What Does a Sports Psychologist Do?

Sports psychology is a branch of psychology that studies the psychological characteristics and laws of people when they are engaged in sports. It is also an emerging discipline in sports science. It is related to sports science, sports sociology, sports physiology, and sports training theories and methods. And other sports theories and methods are closely related.

Sports psychologist

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The main task of sports psychology is to study the psychological processes of people when they participate in sports, such as

The term sports psychology first appeared in an article by Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games. On his initiative, the International Olympic Committee held a special conference on sports psychology in Lausanne in 1913, which marked the discipline's entry into the ranks of science. From 1920 to 1940, the Soviet Union,

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I. Experimental Research Method

Experimental research is one of the most commonly used methods in psychological research. It is an important means to reveal the laws of psychology and behavior. It occupies a very important position in the research of sports psychology and has been widely

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Traditional sports psychology believes that high-level exercise mainly reflects changes in confidence, attention, and motivation, but how these psychological structures affect muscle movement is unclear. Neuroscience connects psychology with the quality of body movement by studying the process of brain activity, and explains the issue of "psycho-exercise" from the perspective of exercise efficacy. CognitiveNeuroscience's research in sports psychology begins with the exploration of self-controlled movements (such as shooting, etc.). These studies mainly use electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis to exercise the left and right brain hemispheres. Information explanation. In the past 20 years, research has focused on the effects of psychomotor movements, reflecting the cross-cutting characteristics of psychology, neuroscience, physics, genetics, physiology, engineering, and biomechanics. In training practice, although we are very clear about the training plan, the actual application effect is not satisfactory. With the development of the research on the effect of the brain on the body, the "Neuro2PhilosophyofSport" research has gradually formed in the field of sports psychology. The purpose is to seek more effective methods to guide communication and exploration by exploring how psychological factors affect the quality of muscle activity and motor processes. Increase the confidence of coach leaders. EEG research in cognitive neuroscience methods has found that language functions in the left hemisphere of the brain have a direct impact on cognition. The right hemisphere is mainly related to nonverbal visual spatial processes. Sports psychologists use the EEG method to describe the working conditions of athletes' brains. Through the spectral analysis of EEG time to observe the relationship between cerebral hemisphere activity and athletic performance, it is found that when excellent athletes focus attention, the intensity of EEG in the left temporal T3 region is Relatively larger than the same area in the right hemisphere, it follows that the attention of elite athletes results in lower EEG activity. Dr. Kerick used EEG analysis to test the brain activity of US army shooters during "enemy" and "friend" discrimination shooting, and the results supported the idea that the brain activities of good shooters are more economical. In addition, the study found that when individuals face failure scenarios, the activities of the left anterior region of the brain are relatively toward task execution, while the activities of the right anterior region of the brain are behavior of avoidance. Other studies have found that anatomically connected amygdaloid structures in the lower brain margins of the anterior region of the brain also affect emotional behavior. The research on motivation factors is mainly based on the asymmetric measurement of the deep brain structure to the emotional response of the map (that is, positive values affect positive motivation, while negative values affect negative motivation). The results found that under pressure conditions, athletes have frontal asymmetry. Significantly reduced. Further analysis of the correlation between leading-edge asymmetry and athletic performance found that athletes with poor performance showed lower asymmetry.

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Based on the research foundation of cognitive neuroscience in the field of sports psychology, Dr. Hatfield proposed the cognitive neuroscience model of psychomotor efficacy at the 11th World Congress of Sports Psychology in 2005. This structural model mainly describes that the lack of control of the subcortical process may cause emotions to affect the marginal structure, resulting in the assistance process of the superior cortex being blocked, resulting in a lag in the movement chain activity. If the motor cortex is busy at this time to perform the inconsistent input of the edge process, an inconsistent behavior will occur. At the same time, this lack of control of the marginal execution process will also increase the load of assistance processes and more attention. Therefore, this model explains the low-efficiency mechanism of motor activity caused by dysregulation of the cerebral cortical process, and it provides a basic model of the conceptual test of the role of psychological processes in neuromuscular movement for sports psychology research. Dr. Hatfield believes that the study of sports psychology should use the theory of motion control to further refine this structural prediction model by testing gene-environment interactions. The development of related theories will also rely on mathematical, engineering and physical technologies to explore the brain Working status.