Sports Psychology Reseach Project - using dissociative and associative strategies for helping concentration.

by jukesy95 (student)

AS and A Level Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

Cameron Jukes

Year 12 Physical Education

Hypothesis:

That if a subject from a Year 12 Physical Education class imposes a dissociative and associative strategy (Mackenzie, p.126, 127) for maintaining concentration over a four week period, then there will be a noticeable improvement in that subject’s performance in Water Polo. If the dissociation technique (listening to music) were to occur before engaging in physical activity, it would focus the subject’s thoughts away from any bodily ambiguities. In addition, an associative technique (breathing control) during a competitive environment would create an assertive state of mind for the subject and allow for complete focus on the goal at hand. Both techniques, implemented correctly of the time period, would promote concentration during Water Polo and would enhance the overall quality of subject’s team (provided each team member improved on the most prominent individual weakness) when performing, because of a development in team cohesion and psychological understanding of Water Polo.

Method:

Prior to the Research Project

A Team of year 12 Physical education students where separated into two teams of similar skill standard
All team members decided upon one aspect of sports psychology to implement a mental skills training plan
All students then developed a mental skill training plan to help develop the chosen mental technique

Beginning of the Research Project

Team members gathered at the pool and set up required equipment
All performed personal mental skills activities in order to be prepared for the training session (see logbook for details on personal mentals skills training)
Team 1 then gathered in a group for a stretching session and the briefing of the training program for that day
The team member running that training then lead the warm up of 2 pool widths free swimming and then 2 pool widths swimming with a ball
The team then progressed into a dry passing drill
Afterwards the team would then practise eggbeating with arms out of the water
Depending on the length of the lesson, the team would then either progress into shooting practise or a 3 vs 2 attacking drill
Finally a stretching/warm down seeion would take place along with a training debrief.
This was repeated in a similar fashion for all training sessions, keeping the mental skills training constant whilst changing the physical training to suit the teams needs
At the end of the beginning phase of research, both team competed in a 2x5 minute halved recorded water polo game
Each team’s game performance for 2X5 minutes halves was videoed. The video was transferred to onto the computer in order for the students to view the game and record data.
Each team viewed videos of their performance in the classroom, using laptop pods or data projector. Games statistics were recorded for each team as a whole. All successes and error had to be recorded.
Immediately after 1.12 students were to complete the Video Analysis Sheet for their team. The three phases of the data collection were marked in a different colour or symbol.
At or about the same time students completed the SELF EVALUATION SHEET. This was used to generate personal player and team data.
Students completed journal entries by responding to the focus questions provided.

Middle of the Reaserch Project

2.1. Steps 1.1-1.15 were repeated during the middle phase of the research project

End of the Research Project

3.1. Steps 1.1-1.15 were repeated for the end phase of the research project

3.2. All research was collated in order to complete the report

Results:

Table 1: Team 1 Water Polo Physical Self-Evaluation

Table 2: Team 1 Water Polo Mental Self Evaluation

Using the information from these table, graphs can be ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Middle of the Reaserch Project

2.1. Steps 1.1-1.15 were repeated during the middle phase of the research project

End of the Research Project

3.1. Steps 1.1-1.15 were repeated for the end phase of the research project

3.2. All research was collated in order to complete the report

Results:

Table 1: Team 1 Water Polo Physical Self-Evaluation

Table 2: Team 1 Water Polo Mental Self Evaluation

Using the information from these table, graphs can be created to better display the progression of physical and mental skills.

Table 3: Individual Results

Table 4: Group 1 results

Discussion:

It was hypothesised above that if a subject from a Year 12 Physical Education class imposes a dissociative and associative strategy (Mackenzie, p.126, 127) for maintaining concentration over a four week period, then there will be a noticeable improvement in that subject’s performance in Water Polo. This research task was conducted in order to investigate the effect of psychological skills training on the physical water polo performance of a Year 12 physical education class. The graphs and tables above display the results calculated from data collected throughout the investigation and suggest interesting inconsistencies with the hypothesis.

Association is a cognitive strategy in which the individual attends to the body’s internal related cues such as muscle tension and breathing (Morgan, 1980) and/or external performance information such as distance completed, stroke rate and race position (Scott, Scott, Bedic, & Dowd, 1999). This strategy allows individuals to alter their movement pattern according to body awareness, racing strategy, and muscular tension (Tammen, 1996). Dissociation, on the other hand, is a cognitive strategy in which the performer focuses on external cues, such as daydreaming, admiring the view, and problem solving; thereby restricting the influence of sensory information from the body (Schomer, 1986). Both these techniques were utilised in the individual mentals skills training program to inprove concentration and Figure 1 presents the outcome of the individual peformance as a results of the implementation. It can be seen that both the physical and mental index in the individual data increased as the research task progressed. Psychological improvement was apparent and would have resulted from the asscociative technique practised as it would have cause the individual to focus upon the situation present instead of thinking of future tasks. These results, though agreeing with the hypothesis, can not be considered valid because the physical aspect of the results was derived from a self-evaluation. This is not quantifiable data, rather an individuals perception of a performance and could not be interpreted as a direct representation of results. For further experiments, this aspect should be included under a mental index as it displays an individual’s regard for one’s own skill.

If all the individual of a water polo team were to engage in a mental skills program in order to improve on a physical level, it would be assumed that the team performance would subsequently progress. From the data in Figure 2 it is evident that this did not occur for team one during the research phase. A conspicuous increase between phases was expected before the commencment of the task, however this did not transpire during performance. The results show the team performing best at the beginning, slightly worse in the middle section and then improving for the end: arguably as a result of random errors in the experiment, as well as flaws in the experimental design. A major contributor to the this discrepancy is the fact that most of the team member were engaging in the development separate psychological techniques and subsequently having inconsistent goals. Whilst this would most likely be effective in improving the performance of the individual, it would not necessarily create an effective team play. “For a team to be successful they must have the inclination to work together towards achieving a set of common goals known to all members of the team: this is cohesion” (Kiss, 2011). While the team had created a set of individual and team goals (see journal in appendix) it is like that the individual goals overshadowed those of the entire group and prevented the group from performing to their greatest capacity. Another important aspect to consider is the vast range of skill level and experience between players. For players with little water polo experience, the influence of a psychological training regime would be far less effective when compared to an autonomous athlete. Bandura’ s study of volleyball players (from cognitive to autonomous) found “player whose focus was not on the basic skills benefited greatest from psychological development”. The limited time in class could have also influenced the team’s dynamics as sometimes the restrictions prevented the team from properly developing the relationships needed to be effective in the pool.

For this experiment to work more effectively in further experiments, a number of the factors mentioned above must be taken into consideration and improved upon. The results for this experiment could not be considered valid, in regards to the individual’s results, mainly due to the absence of quantitative data for the individual’s performance. This aspect was acknowledged for the group’s results, with the analysis of the video matches allowing this to be collected. The progression of this research task should have each individual’s performance being recorded to assure the reliability upon an actual performance, rather then a team member’s own perception. More experimental time during lessons should also be allowed (this was not possible for these experiments because of lesson length) as well as ensuring that the teams are either split into groups of similar skill level or that the team members adhere to similar goals, in order to improve team cohesion.

Conclusion

The analysis of the results suggest a large discrepancy from what was intially hypothesised. It was thought that a improvement of concentration, through the implementation of asscociative and dissociated techniques, would result in an increase in both individual and team performance standard. As was justified above, this only occurred in the individual’s results which was then found to be unsubstantial in evidence due to a lack of measurable data to evaluate the physical performance. In future, the performance of each individual should be recorded for relevant data. The team’s results were found to be quite divergent from the hypothesis because of a lack of team coheasion, common goals, limited time to develop relationships, a large difference in skill level and experience and the use of a number of dissociative techniques, instead of associative. Future training and performance, however, will improve because of this investigation as students now realise the importance of psychology in sport and the effect it can have upon a team, whether it be posistive or negative.

For investigations wishing to expand on the concepts explored during this research task, they may benefit from studying the comparison between he use of associative and dissociative techniques ofnYear 12 water polo players and their effect on performance. Another aspect to be examined could be how a mental skill training plan would affect the performance of elite athletes when compared to novices. These nivestigations would solidify the notion that “Sports psychology attempts to optimise these three elements so that performers strive to succeed with the determination and belief that the body and abilities will produce the required performance.” (Kiss. M, et al. 2010)

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