristics. He provides substantial analysis of how transformational
leadership concepts may be integrated into the MMLS, and readers are directed
to Chelladurai for further information.
cent). For social leadership roles, nearly 60 per cent of members had a role with
11 per cent acting as team leaders and 47 per cent as peer leaders. External
leadership roles were carried by fewer people with only 8 per cent as team
leaders and 31 per cent as peer leaders. This research demonstrates the diversity
of team members that provide leadership in some form to other members on a
team. It contradicts methodologies that measure an individual, e.g. the coach, as
the only source of leadership.
The three studies detailed above represent a new theme to leadership research
in sport. They are not without methodological issues. For instance, if the LSS has
been criticised for being a limited measure of leadership for coaches (Chelladurai
and Riemer, 1998) then it is unlikely to be an adequate measure of leadership
when adapted to athletes. In fact, given the range of personal, interpersonal and
task factors identified by Dupuis et al (2006) as representative of good
leadership, the adapted LSS used by Loughead and Hardy (2005) would not
capture the essence of peer leadership. The small sample size (six participants)
in Dupuis et al and limited range (all Canadian university ice hockey players)
brings into question the generalizability of these findings. Further, while Dupuis
et al raise interesting questions, confirmatory research is needed to test their
suggestions on a broader range of leaders.
Leadership in the athlete role | 161
Activity 9.3
Reconsidering the definition of leadership
1. Leadership as a person.
2. Leadership as a process.
3. Leadership as a result.
4. Leadership as position.
Continued . . .
162 | Leadership development in athletes and coaches
. . . Continued
coach and captain, are position based. The coach and captain are leaders
because they are put in that position and it is because they are in that
position that people will follow them.
A key question for researchers and practitioners alike is ‘how could these
conceptualizations affect the way research into leadership and leadership
development could be advanced in sport?’. How would you approach the
selection and training of leaders differently under each view of leadership?
Do any seem to resonate with your own experience more than others? If
so, why?
original studies (e.g. Smith et al, 1979; Smoll and Smith, 1980) using the CBAS
were part of a larger programme of coach development. Smith et al provided
cognitive behavioural training programmes to coaches, influencing and
evaluating change with behavioural analysis. The programmes being conducted
were grounded in a belief that development of children as people was paramount
rather than winning in children’s sporting environments. Their research
identified (among other things) that coach training can be effective in increasing
children’s self-esteem and promoting in-team attraction when compared to
untrained coaches, though without necessarily making a difference to win/loss
records.
The results of the study indicated that three groups of influencing components
could be identified: a) peers, b) coaches, and c) parents. Within each component
164 | Leadership development in athletes and coaches
Component Categories
Peers Characteristics of peers
Leader–athlete demonstrates strong work ethic
Rapport with peers
Roles in play activities
Roles in organized sport
Coaches Are nice people
Develop skills
Are stimulating figures
Designate leader roles
Engage in mature conversations
Parents Introduction to sport
Support
Coaching role
Mentoring role
Within the peer component Wright and Côté (2003) identified that the
athletes were involved in competition as much with older athletes as they were
their own age group. They indicated that this competition might not always be
in a formal setting. As the athletes got older they were often given opportunities
with older athletes to develop the playing and tactical skills which would then
allow them to appear to be advanced within their own age group. This also
appeared to have an effect on leadership in that while no leadership roles were
thrust upon the child when playing with the advanced group, when they
returned to their own age group they assumed leadership roles. Wright and Côté
(2003: 282) also suggest that there appeared a pattern of ‘non-threatening’ sport
environments early in the process followed by ‘increasingly challenging
competition’.
Future directions | 165
Athletes also revealed that their work ethic was important in establishing
the respect of their team-mates. It is also likely that a strong work ethic
contributed to the advanced development of their sporting skills (Gould et al,
2002a; Smith, 2003; Wright and Côté, 2003). The athletes’ advanced skills also
contributed to other factors such as being offered or appointed to formal
leadership roles in organized sport, and attention from parents and coaches that
in turn contributed to conversations and opportunities to develop tactical
knowledge and sport skills.
The authors concluded that there were four main areas that came to light in
categorizing the pathway to leadership. Athletes all had high levels of skill
compared to their age peers, a strong work ethic, advanced tactical sport
knowledge and good rapport with team-mates. Consider the following
hypothetical example: A child plays a variety of different sports and games with
the local children from the neighbourhood. When they commence primary
school, they show advanced skills within their peer group. This comes to the
attention of their parents and coaches and allows opportunities for them to
train or play with older age groups. During these experiences they learn a
strong work ethic and through the environment are challenged to keep pace
with older peers. Consequently when they return to their own peers their sport
skills are further advanced. It becomes clear through recognition from coaches
and other officials that the player is better at the sport and receives respect
from their team-mates, and consequently the player is invited to assume a
formal leadership role. This requires them to interact with the coach about
tactics and the player acts as a communicator between the coach and the other
players. Both the coach and the parents engage with the developing athlete in
a mature way, which gives the player opportunities to consider tactical
concepts and team issues in a way that other players are not. The person who
is the product of this developmental pathway is now recognized by peers as a
team leader.
Wright and Côté (2003) acknowledge that the limited sample used in their
study may restrict the generalizability of their conclusions. However, they also
suggest that there is little reason to believe that, with further research, they will
not be supported. Wright and Côté suggest that while the pathways of
development may vary, the four elements of leadership are not likely to. While
there are many studies in sport that look to explore the pathway to the
development of expertise, Wright and Côté’s research is the only one to look
specifically at the development of leadership. Further research in this area is
required to establish if the findings are consistent across cultures. Another
possibility is to see if environments can be constructed to give more young
athletes opportunities to engage in the situations that lead to leadership
development.
Future directions
A research question that has received scant attention is the hypothesis that
leaders’ behaviours (coaches and/or athletes) predict performance. Given that
166 | Leadership development in athletes and coaches
team performance is how leaders are judged, it is surprising that few studies
have attempted to address this question. Methodological issues have plagued
leadership research both in terms of measurement of leadership issues and the
effects of leadership on performance. Recent research by Eys et al (2007)
explored leader dispersion in teams in relation to athlete satisfaction. They
identified that sport teams which have equal numbers of team members
contributing to the three leadership functions (task, social, external) are likely
to report higher levels of satisfaction with team performance and satisfaction
with team integration. The authors acknowledge that while this represents a
step forward in tying leadership beyond the dimensions of the LSS to
consequences, leader dispersion is still an incomplete measure of leadership as
it estimates quantity but does not deal with the quality of the leadership
supplied.
Other researchers have begun to consider variables that may mediate the
impact of leadership on performance. Trail (2004) identified an effect of
leadership on cohesion and cohesion on performance, thereby questioning the
MMLS. Chelladurai (2007) identifies motivation and self-efficacy as two
examples of potentially mediating variables, though others such as collective
efficacy could hold potential for future research.
There are many aspects of leadership in sport that are ready to be researched.
The MMLS has many areas which still need further exploration, particularly
with different conceptualizations of who or what leadership is. Also, other
leadership models and theories, particularly relating to transformational
leadership, have enough promise to warrant further exploration.
■ Respects others.
■ Serves others.
■ Shows justice.
■ Manifests honesty.
■ Builds community.
Ethics and leadership | 167
Activity 9.4
Ethics
1. The coach’s own child is selected to open the batting and bowling in
every match of a cricket season.
2. The coach wants an under-15 player to play an important match with a
pain-killing injection.
3. The coach tells players that they should be caught breaking the rules at
least once in a match as it is likely that, for every time they are caught,
they will have managed to get an advantage four times without being
caught.
4. The coach works with players to analyse opposition players to identify
which ones might be most susceptible to ‘sledging’.
5. The coach tells a player what they think they need to hear rather than
what they actually believe.
6. Early in a season, two players break a team rule and are suspended for
a game. Before the final, the team’s best player is caught breaking the
same rule but the coach lets him play.
7. A player is known for having a bad temper and using abusive language
at opposition players and officials. The coach believes the player plays
best when they are ‘fired up’ and so does not do anything to help the
player gain control of their emotions.
168 | Leadership development in athletes and coaches
Further reading
Books
Grint, K. (2005). Leadership: Limits and Possibilities. Hampshire: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Journal articles
Dupuis, M., Bloom, G.A., and Loughead, T.M. (2006). Team captains’
perceptions of athlete leadership. Journal of Sport Behavior, 29, 60–78.
Eys, M.A., Loughead, T.M., and Hardy, J. (2007) Athlete leadership dispersion
and satisfaction in interactive sport teams. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 8,
281–296.
Loughead, T.M., and Hardy, J. (2005). An examination of coach and peer leader
behaviours in sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 6, 303–312.
Further reading | 169
Useful websites
www.ausport.gov.au/ethics/coachofficial.asp
www.coachesofcanada.com/Professionals/
www.clubmark.org.uk
4 The effects of exercise
on psychological states
10
Michael J. Duncan
Physical activity and
self-esteem
The way we feel about ourselves is important in every domain of life and we
can almost certainly identify when we feel on top of the world about something.
In this case we are enjoying the benefits of high self-esteem, a concept that has
been branded a ‘social vaccine’ that can empower individuals and make them
more productive and confident in their own abilities. Historically, both the
academic literature and the popular media presuppose that every person has a
sense of self and the self is a social phenomenon (Cooley, 1902; Mead, 1934;
James, 1950).
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to:
1. Evaluate relationships between physical activity and self-esteem reported in
the literature and be aware of methodological factors influencing this
relationship.
2. Evaluate the conceptual exercise self-esteem model of Sonstroem and
Morgan (1989) and evidence that has examined this model.
3. Understand and evaluate the methods available to assess self-esteem in
relation to physical activity.
174 | Physical activity and self-esteem
Focus 10.1
Physical activity and self-esteem: Starting point
Activity 10.1
Think about a physical activity or related situation that you have recently
found yourself in. What made you feel that you were able to complete your
chosen physical activity? Did you feel positive about what you were
doing? Did you feel that you were able to complete the activity as well as
anyone else could?
Write down all the factors that you think contribute to the psychological
changes that are associated with regular participation in physical activity.
Try not to confuse this with mood (see Chapter 2 for information regarding
the impact of mood on sport performance).
Read Fox (2000) and compare his description of how these subdomains
contribute to the development of self-esteem through physical activity to
the list of factors that make you feel that you could complete your chosen
physical activity example.
Global
self-esteem
Physical
self-worth
Meta-analyses
A plethora of research studies and meta-analytic studies have reported that
physical activity can enhance self-esteem or physical self-worth. However, the
magnitude of any enhancement in self-esteem still remains to be fully elucidated.
Meta-analysis results reported by Spence, McGannon and Poon (2005) found
that physical activity positively enhanced global self-esteem, although the overall
effect size (0.23) was moderate. Spence tested a number of potentially
moderating factors. Interestingly, they found the type of exercise programme
(i.e. intensity, frequency, duration or mode), fitness levels of participants did not
influence the effect of exercise on self-esteem and did not appear to moderate
the physical activity–self-esteem relationship. However, larger effect sizes were
documented for lifestyle programmes that incorporated nutritional advice
alongside exercise. Spence et al concluded that exercise enhances self-esteem in
adults but that this effect is smaller than previously thought. However, it should
be noted that Spence et al included both published and unpublished studies.
While meta-analysis research should seek to include the full number of studies,
including unpublished studies can compromise findings as they have not been
scrutinized by going through the peer review process.
employed by studies included in this meta-analysis may cloud the true effect of
exercise on global self-esteem. Additionally, Gruber (1986) reported an effect
size of 0.41 for self-esteem based on a meta-analysis of 27 studies of play and
physical education programmes in children.
Global
self-esteem
Exercise
self-efficacy
Exercise behaviour
Activity 10.2
Think about the exercise and self-esteem model of Sonstroem and Morgan
(1989) and write down how you think the two elements of physical
competence perception and physical acceptance influence global self-
esteem.
Read Levy and Ebbeck (2005) and compare your notes to their assertions
regarding the Sonstroem and Morgan model. How do your thoughts
compare to their comments regarding this self-esteem model? In
particular, did your considerations of the importance of physical
acceptance match theirs?
More recently, Levy and Ebbeck (2005) examined the importance of physical
acceptance in mediating the physical competence perception–global self-esteem
relationship in adult women who completed measures of exercise behaviour,
exercise self-efficacy, perceptions of physical competence, perceptions of physical
acceptance and global self-esteem. Using multiple regression analysis their model
components explained 22 per cent of the variability in global self-esteem. More
significantly, perceptions of physical acceptance made a unique contribution to
The conceptual exercise–self-esteem model of Sonstroem and Morgan (1989) | 179
the model, explaining 12.6 per cent of the variability in global self-esteem. They
concluded that, for females, physical acceptance plays a vital role in the physical
self-perception and self-esteem relationship. Physical acceptance made the largest
and only significant contribution to global self-esteem in their study. Despite the
clear indication of physical acceptance as a strong predictor of global self-esteem
in their study, Levy and Ebbeck (2005) stress the need for future research to
examine the role of physical acceptance on global self-esteem in a variety of
populations and activity settings. Indeed, this may be an important future
research avenue as considerable research exists that indicates children suffer from
considerable body dissatisfaction (and thus lower physical acceptance) and that
body dissatisfaction is related to physical activity behaviour (Duncan et al, 2006).
Global self-
esteem
Physical self-
esteem
Self-efficacy
Physical
activity
More recently, several studies have been published that have added weight to
the EXSEM model. These have supported the EXSEM in a range of populations
and both cross-sectional and longitudinal study designs. For example, McAuley
et al (2000) reported strong support for the EXSEM model over a six-month
exercise intervention in older adults. These data have also been supported by
research based on a six-month randomized controlled study of Tai-Chi in older
adults by Li et al (2002). However, these studies have also postulated that
physical activity and self-efficacy both directly influence the subdomain levels of
self-esteem (as opposed to physical activity indirectly influencing self-esteem
through its effect on self-efficacy). In an attempt to examine this issue, McAuley
et al (2005) reported longitudinal data on the relationships between physical
activity, self-efficacy and self-esteem in older adults. They examined a group of
174 older adults (aged 60–75 years of age) at one and five years after entry onto
a structured physical activity/exercise programme. Physical activity was
determined using a population-specific, self-report questionnaire, global self-
esteem was assessed using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965),
and the physical self-perception profile (Fox and Corbin, 1989) was used to
assess the subdomain levels of the EXSEM (both measures will be discussed in
greater depth later on in this chapter). Using covariance modelling they found
consistent relationships between the subdomain levels of self-esteem and
physical activity and the subdomain levels of self-esteem and global self-esteem.
These were also consistent over the four-year period of measurement.
Furthermore, those adults reporting greater reductions in physical activity also
reported greater reductions in subdomain levels of self-esteem and global self-
esteem. The authors also support previous assertions that physical activity and
self-efficacy both directly influenced the subdomain levels of self-esteem. This
study represents one of the most comprehensive tests of the EXSEM model.
Based on their longitudinal data, 69 per cent of the variance in physical self-
worth was accounted for, as was 51 per cent of the variance in global self-esteem.
This is important as, if the researcher is interested in the relation between
physical activity and self-esteem, the focus should be on physical self-worth
(i.e. physical self-esteem) rather than global measures. Certainly in this case
the EXSEM appears to do a good job of accounting for the variance in physical
self-esteem but also underlines how important physical activity and physical
Understand and evaluate the methods available to assess self-esteem in relation to physical activity | 181
Activity 10.3
Consider how you feel generally about yourself. Fill in the Rosenberg self-
esteem scale presented in Figure 10.4 as directed and calculate your self-
esteem score. The higher the score, the higher the self-esteem. Once
finished, consider the questionnaire you have just completed. The
Rosenberg self-esteem scale is a well-used measure of global self-esteem.
Would you consider this to be a good measure of self-esteem that could
be used in the activity domain? If not, why not? By considering this issue
you will start to learn more about the measurement of self-esteem and
issues surrounding the conceptualization of self-esteem.
culturally (Welk and Eklund, 2005). A range of studies have measured physical
self-perceptions related to sport and exercise participation (McAuley et al, 2000,
2005) and the PSPP is a reliable and valid measure of the construct it purports
to examine.
Table 10.1 Half-yearly variations in global self-esteem for children who did (ECS)
and did not (NECS) participate in extracurricular sport over a two and a half year
period.
Source: Binsinger et al, 2006.
Activity 10.4
Consider the Rosenberg self-esteem questionnaire you filled out as part of
Activity 10.2 and then consider the exercise and self-esteem model as
portrayed in Figure 10.3. Do you think the questionnaire links to the
exercise and self-esteem model? Take this issue in the context of the
applied case study of Binsinger et al (2006) and note down what this
research paper tells the practitioner about self-esteem and its link with
participation in after-school sports.
I suspect your notes may highlight that all that can be inferred from the
work of Binsinger et al (2006) is that extracurricular sports participation is
linked to higher global self-esteem scores. You may also have highlighted
that this research does not actually tell us about the construct or
constructs that might be responsible for the findings reported by Binsinger
et al (2006). This highlights an important issue when considering research
that has examined the physical activity–self-esteem relationship. If we are
interested purely in global self-esteem, the Rosenberg questionnaire can
provide this information. However, if we are interested in assessing what
constructs influence the physical activity–self-esteem relationship then we
need to look beyond a simple measure of global self-esteem. Instead we
would need to fully examine physical self-worth and the subdomains of
physical condition, sport competence, body attractiveness and physical
strength as depicted in Fox’s hierarchical model of self-esteem in the
physical domain (see Figure 10.1).
and physical activity scores. Moreover, boys were more physically active than
girls and had more positive perceptions of physical strength, sport competence
and physical self-worth compared to girls. Mean scores by subdomain on the
PSPP for boys and girls in this study are presented in Table 10.2. Using structural
equation modelling, 27–29 per cent of the variance in physical activity scores was
predicted from scores on the PSPP. There was also no evidence that gender
moderated the relationship between physical self-perceptions and physical
activity.
Boys Girls
Physical condition 3.09 3.08
Sport competence 3.15 2.88
Body attractiveness 2.72 2.58
Strength competence 2.93 2.74
Table 10.2 Mean scores by subdomain on the PSPP for boys and girls.
Source: Crocker et al, 2000.
Activity 10.5
Consider the study mentioned above and examine the mean scores on
each subdomain of the PSPP reported by Crocker et al (2000). Scores on
all four sub-scales were significantly related to physical activity in this
study. Can you provide a theoretical explanation as to why each of the
subdomains might be related to physical activity and why, in the case of
both boys and girls, subdomain scores for physical condition and sport
competence were higher than those for body attractiveness and strength
competence?
Ethics
Ethical considerations when examining the physical
activity–self-esteem relationship
Consider the variety of research studies that have been outlined within this
chapter. Do you think there are any ethical issues related to the examination
of the impact that physical activity has on self-esteem? If so, what are they,
and what should sport and exercise psychologists consider when
investigating this topic?
Conclusions
Self-esteem is often considered a central component in psychological well-
being and a range of research studies have reported that physical activity can
enhance self-esteem. Meta-analytical research and studies of randomized
controlled trials conclude that physical activity can be used to promote increases
in self-esteem and physical self-perceptions although the mechanisms that
underpin this change are still unclear. Sonstroem and Morgan’s (1989)
conceptual model and subsequent modifications encompassing Fox’s physical
self-perception model are presented. Fox’s model appears to be the most robust,
and scientifically supported. Despite this, the examination of the impact of
physical activity on self-esteem has been clouded by use of different measures to
assess self-esteem. In some cases these measures assess different constructs
within the physical activity–self-esteem model but have inferred self-esteem
from them. Some research has used a general measure of global self-esteem,
while others have used measures of physical self-perceptions. I would argue that
the use of a global measure of self-esteem in studies of the impact of physical
activity on self-esteem only provides the researcher with limited information.
Instead, the assessment of physical self-perceptions can provide practitioners and
scientists with a more comprehensive understanding of the ways in which
physical activity influences self-perceptions and subsequently global self-esteem.
The final part of this chapter presented case studies to illustrate the limitations
Further reading | 187
of using a global measure of self-esteem and the differing contribution that the
subdomains of the physical self-perception model can make if a measure such as
the physical self-perception profile is used to examine the impact of physical
activity on self-esteem.
Further reading
Books
Biddle, S.J.H., and Mutrie, N. (2007). Psychology of Physical Activity. London:
Routledge.
Fox, K.R. (1997). The physical self and processes in self-esteem development. In:
K.R. Fox (Ed.), The Physical Self. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 111–140.
Journal articles
Binsinger, C., Laure, P., and Ambard, M-F. (2006). Regular extra curricular sports
practice does not prevent moderate or severe variations in self-esteem or trait
anxiety in early adolescents. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 5, 123–129.
188 | Physical activity and self-esteem
Crocker, P.R.E., Eklund, R.C., and Kowalski, K.C. (2000). Children’s physical
activity and self-perceptions. Journal of Sports Sciences, 18, 383–394.
Duncan, M., Al-Nakeeb, Y., Jones, M., and Nevill, A. (2006). Body
dissatisfaction, body fat and physical activity in British children. International
Journal of Pediatric Obesity, 1, 89–95.
Ekeland, E., Heian, F., and Hagen, K.B. (2005). Can exercise improve self-
esteem in children and young people? A systematic review of randomised control
trials. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 39, 792–798.
Sonstroem, R.J., Harlow, L.L., and Josephs, L. (1994). Exercise and self-esteem:
Validity of model expansion and exercise associations. Journal of Sport & Exercise
Psychology, 16, 29–42.
Spence, J.C., McGannon, K.R., and Poon, P. (2005). The effect of exercise on
global self-esteem: A quantitative review. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology,
27, 311–334.
Welk, G.J., and Eklund, B. (2005). Validation of the children and youth
physical self perceptions profile for young children. Psychology of Sport &
Exercise, 6, 51–65.
11 Exercise addiction
Attila Szabo and Mária Rendi
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to:
1. Define the concept of exercise addiction.
2. Differentiate between high levels of commitment to exercise and exercise
addiction.
3. Understand the motivational incentives in exercise addiction from the
behaviouristic viewpoint.
4. Present and explain a physiological and a psychological model for exercise
addiction.
5. Know the common symptoms and means of assessment of exercise
addiction.
While the term ‘dependence’ is used as a synonym for addiction, the latter
includes the former and also includes ‘compulsion’ (Goodman, 1990).
Accordingly, a formula for addiction may be: addiction ⫽ dependence ⫹
compulsion. Goodman specifies that not all dependencies and compulsions may
be classified as addiction. Therefore, in this chapter the term addiction is deemed
the most appropriate because it incorporates both dependence and compulsion.
Addiction is defined as a behavioural process that could provide either pleasure
or relief from internal discomfort (stress, anxiety, etc.) and it is characterized by
repeated failure to control the behaviour (state of powerlessness) and
maintenance of the behaviour in spite of major negative consequences
(Goodman, 1990). This definition is complemented by six symptoms of
addiction (discussed in detail herein) as criteria for identifying the condition:
salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, personal conflict
and relapse (Brown, 1993).
Over-commitment or addiction?
Glasser (1976) introduced the term positive addiction to highlight the
personally and socially beneficial aspects of regular exercise in contrast to self-
destructive behaviour like drug or alcohol abuse. The ‘positive’ perception and
adoption of the terminology led to its widespread and ‘weightless’ use within
both athletic and scientific circles. For example, many runners claimed that they
were addicted to their running while they referred to their high level of
commitment and dedication to their chosen exercise. Morgan (1979) long ago
recognized this dilemma. Therefore, to discuss the negative aspects of
exaggerated exercise behaviour, he introduced the term negative addiction as an
antonym to Glasser’s positive addiction. The fact is, however, that all addicted
behaviours represent a dysfunction and, therefore, they are always negative
(Rozin and Stoess, 1993).
Please note the difference between the items or the individual statements on the
two questionnaires while keeping in mind that half of the 12 items on Table 11.1
are reversely rated. These items present the statement in the ‘opposite’ or
negative direction and the smaller number on the scale, like a rating of ‘1’, is
reversed and is counted as ‘5’. On some scales, or questionnaires, such items are
embedded to ascertain valid responses from those who complete the
questionnaires. For example, a statement like ‘I do not enjoy running/exercising’
(statement 4) would be rated with the lowest number (i.e. 1) by the highly
committed runner or exerciser and would be consistent with a rating of 5 on the
opposite, positively formulated, statement ‘Running (or exercising) is pleasant’
(statement 5). Should such opposite statements disagree in ratings, deception,
whether careless or voluntary, on the part of the respondent may be suspected
and the answers could be considered unreliable.
7. My exercise/sport is pleasant.
If I cut down the amount of exercise I do, and then start again, I always
6.
end up exercising as often as I did before.
Table 11.2 The exercise addiction inventory (EAI; Terry et al, 2004). The
statements are rated on a five-point scale, similar to the commitment to running
(exercise) scale (Carmack and Martens, 1979). There are no negative items on
this questionnaire. The total ratings (maximum 6 ⫻ 5 ⫽ 30) are summed and
where the cut-off point of 24 is reached or exceeded, the likelihood of exercise
addiction is established. Please note the EAI is a not a diagnostic tool but simply
a surface screening brief questionnaire that helps in the identification of the
symptoms of exercise addiction. The dysfunction itself needs to be diagnosed via
interviews by mental health professionals or other qualified health or medical
personnel.
Activity 11.1
The following quote illustrates the path of addiction of an exercise addict:
From the quote, on how many items of the EAI would you predict an
almost certain score of 5?
Although the player may still enjoy playing (especially when all goes well), the
pressure or expectation to perform is the ‘has to do’ new facet of football playing
and the negatively reinforcing component of his (or her) sporting behaviour.
Activity box 11.2 illustrates the major differences between the underlying
motives in behaviours guided by negative and positive reinforcement.
Activity 11.2
Behaviours driven by positive and negative reinforcement
Although positive reinforcement like the runners’ high and brain reward
systems have been implicated in the explanation of exercise addiction, the
motivational incentive in addiction may be more closely connected to
prevention, escape or avoidance of something unwanted as in some recent
models of addiction (Baker et al, 2004). Accordingly, the process of addiction is
more likely motivated by negative reinforcement in which the affected individual
has to exercise to avoid an unwanted consequence. Two models trying to
account for the path of addiction to exercise are presented below.
results in decreased heart rate at rest. While heart rate is only a crude measure
of the body’s sympathetic activity (which is directed by the autonomic nervous
system), it is nevertheless a sensitive measure and it is often used to mirror
sympathetic activity. A lower resting heart rate after training results from the
adaptation of the organism to exercise. Figure 11.1 illustrates a hypothetical case
in which the exerciser’s initial basal heart rate on the average is about 62 beats
per minute (bpm). Every single session of exercise raises the heart rate to well
above 100 bpm (depending on exercise intensity of course) that upon recovery
following exercise returns to lower than the pre-exercise or basal heart rate. With
repeated exercise challenge, resulting from aerobic training and a concomitantly
more efficient cardiovascular system, the basal heart rate, partially reflecting
sympathetic activity, decreases. Lower sympathetic activity at rest means a lower
level of arousal. This new arousal state may be experienced as a lethargic or
energy-lacking state, which according to Thompson and Blanton’s hypothesis
urges the exerciser to do something about it, or to increase the level of arousal.
The obvious means to do that is exercise. However, the effects of exercise in
increasing arousal are only temporary and, therefore, more and more bouts of
exercise may be needed to achieve an optimal state of arousal. Further, not only
the frequency but also the intensity of exercise sessions may need to increase due
to training effect. Such an increase accounts for the tolerance aspect of the
addiction process.
160
140
120
Rest
100
After training
Heart rate
at rest
80 Exercise
60
40
20
0
10-minute intervals
Figure 11.1 A hypothetical illustration of how one’s basal (resting) heart rate
may decrease after prolonged aerobic training. Note that the dashed line
illustrates the change in heart rate during one exercise session only. The
adaptation, reflected by the difference between the lines with squares and
triangles, may require several months and in some cases even longer.
Exercise
Exercise
experienced because of less or zero exercise. When exercise is used to cope with
stress, apart from the collection of negative psychological feeling states there is
also a loss in the coping mechanism (exercise). Concomitantly, the exerciser
loses control over the stressful situations that they used to deal with by resorting
to exercise. The loss of the coping mechanism, followed by the loss of control
over stress, generates an increased perception of vulnerability to stress, therefore
further amplifying the negative psychological feelings associated with the lack of
exercise. This problem can be resolved only through resuming the previous
pattern of exercise at the expense of other obligations of daily life. Obviously,
while exercise provides an instant reduction in the negative psychological
feelings, the neglect or superficial treatment of other social and work obligations
results in conflict with people, possibly losses at work or school, or even loss of
Activity 11.3
In groups of three to five, discuss whether the two models (the
sympathetic arousal hypothesis and the cognitive appraisal hypothesis)
may mutually apply or exclude each other in the aetiology of exercise
addiction. Think about how these models differ from the beta-endorphin
hypothesis in which addiction may be caused by the desire to re-
experience the exercise-induced release of beta-endorphins binding to the
so-called opioid receptors (a group of G-protein coupled receptors with
opioids as ligands: dynorphins, enkephalins, endorphins, endomorphins
and nociceptin/orphanin FQ) in the brain and providing a positive feeling
of ‘high’ (i.e. runners’ high).
job, together causing further stress. The addicted exerciser is then trapped in a
vicious circle needing more exercise to deal with the consistently increasing life
stress, part of which is caused by exercise itself.
Six common symptoms of exercise addiction | 199
Withdrawal symptoms
Sachs (1981: 118) described addiction to running as ‘addiction of a
psychological and/or physiological nature, upon a regular regimen of running,
characterized by withdrawal symptoms after 24 to 36 hours without
participation’. This definition is popular in the literature (Sachs and Pargman,
1984; Morris, 1989; Furst and Germone, 1993). However, there is a problem
with this definition because withdrawal symptoms, although most
characteristic, are only one of several symptoms of addictive behaviours
(Brown, 1993; Griffiths, 1997). Incorrectly, many studies have simply
assessed the mere presence, rather than the type, frequency and intensity of
withdrawal symptoms (Szabo, 1995; Szabo et al, 1997). Yet negative
psychological symptoms are reported by almost all habitual exercisers (or
hobby makers) for the times when exercise or a hobby-activity is prevented for
an unexpected reason (Szabo et al, 1997; Szabo, Frenkl, and Caputo, 1996).
Indeed, Szabo et al (1996), conducting survey research on the Internet, have
shown that even participants in physically ‘light effort’ types of exercise such
as bowling report withdrawal symptoms when the activity (in this case
bowling) is prevented. However, the intensity of the symptoms reported by
this group was less than that reported by aerobic dancers, weight-trainers,
cross-trainers or fencers (Szabo et al, 1996).
Salience
This symptom is present when the physical activity or exercise becomes the
most important activity in the person’s life and dominates their thinking
(preoccupation and cognitive distortions), feelings (cravings) and behaviour
(deterioration of social behaviours). For instance, even if the person is not
actually engaged in exercise, they will be thinking about the next time they will
be. The mind of the addicted individual wanders off to exercise during driving,
200 | Exercise addiction
meals, meetings, and even between conversations with friends. The closer the
planned time for exercise, the greater is the urge and even anxiety or fear of not
starting on time. The addicted exerciser is literally obsessed with exercise and
regardless of the time of the day, place or activity performed their mind is
directed towards exercise during the majority of their waking hours.
Mood modification
This symptom refers to the subjective experiences that people report as a
consequence of engaging in a particular activity and could be seen as a coping
strategy (i.e. they experience an arousing ‘buzz’ or a ‘high’, or paradoxically
tranquilizing feel of ‘escape’ or ‘numbing’). Most exercisers report a positive
feeling state and pleasant exhaustion after a session of exercise. However, the
person addicted to exercise would seek mood modification not necessarily for the
gain or the positive mental effect of exercise, but rather for the modification or
avoidance of the negative psychological feeling states that they would experience
if the exercise session were missed.
Tolerance
Tolerance is the process whereby increasing amounts of the particular activity
are required to achieve the former effects. For instance, a gambler may have to
gradually increase the size of the bet to experience the euphoric or satisfying
effect that was initially obtained by a much smaller bet. The runner needs to run
longer distances to experience the ‘runners’ high’ (Stoll, 1997). Similarly, the
addicted exerciser needs larger and larger doses of exercise to derive the effects
experienced previously with lower amounts of exercise. Tolerance is the main
reason why individuals addicted to exercise progressively and continuously
increase the frequency and duration of the workouts. (Read Activity box 11.1
again in this context.)
Withdrawal symptoms
These symptoms are the unpleasant psychological and physical feeling states
that occur when exercise is discontinued or significantly reduced. The most
commonly reported symptoms are guilt, irritability, anxiety, sluggishness, feeling
fat, lacking energy, and being in a bad mood or depressed. The intensity of these
states is severe in people affected by exercise addiction to the extent that they
really feel miserable when the need for exercise is not fulfilled. The
manifestation of these withdrawal symptoms in addicted individuals is clearly
different from those experienced by committed exercisers who simply feel a
void, or that something is missing, when exercising is not possible for a reason.
Addicted exercisers have to exercise to overcome withdrawal symptoms even at
the expense of other more important life obligations. In contrast, committed
exercisers look forward to the next opportunity while prioritizing their
obligations.
Conflict
This symptom represents the conflicts between the exercise addict and others
around them (interpersonal conflict), conflicts with other daily activities (job,
Six common symptoms of exercise addiction | 201
social life, hobbies and interests) or from within the individual themselves (intra-
psychic conflict) which are concerned with the particular activity. Interpersonal
conflict usually results from neglect of the relationship with friends or family
because of the exaggerated time devoted to exercise. Conflict in daily activities
arises because of the abnormally high priority given to exercise in contrast to
even some of the survival activities like cleaning, taking care of bills, working or
studying for exams. Intra-psychic conflict occurs when the addicted person has
realized that fulfilling the need to exercise takes a toll on other life endeavours,
but is unable to cut down or to control the exercise behaviour.
Relapse
Relapse is the tendency for repeated reversions to earlier patterns of exercise
after a break, whether voluntary or involuntary. Relapse can be observed after
injury (which is involuntary) or after a planned reduction in exercise volume as
a consequence of a personal decision to put a halt to the unhealthy pattern of
exercise behaviour or as a consequence of professional advice. Upon resumption
of the activity, addicted individuals may soon end up exercising as much as or
even more than before the reduction in their volume of exercise. This is similar
to other substance and behavioural addictions: for example, the smoker who
smokes a pack of cigarettes per day may quit smoking for several weeks, months,
or even years and then start over again by smoking a pack or more cigarettes
per day.
Activity 11.4
Provide several (at least two) examples of interpersonal conflict, conflict in
daily activities and intra-psychic conflict that you or a friend of yours have
experienced in the past. If you have never encountered such conflicts and
are unaware of others who did, think of real-life situations in which the
three forms of conflict may occur. Write down and also elaborate on the
examples.
Activity 11.5
Log on to the Internet and using an appropriate browser find literature or
documentation on withdrawal symptoms. Differentiate between physical
and psychological withdrawal symptoms and then differentiate between
withdrawal symptoms associated with substance (drugs, alcohol, tobacco)
addiction and behavioural (gambling, sex, exercise, TV watching, video
game playing) addictions. Try to rank the severity of withdrawal symptoms
by considering the form (substance or behaviour) and history (experience)
of addiction.
202 | Exercise addiction
Activity 11.6
Match each statement on the exercise addiction inventory (EAI – left
column) with one of the common symptoms of behavioural addictions
listed in the middle column, by writing the corresponding question’s
number to the right of the symptom in the right-hand column. (The first –
tolerance – is done for you as an example.)
All exercise addiction questionnaires, including the EAI, can only be used for
surface screening. This method estimates the likelihood of addiction in the
respondent. Even individuals scoring above average may not necessarily be
addicted to exercise. Nevertheless, a score that is close to the maximum suggests
that the possibility is there. A score of 24 on the EAI needs to be considered a
potential warning sign. Still, the proper and unambiguous assessment of exercise
Correlates of exercise addiction | 203
popular knowledge and the media-spread information about the positive aspects
of exercise.
It is well known that the media play an important role in what people think
and believe about regular physical activity. Their beliefs influence their
expectation from their exercise. The media-propagated positive image of the
habitual exerciser provides a mental defence, known as rationalization, behind
which a few exercisers with severe emotional problems may hide. Thus, the
media-projected positive image about regular exercise may be used to deny the
existence of the problem (a characteristic defence in most addictive behaviours)
and to delay the detection of the problem to the advanced stages when all
symptoms of addiction are vividly present. Because of denial, only few case
studies reported in the literature may reflect genuine cases of exercise addiction.
Their number and case-specificity delay the accumulation of scientific
knowledge about this dysfunction. In a random sample of habitual exercisers
only a few cases, if any (!), of exercise addicts may be identified (Morris, 1989).
As such, the nomothetic (group) approach to studying exercise addiction is
inappropriate. The idiographic (case-specific) approach may be more fruitful in
enhancing knowledge about exercise addiction. In general, if exercise addiction
is believed to be a constructive coping method with a deep psychological
problem, it should be treated as a symptom of that problem. The psychological
problem itself needs to diagnosed and treated by qualified mental health
professionals, which are tasks beyond the scholastic mission of sport scientists.
addiction. The EAI, which can be completed by patients in less than a minute,
could be a reinforcing aid in the detection of addiction. Upon recognizing the
symptoms in a patient, medical and health professionals should attempt to
convince the affected individual that talking over the problem with an impartial
specialist may be in their interest. Subsequently, they should refer the patient to
their psychologist or psychiatrist colleague who is specialized in the area of
behavioural addictions. Exercise addiction, like other behavioural addictions,
should be considered a serious dysfunction. Therefore, its identification must be
positive. Once a positive diagnosis has emerged, the principal concern should be
to find the source or the root of addiction. Then the treatment should be geared
towards the cause, not the symptom, of exercise addiction (Szabo, 2000).
Person
Group
Population
Conclusions
Exercise addiction is a relatively rare dysfunction within the exercising
population that is manifested through obsessive, compulsive and excessive
exercise behaviour. It results in negative consequences to the affected individual
and their social environment. The maintenance of the behaviour is probably
driven by negative reinforcement, an incentive through which the exerciser tries
to avoid an unpleasant event by regularly engaging in exaggerated amounts of
exercise. Several symptoms characteristic of other behavioural addictions are
present in exercise addiction as well. Scales or questionnaires developed around
the common symptoms are useful in the screening but not the diagnosis of
exercise addiction. Only case studies are promising in advancing knowledge
about this exercise-related dysfunction. The detection of more cases could be
expedited through population-wide surface screening conducted by researchers
who need to share the data with clinically trained professionals for the isolation
of positively diagnosed cases.
Further reading
Books
Bozarth, M.A. (1994). ‘Pleasure systems in the brain.’ In: D.M. Warburton (Ed.),
Pleasure: The Politics and the Reality. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 5–14.
Brown, R.I.F. (1993). ‘Some contributions of the study of gambling to the study
of other addictions.’ In: W.R. Eadington and J.A. Cornelius (Eds), Gambling
Behavior and Problem Gambling. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 241–272.
Glasser, W. (1976). Positive Addiction. New York, NY: Harper and Row.
Kreider, R.B., Fry, A.C., and O’Toole, M.L. (1998). Overtraining in Sport.
Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Journal articles
Chapman, C.L., and De Castro, J.M. (1990). Running addiction: Measurement
and associated psychological characteristics. The Journal of Sports Medicine and
Physical Fitness, 30, 283–290.
Hausenblas, H.A., and Symons Downs, D. (2002). How much is too much? The
development and validation of the exercise dependence scale. Psychology and
Health, 17, 387–404.
Terry, A., Szabo, A., and Griffiths, M.D. (2004). The exercise addiction inventory:
A new brief screening tool. Addiction Research and Theory, 12, 489–499.
Thompson, J.K., and Blanton, P. (1987). Energy conservation and exercise
208 | Exercise addiction
Useful websites
Titles and web addresses all functional in October 2007
www.nodependence.com/addictions/exercising-addiction/exercise-
addiction.html (Exercise addiction.)
www.springerlink.com/content/x8460707wj28kp71/fulltext.pdf (Exercise
addiction in British sport science students.)
12
beliefs as reality? The
placebo effect in sport
and exercise
Chris Beedie and Abby Foad
The placebo effect is a positive outcome arising from the belief that a
beneficial treatment has been received (Clark et al, 2000). A negative belief
effect, the ‘nocebo effect’ (Hahn, 1997) is in effect the opposite, that is a
negative outcome resulting from the belief that a desired treatment has either
not been received, or that a received treatment is harmful.
In the guise of the ‘placebo control’, the placebo effect has a central role in
scientific research. Akin to medicine, a placebo treatment in sports research
often serves as a control for the experimental treatment under investigation. For
example, in a hypothetical study of the effects of caffeine on concentration
among cricketers, the administration to participants in the ‘control condition’ of
a pharmacologically inactive capsule – to all intents indistinguishable from the
caffeine capsule administered in the experimental condition – allows the
researchers some degree of confidence that any observed effects resulted from
the pharmacological action of the caffeine and not from the psychological effect
of participants’ belief that they had ingested a performance-enhancing substance.
work either wholly or in part via the placebo effect will be raised (see also
Chapter 1). Throughout this chapter, readers will be encouraged to think
critically about the role and implications of the placebo effect, and beyond this
specific phenomenon to the wider issue of the relationship between mind and
body, for research and practice in sport and exercise.
Learning outcomes
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to:
1. Describe research that has investigated the placebo effect in sport and
exercise.
2. Evaluate the concept of the placebo effect in research.
3. Critically consider the role and implications of the placebo effect for
athletes, exercisers and professional practitioners.
caffeine (the response to the 0.0 mg/kg caffeine was arguably a nocebo effect).
Semi-structured interviews were conducted to ascertain how the participants
themselves attributed any perceived or observed changes in performance. Five
participants believed that they had experienced a placebo effect in one or more
of the three experimental trials, and proposed mechanisms such as lower levels
of pain and anxiety, as well as deliberate modifications of pacing strategy
resulting from the belief that they would produce more power as the result of
ingesting caffeine. These data suggested that placebo responses may be
associated with changes in psychological variables that indirectly affect
performance.
Received Received
drug no drug
Inform A B
drug Placebo effect + Placebo effect
drug effect alone
Inform C D
no drug Drug effect Baseline
alone
Foad et al (2008) used the balanced placebo design to investigate the placebo
and pharmacological effects of caffeine in 40 kilometre cycling performance.
Fourteen male competitive cyclists each performed two trials in the following
conditions: a) informed caffeine/received caffeine; b) informed caffeine/received
placebo; c) informed no treatment/received caffeine; and d) informed no
treatment/received no treatment. Results demonstrated that the average power
214 | Beliefs versus reality, or beliefs as reality? The placebo effect in sport and exercise
output increased by 3.5 per cent over baseline when participants received
caffeine, regardless of whether participants knew that they were receiving
caffeine or not. The belief that caffeine had been received did not significantly
enhance performance, however, a substantial interaction between belief and
pharmacology indicated that caffeine exerted a greater effect on performance
when participants were informed that they had not ingested it, while belief
exerted a greater influence on performance in the absence of caffeine (2.6 per
cent). A possibly harmful nocebo effect was observed when participants were
correctly informed that they had ingested no caffeine (⫺1.9 per cent). McClung
and Collins (2007) used a similar design to investigate the placebo and
pharmacological effects of sodium bicarbonate on 1000 metre run times. The
authors reported that not only did the overt administration of sodium
bicarbonate improve performance by a substantial 1.7 per cent over the no
treatment condition, but that the expectation of receiving sodium bicarbonate
improved performance in the absence of the substance by a not dissimilar 1.5 per
cent. They suggest that such an effect could make a significant difference to
athletes in competition. More significantly perhaps, they note the lack of a
performance effect when participants had ingested sodium bicarbonate but
believed that they had not, suggesting what they termed a biochemical ‘failure’.
Thus, arguably in contrast to the findings of Foad et al with caffeine, McClung
and Collins’ results demonstrated that the belief that sodium bicarbonate had
been ingested resulted in times almost as fast as those associated with consuming
the drug itself, while taking the drug without knowledge of having done so
yielded no significant performance increment.
Activity 12.1
In studies by Desharnais et al (1993) and Crum and Langer (2007),
participants were provided with information about the benefits of exercise
designed to create an expectancy of improvement. Discuss whether you
consider this to be a placebo intervention and whether the observed
effects are placebo effects. Can you think of any other explanations for the
observed results?
■ Placebo and experimental effects may interact (i.e. placebo effects in control
and experimental conditions may not always be equivalent in magnitude).
■ Beliefs can have both positive (placebo) and negative (nocebo) effects.
Activity 12.2
Think of an example in sport or exercise where the placebo effect might
impact on performance outcome or a similar dependent variable. Design a
study to investigate the placebo effect in this context. Is your study valid
and reliable? What problems might you encounter in your design that
could confound accurate estimation of the placebo effect?
Assumption 1
The placebo control is an ‘inactive’ condition. The notion of the placebo control as
an inactive condition is understandable given that placebos and placebo effects are
so often associated with words such as ‘inert’, ‘sham’ and ‘non-specific’. What is
often overlooked, however, is that the placebo condition represents an active
psychological treatment which, as has been demonstrated above, may in itself elicit
significant effects. These effects are likely of significance to sports performers and
practitioners, but are all too often overlooked in research, in which a null finding is
Evaluating the concept of the placebo effect in research | 217
Assumption 2
Placebo effects are always positive in direction. Given common definitions of the
placebo effect as a ‘positive outcome’, it is not surprising that the effects of
individuals’ beliefs in the placebo-controlled trial are often assumed to be positive
in relation to baseline or no-treatment conditions. However, as recent research by
Beedie et al (2007) has indicated, if participants hold negative beliefs about an
intervention, the scenario might be quite different. The authors allocated 42 team
sport athletes into two groups and, following 3 3 30 metre baseline sprints,
provided group 1 with positive information about a hypothetical new ergogenic
aid (a placebo) while group 2 were provided with negative information about the
same substance. The sprint protocol was repeated. In group 1, a significant linear
trend towards greater speed in experimental trials suggested that positive belief
exerted a positive effect on performance. However, performance in group 2 was
significantly slower than baseline suggesting that negative belief exerted a
negative effect on performance. Beedie et al’s findings indicate that in a placebo-
controlled trial, negative beliefs about an intervention may elicit a negative or
‘nocebo’ effect whereby performance in the placebo condition dips below
baseline. In the experimental condition, the effect of the intervention may still be
evident, but the effect over baseline is reduced in relation to trials in which
participants believed the substance to be effective. While the reported
experimental effect would remain the same as when participants held positive
beliefs about the intervention, it would be an overestimate of the true increase
over baseline. Inclusion of a baseline measure or no-treatment control condition
to the standard placebo-controlled design is therefore essential if valid
approximations of both placebo and experimental effects are to be made.
Assumption 3
Placebo and experimental effects are additive, not interactive. An important
assumption made when evaluating the results of a placebo-controlled trial is that
the effects of the experimental treatment and the placebo are separable, additive,
linear and stable. However, this model may be too simplistic because it does not
account for the possibility of interactions between experimental and placebo
effects. Research has in fact demonstrated that a placebo effect may operate
differently in the presence of an active substance to when one is not present, and
that an active substance may act differently when participants believe that they
have ingested it to when participants believe that they have not (McLung and
Collins, 2007; Foad et al, 2008). The placebo effect associated with the simple
act of ingesting a substance believed by the participant to be ergogenic may
potentiate the physiological effect of that substance (de la Fuente-Fernández et
al, 2002). Different interventions may mobilize different mechanisms (e.g.
psychological, biological, pharmacological) to different degrees, and these
mechanisms can be additive for only so long as they are truly independent and
not constrained by ceiling effects. Thus it is possible that the magnitude of the
true experimental effect may well be constrained by interventions that are
218 | Beliefs versus reality, or beliefs as reality? The placebo effect in sport and exercise
That day he rode the time trial of his life, finishing second on the stage to
Ullrich. The German started 3 minutes after Richard and caught him, after
which the pair had a memorable ding-dong battle all the way to the finish.
“God I felt good! That stuff’s just amazing” he bubbled. “We must get hold of
it.” Of course his result did have something to do with the magic capsule – but
there is one thing he doesn’t know, unless he reads this. I had got rid of the
fabulous potion and swapped it for one which contained a small amount of
glucose. There is no substitute for self belief … (Vogt, 1999: 104).
Activity 12.3
Vogt (1999) reported an instance of the placebo effect in competitive
sports performance (above). Could the validity of such a quote be
questioned? What alternative explanations might there be for such
apparently placebo-enhanced performance? If a placebo effect was
responsible, what do you think was the most likely mechanism?
The role and implications of the placebo effect | 219
Surprising though this might sound, the issue has been the subject of research
in clinical and counselling psychology for many years. In fact, the charge that
psychotherapy might exert its effect via a placebo mechanism is not the worst to
be aimed at it; that is, it has not only been suggested that many forms of
psychotherapy are no better than a placebo, but that they may even be no better
than no treatment (see Evans, 2003, Chapter 8, for discussion).
In medicine it is often quite easy to test an active drug against a placebo (via
two pills identical in appearance but different in content). It is also possible in
psychotherapy; for example, Strupp and Hadley (1979) compared the effects on
clinical patients of psychotherapy delivered by trained/qualified therapists and
untrained/unqualified psychologists. The authors reported that both groups
improved by the same degree (a finding later replicated by Stein and Lambert,
1984). The suggestion is that years of training, and strict adherence to one
framework, be it psychodynamic, humanistic, gestalt or cognitive behavioural,
makes little difference in the real world. However, research elsewhere, in
medicine for example, has demonstrated that the beliefs of the practitioner
about a treatment might be a significant factor in the success of that treatment.
That is, in any therapeutic setting, the magnitude of any placebo effect might be
driven by the beliefs of both practitioner and patient/client. This has often been
cited as the mechanism underlying many examples of ‘faith healing’.
Activity 12.4
Using research evidence, suggest what might happen should an athlete be
referred to a sport psychologist, but do so believing that the sport
psychologist is likely to have a negative effect on the athlete’s
performance. Describe the possible mechanisms underlying the outcome
and suggest what a sport psychologist could do to prevent any negative
response.
Possible mechanisms
If the placebo effect works, it does so via one or more mechanisms. Data from
studies in sport suggest that the mechanisms might be related to reduced pain,
reduced anxiety, increased motivation and changes in strategy. These are
relatively simply explained; for example, placebo-driven pain reduction – a
phenomenon well-documented in the medicine literature – would be expected
to reduce an athlete’s perception of stress and fatigue and might be interpreted
by the athlete as a sign that they have more headroom in which to perform (in
other words, they can push a bit harder). A placebo effect manifest as reduced
anxiety, again a phenomenon documented in the medicine and psychology
literature, might work via a different mechanism. Given that muscle tension is
often associated with anxiety, and that muscle tension is costly in terms of
oxygen to initiate, maintain and overcome, placebo-driven reductions in anxiety
might facilitate more efficient performance by reducing that tension. Both
placebo mechanisms above might result in baseline levels of performance at a
lower physiological cost to the athlete or a greater level of performance at
baseline physiological cost. Increased motivation and revised strategy, resulting
from the belief that an intervention might raise the level of performance, might
be expected to be associated with both increased performance and increased
physiological cost, and as such represent more of a conceptual problem. That is,
both might result in substantial declines in performance if associated with
unsustainable physiological responses such as blood lactate accumulation or
metabolic fatigue. Thus, the mechanisms that underlie an observed positive
placebo response in one participant might be the same that underlie a negative
placebo response in another (the latter would not be correctly described as a
nocebo response as the initial belief and expectation was positive).
In fact, to extend the above, it is possible that there are a substantial number
of mechanisms underlying placebo effects on performance, as is almost certainly
the case in medicine. In fact, if, as has often been proposed, placebos mimic the
effects of the drug they purport to be, logically there must be almost as many
different placebo effects as there are drug effects! Certainly, in the same sense
that in medicine it is doubtful that all individuals and all conditions are placebo
responsive, in sport, perhaps only a few key mechanisms can operate in a few
222 | Beliefs versus reality, or beliefs as reality? The placebo effect in sport and exercise
situations; a placebo designed to reduce anxiety will not work on a low anxiety
athlete whereas one that is designed to increase motivation might. The converse
might also hold true.
The ethical codes governing research are in place to ensure that the mental and
physical health, as well as the dignity of participants participating in such research
is not in any way undermined. Research ethics committees scrutinize research
proposals to ensure that ethical guidelines will be followed in research studies.
Deception, although unlikely to undermine physical or mental health, could be
seen to undermine the dignity of participants, and thus is likely to concern an ethics
committee. However, several areas of human behaviour, including the placebo
effect, are highly problematic to investigate empirically without some form of
deception. In such cases, ethics committees generally require that the researcher
provide a strong rationale for the use of such procedures. Specifically, the researcher
must demonstrate: first, that they are aware of the ethical issues surrounding the use
of deception in research; second, that they have carefully considered these issues in
relation to their own research question; third, that the possible benefits of their
research outweigh any risks to participants; and finally, that effective non-deceptive
procedures are not feasible. There are specific guidelines aimed at reconciling the
use of deception with the ethical norms of human participant research provided by
the American Psychological Association (2002).
Deceptive methods are rarely used in sports research, but this is perhaps more
due to the lack of a perceived need than any specific ethical objections.
However, what is and what is not acceptable is not just a function of law and
guidelines, but of what ethics committees and journal editors deem appropriate
methods for addressing often increasingly complex questions. Historical trends in
research ethics suggest that due to changes in law, culture or knowledge,
practices considered legitimate at one point in time may not be so at a later date
(and arguably vice versa). For example, several years ago the elimination of
placebo-responsive participants from clinical drug trials might have been deemed
unethical as such a practice constituted a self-selecting sample, deprived
participants of potentially effective treatment and inflated observed drug effects.
However, the practice has become increasingly widespread as drug companies
strive to derive ever less ambiguous findings from increasingly expensive and
time-consuming drug trials. The ethics of research will to a certain extent always
be guided by the shifting balance between the need to protect participants on the
one hand, and the need to provide society with reliable information about the
effects of interventions on the other.
Conclusions | 223
Activity 12.5
Imagine you are the coach of a team of national-level swimmers. You are
looking at ways in which to enhance the team’s performance and are
considering using a placebo intervention to this effect. Discuss the factors
that would influence your decision whether to use the placebo effect as
part of your coaching strategy.
Conclusions
The placebo effect has been recognized as a factor in medicine for several
centuries. During that time, its status has evolved from that of a superstitious
and mercurial phenomenon, through experimental artefact to be controlled for,
to that of a legitimate psychological construct in its own right. This process has
recently been reflected in sport and exercise, where after many years of being
widely acknowledged but little understood, it is finally the focus of systematic
research. Recent research in sport and exercise has demonstrated that the
placebo effect can elicit substantial and significant positive and negative effects
on a number of dependent variables. Furthermore, many such changes are
similar, if not equal, in magnitude to those associated with the intervention the
placebo was designed to mimic (for example placebo caffeine in Beedie et al,
2006, and placebo sodium bicarbonate in McClung and Collins, 2007).
The placebo effect is, however, not simply an interesting and potentially
useful psychological construct. Although it has much in common with other
complex sports psychological processes such as flow states or automaticity, the
placebo effect presents the sport psychologist with practical and ethical
questions; for example, to what extent can the placebo effect be utilized to
enhance performance? If it is possible to enhance performance via placebo
mechanisms, is it ethical to do so? If an athlete is highly placebo responsive, are
they likely nocebo responsive also? Is placebo responsiveness a desirable or an
undesirable trait for an athlete? Can placebo/nocebo responsiveness be modified
via sport psychology interventions? Answers to these questions will require not
224 | Beliefs versus reality, or beliefs as reality? The placebo effect in sport and exercise
Over and above the questions above, however, the placebo effect presents
perhaps a greater challenge to practitioners. It is quite likely, as has been the case in
medicine and psychotherapy, that a substantial number of interventions used in
sport psychology might operate, at least in part, via placebo mechanisms. With the
increased scientific and ethical scrutiny of such professions that characterizes con-
temporary medical and related professional practice, such mechanisms will need to
be investigated and either discounted or acknowledged and addressed accordingly.
Future directions
Research to date in sport and exercise has demonstrated that the placebo
effect might impact on some people some of the time. Identification of the
Further reading | 225
Further reading
Books
Evans, D. (2003). Placebo: The Belief Effect. London: HarperCollins.
Journal articles
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Prevention and Treatment, 6, 1–16. www.journals.apa.org/prevention/
volume6/pre0001a.html
Kirsch, I., and Weixel, L.J. (1988). Double-blind versus deceptive administration
of a placebo. Behavioural Neuroscience, 102, 319–323.
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Index
ABC triangle, psychology 54–5 music on 114, 117
abductor digiti minimi, imagery of contraction 147 on performance 47
abuse of exercise, see exercise addiction arousal potential (Berlyne) 122
action cycle (Norman) 6, 7 Ashes Test Series, England v. Australia 1
action theory approach, coping with stress 85 asynchronous music 113, 120–9, 130, 134
active coping 81 athletes
active substances, interaction with placebos 217 confidence 55, 56, 57, 58–9
adaptive coping 76, 86, 87 emotions 49
adaptive mechanism, placebo effect as 224 imagery 140–1
‘add-on’, psychological skills training seen as 6 leadership from 159–62
addiction to exercise 189–208 development 163–5
additive effects, placebos 217 mood vs performance 26–7
affect 54–5 performance profiling, vs that of coaches 97
in-task, music on 128, 133 PETTLEP model 145
see also mood psychological skills training 3
African American slaves, music 111 psychological studies 12
Albatross (Fleetwood Mac) 113 attentional overload 31
Alderman, R.B., on development of sports Australia, Ashes Test Series 1
psychology 11–12 autocratic behaviours scale, leadership measure
anabolic steroids, placebo effect mimicking 212 158
anaerobic energy production, music 128 autonomic response
synchronous 133 adaptation to exercise 195–6
tempi and 125 imagery 143
anger see also heart rate
on performance 22, 27, 30 autonomy, in cognitive evaluation theory 100, 101
timeframe in mood studies 25 avoidance coping 79, 81
anthems 110, 111 trait anxiety 81
anticipatory coping 82
anxiety 35–51 baby-grand pianos, Los Angeles Olympic
exercise addiction and 203 Games 110
interventions 47 Backley, Steve (javelin thrower), on
music on 120 self-confidence 53
on performance 20, 22, 44–7 Badiel and Skinner, Three Lions 119
placebo effect on 221 ‘balanced placebo’ research design 213
sources 41–4 barrier knock-down task, study of imagery 147–8
see also trait anxiety basketball, study on goal-setting 11
application of psychology 12 Beedie, C.J., on POMS 27–8
appraisal-focused coping 82 behaviour
appraisal process confidence and 55
emotions 44 control process model 79
stress and 36, 77, 78–9, 84 effect of stress on 77
see also challenge appraisal; cognitive appraisal leadership as 155
approach-focused coping 79 behaviourism 194
army, stress of joining 85 beliefs
arousal placebo effect and 211–25
adaptation to exercise 196–7 of therapists 219
anxiety vs excitement 38 Best of Coping programme 83
catastrophe models 45–6 beta-endorphin hypothesis 198
definition 36 bias factor, butterfly catastrophe model 45–6
imagery 141, 142 biases, exacerbating anxiety 50
248 | Index
Binsinger, C., et al, extracurricular sport on self- performance profiling 97–8, 102, 105
esteem 183, 184 rating of leaders by 159
blind designs, placebo research 213 as sources of confidence 57
blood flow brain study, imagery 142 as stressors 76
blood pressure, music on 125 Coaching Behaviour Scale for Sport (CBS-S) 163
bobsleigh, mood on performance 27 codes of conduct, leadership 166–7
body attractiveness, physical activity on 185 cognition
body esteem 178–9 confidence and 55
body satisfaction 178 coping with stress 84–5
Bonobo (musician), Terrapin 121 cognitive anxiety 37
bowling (cricket), cues in mental management 6–7 catastrophe models 45–6
brain, during imagery CSAI-2 sub-scale 38
contingent negative variation 147, 148 on performance 44
regional cerebral blood flow 142 processing efficiency theory 46
brainstorming, performance profiling 94, 97, 102 time to competition 44
Brazil, football team 120–1 cognitive appraisal
Brunel Music Rating Inventories 114–16 definition 74
Butler, Richard, performance profiling 92–3 see also appraisal process
butterfly catastrophe model, anxiety 45–6 cognitive appraisal hypothesis, exercise
addiction 197–8
caffeine, placebo studies 213–14 cognitive behavioural approach, coping with
calmness, on performance 31 stress 84
canoe-slalom race, imagery 143 cognitive behavioural training, for coaches 163
Capriati, Jennifer (tennis player) 73 cognitive evaluation theory (CET) 100–1
captains 160 cognitive general imagery 141
carbohydrate drinks, placebo research 214 cognitive load, on performance 46
cardiac rehabilitation, synchronous music 130 cognitive motivational relational theory 44
catastrophe models cognitive restructuring 48, 67–8
anxiety 45–6 cognitive specific imagery (CS imagery) 141, 142
see also cusp catastrophe model cohesion of teams 104
CET (cognitive evaluation theory) 100–1 research on 157, 166
challenge appraisal 78 college students, physical self-perception profile 182
Chelladurai, P., and Saleh, S.D., leadership collegiate athletes, self-confidence 55, 56
measure 157–8 commitment to exercise 191, 200
children scale measuring 191–2
body esteem 178 communication
coach training 163 The Mentoring Programme 86
development of athlete leaders 163–5 within teams, performance profiling 104
self-esteem and physical activity 176, 183–5 competence, in cognitive evaluation theory 100
children and youth physical self-perception profile competence (sport), physical activity on 185
(CY-PSPP) 183 Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2
choice corollary, personal construct theory 103 (CSAI-2) 37–41
chronometry, mental 143 compulsive exercise, see exercise addiction
circular target, performance profiling 93–4 conceptual exercise—self-esteem model 176–8, 186
clothing, practising imagery 145, 146–7 confidence 53–69
Coach Behaviour Assessment System (CBAS) 155, butterfly catastrophe model 45–6
163 measurement 59–67
coaches performance profiling on 102
deception and 223 profiling 61–7
ethics 167 sources 55–9
gender 157 conflict, exercise addiction 200–1
leadership behaviour 160 confusion, on performance 27, 30, 31
in leadership development 164 conscious processing hypothesis 46–7
leadership development of 162–3 consent 67–8, 87
Index | 249
consistency around the mean, single-subject research Deci, E.F., and Ryan, R.M., cognitive evaluation
study 14 theory 100–1
construct validity, performance profiles 103–4 defensiveness, trait anxiety 42
constructs definitions
performance profiling 99–100 anxiety 35–7
self-confidence measurement 61, 65 arousal 36
contact sports, anxiety 43 cognitive appraisal 74
contingency theory (Fiedler) 156 coping 74
contingent negative variation (CNV), in imagery 147, emotion 19, 28–9
148 exercise addiction 190, 199
control process model of behaviour 79 imagery 139
controllability of stressors 80, 82 leadership 154, 161
controls mood 19, 28–9
placebos 211, 216–18 psychological skills training 3
see also randomized controlled trials qualities for performance profiling 94–5
coping 73–90 self-esteem 175
classifications 81–3 sport confidence 53–4
confidence and 55 stress 74
exercise addiction as 203–4 denial, exercise addiction 204
interventions 83–9 dependence on exercise 190
loss in exercise addiction 198 depression on performance 27, 29
see also toughness Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the APA (DSM
corollaries, personal construct theory 100, 103 IV), exercise addiction and 203
correlation coefficients, depression on performance ‘direction’, anxiety symptoms 38–9, 41
29 discrepancy scores, performance profiling 98
countering negative thinking 67 dispersion, see leader dispersion
critical comments, as stressors 76 disruptions, coping with 3, 4
Crocker, P.R.E., et al, physical self-perceptions and dominance (cerebral), imagery vs performance 143
physical activity 184–5 dose of exercise 189
Cronbach’s alpha, applied to leadership measure dose-response relationship, placebos 212–13
158 double-blind protocols, placebo research 214
crowd noise, in imagery 145 ‘double disassociation’ design 213
CS (cognitive specific) imagery 141, 142 drive theory, anxiety on performance 44
CSAI-2 (Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2)
37–41 eating disorders, exercise addiction 190
cues, in mental management 6–7 effect sizes, moods on performance 30
cultural impact, music 113 elderly adults, EXSEM (model) 180
culture electroencephalography (EEG), imagery
leadership and 157 studies 143
sport confidence and 54 contingent negative variation 147, 148
cusp catastrophe model elite athletes
anxiety 45 coaches for 163
processing efficiency theory with 49 mood vs performance 26–7
cycle ergometry, synchronous vs asynchronous PETTLEP model 145
music 130 psychological studies 12
cycling sources of confidence 56, 57, 58–9
effect of music on time trial 125 emotion(s) 19–34
placebo research 214 anxiety as 36
appraisal process 44
daily activities, conflict, exercise addiction 201 definition 19, 28–9
dancers, imagery 141 PETTLEP model 146
David (2nd king of Israel) 111 stress 77, 82–3
debilitative anxiety 38–9 suppression 49
deception, placebo research 213, 222–3 emotion-focused coping 80, 81
250 | Index
emotional cognitive approaches, coping with Feeling Scale, The, in-task affect 128
stress 85 female athletes
emotional intelligence 86, 88 coaches 157
emotive music 118 coping 79–80
endorphins 198 self-presentation 56
energy drinks, placebo research 214 sport confidence 57, 58, 62–4
England v. Australia, Ashes Test series 1 Fiedler, F.E., contingency theory 156
environment, leadership theories 156–9 fitness
environment component, PETTLEP model 145 heart rate 195–6
ergogenicity, music 112 physical activity on 185
synchronous 129–30 synchronous music 130
tempo switch 125 Fleetwood Mac, Albatross 113
errors, as stressors 76 flow states, music on 119, 124
ethics focusing skills, in mental management 6–7
interventions 148 football
The Mentor Programme 87 rugby team anthems 111
leadership and 166–7 see also soccer
research Fox, K.R., physical self-perception model 174, 175,
confidence profiling 67–8 184, 186
deception in placebo research 222–3 Frank, I., application of psychology 12
mood studies 32 Frederickson, B.L., on anxiety 35–6
physical activity and self-esteem 186 freezing 1
European Soccer Championships (1996) 119 frequency, anxiety symptoms 38
evaluation, in action cycle (Norman) 6, 7 functional equivalence
evidence-based practice, placebo effect and 224 imagery and performance 142–4
example-setting 160 PETTLEP model 145, 146
excitement, anxiety vs 38, 41 functional support model 80
execution funding, sports psychology 5
in action cycle (Norman) 6, 7
of skills 57 Gallagher, Harry (swimming coach) 223
exercise Gatting, Mike (cricketer), anxiety on performance 20
music on adherence 114 Gebrselassie, Haile (distance runner), synchronous
music tempo and intensity 123–5 music 130
placebo effect research 214–16 gender
exercise addiction 189–208 confidence and 56, 57, 58
exercise addiction inventory (EAI) 193, 202 coping 79–80
expectancy modification procedure 214–15 leadership and 157
experience corollary, personal construct theory 100 self-esteem
EXSEM (physical self-perception model) 179–81 body image 178–9
external factors, music 113 physical activity 183, 185
external functions, peer leaders 159, 160 see also female athletes
external perspective, imagery 146 generalisability
externalizing failure, self-handicapping 43 coping interventions 83–4, 86
extracurricular sport, on self-esteem 183–4 physical activity to self-esteem 177
Eye of the Tiger 113 global flow, music on 124
goal-setting 6
facilitative anxiety 38–9, 41, 42 in The Mentor Programme 86
fatigue performance profiling 96, 103
music on 128 studies 11
on performance 27, 30 goals
placebo effect on 221 role in mental management 6
Faulds, Richard (trap shooter) 120 on stress appraisal 79
favourableness of environments, Fiedler’s stress from 76
contingency theory 156 golf, skill requirements 8–9
Index | 251
McDonald, D.J., and Hodgdon, J.A., self-esteem and multiple-baseline research design, single-subject
physical activity 175–6 13–14
McGrath, Glenn (cricketer), view of sports Murray, Andrew (tennis player) 75
psychology 5 muscular endurance, music on 119
media, mass, on exercise 204 muscular tension, arousal on 47
melody 110 music 109–37
mental chronometry 143 asynchronous 113, 120–9, 130, 134
mental management (Sinclair and Sinclair) 6–8 conceptual framework for benefits 116–17
mental practice 139–40 grounded theory model 117–18, 134
Mental Readiness Forms (MRF) 39–40, 41 in mythology 110–11
mental toughness, psychological skills training 3–4 pre-task 119–20, 134
mentoring, coping intervention programme 86 selections 126–7
meta-analyses synchronous 129–33, 134–5
on imagery 140 musicality 113
POMS and 23, 27–8
self-esteem and physical activity 175–6 national anthems 110
metabolic efficiency, synchronous music on 131 need, perceived, performance profiling 103–4
metaphorical imagery 141–2 negative addiction 191
MGA (motivational general arousal) imagery 141, 142 negative beliefs, see nocebo effect
mistakes, responses to, Coach Behaviour negative reinforcement 194–5
Assessment System 155 negative shift, in imagery 147, 148
MMLS (multidimensional model of leadership in negative thinking, countering 67
sport) 156–7, 158, 166 netball, music on performance 119–20
monitoring of performance 103–4 neutral music 116
month timeframes, mood studies 24 nocebo effect 211, 213, 214, 217, 220
mood 19–34 nomothetic research, sport confidence 60
anxiety as 36 norepinephrine, music on production 125
confidence and 54–5 Norman, D.A., action cycle 6
modification in exercise addiction 200 nutritional advice, self-esteem and physical
music on 114, 125 activity 175
on performance profiling 101, 105
see also affect obesity, body esteem 178
motivation obligatory exercising, see exercise addiction
exercise addiction 193–5 Odyssey (Homer) 111
music 114–16, 125 older adults, EXSEM (model) 180
synchronous 133 Olympic athletes, psychological skills training 3
performance profiling and 100, 101, 102 Olympic Games, music 110
placebo effect on 221 One Moment in Time (Whitney Houston) 120
motivational approach, self-esteem and physical one-to-one settings, performance profiling 95, 98
activity 177 operant conditioning theory 194
motivational general arousal imagery (MGA imagery) opioid receptors 198
141, 142 opponents, as stressor 76
motivational general mastery imagery 141 order of development of skills 11
motivational interviewing, confidence assessment organizational culture, in sport confidence model 54
61–2 Oti, Chris (Rugby footballer) 111
motivational specific imagery 141 oudeterous music 116
motor control, arousal on 47 over-commitment 191–3
motor plans 3, 7 overtraining 190
MP3 player, underwater 121 oxygen uptake, music on 133
MRF (Mental Readiness Forms) 39–40, 41
multidimensional anxiety theory 44–5 package approach, skills studies 11
multidimensional model of leadership in sport pain, placebo effect on 221
(MMLS) 156–7, 158, 166 ‘paralysis by analysis’ 46
multidimensional self-esteem 182 parents, development of athlete leaders 164
Index | 253