Final Research Paper
Perhaps you have heard of the kicker who hadn’t missed a fourth-quarter kick all season; yet the kick came low off his foot, hooked left, narrowly missing the field goal post. Or perhaps you have known a free-throw shooter who hadn’t missed a foul shot all season; instead failed to make the goal, shooting worse than her career average because the team was trailing. How many times have you witnessed the heartbreak of an athlete faltering at a crucial moment? From a psychological perspective, athletes are prone to experiencing common features of a mental disorder, when faced with declines in their athletic performance or a catastrophic event (i.e., choking; Wolanin, Gross & Hong, 2015). Based on the foundation of sport psychology,
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For these reasons, licensed sports psychologists have the ability to also detect and care for athletes with mental disorders (e.g., severe depression, suicidal tendencies) who otherwise, would require specialized treatment (Brewer & Petrie, 2014; Proctor & Boan-Lenzo, 2010; Weinberg & Gould, 2014). But, what happens when an athlete encounters performance demands that exacerbate underlying psychological conflicts or fosters new ones? Is it really the decline in athletic performance that we should be concerned about? It’s important that professionals in the field of clinical sport psychology continually seek to increase the quality and effectiveness of their consultations to benefit the athletes seeking services. So, in an attempt to negate various unwanted intrapsychic or interpersonal problems, it’s reasonable to look at the assessment of psychopathology and abnormal behavior among …show more content…
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) explains that simply having symptoms such as diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all activities, feeling sad, stressed or worried, is not enough to diagnose an individual with depression or anxiety. Primarily because anyone could experience these same symptoms. However, when athletes present with such typical depressive features as diminished interest in activities, fatigue, irritability, and difficulties with sleep and concentration, it is critically important for clinical sport psychologists to consider making a differential diagnosis between overtraining and depression (Hays & Baltzell, 2016). Particularly if athletes have recently undergone intensive training efforts, since psychological symptoms that mimic depression may be the most accurate markers of overtraining (O’Connor et al.,
Podlog, L., & Eklund, R. (2009). High-level athletes' perceptions of success in returning to sport following injury. Psychology of Sport & Exercise, 10(5), 535-544. doi:10.1016/j.psychsport.2009.02.003. Wiese, D., Weiss, M., & Yukelson, D. (1991). Sport Psychology in the Training Room:
Sport and exercise science is a multidisciplinary field that draws on knowledge from the broader parent disciplines, the subareas that make up sport and exercise science also draw on measures, constructs and concepts from each other. In fact, it is suggested that sport psychology should include knowledge from other sub-disciplines within sport and exercise science in order to gain better understanding of situations specific to
Collegiate athletes are already under an enormous amount of pressure even before enduring career-ending injuries. According to Kissinger (2009), student athletes normally struggle with six unique challenges. Student must be able to balance both athletic and academic responsibilities, along with balancing social activities, maintaining the stresses of relationships with coaches, teammates, friends, and parents. They also have to manage athletic success and/or failures with emotional stability. More importantly they have to balance physical health and injuries with the need to steady compete and with the termination of one’s college athletic career.
Due to the nature of sport, athletes will always be faced with the possibility of becoming injured. Empirical research has demonstrated that injury has a psychological impact on athletes (Quinn & Fallon, 1999). Indeed, sports practitioners often witness negative psychological impacts such as depression and in extreme cases suicidal tendencies in the injured athlete (Jevon & Johnston, 2003). Injuries have a dramatic impact upon an athlete’s life (Deutsch, 1985), Crossman (1997) interviewed athletic trainers and established that 47% of respondents believed that every injured athlete suffered psychological trauma. Walker, Thatcher and Lavallee (2007), explain there is a need to advance current knowledge of the way injured athletes psychologically respond, with deeper understanding it would be possible to aid rehabilitation professionals and help the athlete cope better psychologically. Psychological issues have an important role in the athletes ability to recover from injury (Arvinen-Barrow, Penny, Hemmings, & Corr, 2010), understanding how an athlete responds will have multiple practical implications. Ford and Gordon (1997) suggest that if an athlete experiences negative emotions then it will lead to non-complinace of the rehabilitation process. In order to understand athletes psychological responses to injury several frameworks have been suggested. These include the: integrated model of response to sports injury and rehabilitation (Wiese-Bjornstal, Smith, Shaffer, & Morrey, 1998), the Bio-Psychosocial model of sport injury rehabilitation (Brewer, Andersen, & Van Raalte, 2002), the staged-based grief response models (Kubler-Ross, 1969) and the stage model of the return to sport (Taylor & Taylor, 1997).
... athlete can go into depression and then eventually do many dangerous things such as commit suicide.
According to the American Institute of Stress, stress can be defined as an individual’s response, physical, mental or emotional, to an event that causes a demand for change (Selye, 1936). For athletes, that demand for change can be caused by an injury, which ultimately can have a significant impact on overall stress levels. While a physical injury can cause psychological stress, mental trauma can similarly affect an athlete physically. An athlete’s psychological stability has a great affect on an athlete’s susceptibility to pain and can alter the response to and recovery from an injury (Ahern, 1997).
Sports psychology can be defined as the study and application of the attitudes and behaviors of athletes (including team athletes) that impact (either positively or negatively) performance in sports or competitive settings. The goal of sports psychology is to help athletes and teams identify unhealthy attitudes and beliefs, apply mental toughness skills and peak performance strategies to perform at optimal levels (Cohn). Sports psychology is not recognized as a traditional field of practice offered by graduate programs; although, it is a recognized field of specific study under Kinesiology and Physical Education Programs. Sports psychology was first founded in 1920 by Carl Diem in Berlin, Germany. Later on, in 1925, sport psychology was brought to the U.S by Cloman Griffith. These early psychologists aimed to observe the effects of mental state on different factors of performance such as reaction time, tension, relaxation, and awareness (Haney). In the 1960’s Griffith’s research interest in sports psychology reemerged after having faded away for a while; however, the field had a...
A. A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Anxiety in Athletes. April 2002. Athletics Insight: Online Journal of Sports Psychology. 29 May 2002 http://www.athleticsight.com.vol1iss2/Psychoanalytic_Anxiety.htm Stress Management: Behavioral Psychotherapy for Performance Enhancement.
Sports Psychology Today. Mental Edge Athletics, 4 Sept. 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. Forde, Pat.
Playing a sport whether its basketball, soccer, football or any other of your interest can be thrilling, and accelerating. Not only can it be fun yet physical exercise is good for the mind, body, and spirit. Therefore, as an athlete one must keep in mind that playing any sport, injury is part of life and inevitable. Research has proven from time to time that severe injuries in sports can trigger psychological mental health issues, affecting them in their athletic performance.
Sports are an important aspect in society. They help people to strive to reach certain goals and join people together, but they also can divide people and turn a fun game into the main purpose of someone’s life. Taking sports games too seriously can be harmful for both the athlete and the spectator. The attitude of always winning at any cost in sports and has managed to distract us from other important parts of our lives, such as health and education. This importance of the value of sports can heavily influence the way that we see ourselves as both the spectator and the athlete by creating a positive self image and distilling confidence and discipline within the player, or by embedding self doubt and invertedness.
Children who participate in sports are developing rapidly in sports skills, sportsmanship, and psychologically, but does this come from organized sports are just nature’s process. Children develop emotional and social benefits from participating in sports. Children experience character and leadership development through peer relations leading to an increase in self-esteem and a decrease in anxiety levels. Children will get opportunities to experience positive and negative emotions throughout their practice and games trials. It is important for the coach to understand the “psychology of youth sports and physical activity participation” (Weinberg & Gould, 2011 p.516).
...ompetition environment. There is increasing recognition by the sports community that supporting athlete mental health is a vital aspect of competitive performance, and is as integral to success as the athlete’s physical abilities. The profession of sports psychology provides a very meaningful contribution to help facilitate athlete wellbeing and maximize the psychological skills required to compete at the highest level of competition.
During the semester, I learned a lot on how to deal with psychological distress and how as an athletic trainer I should deal with athletes to overcome their situation and be there for them. Throughout my time as an athletic training student, I always liked to observe my preceptors on how they deal with athletics that are having psychological distress after injuries, and how as an athletic trainer I should handle these situations in a professional manner. There is one situation in particular that occurred during the King’s College football season that I would like to discuss.
Sport and exercise psychology is a mandatory aspect of the sport science discipline. This discipline contributes to the various professional practices associated with physical activities such as - teaching of physical education, recreation and health promotion, and kinesiology related professions - because it plays a mental role for the participants. Sport and exercise psychologists view physical activity in several different ways: physical activity as a tool for health, physical activity as a tool for human potential, and physical activity as a tool for social change. This aspect of psychology may be the most important aspect of physical activity, because of the contributions of exercise and sport psychology to health, human potential, and social change.