Application of

Social Psychology-II UNIT 12 APPLICATION OF SOCIAL

PSYCHOLOGY TO SPORTS*
Structure

12.0 Objectives

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Teams in Sports

12.2.1 Team Cohesion

12.2.2 Team Confidence

12.2.3 Team Building

12.3 Leadership

12.4 Effective Communication

12.5 Let Us Sum Up

12.6 References

12.7 Key Words

12.8 Answers to Check Your Progress

12.9 Unit End Questions

12.0 OBJECIVES
After reading this unit, you will be able to,
- explain teams in sports;
- describe leadership; and
- discuss effective communication.

12.1 INTRODUCTION
On 24th September, 2007, the first ever ICC world cup T20 was held in
Johannesburg,South Africa. In the T20 world cup finals India and Pakistan
were competing each other. M.S. Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first
with a total of 180 runs in mind but able to made only 157 runs, which was a
good score but considering the pressure of world cup one can add more to
that. Fans had little expectation from their Indian team as it was the team of
youngsters and for the very first time Sachin, Dravid, Ganguly and Zaheer

Ms. Shivani Arora, JRF and Prof. Suhas Shetgovekar, Faculty, Discipline of SOSS, IGNOU, Delhi

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decided to skip the T20 format for giving the young guns a go. Under the Psychology to Sports
captaincy of M.S. Dhoni, this team of youngsters yield the unexpected
victory by defeating their arch-rivals Pakistan over 5 runs and finally ended
as a path-breaking tournament for Indian cricket. What according to you had
led Indian team win the match? Is it due to the pressure Indian team
members were going through? Or Is it due to the unity or cooperation the
team members shared during that time?

When you try to look at the factors that could have played in the above
context, you would come up with factors like leadership, team effectiveness,
team cohesiveness and so on. When we talk about sports, there are various
types of sports from indoor to outdoor sports and from sports that are played
by single individuals and those by duals and a team of individuals. There are
many social dynamics especially when we talk about sports that are played in
teams. And understanding these dynamics is crucial for success of the team.

In the present unit, we will explain the application of social psychology to

sports, mainly sports teams. In this unit we will mainly focus on the
application of social psychology to understanding team and team dynamics,
leadership and communication.

Box 12.1 Applied Sports Psychology

Applied sports psychology is the scientific study of psychological or mental

factors that are involved in performing and participation of sports and other
physical activities. The goal of the applied sports psychologist is to guide
and help the athletes so that they can perform to the best of their capabilities
and moreover enjoy their sport thoroughly. They are uniquely and
specifically trained to impart a number of services to the athletes such as-
understanding and implementation of the mental knowledge, skills required
mastering the sport (athletic domain).

If you are an athlete or a part of any sports group, you must have experienced
the pressure of winning a game or fear of being beaten by the competitor
team. The role of the sports psychologist comes in the picture. Guidance of
the sports psychologist help the athletes achieves their goals. In order to
enhance the performance, various mental strategies have been taught to the
athletes such as: self-talk, relaxation techniques, and visualisation.
Psychologists help the athletes to compete with the pressure of competition
and the pressure from coaches, parents and their own expectations.

12.2 TEAMS IN SPORTS

Teams can be described as a group of individuals that have a common goal.
For example, we have a cricket or football team that mainly work in
coordination with each other in order to win the match against the opposite
team. Teams can be explained as a smaller group of individuals who are
interdependent and possess skills that are complementary to each other. And
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diverse background who have proficiency in the sport and have been selected
to represent a Country or a State or club as a team. Thus, there could be
teams for football or cricket or Kabbadi at school level or state level or
organisational level and even national level.

These individuals not only come from different background but are unique in
their own ways in terms of personality, skills and so on. But, they are
expected to perform and succeed as a a team. Thus, comes the application of
social psychology not only in understanding team dynamics but also in
building teams that are effective. In this context we also have to remember
that teams in sports also perform in the presence of an audience and this as
well can have an impact on their performance.

Great team develops when the athletes believe that they are good for the
team, not to the team. While selecting the team, the athletes have to compete
with each other brutally. But once the team is finalised, they have to change
their mindsets and have to work with the team and put the team first. When
they work together, they will more likely to succeed in their sport. It is
therefore very important to consider the interplay between the different
behavioural styles of different athletes within their team. This interplay is
called team chemistry or dynamics.

Team dynamics can be termed as the unconscious, psychological forces that

influence the direction of the team behaviour and performance. These
dynamics are based upon the personalities of the team members, how they
interact with each other, their working relationship, and the environment in
which team member’s work. Team dynamics can be good, if it leads to the
improvement of the team performance or bad if it causes demotivation
among the team members and stops the team from achieving their desired
goal. In the context of team dynamics in sports, attention has been focused on
the factors influencing team performance such as team cohesion, team
confidence and team building.

12.2.1 Team Cohesion

A dynamic process by which the members of the group remain together and
united to meet the goals of the team as well as the fulfilment and satisfaction
of their needs is known as team cohesion (Carron, Brawley, and Widmeyer
1998). Also, cohesiveness is the feeling of the unity that binds the members
of the group together voluntarily. Sports team often aim and have the ability
to create cohesion and working together as one. Athletes perform better if
they consider themselves to be a part of full functioning and supportive team
to which all are happy to belong. Committed members of the group are tend
be more interactive, loyal, enthusiastic, and productive. Groups that have
strong bond with each other works together for a long period of time,
whereas those groups having a weaker bond disband in a short period of
time(Pescosolido and Saavedra, 2012). As one of the saying, “even nectar is
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poison if taken to excess,” meaning excess of everything is bad. Similarly, Psychology to Sports
too much cohesion in a group is also not good as it leads to groupthink and
hampers creativity and leads to less innovation (Wise, 2014).

In social psychology, team cohesion can be of two types:

- Task cohesion: In task cohesion, members of the group work together
with unity to achieve a common team goal (Richardson, 2013).
- Social cohesion: The extent to which the members of the team like and
interact with each other is known as social Cohesion (Richardson, 2013).
In social cohesion team mates focus more on being socially bonded and try
to gain chemistry.

According to Pescosolido and Saavedra (2012), task cohesion can be the

catalyst that initially binds the player to the team and drives the player to
perform. Whereas, social cohesion comes later when players are concerned
about the quality of their interpersonal relationships. Task and social
cohesion work in line with each other in order to encourage team work in
sports team that helps them to reach their goal and achieve success. Before
proceeding further, lets discuss the various factors contributing Team
Cohesion.

According to George and Jones (2000), there are different factors that can
contribute to team cohesiveness. These factors are: size of group, similarity
among group members, competition with other groups, success and
exclusiveness of the group.

Size of group: Team cohesiveness depends upon the size of the group i.e. the
number of members pertaining in the group. It is believed that the bigger the
group the lesser the team cohesiveness tends to be (George and Jones 2000).
When the size of the group is small, there is more face to face interaction,
communication with each other. However, when the size of the group
increases this face to face interaction decreases and it becomes more difficult
to get the group to agree upon the common goals and activities. Another
difficulty with the larger size group is the formation of smaller groups within
the large group. Which would lead to the dilution of the common group goal
and hinders the team cohesiveness as a whole. Small groups tend to be more
cohesive than the larger groups. This is supported by the theory of Social
Loafing, according to which when there are more members in the group,
there will be diffusion of responsibility. According to this theory, when
individual is working in a group, he/she exerts less pressure than working
alone.

Competition with other groups: According to Luthans (2002), presence of

external competition tends to develop greater Team Cohesion. Members
willingly put their issues aside and work toward solving the issue at hand. In
an organization, competition between groups tends to increase Team
cohesion as the members of the group will try their best to work together to
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claimed that only a minimal level of competition is healthy across groups and
helps in maintaining cohesiveness of the group, too much competition will be
unhealthy and dysfunctional for the group effectiveness.

Similarity among group members: According to George and Jones, (2000)

Homogeneous groups who share certain common characteristics such as
attitudes, values, ethics, ideas, experiences and other characteristics tends to
be cohesive. Further in contrast to George and Jones, researchers claimed that
heterogeneity not homogeneity which could shape productivity of the team
by facilitating mutual leaning (Hamilton, Nickerson and Owan 2003).
However too much heterogeneity will also be problematic as it will result in
uncertainty and confusion among the group members which in the long run
hinders the achievement of the goals (Nelson and Quick 2003).

Success: According to George and Jones (2000), groups that will be able to
fulfil their goals and achieve success, becomes attractive for their members
and leads to be more cohesive. Team cohesion naturally depends upon the
success of the team (Luthans 2002). When the team achieves a goal, the
success belongs to all the members of the group and each one feels
responsible for the achievement. For example, if any sports team wins a
match the entire team congratulate each player of the team for the success.

Exclusiveness: Social status or the prestige of the group determines the

extent of the group cohesiveness. Groups high in prestige tend to be more
cohesive as they receive more loyalty and determination from their members.

Team cohesion and performance are related to each other. Cohesion leads to
greater commitment of the members towards the goals, which results in
higher individual effort and performance. Members of a cohesive group
communicates in a positive way with each other, reports higher satisfaction
and lower anxiety, which results in improved decision making and greater
participation.

Team cohesion can also have the negative consequences, as it does not allow
the members of the team to keep their personals goals over the common
goals. Also, it will increase the social pressure for individual speech to
conform or restrict. Further, it can be stated that the members of a cohesive
team tend to perform at the same ground, conforming to the established
group norms whereas members belonging to the less cohesive group have
wider range of individual performance levels and standards.

Bray and Whaley (2001) conducted a study to see the relationship between
team cohesion and the individual efforts made by the high school basketball
players (both male and female) over a course of a season. By the end of the
season, researcher found that cohesion predicts individual performance. Also,
at the group level, Mullen and Copper (1994) conducted a meta-analysis of
Team cohesion and team performance, and found the highly significant
220 relationship between cohesion and team performance. This effect was
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stronger among smaller groups rather than the larger groups, also the effect Psychology to Sports
was there among real group as compare to artificial groups.

Thus, it can be concluded that there is a stronger and bi-directional

relationship between team cohesion and performance. Simply, the members
of the team who enjoyed their success together are tend to be cohesive and
also the team cohesiveness leads to the success of the team members
particularly in terms of their goals and objectives.

12.2.2 Team Confidence

The secret ingredient that all the great athlete seems to possess regardless of
what level they are competing at is team confidence. Confidence doesn’t
grow overnight but rather it is a process, where each positive experience
builds to develop into real confidence. Having confidence is as important as
having a particular physical skill for a sport. It is the self confidence that
allows the athlete to work and try again and again until they achieve success.
Self confidence offers the strength and power to an average athlete or team to
beat a stronger opponent. Self confidence inspires one to try to make the
impossible come true. Similarly, an individual or team can regularly perform
well below their ability without self confidence. Low self confidence will
destroy the enjoyment of the sport of an athlete and make him/her a dropout
statistic.

Self-efficacy theory developed by Bandura (1977) is the one that can be

applied to the real world of sport. Self -efficacy is the belief of the
individuals that one can perform successfully to achieve certain goals under a
given set of circumstances. It is particularly a situation-specific form of self-
confidence. Both the terms, i.e. self-efficacy and self confidence are used
interchangeably in sports psychology (Feltz & Chase, 1998). However,
according to Albert Bandura self-efficacy is related to self confidence but
they are not the same thing. Self confidence allows the person to be confident
in his/her abilities which increases the likelihood to be succeed and in turn
paves the experiences to develop self-efficacy. This increase self-efficacy
makes the person more confident about himself and round it goes. Self-
efficacy is derived from different sources such as: performance
accomplishment, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and lastly,
physiological and emotional states.

Performance accomplishment: One of the effective ways to develop self-

efficacy is through mastery experiences. Previous success of a task increases
the chances to complete the similar tasks (high self-efficacy) while repeated
failures tend to decrease it (low self-efficacy).

Vicarious experience: Learn by observing others is known as Vicarious

experience. It is also known as modelling. When one has positive role model
who display a healthy level of self-efficacy then there are chances to develop
the some of the same positive attributes of the self.
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Application of Social persuasion: Activities in which people are led to believe, by
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encouragement, that they can perform particular tasks with success. Coaching
and providing evaluative performance feedback are common ways of social
persuasion.

Physiological and emotional states: The physiological and emotional states

also tend to increase the self-efficacy judgements. For example: if someone is
experiencing an emotional state, say anxiety, it will lead to negative
judgement regarding the ability to complete a task.

When athletes are full of confidence, they will be easily able to convert their
sporting potential into successful performance. However, when they feel
unsure about their sporting potential, even the smallest hurdle can have an
undue effect on their performance. According to Bandura (1977), there is a
recursive/repetitive relationship between confidence beliefs and performance.
It means, performances have been influenced by mastery expectations,
although these expectations get altered by the cumulative effect of efforts
made by an individual.

If a team wins a match, the confidence of winning the next match are
probably more. However, if a team loses a match, they might lack the
confidence of performing and winning the next match. According
toCovassin& Pero (2004), success has affected the level of confidence and
the level of confidence has affected the rate of success. Further, Hays et al
(2009) revealed that Elite Athletes performance has been affected by the level
of confidence through their thoughts, behaviours and feelings. Also, a
statistically significant and positive relationship has been found between the
subjective performance and confidence (Levy, Nicholls, and Polman 2010)

12.2.3 Team Building

Varun and Karan are working in a company under the headship of Manoj.
Manoj had a tremendous faith on both of them and often appreciates them in
front of others. He usually takes his team out on dinner. His team always
complete his targets on time and always perform better than the other teams.
Manoj was the most admired team leader. Manoj never had to force Varun
and Karan to take up new assignments, they were always ready to take the
new assignments willingly.

So, what according to you, makes Varun and Karan eager to work? The
answer to this question is the various efforts Manoj, the team leader, took to
motivate and extract the best from them. This explains team building.

Simply, the various activities undertaken by the leader in order to motivate

the team members to perform well and to achieve the end goals is known as
team building. The members are not expected to work well by their own. The
motivating factor is essential. In sports, Team Building is time consuming as
it requires the coach to build a culture that leads to success. Further,
according to Yukelson (1997), teams are the collection of coordinated and
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interdependent individuals who are structured into several task-efficient Psychology to Sports
positions for the motive of obtaining objectives which are deemed important
for that particular team. In sports, team building helps in instilling the sense
of shared destiny among the members of the team., so that the focus of all the
members is towards that goal only. Team building also helps in the
development of the behaviour and the skills of the members which leads to
improve the team functioning as a whole.

In the beginning of the session, Team building helps to develop confidence

and trust among the members, they interact easily because of early Team
Building, which further motivates the climate of mutual understanding and
honest self-evaluation (Hardy &Crace, 1997; Yukelson, 2006).

In order to teach the importance of cooperation to team members, the various

team building interventions are often used so that members of the team can
effectively share their skills, knowledge and resources with each other. Team
Building intervention approach can be both: direct or indirect intervention
(Carron &Hausenblas 1998). In direct team building intervention, the
consultant (e.g. sports psychologist) works directly with the team members or
athletes in order to provide a common vision and sense of identity to the
members of the team and to increase cohesion among them. Whereas in the
latter, i.e. the indirect intervention, the consultant works with the team coach
or the manager rather than works directly with the athletes or the players,
who then implements the intervention programme developed to the team. In
this type of approach, Team Building Intervention can be filtered by the team
coach or manager.

Indirect team building interventions are most often used in sports rather than
direct intervention approach because of following three reasons (Carron and
Hausenblas et al 1998; Estabrooks and Dennis 2003):

1) Most of the team coach/manager want to know their individual athlete

well therefore they mediate the interventions provided to their team
members by the consultant.

2) Many consultants don’t want to give up the control over their team
completely to an outsider.

3) Many coaches might be suspicious that the consultant concerned may

use his or her work with the team for personal promotional purposes.

Let us discuss about direct and indirect team-building interventions in detail:

Direct team-building intervention: According to Yukelson (1997), there

are four stages of direct team -building intervention working with athletes-
assessment, education, brainstorming and goal-setting.

Assessment: In the first step, consultant assesses the current team situation as
accurately as possible. For this, the consultant has to meet the team’s
coach/manager and also understand and listen to the team members in order
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team.

Education: At the second stage, the consultant gives the team with the basic
education regarding how the team develops and works over time.

Brainstorming: At the third stage, several brain storming techniques should

be used by the consultant in order to facilitate the team members how to
generate and prioritise their current needs.

Goal-setting: At the fourth and the final stage, the consultant analyses these
needs in order to determine the goals of the team-building intervention.

The methods of direct team building are becoming increasingly apparent in

sports, often in games that are viewed as individual practices such as golf.

Indirect team building intervention: As discussed earlier, in this type of

approach the consultant deals with the team coach/manager not with the team
members directly. Within this approach, Carron et al (1997) developed an
influential theoretical model which follows a four-step intervention process.
- Introductory stage: In the introductory stage, the consultant outlines
the essence and benefits of team building to the team manager/coach.
This stage typically last about 25 minutes.
- Conceptual stage: In this stage, the consultant explained the team
coach/manager that the team cohesion is the result of three main
factors i.e. the environment around which the team surrounds, the
team’s norms and the communication processes.
- Practical stage: In this stage the consultant and the team’s
manager/coach do practical work collaboratively and generate as
many team building strategies as possible.
- Intervention stage:This is the final stage, in which the team’s
manager/coach implement the team building interventions under the
assistance of trained consultant if necessary.

Check Your Progress I

1) What is team cohesion?

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12.3 LEADERSHIP Psychology to Sports

A team leader plays an important role in directing and guiding the team for
goal attainment. He/ she is also needs to ensure effective coordination and
communication amongst the team members. Given the relevance of a leader
in team, it is obvious that a lot of thought needs to be put in while selecting a
leader for a particular team.

When we talk about teams in sports, one leader would be the captain of the
team. But often there is a coach as well who also plays a role in directing the
team. Further, besides the captain and the formal leader, there could also be
informal leader (s). In the context of team in sports, the leaders, whether the
captain, the coach or the informal leaders, all need to work in tandem with
each other and there should not be any conflict amongst them. This would be
extremely important for effective performance of the team. The principles of
social psychology can be applied here in order to understand the leadership
styles and the role of the leader.

Yukl in 1998 defined leadership as the process in which the members in a

group are influenced by one of the members in the group (its leader).
Shetgovekar (2018, page 218 ) defined leadership as “a process that involves
one person (the leader) influencing other persons or members of the group
(the followers) in order to achieve the purpose or objectives of the group”.
Who becomes a leader can be determined based on both personal
characteristics of the person and the situational factors. Some of the personal
characteristics include ability, expertise, effective interpersonal skills, high
motivation and confidence. Personality factors could also play a role in this
context. Situational factors could include the nature and size of hegroup,
communication network and so on.

Theories of leadership: In the context of social psychology, leadership can

be explained with the help of various theories:
- Great person theory: The theory states that a prominent leaders display
certain factors that are inherent and dispositional. The theory also
emphasises that there are certain traits that are commonly displayed by the
leaders. For instance, high extraversion, openness etc. The theory has been
criticised of error of attribution (Shetgovekar, 2018).
- Contingency model: The model states that behaviour of the leader and
situational determinants determine the leadership. Thus, besides the
dispositional factors that the great person theory focused on, the situational
factors are given equal importance. Under this model, we can discuss
about the task oriented leaders and the relations oriented leaders. task
oriented leaders, as the name suggests, the focus is on the task and the
relations oriented leaders focus is on the relationship.
- Social identity theory: The theory states that being part of a group, a
social identity is shared by the leader and the group members. Thus, the 225
Application of group members are likely to support the leader because he/ she reflects the
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group identity and therefore the leader will be required to represent the
group values and perspective.
- Transactional and transformational theories of leadership:
Transactional leadership denotes the transaction between the leader and
his/ her followers. The focus of this leadership is on rewards on
punishments that are used by the leader in order to ensure performance on
the part of the team members. Transformational leadership inspire,
motivate and encourage the group or team members to achieve the goal.
- Multidimensional model of leadership: The model suggests that how
effective a leader is will depend on the dynamism of the leader and also on
the pattern of interaction between the leader and the group or team
members. The model also suggests that there is a need for balance between
the behaviour of the leader, the leadership preferred by the group
members, the behaviour as per the demand of the situation, in order to
increase satisfaction amongst the team members and to enhance their
performance. The characteristics of the leader and the group members will
also play a role in influencing the behaviour of the preference of
leadership on part of the group members.

Leadership styles: Leadership styles can be autocratic, democratic or laissez

faire.
- Autocratic style: In this style the leader has control and will take all the
decisions with regard to the group and often the point of view or option of
the group members is not taken in to consideration.
- Democratic style: In this style, the leader will not retain the control with
himself/ her self but will promote the participation of the group members.
- Laissez faire style: In this style the leader will not be much involved and
the group members take leads and decisions and work in the direction of
the goal.

Which leadership style is effective will depend on the nature of the task,
group and varied situational factors. Studies have indicated that democratic
leadership style is more effective especially in order to increase the task
cohesion of the team (Sullivan et al. 2012).

The leader, in the context of sports team, the captain or the coach will also
play an important role in developing a clarity amongst the team members
about the role that need to play in the team. Role can be explained as the set
of behaviours that a team member is expected to display when he/ she is in a
social setup. Thus, a wicketkeeper in cricket has certain role as has the
bowler. It is important that the team members have clarity about their role
and display role acceptance, that is, they accept and follow the set of
behaviours as expected from them and thus fulfil the demands of the role
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leading to role performance. Role performance can be explained as Psychology to Sports
completion of all the responsibilities based on the demands of the role given
to the team member.

Thus, leadership can play an important role in team effectiveness and social
psychologists can not only use the social psychology theories to understand
leadership but suitable intervention strategies can be used by them in order to
identify the leaders from amongst the group members. various workshops
and training programmes can also be designed to develop effective leadership
skills amongst the sports persons.

Check Your Progress II

1) List the three leadership styles.

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12.4 EFFECTIVE TEAM COMMUNICATION

Consider a team consisting of players who all are well versed in their sport
but the only problem is, they are not interacting properly due to personal
grudges they hold towards each other? Do you think this team will be able to
achieve success or even able to play together in a coordinated manner? “No”
the instant response that comes in your mind. So, from this one can concludes
that communication is a key factor in every successful team. If the
communication is good among the team members then the chances of the
members to achieve their goal is more than members having inadequate
communication. Before, proceeding further let us first discuss what is the role
of communication in sports.

The word communication has been derived from a Latin terms‘communis’,

meaning common/ sharing (Charlton and Charles, 1879). Communication can
be described as a process that is continuous in nature and involves give and
take of information. There are necessarily two parties in the communication
process who have the ability to convey the information as well as listen.
Feedback is an integral part of effective communication and the message that
is communicated can be verbal (example: written or spoken) or it could be
nonverbal (example: by means of symbols, signs or gestures).

According to Sullivan, et. al, (2012, page 126), communication can be

defined as “the interpersonal acts or interaction among team members that
will improve the team’s and its members performance”. Communication can
be considered effective if the message conveyed among the players would 227
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members of the team. In sports, effective communication among the coaches
and athletes tend to bring an established rapport among them, which in turn
have a significant role in contributing to the athletes sporting performance.
New skills can also be learned through effective communication as athletes
will receive clear feedbacks on skill execution from their coaches as well as
team members. According to Attle and Baker (2007), effective
communication and learning of new physical skills are related to each other.
Any negative communication pattern that affects the skills coach transfers to
its members can have a negative impact on the athlete’s performance while
training and competition. Therefore, communication should always be
positive, clear and up to the mark, so that it will help to satisfy the athletes
needs for self-regulation, helping them to enhance their performance.

Teams that can communicate effectively during the game are able to perform
better, make lesser errors and also, they are ready for the challenges of the
game. Conversely, bad communication by the team on the field makes more
errors and often leads to destroy the game. Effective communication helps
the player to understand his/her role completely and also everyone’s else role
in the team. In this regard, study was done by Cunningham and Eys (2007) to
find the relationship between role clarity and effective communication. It was
found that frequent social communication among teammates and perception
of role clarity among athletes was positively correlated. A research on golf
and tennis teams was done and it was found that the winning teams are more
engaged in communication during and between the games rather than the
losing team (Lausic, Tennebaum, Eccles, Jeong, & Johnson, 2009; Widmeyer
& Williams, 1991). Thus, it can, concludes that in order for the team to be
able to perform at their ability best, effective communication should be there,
both on and off the field. If the team becomes unsuccessful in maintaining
effective communication, the team will not be able to achieve their end goals
i.e. winning the game.

There are four main styles of communication as proposed by Hain in 1992

(Sullivan et al, 20120
- Orientation messages:This includes messages related to planning. Team
members often indulge in discussion of strategies and techniques that they
could use while playing the game. Planning is an important aspect of
effective team work.
- Stimulation messages: These include communication related to
reinforcement and motivation. Team members and especially the leader
needs to use the stimulation messages in order to encourage the team
members to perform to their best,
- Evaluation messages:As the name suggests these are related to the
assessment of performance and are based on the efforts put in by the team

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members, their ability and performance. Based on these feedback can also Psychology to Sports
be given to the team members.
- Task irrelevant messages:Communication that cannot be categorised in
above three categories can be termed as task irrelevant messages.

Communication is non-verbal as well and this also can play an important role
in effective performance of the teams. A study on the effect of facial and
verbal congruency on perceived verbal and emotional coaching feedback was
carried out by Corcker in 1990 (Shetgovekar, 2018) The study used 2 x 2
randomised design and included 71 participants, 32 female students and 39
male students. The participants were assigned randomly to four conditions.
The participants were asked to watch videotape of facial verbal pairings and
then they had to evaluate keeping in mind the positive and negative
statements and expression of emotions by the coach. The results indicated
that an inconsistency in facial verbal expressions influences the perception
of verbal feedback and emotional state.

Further, interaction between the team members during the game could also be
crucial to the effective performance and winning of the team.

Thus, suitable interventions can be developed by social psychologists in

order to enhance the communication skills of the players. Workshops and
training programmes based on these can be effectively organised and the
focus can be on building an effective team.

Check Your Progress III

1) List the four main styles of communication as proposed by Hain.

…………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………….

12.5 LET US SUM UP

To sum up, in the present unit we discussed about application of social
psychology to sports and in the process we focused on team in sports,
leadership and effective communication. Teams can be described as a group
of individuals that have a common goal. In the context of team, we also
discussed about team dynamics. Team dynamics can be termed as the
unconscious, psychological forces that influence the direction of the team
behaviour and performance. In this context the factors influencing the team
performance, namely, team cohesion, team confidence and team building
were discussed in details. Leadership in the context of sports team was also
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Application of discussed. Yukl in 1998 defined leadership as the process in which the
Social Psychology-II
members in a group are influenced by one of the members in the group (its
leader). Various theories of leadership and leadership styles were also
discussed in this subsection. In the last subsection of the unit, we discussed
about communication. Communication can be described as a process that is
continuous in nature and involves give and take of information. The four
main styles of communication as proposed by Hain in 1992 were also
explained

12.6 REFERENCES
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behavioral change.

Brewer (Ed.), International Olympic Committee MedicalCommission

handbook of sports medicine and science, Sport psychology, Oxford: Wiley-
Blackwell Publishing, Ltd.

Carron, A. V., Brawley, L. R., & Widmeyer, W. N. (1998). The measurement

of cohesiveness in sport groups. In J. L. Duda (Ed.), Advances in sport and
exercise psychology measurement (pp. 213–226). Morgantown, WV: Fitness
Information Technology.

Carron, A.V, Burke, S.M ve Shapcott, K.M.(2009). Enhancing team

effectiveness. B.W. Brewer (Ed.), International Olympic Committee
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psychology, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Ltd.

Carron, A. V., Hausenblas, H. A., & Eys, M. E. (1998). Group dynamics in

sport. Fitness Information Technology. Morgantown, WV.

Carron, A. V., Spink, K. S., &Prapavessis, H. (1997). Team building and

cohesiveness in the sport and exercise setting: Use of indirect
interventions. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 9(1), 61-72.

Chelladurai, P. (1990). Leadership in sports: A review. International Journal

of Sport Psychology, 21, 328-354.

Chelladurai, P. (1993). Leadership. In R. N. Singer, M. Murphey, and L. K.

Tennant (Eds.), Handbook of research on sport psychology (pp. 647-671).
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Crust, Lee and Lawrence, Ian. (2006) A Review of Leadership in Sport:

Implications for Football Management. Athletic Insight: The Online Journal
of Sports Psychology. Volume 8, Issue 4.

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Covassin, T., Pero, S. (2004) The relationship between self-confidence, mood Psychology to Sports
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Feltz, D. L., & Chase, M. A. (1998). The measurement of self-efficacy and

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Frank, M., & Gilovich, T. (1988). The dark side of self and social perception:
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(11), 1185-1199.

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of Collective Efficacyin Male Intercollegiate Basketball. Athletic Insight:
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12.7 KEY WORDS

Communication: Communication can be described as a process that is
continuous in nature and involves give and take of information

Leadership: It is “a process that involves one person (the leader) influencing

other persons or members of the group (the followers) in order to achieve the
purpose or objectives of the group” (Shetgovekar, 2018, page 218 )

Teams:Teams can be described as a group of individuals that have a

common goal.

Team cohesion: A dynamic process by which the members of the group

remain together and united to meet the goals of the team as well as the
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 Application of Social
fulfilment and satisfaction of their needs is known as team cohesion (Carron, Psychology to Sports
Brawley, and Widmeyer 1998).

Team dynamics:Team Dynamics can be termed as the unconscious,

psychological forces that influence the direction of the team behaviour and
performance.

12.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Check Your Progress I

1) What is team cohesion?

A dynamic process by which the members of the group remain together

and united to meet the goals of the team as well as the fulfilment and
satisfaction of their needs is known as team cohesion (Carron, Brawley,
and Widmeyer 1998).

Check Your Progress II

1) List the three leadership styles.

The three leadership styles are autocratic, democratic and laissez faire.

Check Your Progress III

1) List the four main styles of communication as proposed by Hain.

The four main styles of communication as proposed by Hain are:

- Orientation messages
- Stimulation messages
- Evaluation messages
- Task irrelevant messages

12.9 UNIT END QUESTIONS

1) Discuss team cohesion and team confidence in sports
2) Elucidate team building.
3) Explain leadership in the context of sports.
4) Describe communication patterns.

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