PYC4812 ASSIGNMENT 1 (ANSWERS)

Section A Definition of Applied Sport Psychology Applied sports psychology focuses on the psychological factors that affect the participation and performance of sports and exercise. The psychological effects from participation, theory and interventions can be used to improve performance and personal growth. 5 instances where sport psychology principles should ideally be used: 1. Experienced coaches whose teams may be in jeopardy due to mental lapses or team members not handling pressure in the game. 2. When dealing with injured players, it would be good to incorporate psychological skills into the player’s injury rehabilitation program to help them recover quicker and be more mentally stable. 3. As a fitness coach, to help aspiring health fitness clients to set fitness goals, plan strategies and help them to achieve these goals. 4. As a coach, to help players who are either taking performance enhancement drugs or have eating disorders. The coach can help them to understand their psychological position and assist them to achieve their sport goals without using the performance enhancement drugs and assist with proper eating plans. 5. As a physical education teacher, to help students to be motivated to participate in the class. Section B Mental Toughness 1. Cooper, K. B. (2019). An Exploratory Case Study of Mental Toughness Variability and Potential Influences over 30 Days. Sports (Basel), 156. doi:10.3390/sports 2. Cowden, R. G. (2017). Mental Toughness and Success in Sport: A Review and Prospect. The Open Sports Sciences Journal. 10, 1-14. doi:10.2174/X01 3. Garry, K. (2019). Mental Toughness in Sport: Systematic Review and Future. German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research, 1-14. doi:10.1007/s-00603-3. Section C Annotated Bibliography Article 1 Cooper, K.B. (2019) An Exploratory Case Study of Mental Toughness Variability and Potential Influences over 30 Days The purpose of this study was to discover whether mental toughness differs across a 30-day training block and whether such variability is related with specific experiences. As hypothesized, there were important differences in mental toughness. The results, therefore, supported the state view of mental toughness. Differences were identified, despite the potential ceiling effects likely caused by experienced athletes reporting high scores on mental toughness. This is most likely not due to significant essential variability in the measurement tool, as prior research has supported the scale reliability. Instead, the results back previous studies which indicate at least a portion of mental toughness is state-like and can change over time. The article is fairly new and has in-depth studies on MT. It is an easy and very interesting read. It shows detailed results on studies performed on different levels of athletes. The study does show that MT does differ over a period of 30 days. Article 2 Cowden, R. G. (2017). Mental Toughness and Success in Sport: A Review and Prospect. The purpose of this study was to review