UNIT- 9 PSYCHOLOGY AND SPORTS

MEANING AND DEFINITION OF SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY

The word psychology is derived from two Greek words: ‘psyche’ meaning ‘soul’ and ‘logos’ meaning ‘science’. The
literal meaning of psychology is thus the science of soul. Psychology is the science of human behaviour.
Sports psychology has been explained by the experts as under: • “Sports psychology explores one’s behaviour in
athletics”. – Singer • “Sports psychology for physical education is that branch of psychology which deals with the
physical fitness of an individual through his participation in games and sports”. – K. M. Burns
IMPORTANCE OF SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY:
1. Helps to improve the performance & personality of players by scientifically modifying his behaviour.
2. Proper motivation & feedback enhances the performance of the player.
3. It helps to control and check the declining performance.
4. It helps to understand the learning rate, learning curve development patterns, etc.
5. It develops proper behaviour setup during the competition.
6. It helps the player to deal with the reactions of the crowd and spectators.
7. It help players to overcome stress and tension.
8. It helps coaches for better selection of players.
9. It improves the coaches , training and teaching skills for effective learning.
GROWTH DEVELOPMENT
1 Growth is visible. Development can be observed.
2 Growth is quantitative. Development is quantitative as well as qualitative.
3 Growth comprises of height, weight, size, and shape ofAlongbodywith
and the physical changes, cognitive, social, and emotion
its organs. changes are also included.
4 It is due to cell division. It happens due to motor and mental processes and their
interplay.
5 Growth is for limited period. Development is a life long process.
6 Growth can be measured objectively. It can be observed by matured behaviour.
7 Growth tells about one aspect of the personality and isDevelopment
limited deals with all the aspects of personality and has
in scope. vast scope.
8 Growth can be measured and continues up to certain age Development
of an is more related to qualitative aspect and difficult
individual. to measure for instance, mental ability, academic achievemen
etc.
9 The limits of the growth are set by the heredity of an individual.
Development is more affected by the environment available to
the person.

CHARACTERISTICS OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

(a) at infancy, (b) during childhood, and (c) during adolescence d) Adulthood

Infancy
Physical characteristics include soft, small, flexible, and underdeveloped muscles and bones; uncoordinated
movements; disproportionate body parts. Female and male children exhibit a similar pace in growth. • Muscles and
muscle control develop fast and motor skills are gradually obtained. Perception of colour starts at about 3-4 months;
eyes become mature at 6 months. • With the development of the nervous system, the child also learns coordinated
patterns of movement. • Growth slows down in the last three years though the body begins to have a proportionate
appearance. • As for emotional and mental development, the child is first guided by feelings of pain and pleasure.
Fear, anger and love are the dominant emotions at this stage. • An infant’s brain is quite sharp and has great retention
of memory, although attention switches easily from one thing to another in an effort to respond to various stimuli. •
An infant eventually starts to participate in daily activities and begins to address wants and needs. • The child also
begins to assert itself and gains a personality. • Activities that interest an infant include running, throwing and kicking
balls, playing with toys.

Childhood
The speed of physical growth is fast in the first three years and it slows down subsequently. • The child also gains
weight steadily, though physical strength is still weak. Neuromuscular coordination, however, shows vast
improvement. • Pulse rate is higher compared to adults, while blood pressure is lower. Baby teeth are replaced. •
Energy level is high but diminishes quickly as endurance is still poor. • Mental and emotional intelligence grows at a
fast pace. Memory, logic and decisionmaking abilities are attained. • The child begins to have a good grasp of social
 skills and interacts with the environment. • The child undergoes the process of establishing a personality. • A child is
more self-centered at the early stage of childhood. • In the latter half, the child also loses interest in rhythmic activities
and acquires a taste for specific activities and sports.

Adolescence (12-18 years)

• The period of transition from childhood to adulthood. It is believed that adolescence starts from the age of 13 and
lasts till 19. • Physical growth is extremely fast in this stage. Bones and muscles grow in size and strength, height
shoots up. The heart increases in size, the skeleton is well calcified. • Motor skills and coordination are well defined.
The onset of puberty brings are well-defined. • Adolescence is a stage full of emotional complications. • Friendship is
highly valued during adolescence, and loyalty is expected. • Feelings of intimacy towards other individuals also begin
in this stage.
Adulthood Period
It is the longest span among all the life stages and characterized by maturity.
• Physical Development:
Maturity of muscles takes place, the strength of muscles improves, the body weight may get increased due to changes
in lifestyle.
• Intellectual Development:
They understand the present situation and try to make adjustments accordingly, they are able to do all the intellectual
activities, they start thinking rationally and intelligently,
• Emotional Development: The emotions are very much controlled. they accept criticism gracefully as being honest and
they are glad to have an opportunity to improve.
• Social Development: They usually become responsible, they are open minded and listen thoughtfully to the opinion
of others.

ADOLESCENT PROBLEMS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT

Adolescent Problems
Owing to various changes, children of this age group face many problems. The major problems, which adolescents
face, are described below:
1. Physical Problems: During adolescence, many physical changes take place. Menstruation and nightfall become a
phenomenon for girls and boys respectively. Development of sex glands takes place. Due to these changes,
adolescents feel restless and worried.
2. Mental Problems: During this stage, stress, tension and strife are common. These traits create many mental
problems. An adolescent faces many problems such as difficulty in co-operating with others, maladjustment, etc. They
face anxiety.
3. Problem of Aggressive Behaviour: In this age group, adolescents tend to show aggressive behaviour. They become
aggressive on small matters. They become irritated easily. This behaviour needs to be tackled with care and politeness.
Avoid being strict towards them.
4. Lack of Stability and Adjustment: Adolescents do not remain stable and face adjustment problem. Their behaviour
does not remain constant. They feel themselves unable to adjust with other people. They fail to coordinate with
others. Not only outside, but they cannot adjust themselves in their family. They feel that they are under pressure of
their parents. They want to have free atmosphere at home.
5. Emotional Problems: The life of adolescents is full of emotions. Sometimes, they seem to be very happy and at the
same time, they become sad.
6. Problems Related to Sex: During adolescence, adolescents face many problems, which are related to sex. They try
to meet the opposite sex. Sometimes, they become so eager that they do not hesitate to leave their family. They feel
restless due to their sexual urge. During this stage of their life, parents should make them understand the rights and
wrongs, without any hesitation.
7. Problems of Self Support: Each and every adolescent needs self-support. They want to make their own place in
society. They desire to live a fruitful life. 8. Feeling of Importance: Adolescents begin to understand themselves as
important. They think that they should also get respect. But, sometimes, parents do not take it seriously. They fail to
understand the feelings of adolescents. In such case, they feel themselves to be unimportant and become a great
problem.
9. Social Problems: It has been observed that adolescents want to adopt their own way. But society creates many
hindrances in their paths. So, adolescents revolt against the social customs and traditions. Friends are very important
for this age group. They share their views, knowledge and experience and sometimes, the group acts as the medium of
spreading social vices and dissatisfaction. These adolescents fall prey to intoxication, i.e., alcohol, drugs and smoking.
10. Peer pressure: Adolescents have a keen yearning to impress their peers. They form groups and gangs and build
their own social hierarchy. In their need for appreciation and acceptance, they risk the danger of taking part in
substance abuse and even minor criminal activities.
Management of Adolescent problems:

1. Education for Motor Development: Adolescents should be provided the education for motor development. They
should be encouraged to play various games and sports. Through these games and sports, their motor development
will take place properly.
2. Education of Psychology: Parents should be able to understand the psychology of adolescents. It is essential to sort
out the problems and manage them in a positive way.
3. Sex Education: Parents should provide sex education without hesitation, so that they may not depend on others
and may not resort to cheap literature.
4. Moral and Religious Education: Religious and moral education will give them mental peace. Through moral
education, some problems like indiscipline, anxiety and worry can be tackled easily.
5. Suitable Environment: Adolescents should be provided suitable environment for growth and development and
should be provided proper facilities and opportunities for proper development. They should be taught how to behave
and live. Parents should look after health problems of adolescents. They should be provided balanced diet.
6. Adequate Independence: Adolescents should be given proper chance to express their feelings and expressions.
They should be allowed to go for picnic and other recreational activities. Orders should not be imposed on them.
Parents should try to understand the sentiments of adolescents
7. Vocational guidance: To have a clear and precise idea of what one wants to be in future can direct an adolescent
towards a fruitful, ambitious and disciplined lifestyle. Teachers can provide vocational guidance to aid them in this
area, keeping in view the adolescent student’s interest, intelligence, aptitude and capabilities.

TEAM COHESION
Team Cohesion is a “Dynamic process which is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain
united in the pursuit of goals and objectives” (Carron, 1982). It is essential to know how well a team works together
and is crucial for a sports team to be successful. There are different strategies to improve individual motivation and
success. Successful team cohesion in sports is influenced by individual’s view of their team and the objective set out to
achieve. Team cohesion is useful as it can both improve performance and motivation of a team. If a team works well
together, this improves their team cohesion, this in turn improves performance. This, then, improves personal
satisfaction. Thus improving team cohesion and then the cycle continues either on an upward or downward trend.
Team cohesion is a multidimensional construct that includes both Task Cohesion and Social Cohesion.
Task cohesion refers to the level of team members working together to attain and achieve common and identifiable
team goals in a cohesive environment.
Social Cohesion refers to the level of liking among the team members and amount of personal satisfaction of being
together in as team members.
Determinants of Team Cohesion - There are various factors which decisively affects the team cohesion among sports
teams.
1. Personal factors - Satisfaction , Similarity of experience
2. Team factors h Prior success – Communication, Having team goals, Importance of achieving goals
3. Leadership factors - Effort to develop cohesion
4. Environmental factors- Size of group
Benefits of Team cohesion
1. Group outcomes
Team stability: when athletes reflect high level of social cohesion in sports teams, there is high possibility of their
continuation in sports in future season. It improves team stability.
Team Efficacy: Group cohesion helps teams to believe in their abilities and develop self-confidence among team
members, leading to improved level of group or team efficacy.
2. Individual outcomes
Improved Athletic Performance: When athletes as associated with common and identifiable team goals (task
cohesion), their individual performance of athletes within the team is enhanced.
Perceived Psychological Momentum: Sports team having high level of team cohesion and have increased task
cohesion are more likely to enjoy the benefits of psychological momentum. Team cohesion helps athletes during
competition and contests to develop a perception about momentum of competition to be in their favor.
Enhanced mood, emotion, and satisfaction: Improved team cohesion reflect increases positive emotions and
greater self-satisfaction among athletes. Athletes part of highly cohesive sports team enjoy positive mood
compared to athletes associated with less cohesive teams.
INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES: ATTENTION, RESILIENCE, MENTAL TOUGHNESS
ATTENTION:
The mind has developed a system that helps us select some information for further processing while blocking out
other information. This system is called attention—a term that denotes the process of exerting mental effort on
specific features of the world around us or on our own thoughts and feelings.
For example, in sports, making a conscious effort to listen carefully to a coach’s instructions before a match involves
attention. Similarly, a soccer goalkeeper who is preparing to defend against a corner kick from the opposing team
must pay attention to the flight of the incoming ball while disregarding the movements of the players in the penalty
area. These two examples show that the ability to focus on what is most important in any situation while ignoring
distractions is vital for success in sports.
The attention styles can be classified of four types which is divided as per two independent dimensions ie. ‘direction’
and ‘width’. Attention style as per width can be narrow attention or broad attention focus, whereas attention style as
per direction refers to external and internal attention focus.
A. Width: refers to athletes’ tendency to take in multiple or wide range of information as opposed to focusing very
narrowly on one source of information or cue while churning out other cues and information.
(a) Broad Attention Focus - Athletes with broad attention focus would be aware of rapidly changing situation and
environment around them. For example, a batsman focusing on the pace of the ball as well as the seam and swing of
the ball, or a football player dribbling the ball focusing on ball as well being aware of the space where he is moving.
(b) Narrow Attention Focus is the ability of the athlete to focus on a particular or important task when surrounded by
multiple cues. For example, athlete listening only to his team-mates’ instructions or focusing on to their specific task
rather than getting distracted by other cues or information.

B. Direction refers to where we tend to focus our attention, and varies from internal state of own mental or physical
state to external state of what is happening around the athletes.
(a) External Attention Focus directs an athlete to focus outward or attend to other objects or cues other than their
own self. A hockey player focusing on their own position on the field as well as attending focus to opponents and their
own team mates around them is an example of external attention.
(b) Internal Attention Focus directs inward thoughts without attending to the external cues or objects. A Basket baller
just sticking to his/her own position on the court rather than making changes to get away from opponents or an
shooter focusing only on to their shooting target without getting distracted by other influencing factors.

RESILIENCE:
The ability to respond positively to setbacks, obstacles, and failures is essential for any successful athlete. An athlete
will encounter adversity. Those athletes who are able to successfully rebound from their misfortunes are often
admired for their resilience. The term resilience refers to the ability of a substance to regain its shape following
deformation. Resilience is the process of, capacity for, or outcome of successful adaptation despite challenging or
threatening circumstances. Types of Resilience:
1. Natural Resilience: It is a natural ability that is bestowed upon a person at conception. It is characterized by
openness to new experiences, an eagerness to learn, and a want to have fun.
2. Adaptive Resilience: Adaptive resilience is when, as a result of adverse circumstances, one has to learn, adjust and
adapt.
3. Restored Resilience: Restorative or ‘‘learned’ ‘resilience is the type of resilience, restored by learning skills that aid
in coping with life’s challenges. This can also aid in dealing with the past, present, and future traumas in a more
effective manner.
MENTAL TOUGHNESS:
• Mental toughness is the aptitude of coping and effectively handle adversity, stress, and pressure; capability of
overcoming or rebounding from failures; a skill to persevere or refuse to quit.
• The response is presented in a varying manner by mentally tough athletes that enable them to remain energized,
calm and relaxed as a consequence of learning the development of two important skills, these skills include the
ability to increase their flow of positive energy in adversity and crisis, and secondly to think to in particular ways
so that right behaviour can be developed to deal with completion, mistakes, pressure, and problems.
• Mental toughness is the natural or developed psychological edge that enables one to generally cope better than
the opponents with the many demands that sport places on a performer. Specifically, be more consistent and
better than the opponents in remaining determined, focused, confident, and in control under pressure.
• Mental toughness encompasses a set of attributions, namely self-confidence, visualization and imagery control,
positive energy, motivation, attitude control, negative energy control (e.g., being able to cope with anger and
frustration), and attention control (focus). Coping with pressure, focused concentration, motivation, and self-
belief as the four pillars of mental toughness.
• Mental toughness is positively associated with an increase in high performance.