A2 Psychology at Spalding Grammar School

Remember Wimbledon 2008? Spanish Rafael Nadal beat favourite Roger Federer in the Men's Singles Championship. It was an epic match - the longest finals match in Wimbledon history at a gruelling 4 hours and 48 minutes! After losing the first two sets, it seemed to be all over for reigning champion Federer. But the Swiss player called on amazing reserves of energy and determination to fight back, win the third set on a tie-break, then go on to win the fourth set. Federer was back in the game! Nadal created three championship points and Federer managed to save all of them. But Nadal's willpower never broke, and the fourth championship point brought him the victory he'd worked so relentlessly for. Former champion John McEnroe called this "the greatest Wimbledon final ever" and he should know - at the Wimbledon Men's Finals in 1980 McEnroe cruised through the first set against Bjorn Borg, but Borg fought back to win the next two, only to lose the fourth on a tie-break, setting up a nail-biting final set which Borg won 8-6. Click the picture for a BBC musical montage of the 2008 finals match.

The stamina and strength required to play tennis at this level is impressive, but so is the willpower and confidence of the plays in the face of stunning setbacks and reversals of fortune. This second unit in Psychology of Sport & Exercise looks at peak performance and the processes that produce peak performance in players - or cause peak performance to collapse!

WHAT DO WE KNOW FROM AS?

Several studies or theories from AS Psychology explain what creates peak performance - or causes performance to nosedive

• BANDURA (1961) wanted to create a certain level of arousal in the children, so that they'd be more likely to attack a Bobo Doll when they met one. He put them in a room with lots of toys, then came along to take the toys away, saying it was all a mistake. Cue some very grumpy kids!
• REICHER & HASLAM (2006) measured arousal with a biological test - looking for adrenaline traces in saliva swabs. They also gave the prisoners and guards daily questionnaires to measure anxiety. The gauards became very anxious as their groups identity fell apart, which sughgests there is a big social element to anxiety.
• FREUD (1909) introduced the idea of people having unconscious anxiety. Little Hans' issues with his father were so overwhelming that he ended up giving himself side-effects like phobias. This explains the importance of anxiety and why an athlete might, unconsciously, sabotage their own chance of winning.
• MILGRAM (1963) went further than Freud and actually created anxiety in his participants. Some trembled and giggled, others moaned and dug fingernails into their own skin; three actually fainted and two had to be carried out. This shows the power of anxiety when people are put into tense situations.
• 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 athletes and their environments and work out what stimulates peak performance;
2. COGNITIVE psychologists will try to study the thought processes of athletes - how they weigh up the odds, cope with defeat or think about winning - and the effect this has on their game;
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 biological changes that happen when we're nervous or excited and how this can improve or ruin our performance.

The main theme that comes out of this volume is SITUATION OR DISPOSITION. Is performance mostly affected by a player's skill and temperament or is it more influenced by outside factors and circumstances?

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

• Theories of arousal: what is "arousal" and is it good or bad for an athlete's performance?
• Types of arousal: what are the different ways a person can show signs of arousal and the different ways of causing it?
• Factors influencing arousal: does arousal affect people differently depending on the sport they're doing?

The next topic you study is anxiety and its effect on sport. There are three main studies here:

• Trait/state anxiety: the difference between being an anxious person and having an anxiety attack 
• Multidimensional models of anxiety: different types of anxiety: physical and mental, permanent and temporary 
• Models of anxiety: too much anxiety can lead to a catastrophic crash in performance