Attributions lesson

Achievement Motivation lesson summary

Need to Achieve (Nach) is the satisfaction in success, whereas Need to Avoid Failure (Naf) is the shame experienced in failure... Both motivate us

A performer with high Nach is confident, persistant, approaches a challenge, enjoys feedback, is performance orientated, doesn’t worry about failure and likes to play opponents of a similar level

A performer with high Naf lacks confidence, gives up easily, avoids a challenge, hates feedback, is result orientated and likes to play opponents much better or much worse than them.

Approach behaviour can be encouraged by ensuring success, gradually increasing task difficulty, reinforcing success to improve self efficacy, encouraging risk taking, setting challenging goals,

The situation can also motivate us. Probability of success is how likely victory is and Incentive value of success is the reward gained from the victory. These 2 factors work together to influence how much the situation affects Achievement Motivation. The most motivating situation is when Probability of Success is 50/50

Achievement Motivation screencast

Personality Lesson 2 Summary

Profile of Mood States (Morgan) results showed elite performers to have an "Iceberg profile" with high scores in vigour and low scores in tension, depression, fatigue, confusion and anger compared to non-elite performers. 
We can criticise this as it measures mood, not personality and mood is variable. also not all elite performers have the profile and some non-elite do have it. It is also not surprising performers who are high in tension, depression etc are not performing well. You can also use generic criticisms of questionnaires here.

Personality Profiling has 2 arguments - Credulous approach says it is useful as we can channel performers with certain traits to certain sports (e.g. calm, type B into golf); Sceptical approach says we shouldn't use profiling as other factors are more important (skill levels, physiology etc)

Social Learning Theory suggests the Environment determines behaviour and we adapt our behaviour due to the situation we are in. We learn this behaviour through 2 methods - modelling and reinforcement. We model other people (of high status or if they are similar to us) and if our actions are reinforced we are more likely to do it again.

Interactionist theory suggests personality is determined by an interaction of traits and environment (B=fPE) so is a combination of Trait theory and Social Learning theory. Therefore our behaviour is the same in a stable environment but will change if we change the environment. 
Hollander put forward an Interactionist theory with 3 parts - Psychological core (traits), Typical Responses & Role related behaviour (Social Learning)

Personality Lesson 1 Summary

Trait theory of Personality

Suggests personality is genetic / inherited / innate

Therefore is stable & enduring

Therefore behaviour is consistent or predictable 

Methods of Measuring Personality

Questionnaires

Some advantages:

easy to administer

cheap to produce

produce lot of data

can be used anywhere

usually reliable

Some disadvantages:

Lack of validity as difficult to define what personality is

Misinterpretation of questions

Answers may not be truthful / provide socially desirable answers

Questions may not allow for full answers

biased questions

Situation when completed may not be ideal

Interview

Some advantages:

greater validity than questionnaires

can gather more detailed answers

Some disadvantages:

lower reliability due to different answers

depends on skill of interviewer to ask relevant questions & interpret answers

expensive and time consuming

Observation

Some advantages:

personality profile can be built up over period of time

high ecological validity as takes place in "real life"

Some disadvantages:

subjective

Reliant on skill of the observer

Time consuming / expensive / needs to be completed several times

Observer needs to know normal behaviour patterns of performer for comparison

May need several observers (at the same time)

If performer knows observation is occurring they may behave differently

This article discusses lots of topics from Sport Psych intro lesson, inc nature v nurture, 10,000 hours & deliberate practice, myelin, growth mindset and luck! Are winners born or made?

This video shows Carol Dweck's work about Growth Mindset v Fixed Mindset as discussed in  intro lesson