Monday 28 March 2016

An Introduction to Sports Psychology


Introduction

    Gross (1996) stated that psychology could be defined as 

'... the science of mind and behaviour.'  

    In resemblance to the definition, psychology is a broad topic in which numerous theories and concepts exist. These theories and concepts are often applied across various types of psychology, such as sport which has its own form of psychology. According to Cox (2007, p.g 5) 

'Sport psychology is a science in which the principles of psychology are applied in a sport or exercise setting.' 


    But why is sports psychology so important? Furthermore according to Cox (2007) 'it's used to enhance sports performance, but most psychologists are not content with enhancing performance alone but also human enrichment.’ However it could be either sports performance effecting enrichment or enrichment affecting the performance. Practitioners of psychology are constantly coming up with theories and concepts to try and grasp a better understanding of why certain things happen in sport. For example Eysenck's trait theory, where people take into consideration personality and conclude whether they are introverted or extroverted. (Leffner, L, C, 2014) Many theorise that introvert characters are better suited to individual sports and extroverts to team sports. (Kestenbaum, C, 1988)
Peyton Manning was drafted by NFL team Indianapolis Colts over Ryan Leaf due to his personality assessment, showing his strong extrovert character. He went on to be five time winner of the MVP (Most Valuable Player) award. (Carey, 1999) Rafael Nadal a very humble champion, within the world of individual’s tennis, both backing up the theory. However Paul Scholes 11 time premier league winner and two time champions league with Manchester United is also a very introverted character, as well as John McEnroe once labelled 'hysterically extroverted' (Adams, T, 2003) despite exceeding at an individual sport.


    Psychology within sport is always creating these sorts of debates about theories. Within this blog theories about arousal and stress will be critically analysed in the same way as shown above. 

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