Practice Exam Questions

Groups Groups are a collection of interacting individuals who have a sense of shared goals Needs forming, storming, norming & Performing Teams Teams have a sense of “we-ness”, with distinctive individual roles, structued modes of communication and unique norms the end

Reduction in an individual’s efforts when working in a group setting (inghan 1970) increase in group setting Free Rider: perception that their effort is (relatively) unimportant for the outcome Minimising Strategy: motivated to get by doing as little as possible Allocation Strategy: save best efforts for when most beneficial to self counteracting Emphasise the importance of individual contributions (identify & communicate) Increase accountability

Antecedents: Role Clarity & Acceptance (Roles) Set of behaviours require of the person occupying certain position Define formal group structure Differentiate on position from another Antecedents: Role Clarity & Acceptance (Formal Roles) Dictated by nature & structure of the Organisation Specific teams & tactical roles Coach, Captain Antecedents: Role Clarity & Acceptance (Informal Roles) Evolve from group dynamics or interactions E.g. Enforcer, Comedian or Mentor

Forming Team acquaints and establishes ground Rules Storming Members resist control by group leaders and show hostility Norming Members work together developing close relationships and feelings of camaraderie Performing Team members work towards getting their job done

“Helped us play better as a team” 68% “More focused on common goals” 42% “Enabled us to work together to reach goals” 27&

Area 5: Involve performer in goal setting process - Assigned by a coach: 0.30 - Co-operative (with a coach) goals 0.62 - Participant set: 0.49

How goals influence performance - Direct Attention - improve focus and gives meaning to training and competition • Effort Mobilisation • this is still needed by the athlete and may not be achieved by goal setting alone • Persistence • the importance of the goal to the athlete drives this influence • Development of new learning strategties • the above will lead the athlete to test new strategies and ways of achieving their goals

• Image: functionally organised set of propositions stored in the brain • Stimulus propositions • Content of the scene to be imaged • Response Propositions • Verbal, motor, physiological, emotional responses to the scene • Imagery instructions that include response propositions generate stronger responses (Cumming et al., 2007)

Oriented towards general or specific behaviours • Motivational Specific • Goal-oriented responses • Imaging oneself winning an event and receiving a medal • Cognitive Specific • Skills • Imaging perofrming on the balance beam successfully • Motivational General • Arousal • including relaxation by imaging a quiet place • General • “I imagine the stress and anxiety associate with competing” • Mastery • “I imagine myself appearing selfconfident in front of opponents • Cognitive general • Strategy • Imaging carrying out a strategy to win a competition

Psychoneuromusocular theory - Imagery produces similar neuromuscular activity to the actual movement (Carpenter, 1984) - Imagined arm movements produced small muscular contractions (Jackson, 1931) - EMG activity greatest when imagining skiing over rough sections of course (Suinn, 1976) - Unclear whether the activity is muscle specific - Predicts that imagery should benefit ‘physical’ tasks more than ‘cognitive’ ones

Symobolic learning theory - Proposes that imagery generates & strengthens a ‘mental blueprint’ of the required action - Evidence - Beneficial effect of mental practice are greater for cognitive than motor tasks - Imagery involves the same neural pathways as actual perception - Enable rehearsal of cognitive aspects of a skill (e.g. strategy, decision making)