OCR A-Level Psychology H567
Research Methods and Techniques
Planning and Conducting Research
Data Recording, Analysis and Presentation
Report Writing and Scientific Communication
Practical Activities and the Nature of Science
Mathematical Requirements for Research Methods
Studying and Evaluating the Core Studies: The Common Framework
Core Studies: Social Area
Core Studies: Cognitive Area
Core Studies: Developmental Area
Core Studies: Biological Area
Core Studies: Individual Differences Area
Areas and Perspectives in Psychology
Debates in Psychology
Practical Applications of Psychology
Issues in Mental Health
Child PsychologyApplied option
Criminal PsychologyApplied option
Environmental PsychologyApplied option
Sport and Exercise PsychologyApplied option
Methodological Issues and Debates Running Through Applied Psychology
Sport and Exercise Psychology
- 26 subtopics
- 69 things to know
- Component 03
- Component 03 applied option, two chosen from four
What Sport and Exercise Psychology covers
Sport and Exercise Psychology is examined on component 03 of OCR Psychology, Applied psychology. It is one of the four applied options, of which a student studies two. 309 recall questions across 26 subtopics.
The 26 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Arousal, anxiety, drive theory and the inverted-U hypothesisRecall questions on arousal and anxiety, trait and state anxiety, somatic and cognitive anxiety, drive theory and its predictions for beginners and experts, and the inverted-U hypothesis.Open →
- Optimal arousal and measuring anxiety in sportRecall questions on optimal arousal for different sports and performers, Eysenck's extraversion, individual zones of optimal functioning, under-arousal, attention narrowing, measuring anxiety with the SCAT, CSAI-2 and physiological measures, and evaluating self-report questionnaires.Open →
- Fazey and Hardy (1988) catastrophe model: criticisms of the inverted-U and the cusp modelRecall questions on the purpose and method of Fazey and Hardy's 1988 paper, the origin of the inverted-U hypothesis, their criticisms of it, arousal as more than one construct, the catastrophe model's mathematical basis, and the cusp model when cognitive anxiety is low.Open →
- Fazey and Hardy (1988) catastrophe model: predictions, conclusions and evaluationRecall questions on the catastrophe model's predictions under high cognitive anxiety, hysteresis, intermediate performance, the butterfly model, whether physiological arousal is harmful, Fazey and Hardy's conclusion, and the strengths and weaknesses of their work.Open →
- Techniques for managing arousal and anxiety in sportRecall questions on techniques for managing arousal and anxiety in sport, including the matching principle, progressive muscular relaxation, centring, biofeedback, imagery, thought stopping, cognitive restructuring, process goals, stress inoculation training, choosing techniques for athletes and their limitations.Open →
- Benefits of exercise to mental healthRecall questions on the mental health benefits of exercise and the endorphin, monoamine, thermogenic, stress, BDNF and distraction explanations, self-efficacy, group exercise, body image, sleep, cognitive decline, activity guidelines, green exercise, exercise dependence, and problems proving causation.Open →
- Lewis et al. (2014) dance and mood in Parkinson's disease: background and procedureRecall questions on the aim, method and design of Lewis et al.'s 2014 study of social dance and mood in Parkinson's disease, its independent variables, participants and control group, the Profile of Mood States, total mood disturbance, the dance intervention and short cycle measures.Open →
- Lewis et al. (2014) dance and mood in Parkinson's disease: results, conclusions and evaluationRecall questions on Lewis et al.'s findings on baseline mood, long cycle total mood disturbance, the significant subscale, participants with higher depression scores, short cycle results after Bonferroni correction, their conclusion, and the strengths and weaknesses of the study.Open →
- Exercise strategies to improve mental healthRecall questions on exercise strategies to improve mental health, including social dance programmes, group formats, enjoyment, exercise referral schemes, achievable goals, barriers to adherence, designing strategies for different people, evaluation, and the advantages and limits of exercise as treatment.Open →
- Self-efficacy, sports confidence, sport orientation and imageryRecall questions on self-efficacy and Bandura's four sources, self-confidence, Vealey's model of sport confidence, performance and outcome orientations, the Sport Orientation Questionnaire, imagery and its functions, the applied model of imagery, and intrinsic motivation.Open →
- Munroe-Chandler et al. (2008) imagery and confidence in youth football: background and procedureRecall questions on the aim and hypotheses of Munroe-Chandler et al.'s 2008 study of imagery and confidence in youth football, its correlational method, the players sampled, why football was chosen, how imagery, self-confidence and self-efficacy were measured, and what players had to do.Open →
- Munroe-Chandler et al. (2008) imagery and confidence in youth football: results, conclusions and evaluationRecall questions on Munroe-Chandler et al.'s correlations between imagery and confidence, sex and level of play, regression findings for self-confidence and self-efficacy, their conclusion, and the strengths and weaknesses of the study.Open →
- Strategies for motivating athletesRecall questions on strategies for motivating athletes, including SMART goals, outcome, performance and process goals, mastery imagery, the overjustification effect, extrinsic rewards, attribution retraining, vicarious experience, choice in training, advising coaches, and evaluating strategies.Open →
- Personality, its measurement and its relationship to sportRecall questions on personality and trait, situational and interactionist approaches, Eysenck's dimensions, the 16PF, Hollander's structure, credulous and sceptical positions, Type A and B personalities, the iceberg profile, athlete comparisons, and measuring personality by questionnaire, interview and observation.Open →
- Kroll and Crenshaw (1970) personality profiles of four athletic groups: background and procedureRecall questions on the purpose of Kroll and Crenshaw's 1970 study of personality profiles in four athletic groups, the problem it addressed, the 16PF method, the athletes sampled and excluded, discriminant function analysis, and the factors contributing most.Open →
- Kroll and Crenshaw (1970) personality profiles of four athletic groups: results, conclusions and evaluationRecall questions on how accurately Kroll and Crenshaw's profiles predicted sport, which groups were identified best and could not be separated, differences between gymnasts, karate participants and wrestlers, their conclusion, and the strengths and weaknesses of the study.Open →
- Using knowledge of personality to improve sports performanceRecall questions on using knowledge of personality to improve sports performance, including athlete and performance profiling, advising coaches about neuroticism, introversion, extraversion and Type A athletes, choosing roles and anxiety techniques, and the ethics and limits of personality testing.Open →
- Teams, cohesion, coaching and leadershipRecall questions on teams and groups, Steiner's model of productivity, the Ringelmann effect and social loafing, task and social cohesion, Carron's model, the Group Environment Questionnaire, Tuckman's stages, leadership theories, the Leadership Scale for Sports and coaching styles.Open →
- Smith et al. (1979) coach effectiveness training: background and procedureRecall questions on the aim, method and variables of Smith et al.'s 1979 study of coach effectiveness training, the coaches and players, the behavioural guidelines and training session, feedback and self-monitoring, data collection, and observed differences in coaches' behaviour.Open →
- Smith et al. (1979) coach effectiveness training: results, conclusions and evaluationRecall questions on Smith et al.'s findings on players' perceptions and attitudes, self-esteem, which children benefited most, win-loss records, their conclusion, and the strengths and weaknesses of the study.Open →
- Strategies for improving team performanceRecall questions on strategies for improving team performance, including team building, reducing social loafing, role clarity and acceptance, team goals, task and social cohesion, sociograms, coach effectiveness training, reducing co-ordination losses, advising coaches and evaluating programmes.Open →
- How an audience can facilitate or inhibit sports performanceRecall questions on social facilitation and inhibition, Zajonc's four types of others and drive theory, why a crowd helps experts but hinders novices, tasks inhibited by audiences, evaluation apprehension, and the distraction-conflict explanation.Open →
- Home advantage and audience effects in sportRecall questions on home advantage and its explanations, territoriality, home disadvantage and choking, crowd density, trait anxiety and audiences, learning skills without spectators, hostile away crowds, and limitations of drive theory.Open →
- Zajonc et al. (1969) social facilitation in cockroaches: background and procedureRecall questions on the aim and method of Zajonc et al.'s 1969 cockroach experiments, the earlier finding they reinterpreted, the variables, participants and apparatus of the first experiment, the floodlight and goal box, the audience and control conditions, and timing in the coaction condition.Open →
- Zajonc et al. (1969) social facilitation in cockroaches: results, conclusions and evaluationRecall questions on Zajonc et al.'s running times and starting latencies in the first experiment, the purpose, sample, conditions and results of the second experiment, their conclusion, and the strengths, weaknesses and relevance to audience effects in sport.Open →
- Training for and playing in spectator sportsRecall questions on strategies for training for and playing in spectator sports, including overlearning, simulation training, introducing audiences, reducing evaluation apprehension, cue words, pre-performance routines, imagery, preparing for hostile away grounds, using home crowds, and evaluation.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Who made up the control group, and how were participants recruited?
What happened to the short cycle results once the Bonferroni adjustment was applied?
Give two limitations of using exercise as a mental health intervention.
How does self-confidence differ from self-efficacy?
Which source of self-efficacy is the most powerful, and why?
Why is a demonstration by a team-mate of similar ability more useful for building self-efficacy than one by an international star?
Why must a goal be difficult as well as achievable?
How could a coach use vicarious experience to motivate a squad member who doubts she can make the first team?
Who was included in the analysis?
Why were some athletes who completed the questionnaire excluded from the analysis?
Give two weaknesses of Kroll and Crenshaw's study.
Why does cohesion matter more in netball than in archery?
Who were the coaches in the study?
What differences were found in the players' attitudes?
How does increasing a coach's use of reinforcement improve team performance in the long run?
How does Zajonc's drive theory explain social facilitation?
Why does a crowd help an expert but hinder a novice?
Give four explanations for home advantage.
What were the variables in the first experiment?
Give three controls used in the procedure.
Distinguish between trait anxiety and state anxiety.
A beginner and a county champion both play a match in front of a large, noisy crowd. What does drive theory predict for each?
Why does a snooker player need a lower optimal arousal level than a weightlifter?
Name three aspects of mental health that regular exercise has been shown to improve.
Why should the goals in an exercise programme be based on attendance and effort rather than on weight or speed?
What has research generally found when comparing the personalities of athletes and non-athletes?
How can knowledge of an athlete's personality be used in deciding their position or role in a team?
What does Fiedler's contingency model say about effective leadership?
Explain the difference between role clarity and role acceptance.
Why should a beginner learn a new skill without spectators present?
In the cusp catastrophe model, what roles are given to cognitive anxiety and to physiological arousal?
What does the model predict when cognitive anxiety is high?
What is meant by the prediction of hysteresis?
How does a centring or breathing-control routine work?
How can imagery be used to reduce competitive anxiety?
What does the endorphin hypothesis claim?
How is a total mood disturbance score obtained from the Profile of Mood States?
How did the baseline mood of the Parkinson's group compare with published norms?
How many players were in each level of play, and why was the analysed sample smaller than the number recruited?
What did the correlations between imagery and the confidence measures show?
Were there differences between boys and girls, or between the two levels of play?
Define personality.
How accurately did the personality profiles predict which sport an athlete played?
What is athlete profiling?
On which behaviours did players' perceptions of trained and untrained coaches differ?
What was found for starting latencies in the first experiment?
Give two strengths of Zajonc et al.'s research.
How do cue words help a performer manage a noisy crowd?
How does a pre-performance routine help in front of spectators?
Define arousal.
What happens to performance when an athlete is under-aroused?
Which two further variables did Fazey and Hardy add in their higher-order butterfly model, and what does each do?
Explain the technique of thought stopping.
How does exercise affect the body's stress response?
Which single mood subscale remained significant after the correction for multiple testing?
Why does enjoyment matter when selecting the type of exercise for a mental health programme?
Give two strengths of Munroe-Chandler et al.'s study.
Distinguish between outcome, performance and process goals.
Which dimensions of personality did Eysenck identify?
What problem with earlier personality research did the study set out to address?
Which group was identified most accurately, and which least accurately?
An extraverted sprinter looks flat in a low-key training session. What would you suggest?
What distinguishes a team from a mere collection of individuals?
Which children benefited most from having a trained coach?
Name three ways a coach can reduce social loafing.
Define social facilitation.
Why were a bright floodlight and a darkened goal box used?
Give one limitation of simulation training.
Take Sport and Exercise Psychology further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Arousal vs Cognitive anxiety
Arousal: the general level of physiological and psychological activation. Cognitive anxiety: the worrying, negative thoughts a performer has about an event.
Individual zone of optimal functioning vs Hysteresis
Individual zone of optimal functioning: the band of activation within which a particular performer does their best. Hysteresis: the prediction that performance falls by a different path than the one it rose by.
Self-efficacy vs Attribution retraining
Self-efficacy: a person's belief in their capability to carry out a specific task. Attribution retraining: teaching a performer to explain outcomes in more helpful ways.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Define arousal.
Model answer
Arousal is a general state of physical and mental activation that varies along a continuum from deep sleep to intense excitement.
- 2
How does anxiety differ from arousal?
Model answer
Arousal is a neutral state of activation, whereas anxiety is a negative emotional state of worry and apprehension that accompanies that activation.
- 3
Distinguish between trait anxiety and state anxiety.
Model answer
Trait anxiety is an enduring feature of personality that makes someone interpret many situations as threatening, while state anxiety is the temporary apprehension felt in one particular moment.
- 4
What is somatic anxiety, and give two signs of it in a competitor.
Model answer
Somatic anxiety is the bodily component of anxiety, shown for example in a racing heart and clammy, sweating hands.
- 5
What is cognitive anxiety?
Model answer
Cognitive anxiety is the mental component of anxiety, made up of worrying thoughts, expectations of failure and difficulty holding concentration.
- 6
According to drive theory, what is the relationship between arousal and performance?
Model answer
Drive theory claims the relationship is linear, so that as arousal rises performance rises with it and the athlete's dominant response becomes more likely to appear.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Sport and Exercise Psychology revision questions
- What does Sport and Exercise Psychology cover in OCR A-Level Psychology?
- 26 subtopics: arousal, anxiety, drive theory and the inverted-u hypothesis, optimal arousal and measuring anxiety in sport, fazey and hardy (1988) catastrophe model: criticisms of the inverted-u and the cusp model, fazey and hardy (1988) catastrophe model: predictions, conclusions and evaluation, techniques for managing arousal and anxiety in sport, benefits of exercise to mental health, lewis et al. (2014) dance and mood in parkinson's disease: background and procedure, lewis et al. (2014) dance and mood in parkinson's disease: results, conclusions and evaluation, exercise strategies to improve mental health, self-efficacy, sports confidence, sport orientation and imagery, munroe-chandler et al. (2008) imagery and confidence in youth football: background and procedure, munroe-chandler et al. (2008) imagery and confidence in youth football: results, conclusions and evaluation, strategies for motivating athletes, personality, its measurement and its relationship to sport, kroll and crenshaw (1970) personality profiles of four athletic groups: background and procedure, kroll and crenshaw (1970) personality profiles of four athletic groups: results, conclusions and evaluation, using knowledge of personality to improve sports performance, teams, cohesion, coaching and leadership, smith et al. (1979) coach effectiveness training: background and procedure, smith et al. (1979) coach effectiveness training: results, conclusions and evaluation, strategies for improving team performance, how an audience can facilitate or inhibit sports performance, home advantage and audience effects in sport, zajonc et al. (1969) social facilitation in cockroaches: background and procedure, zajonc et al. (1969) social facilitation in cockroaches: results, conclusions and evaluation and training for and playing in spectator sports. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Sport and Exercise Psychology organised?
- By the OCR H567 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Sport and Exercise Psychology, on a schedule.
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