Deck 7: Psychological Skills Training

Question 1

What is the purpose of psychological skills training?

A) All of the above
B) To maintain concentration
C) To regulate arousal
D) To enhance confidence

Answer 1

A

Question 2

When might an athlete need emotion-focused coping, rather than problem-focused coping?

A) When the situation is out of the athlete's control, and stress levels are involved
B) When the problem is manageable and involves physical skills
C) When the problem can handled with additional training
D) All of the above

Answer 2

A

Question 3

According to matching hypothesis, which of the following should a baseball player use to help with nearly always striking out when the pitcher is throwing curve balls?

A) Problem-focused coping
B) Emotion-focused coping
C) Progressive muscle relaxation
D) Biofeedback

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following happens during the acquisition phase of PST?

A) Learning specific strategies for mastering psychological skills
B) Learning that psychological skills can be taught
C) Overlearning skills and integrating skills into specific performance challenges
D) An athlete learns to never attempt an event again because of a previous negative experience.

Question 5

Why might a coach choose not to use psychological skills training?

A) All of the above
B) The coach does not want to cut into physical practice time
C) The coach does not believe that those types of skills can be taught
D) The coach lacks understanding on how PST can help athletes

Question 6

A tennis player feels high levels of anxiety right before a big match. Her trainer notices that she is keeping her shoulders raised higher than she should--a sign of tension. Which technique would be MOST beneficial for the tennis player to use to combat shoulder tension?

A) Progressive muscle relaxation
B) Arousal energizing
C) Meditation
D) Hypnosis

Question 7

Which arousal regulation technique may involve measuring heart rate response to relaxing thoughts?

A) Biofeedback
B) Stress inoculation training
C) Cognitive-affective stress management training
D) Meditation

Question 8

Which arousal regulation technique involves a series of phases, including the induction phase and waking phase?

A) Hypnosis
B) Mindfulness
C) Stress inoculation training
D) Meditation

Question 9

Which arousal regulation technique often involves focusing attention on, and sometimes verbalizing, a single thought?

A) Meditation
B) Cognitive-affective stress management training
C) Autogenic training
D) Hypnosis

Question 10

A soccer player is frequently distracted by the intrusion of negative thoughts ("don't fall, don't mess up") while she is trying to move the ball toward the goal. Which of the following techniques would help her MOST to move past her negative thoughts?

A) Mindfulness
B) Biofeedback
C) Arousal energizing
D) Autogenic training

Question 11

Which arousal regulation technique involves the athlete practicing their new skills in low-stress, and then, over time, high-stress situations?

A) Stress inoculation training
B) Autogenic training
C) Cognitive-affective stress management training
D) Mindfulness

Question 12

Which of the following techniques can be used as an arousal energizing strategy?

A) Listening to loud, fast music
B) Meditation
C) Progressive muscle relaxation
D) Autogenic training

Question 13

How might a person in the crowd (a fan of the visiting team) try to influence a home-team player to focus on irrelevant information while the player is trying to take a free throw?

A) Hold up a distracting sign
B) Text on their cell phone
C) Clap and chant with the enthusiastic home crowd
D) Sit quietly and stare down the player

Question 14

The ability to focus on only important factors and not be distracted by irrelevant information is called:

A) Selective attention
B) Attentional focus
C) Inattentional blindness
D) Attentional flexibility

Question 15

How can an athlete increase their ability to show selective attention?

A) Practice necessary physical skills
B) Try to pay attention to all elements in the environment at once
C) Practice using imagery during their performance
D) Practice arousal energizing

Question 16

Focusing on the execution of a given skill (an ice skater performing a toe loop or a football quarterback throwing a pass) belongs to which dimension of attentional focus?

A) Narrow and external
B) Broad and internal
C) Narrow and internal
D) Broad and external

Question 17

Analyzing one's thoughts and feelings regarding a performance (a golfer making a shot selection, a baseball pitcher selecting the next pitch) is in which dimension of attentional focus?

A) Broad and internal
B) Narrow and external
C) Broad and external
D) Narrow and internal

Question 18

Why are athletes who use an associative attentional style more successful than athletes who use a dissociative or distraction attentional style?

A) Athletes who use an associative style focus on their bodily functions and feelings, and are thus more in tune with their body
B) Athletes who use an associative style are able to ignore the distractions of their bodies and can push themselves harder than those athletes who use a dissociative style
C) Athletes who use an associative style are more focused on the task at hand than athletes who use a dissociative style, and can manipulate their bodily functions to match what they need their bodies to do
D) None of the above

Question 19

Researchers studying the link between automatic movement and performance asked soccer players to squeeze a ball with either their left hand or their right hand right before they took penalty kicks in a high-pressure situation. What was the finding of the experiment?

A) Squeezing the ball with the left hand improved performance because the right hemisphere of the brain controls automatic movements
B) Squeezing the ball with the left hand improved performance because the left hemisphere of the brain controls automatic movements
C) Squeezing the ball with the right hand improved performance because the right hemisphere of the brain controls automatic movements
D) Squeezing the ball with the right hand improved performance because the left hemisphere of the brain controls automatic movements

Question 20

What is one of the primary goals of "trash talk"?

A) To distract the other player
B) To hurt the other player's feelings
C) To gain respect from teammates
D) To focus your own attention on the goal

Question 21

Why is it important for athletes to practice in realistic settings?

A) This allows the athlete to learn to manage feelings of anxiety
B) This helps athletes learn to have an internal focus
C) This allows the coaches to expose athletes to arousal energizing strategies
D) All of the above

Question 22

How does creating and maintaining a routine help athletes perform at higher levels?

A) Routines create a feeling of structure and familiarity
B) Routines allow athletes to have a broad and internal focus during the game, event, or competition
C) Creating a routine eliminates the need for a coach's feedback
D) Creating a routine encourages an increase in anxiety

Question 23

What is one reason that athletes who act on superstitions tend to perform slightly better than those who do not?

A) Because they believe in the power of the superstition
B) Because more elite athletes tends to be more superstitious than amateur athletes
C) Because as skill level increases, so do superstitious behaviors and beliefs
D) All of the above

Question 24

Which strategy involves verbalizing, out loud or in one's head, specific thoughts and feelings?

A) Self-talk
B) Meditation
C) Hypnosis
D) Mindfulness

Question 25

Which of the following strategies is being used in this example: and athlete talks to herself as she prepares to shoot the basketball, "Ok, just focus, knees bent, arms strong, eyes on the net, you've got this".

A) Self-talk
B) Meditation
C) Stress inoculation training
D) Mindfulness

Question 26

Attention control training aids in which key factor in a successful performance?

A) Avoiding negative thoughts
B) Getting "pumped up" before the game
C) Being aware of your heart rate and breathing
D) Using self-talk

Question 27

Which of the following senses is especially important when using imagery?

A) Kinesthetic
B) Auditory
C) Tactile
D) Olfactory

Question 28

A tennis player is imaging himself getting ready to take a serve, and can see himself as a spectator would, from several yards away. His position is good, but he needs to turn his body slightly. What technique is the tennis player using?

A) External imagery
B) Attentional flexibility
C) Selective attention
D) Biofeedback

Question 29

Which of the following theories on the power of imagery states that mentally imaging actions and actually engaging in these actions involve the same neurophysiological processes?

A) Functional equivalence hypothesis
B) Symbolic learning perspective
C) Psychoneuromuscular theory
D) Matching hypothesis

Question 30

Why is imagery such a powerful tool for athletes to use to prepare for performances?

A) All of the above
B) Imagery can help athletes practice new skills
C) Imagery can help athletes learn and practice strategies for specific situations they may encounter
D) Imagery may help athletes build confidence in their ability to acquire skills or perform a certain way

Question 31

Problem-focused coping is best used in situations when the athlete has no control and is mainly dealing with stress levels.

Question 32

If an athlete is having difficulty recognizing when they feel stressed, using relaxation and biofeedback will help them cope with this problem.

Question 33

Autogenic training is a behavioral arousal-regulating strategy.

Question 34

An athlete wishes to learn a technique to help them calm down before performances. Meditation would be beneficial to this athlete.

Question 35

Cognitive-affective stress management training involves the use of biometrics to teach athletes how to bring their heart and breathing rates down.

Question 36

Attention is defined as the ability to focus on relevant information and to ignore irrelevant information.

Question 37

An internal focus usually results in a better performance.

Question 38

Focusing on past mistakes and future events can both interrupt present performance.

Question 39

An athlete is most likely to choke when they are in a high-pressure situation and they have internal distractions.

Question 40

A flashing advertisement on a baseball field can easily be an external distraction to the pitcher.

Question 41

What makes useful "self-talk" different from an athlete just speaking aloud?

Question 42

Compare and contrast the goals and strategies of stress inoculation training and autogenic training. Are there conditions where one might be more beneficial than the other?

Question 43

What makes a scientific study of "trash talk" difficult? How would attempt to fix these issues in your own experiment?

Question 44

Which sports /events might be particular amenable to improvement through imagery? Why?

Question 45

How would you explain the benefits of psychological skills training to a coach worried about already short practice times?