Sports Psychology Athlete and Coach Emotion Discussion

Read and study Chapter Thirteen in your text. It is very important that the athlete and the coach understand emotion in sport and use it positively and effectively.

• Can aggression in sport be helpful?
• When is aggression in sport destructive?
• What cognitive and behavioral interventions would you suggest for controlling negative emotion in sport? You might want to use some examples from your own life experiences.

Chapter 13
Aggression and Violence in Sport
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
© 2012 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Defining Aggression
• Two factors must be present in order for a
behavior to be labeled aggression:
– Goal to inflict bodily harm on another
person.
– Reasonable expectation of success.
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Behaviors that are not Examples of
Aggression
• Destructive violence to an inanimate object.
• Unintentionally injuring another person.
• Behavior in which there is no chance for the
target to be injured.
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Basic Kinds of Aggression
• Hostile Aggression
• Instrumental Aggression
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Differentiating between
Aggression & Assertiveness
• Aggression involves the intent to harm,
while assertive behavior does not.
• It is often difficult to discern between the
two.
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Assertive Behavior
• No intent to harm.
• Legitimate force.
• Unusual effort and energy expenditure.
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Hostile Aggression
• Intent to harm.
• Goal to harm.
• Anger
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Instrumental Aggression
• Intent to Harm.
• Goal to Win.
• No Anger.
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Differentiating among Assertive
Behavior, Hostile Aggression, and
Instrumental Aggression
Assertive Behavior
1. No intent to harm
2. Legitimate force
3. Unusual effort
Hostile Aggression
1. Intent to harm
2. Goal to harm
3. Anger
Instrumental
Aggression
1. Intent to harm
2. Goal to win
3. No anger
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Different Kinds of Harm
• Physical harm – goal to physically harm
another person.
• Verbal or emotional harm – goal to
emotionally or psychologically harm
another person.
• Relational harm – goal to harm another
person through relationships (e.g. social
ostracism and malicious rumor).
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Legitimacy of Aggressive
Behavior
• This is an oxymoron, in that true aggression should never
be considered legitimate.
• Legitimacy of aggressive behavior is often studied when it
is difficult to determine if dangerous behavior is
intentional or not (e.g., high sticking in hockey).
• Researchers study perceived legitimacy of various acts of
rule breaking that may or may not be examples of
aggression.
• Perceived legitimacy of “aggressive behavior” increases as
a function of increased age and competitive level.
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Theories of Aggression
• Instinct Theory.
• Social Learning Theory.
• Reformulated Frustration-Aggression
Theory.
• Bredemeier’s Theory of Moral Reasoning
and Aggression.
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Instinct Theory
• Aggression is an inborn drive similar to
hunger, thirst, and sexual desire.
• Because humans are innately aggressive it
benefits society to promote sports and
games that provide an acceptable outlet.
• Aggression results in a purging of pent-up
aggression known as catharsis.
13-13
Social Learning Theory
• Aggression is a function of learning.
• Aggression does not result in a catharsis of
pent-up aggression as in instinct theory.
• The circular effect of aggression is that
aggression precipitates more aggression.
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Reformulated FrustrationAggression Theory
• Berkowitz’s reformulation of frustrationaggression theory is that a frustrating event
creates a readiness for aggression.
• In order for aggression to actually occur,
certain stimuli associated with aggression
must be present.
• To some degree, aggression in response to
frustration may be cathartic.
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Bredemeier’s Theory of Moral
Reasoning and Aggression
• An individual’s willingness to engage in
aggression is related to his stage of moral
reasoning.
1. Three stages of moral development.
2. Bracketed morality.
3. Mechanisms of moral disengagement.
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Three stages of moral
development
1. Pre-conventional Stage – Individual
concerned with rewards, punishment, and own
welfare.
2. Conventional Stage – Individual concerned
with group or team norms.
3. Post-conventional Stage – Individual guided
by moral principles (the athlete less likely to
engage in aggressive behavior).
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Bracketed Morality
• The level of morality necessary for
everyday life is often suspended during
athletic competition.
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Mechanisms of moral
disengagement
• Cognitive mechanisms that allows an
athlete to disengage from usual moral
standards and engage in transgressive
behavior.
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Eight Mechanisms of Moral
Disengagement
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Displacement of responsibility (it’s not my fault).
Attribution of blame (it’s not my fault).
Minimizing or ignoring the consequences (it’s not serious).
Euphemistic labeling (common rule breaking).
Diffusion of responsibility (everybody does it).
Moral justification (the action was justified).
Advantageous comparison (comparison with daily life or other sport
context).
Dehumanization (dehumanize opponent or recipient of aggressive
act).
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The Catharsis Effect
• A release (purging) of pent-up emotion and
frustration.
• An important component of instinct theory and to
a lesser degree frustration-aggression theory.
• Rejected by social learning theory.
• Research supports the position that aggression
begets more aggression, and that it can become
learned behavior.
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Measurement of Aggression as a
Personality Disposition or Trait
• Buss Aggression Questionnaire (BAQ).
• Aggression Inventory (AI).
• Athletic Aggression Inventory (AGI).
• Continuum of Injurious Acts (CIA).
• Competitive Aggressiveness and Anger Scale
(CAAS).
• Judgements about Moral Behavior in Youth Sport
Questionnaire (JAMBYSQ).
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Measuring Aggression as Observed
Behavior
• Requires the use of trained observers.
• Archival data from actual game statistics
(may fail to distinguish between aggression
and assertiveness).
• Video taping games.
13-23
Fan Violence
• False Consensus Effect – False belief about the
willingness of other fans to participate in acts of
violence.
• Fan Identification – Psychological connection
that individuals have with their team. Highly
identified sport fans feel less control over their
behavior at basketball, soccer, or football games
than moderately identified fans.
13-24
Identifying Those Fans Who
Would Participate in Violence
• In ice hockey, individuals most likely to
take part in fan violence are young males
who travel in packs, have a history of
fighting, like to watch fights, attend hockey
games in the hope of seeing fights, react
impulsively, and score high on the trait of
aggressiveness.
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Effects of Aggression on
Performance
• True aggression (intent to harm) should not
result in better performance, because it
should be penalized. A case in point, is the
power play in ice hockey.
• Conversely, hard fought assertive play on
the part of athletes in American football,
rugby, and ice hockey are important for
team success.
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Situational Factors that Might
Contribute to Aggression
• Environmental temperature.
• Perception of victim’s intent.
• Fear of retaliation (inhibits).
• Structure of the game.
• Rivalry, familiarity, and frequency of play.
• Personal characteristics of athlete.
• Athlete and sport differences.
• Coach characteristics.
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Reducing Aggression in Sport
• Curtailing aggression and violence by
athletes.
• Curtailing aggression and violence by fans.
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Curtailing Aggression and
Violence by Athletes
1. Provide athletes with role
Models.
2. Severe penalties for
aggression.
3. Penalty must be greater than
reward for being aggressive.
4. Coaches who encourage
aggression must be punished.
5. Remove all potential cues that
might evoke aggression.
6. Provide in-service training for
coaches and officials.
7. Reward athletes for showing
restraint and patience.
8. Teams should practice coping
skills designed to curtail
aggression.
9. Encourage social interaction
between athletes and coaches
of opposing teams.
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Curtailing Aggression and
Violence by Fans
1. Potential troublemakers should be supervised.
2. Limit sale, distribution, and use of alcoholic
beverages at sporting events.
3. Athletic events should be promoted and
encouraged as family affairs.
4. Media should promote responsible behavior by
not glamorizing acts of aggression.
5. Fan aggression must be severely penalized.
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