Ego depletion, attentional control, and decision making in sport

Objectives: Athletes differ at staying focused on performance and avoiding distraction. Drawing on the strength model of self-control we investigated whether athletes do not only differ inter-individually in their disposition of staying focused and avoiding distraction but also intra-individually in their situational availability of focused attention. Design/method: In the present experiment we hypothesized that basketball players (N = 40) who have sufficient self-control resources will perform relatively better on a computer based decision making task under distraction conditions compared to a group who's self-control resources have been depleted in a prior task requiring self-control. Results: The results are in line with the strength model of self-control by demonstrating that an athlete's capability to focus attention relies on the situational availability of self-control strength. Conclusions: The current results indicate that having sufficient self-control strength in interference rich sport settings is likely to be beneficial for decision making.

Befinden und Motivation im Sport – Das Resultat einer Motiv-Sportziel-Passung

Um Befinden und Motivation im Sport vorherzusagen, wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit eine Motiv-Ziel-Passungsannahme geprüft. Zwei Studien testen die Hypothese, dass das Verfolgen sportbezogener Ziele, die zu den impliziten Motiven (Leistungs- und Anschlussmotiv) der Sporttreibenden passen, zu positivem Befinden im Sport und hoher geplanter Sportaktivität führt, während das Verfolgen motivinkongruenter Ziele beeinträchtigend wirkt. Eine erste korrelative Studie (N = 67) bestätigt die Hypothese für die Vorhersage des positiven Befindens während des Sporttreibens in einer Stichprobe bestehend aus Sportstudierenden, die selbstgesetzte Ziele verfolgen. In einer zweiten Studie (N = 67) werden motivkongruente und motivinkongruente TrainerInnen-Ziele experimentell induziert. Die Motiv-Ziel-Interaktionen sagen auch hier das Befinden und zusätzlich die intendierte zukünftige Sportaktivität vorher. Der theoretische Erkenntnisgewinn dieser Studien besteht darin, dass fremdgesetzte TrainerInnen-Ziele sehr ähnlich wirken wie selbstgesetzte Ziele. Die praktischen Implikationen beinhalten Zielimaginationsübungen, die die Wahl motivpassender Sportziele erleichtern sollen.

How do sport clubs recruit volunteers? Analyzing and developing a typology of decision-making processes on recruiting volunteers in sport clubs.

Effective strategies for recruiting volunteers who are prepared to make a long-term commitment to formal positions are essential for the survival of voluntary sport clubs. This article examines the decision-making processes in relation to these efforts. Under the assumption of bounded rationality, the garbage can model is used to grasp these decision-making processes theoretically and access them empirically. Based on case study framework an in-depth analysis of recruitment practices was conducted in nine selected sport clubs. Results showed that the decision-making processes are generally characterized by a reactive approach in which dominant actors try to handle personnel problems of recruitment in the administration and sport domains through routine formal committee work and informal networks. In addition, it proved possible to develop a typology that deliver an overview of different decision-making practices in terms of the specific interplay of the relevant components of process control (top-down vs. bottom-up) and problem processing (situational vs. systematic).

Does context matter? Analysing structural and individual factors of member commitment in sport clubs

This article addresses factors that infl uence member commitment in sport clubs. Based on the theory of social action and the economic behaviour theory, it focuses not only on individual characteristics of club members but also on the corresponding structural conditions of sport clubs. Accordingly, a multilevel framework is developed for explaining member commitment in sport clubs. Different multilevel models were estimated in order to analyse the infl uences of both the individual and corresponding context Level in a sample of n = 1,699 members of 42 Swiss and German sport clubs. The multilevel analysis permitted an adequate handling of hierarchically structured data. Results of These multilevel analyses indicated that the commitment of members is not just an outcome of individual characteristics such as strong identifi cation with their club, positively perceived (collective) solidarity, satisfaction with their sport club, or voluntary engagement. It is also determined by club-specific structural conditions: commitment proves to be more probable in rural sport clubs and clubs that explicitly support sociability. Furthermore, cross-level effects in relation to member commitment were also found between the context variable sociability and the individual variable identification.

Implicit Motives of Elite Athletes, Sport Students, and Non-Sport Students: Power, Affiliation, and Achievement

Research on performance and participation in (elite) sports has predominantly focused on variables relating to the achievement motive. However, some authors describe that athletes in interactive sports (e.g. tennis) are assumed to exhibit a strong power motive in order to win competitive matches, usually resulting in the demonstration of dominance or the experience of inferiority. The affiliation motive, by contrast, is not functional in elite sports due to their competitive rather than social character. In the present chapter we discuss how the three basic implicit motives of power, affiliation, and achievement relate to the sports field and describe how they can affect athletes’ performance. We present empirical evidence for the existence of different strengths of the three basic motives in three studies with elite athletes (Study 1), non-elite athletes (sport students, Study 2), and non-sport students infrequently involved in sports (Study 3). Our results suggest that elite athletes show higher levels of the implicit power motive compared to sport students, who in turn have higher power motives than non-sport students. Surprisingly, elite athletes do not differ from non-sport students regarding their implicit achievement motive. Moreover, non-sport students exhibit higher implicit affiliation motive scores than sport students and elite athletes. We propose that research on motivational processes of highly competitive athletes should – in addition to the achievement motive – focus more on motive themes like the implicit motives of power and affiliation.

The two modes of an athlete: Dual-process theories in the field of sport

The goal of the present article is to introduce dual-process theories – in particular the default-interventionist model – as an overarching framework for attention-related research in sports. Dual-process theories propose that two different types of processing guide human behavior. Type 1 processing is independent of available working memory capacity (WMC), whereas Type 2 processing depends on available working memory capacity. We review the latest theoretical developments on dual-process theories and present evidence for the validity of dual-process theories from various domains. We demonstrate how existing sport psychology findings can be integrated within the dual-process framework. We illustrate how future sport psychology research might benefit from adopting the dual-process framework as a meta-theoretical framework by arguing that the complex interplay between Type 1 and Type 2 processing has to be taken into account in order to gain a more complete understanding of the dynamic nature of attentional processing during sport performance at varying levels of expertise. Finally, we demonstrate that sport psychology applications might benefit from the dual-process perspective as well: dual-process theories are able to predict which behaviors can be more successfully executed when relying on Type 1 processing and which behaviors benefit from Type 2 processing.

Eyetracking im Sport

Die Analyse des Blickverhaltens rückt in den letzten Jahren zunehmend ins sportwissenschaftliche Interesse. Bis jetzt verhindert jedoch das Fehlen einer geeigneten Messtechnik den breiten Einsatz in der Sportpraxis. Daher entwickelt ein Forschungsteam am Institute for Human Centered Engineering HuCE der Berner Fachhochschule zusammen mit dem Institut für Sportwissenschaft ISPW der Universität Bern einen sporttauglichen Eyetracker.