A2 Psychology at Spalding Grammar School

Let's think about George Best. George Best grew up in Northern Ireland but found fame as a midfielder for Manchester United. 1968 was his annus mirabilis ("miracle year") when United won the European Cup. Best's fame and popularity won him the nickname of "the fifth Beatle" overseas and in Ireland the catchphrase was: "Maradona good; Pelé better; George Best". Two interesting facts. Firstly: George Best was also quite gifted as a student and won a scholarship to a top Belfast grammar school but truanted when he found the school only played rugby. Secondly: his caeer was cut short by alcoholism which eventually led to his death in 2005. Why would a young boy who could have excelled at school choose to dedicate himself to sport instead? And why would a young player excelling at sport throw it all away on an extravagant lifestyle? Click the picture for a YouTube video tribute to George Best.

Your first volume for the Psychology of Sport & Exercise looks at what makes individuals good (or bad) at sport. Let's get something clear straight away: some people are good at sport because they are bigger or faster or stronger than everyone else, but that's not what we're considering here. We're looking at the psychological factors. In other words, if two people are just as strong, fast, etc but one of them beats the other one at sport, then surely there's a psychological reason.

WHAT DO WE KNOW FROM AS?

Several studies or theories from AS Psychology explain why individuals might excel (or suck!) at sport:

• FREUD (1909) introduced the idea of people having unconscious motivations. In particular, he suggested people have a lot of unconscious rage that was originaly directed at their parents but ends up getting turned back on themselves. This explains why some athletes might have a "short fuse" while others might hate any sort of competitive situation.
• MILGRAM (1963) explored the Situational Hypothesis. This viewpoint says that instead of trying to look "inside" people for DISPOSITIONAL explanations about why they are the way they are, you should look at their environment; this includes things like how they were brought up, peer pressure and role models. Maybe the difference between winners and losers all boils down to different circumstances...
• BANDURA (1961) was also interested in SITUATIONAL explanations, particularly the idea that we might learn to behave in certain ways. His "Bashing Bobo" experiment looked at how we learn to be aggressive, but his Social Learning Theory (SLT) might help explain lots of other behaviours too.
• MAGUIRE (2000) looked at how the brain changes structure depending on what we use it for. If taxi drivers develop unusual hippocampi after spending years memorising routes and distances, maybe athletes' brains will change after years of competing, taking aim or doing tactics.
• GRIFFITHS (1994) studied cognitive styles - the way regular gamblers have of thinking about gambling, weighing the odds and explaining away losses, that is quite different from non-gamblers. This is particularly relevant because fruit machine playing is a kind of sport (well, sort of) and Griffiths' "regular gamblers" might be similar to people who do regular sports or who exercise regularly - especially in how much importance they attach to skill instead of luck.

In general, we can make a few conclusions from our AS studies:

1. BEHAVIOURIST psychologists will try to look at the behaviour of successful athletes and their environments and work out what sort of backgrounds or circumstances make for success;
2. COGNITIVE psychologists will try to study the thought processes of successful athletes - how they weigh up the odds, cope with defeat or think about winning - that makes them different from everybody else;
3. PSYCHODYNAMIC psychologists argue that the instinct to compete and win (or give up and lose) comes from the unconscious and is based on childhood conflicts that we all handle differently;
4. BIOPSYCHOLOGISTS will be more interested in the brain structure of regular sports players and whether this links with them having certain personalities, temperaments or abilities.

One of the first chapters you study is aggression and its role in sport. There are three main studies in this:

• Social theories: Do we get our aggression from outside forces. Do we copy other people we see losing their temper? Do we learn that aggression is the "right" way of expressing frustration?
• Instinct theories: Was Freud right and do we all have a savage monster inside trying to get out? Does it do us good to vent our rage in some safe way, on the rugby pitch or squash court?
• Managing aggression in sport: Can we train the aggression out of (or in to) people using rewards and punishments? Or do we need to tackle their thought processes and get them to view setbacks in a different way?

You will also study theories of motiovation and how they can be put to use in sport. Again, there are three main studies:

• Achievement motivation: Do all human beings crave achievement? And if so, what's more important: succeeding at something, or not failing at it?
• Sport-specific models of motivation: Do the intense situations in sports competitions need a special approach to motivation? Like, is it better to focus on the winning, or on reaching personal goals regardless of who wins?
• Techniques for motivating sports players: Do rewards and punishments work, or do they make people slack off? Maybe you need to appeal to players' personal goals and motives?