Advanced Sport & Exercise Psychology

Dr. Victor Pendleton

Sem2, 2004

 

Project-Related Example

Presenting problem: overweight

Why bother? Buy clothes off rack

Behaviours req’d: diet & exercise

Personal rating on beh: D(-), Ex(+)

Identify barriers preventing progress: late-night binging (boredom)

Interventions: TC, reframe, evening ex

Evaluate and modify if appropriate

 

Example - interventions

TC – meditation to develop ability to think on purpose

Reframe – boredom is a state of mind. Catch self being bored and focus on other thoughts: powerful reasons?

Evening exercise – many people are not hungry after exercise. Moving exercise to evening may correct binging problem.

 

Example (cont)

Justify interventions

Be sure interventions are being done properly

 

SMART the Goals

Everytime I start to eat something I will ask myself if it is supportive of my goals

I will keep a log of my responses

If not supportive, I will do ten minutes of meditation followed by another ten minutes of reflection on my goals

reflecting on a successful model?

I will keep a log of calorie intake & TOD

I will do this for 4 weeks

 

Evaluate & Adjust

Outcome measure: program adherence!

Is it working: diet and exercise

If working, continue

If not, adjust

 

Education & Practice Phases

Treatment Selection

What is the basis for selecting an intervention?

What sort of improvement is expected?

How long will it take?

 

Select/Design Intervention

Stage – respond according to TTM

Attitude – info, dialogue, meaning,…

Efficacy – facilitative goal setting,..

 

Commitment & Contracting

Motivation and commitment is assumed by most interventions

Contracting attempts to confirm ownership by athlete

 

Contract With Client

Operationalize success criteria

how will we know if we have been successful?

Solicit clients commitment to intervention

Begin intervention

 

Education Phase

Learning the skills needed to address the

issues identified in the assessment phase

The need for education phase: individual differences, confusion about method

Other barriers to correct execution of intervention?

Be sure they are performing the intervention properly

 

Practice Phase

Crucial component of the process

Specific instruction - Use knowledge of skill acquisition & maintenance to facilitate the design of practice & the structuring of feedback for optimal benefit.

Mental skills practice integrated as part of regular training if possible.

Use mental skills in simulated competitive situations

Athletes must practice with the intent to improve Techniques assume adequate levels of athlete motivation. How do you train this? What can possibly stand in the way of athlete motivation?

 

Phases of Motor Skill Learning

Cognitive phase (few minutes – months)

Learning the mechanics of the movement

Associative phase (few hours to several years)

Developing skill (practice phase)

Autonomous phase – expert level

 

Teaching vs Practicing Several Skills: Blocked vs Random Practice

Blocked – learn one form completely before starting the next.

Random – practicing multiple techniques within a single practice period in a random order.

 

Teaching Several Variations of a Skill – Variable (vs constant) Practice

In forms, facing different directions, different lighting, different footing, different venues.

 

Whole vs Part Practice

Breaking up long complicated forms into

smaller more manageable chunks.

Whole vs part vs progressive-part method

 

Why is it Important to Understand Research?

Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)

Categories -

Consuming research

 

Evidence Categories (NIH)

 

What Does It Mean?

Pearson’s Correlation

        (degree to which X&Y vary together)
r = --------------------------------------------     
      (degree to which X&Y vary separately)

a measure of the relation between two variables.

 

Interpretation

Correlation (r)

          0.0       trivial
            0.1       small
            0.3       moderate
            0.5       large
            0.7       very large
            0.9       nearly perfect
  1.0     perfect

 

Effect Size

ES = (m1-m2)/s

Depression -   ES = 2.15

(Dobson, 1989)

Anxiety -        ES = .53

(Jorm, 1989)

 

 

Evaluation, Outcome, & Research Quality

Evaluation

Proper operationalization

Motivation/adherence implications: novice vs. elite athlete

How long should it take?

How much improvement should be expected?

Any issues related to required skill level or other individual differences?

Evaluate on performance vs. adherence vs skill acquisition?

 

Outcome Research

Outcome of major sport psych interventions

Driven by call for evidence-based practice

Outcome evaluation is required for ethical practice

 

Types of Interventions

Cognitive

Cognitive-behavioural

Literature is evidence of the historically myopic application of sport psychology

 

Reviews of Literature

Restricted to studies using athletes in actual sport situations

no non-athletes

no contrived settings

sport performance as an outcome variable

 

 

 

Reviews of Literature

Greenspan & Feltz, 1989. Review of psychological interventions. The Sport Psychologist, 3.

Vealy, 1994. Current status & prominent issues in sport psych interventions. Medicine & Science in Sport & Exercise, 26.

Weinberg & Comar, 1994. The effectiveness of psych interventions in competitive sport. Sports Medicine, 18(6)

 

Greenspan & Feltz(23)

Intervention categories:

relaxation training (9),

imagery and mental practice

behavioural interventions (3), and

reinforcement, self-monitoring, & feedback

cognitive restructuring (11)

systematic desensitization & stress inoculation

 

Vealy(12)

Intervention categories:

cognitive(7)

development or restructuring of ideas

the impact of the content of the idea is not considered

cog-beh(3): includes systematic practice

beh(2): systematic feedback to shape performance

 

Weinberg & Comar(10)

Interventions were categorized as:

cognitive (4) &

cog-beh (6)

 

Categorization

Interventions may be difficult to categorize. For example, is relaxation a cognitive restructuring intervention? A behavioural intervention?

 

Outcome

9/12 intervention studies had positive effects (Vealy, 1994)

Vealy offers no details of effectiveness

Imagery – “hundreds of sports-specific research studies supporting the efficacy of imagery for performance enhancements” (Vealy, 1994)

Outcome

Goal-setting – supported in org psych lit, equivocal in sport psych lit (Vealy, 1994)

Cognitive restructuring – 11/11(GF review) studies reported positive results

Cognitive interventions – 5/7 reported positive results (Vealy, 94)

Cog-beh interventions – 2/3 reported positive results (Vealy, 94)

 

Outcome - Summary

45 studies employed psych interventions with athletes in sport settings and 38 had positive results. (Weinberg & Comar, 1994).

Details of the interventions and of the effect size are not provided in the review articles.

 

Research Quality

Some points to:

Illustrate the need to consider quality-related issues

Provide ideas to assist you in the evaluation of research reliability.

 

Benefit of Moderate Exercise Challenged

Paul T. Williams, 2003 (Challenger)

Medicine & Science in Sport & Exercise

Steve Blair, 1995,

Journal of the American Medical Association

publication nirvana: a very prestigious journal

Article informed US Gov’t policy:

30mins of moderate activity most days of week.

 

Blair, et al. 1995

Blair looked at data on 9,777 men who had taken two treadmill exercise tests almost 5 years apart. The scientists then followed the men for more than 5 years. Adjustments were made for age and other risk factors. Men in the least-fit 20% on both tests were more likely to die. The study found that those who had improved enough on the second test to pull themselves out of the least fit group had a lower risk of death: a 44% reduction in their risk of death.

 

Benefit of Moderate Exercise Challenged

Failed to control for good day – bad day problem

Treadmill times will vary from day-to-day for any given level of fitness

Entire ‘benefit’ could be attributed to measurement error

Other studies used similar designs and are therefore similarly suspect

 

Falsification of Data 1

The case of Dr. Stephen Bruening

Very prolific medical researcher

In 1983 he admitted to fabricating data concerning the effects of psychotropic medication on mentally retarded patients

Pressure to publish or perish, often in the context of competing job requirements

 

Falsification of Data 2

The case of Dr. John Darsee

Rising-star young Harvard research cardiologist.

Guilty of fabricating data in 1981

Questionable research practices extending over a 10-year period.

 

Ripple Effects

Collaborators

Supervisors

Institution: pay back money

Follow-on research

Effects on patients: treatments based on questionable research

 

Issues Related Specifically to Sport Psychology

Atheoretical approach:

fishing expedition, likelihood of results being due to chance alone

especially important when few studies exist (MS)

 

Dominance of Trait Research

Myopic view of sport psychology

Introduction of theories based on existential-phenomenological concepts: individual choice and personal construction of meaning (Morris & Summers)

 

Elite/Non-Elite Distinction

Studies sometimes fail to differentiate players that are basically the same. (MS)

Transferability

Research conducted in laboratories or contrived settings, tasks, or dependent variables, or that use non-athletes in place of athletes, are not necessarily transferable to competitive settings (Greenspan & Feltz, 1989)

 

 

Gender Bias

Mostly males (16/23GF)

Mostly college aged subjects

3/23(GF) interventions used national or elite-level athletes

2/23(GF) used athletes under 18 yrs of age

 

Long-term Effects

Lack of follow-up data: long-term effects on athletes are not known

 

Lack of Manipulation Checks

Were the athletes really doing what they were supposed to be doing?

 

Publication Bias

Authors are less likely to submit manuscripts reporting negative results (Olson, et al. JAMA, 287(21), 2002)

No editorial bias?

 

There are lies, damned lies and statistics.”

Reporting for effect (Nuovo, et al. JAMA, 287(21), 2002)

Reporting relative risk reduction vs absolute risk reduction:
5.1% of placebo treated had heart attacks vs 3.7% of drug treated
absolute risk reduction = 1.4%
relative risk reduction = 1.4/5.1 = 27.5%

 

Reporting Statistics to Impress

Use of complicated statistical methods

HLM – nested models. Omnibus test. Interpretation complex. Option of using simpler statistics.

Goal is communication?

Manuscript rejected on basis that the statistics were “beyond the reach of our typical reader”

 

Conflicts Between Co-Authors are Not Reported