tasks requiring large amounts of strength.” (Butt, 1987:191) This would affect gymnas-
tics, ice skating, or any team sport where the performer is attempting to learn a new game
play or strategy. Given these findings, it is unwise to replace physical practice with mental
practice.
Other parts of sport psychology deal with social psychology. “It is generally true
that the presence of others leads to enhanced performance on certain tasks, and specifi-
9
cally tasks which call for well learnt, dominant responses.” (Smith, 1983:4) If you can do
something well, the presence of others will improve performance. On the other hand, if
you are incompetent, learning a skill or attempting something for the first time, then you
may perform worse in company than alone. This deals with social facilitation. We feel we
are being evaluated by spectators and this has led psychologists to believe evaluation
apprehension is the key to social facilitation.
Another factor of social psychology is aggression in sport. “Aggression can be ex-
pressed in socially acceptable or unacceptable ways.” (Murphy & White, 1978:125) Ag-
gression can be instrumental or rule governed or angry/hostile aggression. Rule governed
aggression is socially acceptable in which an athlete is just displaying intensity in a sport.
Angry/hostile aggression is socially unacceptable in which an athlete causes physical harm
to the opposition. Psychologists still have much work to do in reducing an athlete’s ag-
gression. Aggression is something that cannot be fixed overnight. “Whenever there is
sports, there is going to be aggression, but with some positive reinforcement, psycholo-
gists can maintain positive aggression.” (Murphy & White, 1978:126)
Occupational Psychology is a branch of psychology that relates to sport psycho-
logy. One aspect of this is sports coaches. Many applied psychologists have come to
acknowledge that the most effective way to get their message across is not by working
directly with athletes but by working with the coaches. A psychologist can come and go,
but it is the coach that maintains the most contact with an athlete. “If the coach can learn
how to convey messages which have a sound foundation in psychological knowledge, and
thus can act as the agent or mouthpiece for sport psychology, then the messages are likely
to have that much more impact.” (Smith, 1983:166) More and more coaches are begin-
ning to take sport psychology courses and sport psychology guides have become more
available for coaches to buy. This will help athletes tremendously.
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Alongside work on coaching, goal setting represents one of two primary areas
where occupational psychologists have made a direct and considerable impact on the
world of sports, in both a theoretical and a practical sense. “While the use of goal setting
within sport is widespread, the adoption of formal goal setting principles has not been
without controversy and it is interesting that a recent review article actually refers to goal
setting not as the blue-eyed boy of sport psychology but as its Jekyll and Hyde.” (Garfield,
1984:63) Within psychology as a whole, the idea of goal setting to guide or direct our
behavior has a well established history. However, the recent use of goal setting as a per-
formance enhancement technique can be traced directly back to Edwin Locke’s goal set-
ting theory. His theory is the notion that behavior is regulated by values and goals, with a
goal defined as a conscious intention or what the person is setting out to accomplish.
“According to Locke, goals affect performance by way of four mechanisms; first, goal
setting focuses attention, second, it mobilizes effort in proportion to the demands of the
tasks, third, it enhances persistence, and finally, they encourage the individual to develop
strategies for achieving their goals.” (Wolff, 1993:146)
Another goal setting procedure is the widespread use of the acronym SCAMP as a
way of teaching athletes simple goal setting procedures. Specify exactly how much you
want to improve and how you can measure it. Set goals that are challenging but have pos-
sibility. Set goals that are attainable. Set multiple goals to increase probability of attain-
ment. Set goals that relate to you, ones that are personal.
Over recent years, considerable attention has been paid to the development of
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theories and models dealing with participation motivation in sports. “The work deliberate-
ly focuses on young athletes and highlights the significance of intrinsic motivators in maxi-
mizing an individual’s long term commitment to sport.” (Butt, 1987:215) At the same
time, the dangers associated with either parents or coaches emphasizing extrinsic rewards
are openly acknowledged. In brief, the history of research on work motivation has shown
a gradual shift from traditional content models of work motivation which strived to list or
classify motivators, and towards an appreciation of the complexities of the process of mo-
tivation. “The complexities of the process of motivation are exemplified by the various
expectancy-value models which describe personal and environmental variables play their
part in determining the relationship between effort, performance, rewards, and satisfac-
tion.” (Garfield, 1984:34)
The argument advanced by Porter and Lawler is that motivation is related to per-
formance, to reward and to satisfaction in a definable way. “Three principle components
are taken to determine motivation, namely expectancy, instrumentality, and valence.”
(Butt, 1987:86) Our motivation will depend first, upon our belief that we are capable of
influencing our performance through increasing effort. Second, our knowledge that an
increase in performance will result in more awards. Finally, it will depend on the value
which we place on the reward that we expect to receive. This is represented in the model
below.
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One important feature of this model is the emphasis it places on feedback. “Ac-
cordingly in the context of coaching the model has considerable practical utility for identi-
fying and dealing with management problems effectively.” (Butt, 1987: 87) The model
also has great learning value for considering the interaction between a number of cognitive
and environmental factors in determining satisfaction and future effort. However, the
complexity of the model also means that it is difficult to develop a research project which
is able to look at each component systematically or to take into account all other possible
intervening factors, for example, attributional style. “Once more, occupational psychology
may present genuine opportunities for understanding and there is a need to ensure that an
awareness of the many faces of sport, both amateur and professional, voluntary and com-
pulsory, are kept very much to the fore in any further discussion of sport motivation.”
(Garfield, 1984:38)
Using a very basic expectancy-value model to frame discussion, a preliminary
study by Kremer and Robinson (1992) considered the attitudes and motivations of
professional apprentice soccer players that were from Northern Ireland who had travelled
to join English and Scottish teams, often to return to Ireland after being rejected there.
“Contrary to predictions based on intrinsic motivation models, these platers did not return
disenchanted and lost to the game, but almost invariably they slotted comfortably into life
in the Irish League, often older and wiser as to their potential but still continuing to take a
very active part in the game which they continued to enjoy.” (Butt, 1987:88) Clearly the
reward structure which motivated these young professional athletes was very different
from that which is described in relation to participation rates and drop-outs amongst
young, amateur athletes. Once more, occupational psychology may present genuine
opportunities for understanding and there is a need to ensure that a knowledge and aware-
ness of the many faces of sport, both amateur and professional, voluntary and compulsory,
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are kept very much to the front in any future discussion of sport motivation.
From this research that has been done over some four years, one can understand
that psychology does play a significant part in sport and in the minds of athletes, especially
at a young age. Sport psychology ranges from judging an athlete’s personality all the way
to his/her coach. We see the many methods and techniques used by psychologists to keep
an athlete in the right frame of mind to participate in sports.
We have seen methods dealing with the cognitive side of sport psychology such as
imagery and visualization to handle stress in sports. We have seen methods of clinical psy-
chology such as relaxation techniques to release pre-game tensions and anxiety. We have
seen methods of social psychology dealing with harmful aggression of athletes. We also
have seen methods of occupational psychology in which the coaches of athletes get in-
volved in psychology and motivation models come into play for coaches to use in order to
motivate their athletes.
We can see that psychologists have not ignored psychology in the world of sport,
something that cannot be ignored with the growing number in athletic participation by
young people. “With each new year comes an increase in new developments dealing with
sport psychology.” (Murphy & White, 1978:9) However, there is still much work to be
done in sport psychology. There are still many unresolved questions and even some new
questions and even some new questions that have arisen over the years dealing with sport
psychology. Take anxiety for instance. Psychologists have found ways to reduce anxiety
but not eliminate it. Maybe there is no way to eliminate it since everyone has it. Another
example is aggression. Wherever there are sports, there is aggression. Psychologists have
stated that sports are a way for people to release their aggression. However, they still have
not been able to fully eliminate the violence in sports. Psychologists are also working on
new methods for motivating athletes because some athletes are harder to motivate that
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others. Even though there are these unresolved issues in sport psychology, the future of
psychology in sports, especially youth sports, looks to be on a very progressive track with
many new discoveries.