Comprehensive Exam
Study Guide
1. Sport Psychology A (3)– PSP 5800A***
Study Guide From Final
What is the focus of the cognitive model?
• Perceptions (how you perceive things)
• Thought patterns
• Attention
• Attributions (explaining the reasons why we do things)
What does the NLP model focus on?
• How senses are used to create representations of the world
• Sensory info
• Language
• How you use your senses and then how we figure out what our perception of the world is
How does sport psych define confidence?
• Belief that you can successfully perform a desired behavior
Confidence vs. self-efficacy: Self-efficacy is for a specific task. Confidence is more general.
Confidence that can change as the situation changes = state self-confidence
Most popular model in sport psych = Cognitive-Behavioral Model (CBT)
The sources of self-confidence (in order):
1. Performance accomplishments << strongest + most dependable
2. Vicarious experience
3. Verbal persuasion
4. Imaginal experience (imagery)
5. Physiological states
6. Emotional states
In an evaluative situation (someone’s watching you / you’re being evaluated), an individual with high trait
anxiety, will tend to also exhibit what?
• High state anxiety.
Moment-to-moment change in perceived physiological activation = somatic state anxiety
If an athlete perceives control in a situation, and feels that the event or reward increases feelings of competence,
what happens to intrinsic motivation? INCREASES.
• Cognitive Evaluative Theory (CET)
o Key parts to theory = control + competence
,The stress process involves what?
4 steps:
1. Demand on the individual
2. Cognitive appraisal
3. Perceived coping abilities
1. Ex: feelings of anxiety
Multidimensional anxiety: Why is it multidimensional? Somatic and cognitive anxiety.
(not facilitative and debilitative in this particular model)
, Mastery/task focus vs. ego focus = goal
perspectives/orientations Motivation = direction + intensity of
one’s effort
General level of anxiety that stays stable over time = trait anxiety
Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike, Skinner are associated with which model?
• Behavioral Model
Hardy’s Catastrophe Theory predicts what?
• LOW cog anxiety: inverted-U
• HIGH cog anxiety: predicts that catastrophe can occur
o as anx. increases, perf. improves to a certain point then plummets
Cog Eval Theory (CET), when an ath perceives control and has increased feeling competence, what increases?
Intrinsic motivation.
Who’s responsible for self-efficacy theory?
• Albert Bandura
What does Inverted-U theory predict?
• Arousal can either be too high or too low
• Top performance occurs at moderate level of arousal
Hanin’s Zone of Optimal Functioning suggests what?
• Each individual has a specific optimal level of efficiency
Focusing on performance, as opposed to outcome goals, during competition, has been shown to be associated with
anxiety and performance.
• less anxiety / superior performance
Appropriate guidelines for applying arousal and anxiety knowledge:
1. Recognize signs (som + cog) of increased anxiety and arousal
1. Cog: inappropriate thoughts/worry
2. Som: Heart rate, sweaty, etc.
b. Recognize how personal + situational factors influence arousal and performance
Excess anxiety produces what?
• Inappropriate thoughts
• Inappropriate muscle tension
, T/F: Applied sport psychology can be defined as helping ath and coaches learn how to control the way they think,
feel, and act to help them reach their potential in sport. TRUE.
First person to conduct an experiment in sport psych = Norman Triplett
• Bike riders perform better in presence of others (social facilitation theory)
o Bicyclette (in French) → Triplett (way to help you remember this)
Father of American sport psychology = Coleman Griffith
AASP = Assoc for Applied Sport Psych
Study Guide
1. Sport Psychology A (3)– PSP 5800A***
Study Guide From Final
What is the focus of the cognitive model?
• Perceptions (how you perceive things)
• Thought patterns
• Attention
• Attributions (explaining the reasons why we do things)
What does the NLP model focus on?
• How senses are used to create representations of the world
• Sensory info
• Language
• How you use your senses and then how we figure out what our perception of the world is
How does sport psych define confidence?
• Belief that you can successfully perform a desired behavior
Confidence vs. self-efficacy: Self-efficacy is for a specific task. Confidence is more general.
Confidence that can change as the situation changes = state self-confidence
Most popular model in sport psych = Cognitive-Behavioral Model (CBT)
The sources of self-confidence (in order):
1. Performance accomplishments << strongest + most dependable
2. Vicarious experience
3. Verbal persuasion
4. Imaginal experience (imagery)
5. Physiological states
6. Emotional states
In an evaluative situation (someone’s watching you / you’re being evaluated), an individual with high trait
anxiety, will tend to also exhibit what?
• High state anxiety.
Moment-to-moment change in perceived physiological activation = somatic state anxiety
If an athlete perceives control in a situation, and feels that the event or reward increases feelings of competence,
what happens to intrinsic motivation? INCREASES.
• Cognitive Evaluative Theory (CET)
o Key parts to theory = control + competence
,The stress process involves what?
4 steps:
1. Demand on the individual
2. Cognitive appraisal
3. Perceived coping abilities
1. Ex: feelings of anxiety
Multidimensional anxiety: Why is it multidimensional? Somatic and cognitive anxiety.
(not facilitative and debilitative in this particular model)
, Mastery/task focus vs. ego focus = goal
perspectives/orientations Motivation = direction + intensity of
one’s effort
General level of anxiety that stays stable over time = trait anxiety
Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike, Skinner are associated with which model?
• Behavioral Model
Hardy’s Catastrophe Theory predicts what?
• LOW cog anxiety: inverted-U
• HIGH cog anxiety: predicts that catastrophe can occur
o as anx. increases, perf. improves to a certain point then plummets
Cog Eval Theory (CET), when an ath perceives control and has increased feeling competence, what increases?
Intrinsic motivation.
Who’s responsible for self-efficacy theory?
• Albert Bandura
What does Inverted-U theory predict?
• Arousal can either be too high or too low
• Top performance occurs at moderate level of arousal
Hanin’s Zone of Optimal Functioning suggests what?
• Each individual has a specific optimal level of efficiency
Focusing on performance, as opposed to outcome goals, during competition, has been shown to be associated with
anxiety and performance.
• less anxiety / superior performance
Appropriate guidelines for applying arousal and anxiety knowledge:
1. Recognize signs (som + cog) of increased anxiety and arousal
1. Cog: inappropriate thoughts/worry
2. Som: Heart rate, sweaty, etc.
b. Recognize how personal + situational factors influence arousal and performance
Excess anxiety produces what?
• Inappropriate thoughts
• Inappropriate muscle tension
, T/F: Applied sport psychology can be defined as helping ath and coaches learn how to control the way they think,
feel, and act to help them reach their potential in sport. TRUE.
First person to conduct an experiment in sport psych = Norman Triplett
• Bike riders perform better in presence of others (social facilitation theory)
o Bicyclette (in French) → Triplett (way to help you remember this)
Father of American sport psychology = Coleman Griffith
AASP = Assoc for Applied Sport Psych
