Sport and Exercise Psychology | OCR A-Level Psychology (H567)

Sport and Exercise Psychology

309 questions
26 subtopics
Component 03: Applied psychology
Component 03

Sport and Exercise Psychology is examined on component 03 of OCR Psychology, Applied psychology.

It is one of the four applied options, of which a student studies two. 309 recall questions across 26 subtopics.

Sample questions from Sport and Exercise Psychology

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Arousal, anxiety, drive theory and the inverted-U hypothesis

Distinguish between trait anxiety and state anxiety.

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Trait anxiety is an enduring feature of personality that makes someone interpret many situations as threatening, while state anxiety is the temporary apprehension felt in one particular moment.
Fazey and Hardy (1988) catastrophe model: predictions, conclusions and evaluation

What does the model predict about intermediate levels of performance under high cognitive anxiety?

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Middling performances become very unlikely, because the performer is pulled onto either the upper or the lower surface rather than settling in between.
Lewis et al. (2014) dance and mood in Parkinson's disease: background and procedure

Identify the two independent variables in the study.

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The first was the naturally occurring variable of group, that is whether a participant had Parkinson's disease or was a control, and the second was time cycle, either long cycle from week one to week twelve or short cycle from before to after a class.
Self-efficacy, sports confidence, sport orientation and imagery

How can the same racing heartbeat raise one athlete's self-efficacy and lower another's?

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It is the interpretation that matters, so an athlete who reads the sensation as being ready and psyched up gains confidence, while one who reads it as a sign of panic loses it.
Strategies for motivating athletes

A swimmer's only goal is to win the county title, and after three defeats she is talking about quitting. Advise her coach.

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The coach should replace the single outcome goal with a ladder of performance and process goals, such as improving her turn time and holding her stroke rate, so she can see clear progress even in races she does not win.
Kroll and Crenshaw (1970) personality profiles of four athletic groups: results, conclusions and evaluation

How did the gymnasts and the karate participants differ on tension and conformity?

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Gymnasts scored the lowest of all four groups on tension and on conformity, whereas karate participants scored the highest on both.
Smith et al. (1979) coach effectiveness training: background and procedure

How many players took part, and what were they asked to do?

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A total of 325 boys, which was 82% of those who played for the coaches involved, were individually interviewed about their perceptions of their coach and their attitudes to themselves, their coach, their team-mates and the sport.
How an audience can facilitate or inhibit sports performance

Name the four types of other people that Zajonc identified as affecting a performer.

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They are the passive audience, coactors performing the same task alongside, competitive coactors and social reinforcers such as coaches and officials.

The 26 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Arousal, anxiety, drive theory and the inverted-U hypothesis	Recall questions on arousal and anxiety, trait and state anxiety, somatic and cognitive anxiety, drive theory and its predictions for beginners and experts, and the inverted-U hypothesis.	8
Optimal arousal and measuring anxiety in sport	Recall questions on optimal arousal for different sports and performers, Eysenck's extraversion, individual zones of optimal functioning, under-arousal, attention narrowing, measuring anxiety with the SCAT, CSAI-2 and physiological measures, and evaluating self-report questionnaires.	10
Fazey and Hardy (1988) catastrophe model: criticisms of the inverted-U and the cusp model	Recall questions on the purpose and method of Fazey and Hardy's 1988 paper, the origin of the inverted-U hypothesis, their criticisms of it, arousal as more than one construct, the catastrophe model's mathematical basis, and the cusp model when cognitive anxiety is low.	9
Fazey and Hardy (1988) catastrophe model: predictions, conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on the catastrophe model's predictions under high cognitive anxiety, hysteresis, intermediate performance, the butterfly model, whether physiological arousal is harmful, Fazey and Hardy's conclusion, and the strengths and weaknesses of their work.	9
Techniques for managing arousal and anxiety in sport	Recall questions on techniques for managing arousal and anxiety in sport, including the matching principle, progressive muscular relaxation, centring, biofeedback, imagery, thought stopping, cognitive restructuring, process goals, stress inoculation training, choosing techniques for athletes and their limitations.	16
Benefits of exercise to mental health	Recall questions on the mental health benefits of exercise and the endorphin, monoamine, thermogenic, stress, BDNF and distraction explanations, self-efficacy, group exercise, body image, sleep, cognitive decline, activity guidelines, green exercise, exercise dependence, and problems proving causation.	18
Lewis et al. (2014) dance and mood in Parkinson's disease: background and procedure	Recall questions on the aim, method and design of Lewis et al.'s 2014 study of social dance and mood in Parkinson's disease, its independent variables, participants and control group, the Profile of Mood States, total mood disturbance, the dance intervention and short cycle measures.	9
Lewis et al. (2014) dance and mood in Parkinson's disease: results, conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Lewis et al.'s findings on baseline mood, long cycle total mood disturbance, the significant subscale, participants with higher depression scores, short cycle results after Bonferroni correction, their conclusion, and the strengths and weaknesses of the study.	9
Exercise strategies to improve mental health	Recall questions on exercise strategies to improve mental health, including social dance programmes, group formats, enjoyment, exercise referral schemes, achievable goals, barriers to adherence, designing strategies for different people, evaluation, and the advantages and limits of exercise as treatment.	15
Self-efficacy, sports confidence, sport orientation and imagery	Recall questions on self-efficacy and Bandura's four sources, self-confidence, Vealey's model of sport confidence, performance and outcome orientations, the Sport Orientation Questionnaire, imagery and its functions, the applied model of imagery, and intrinsic motivation.	18
Munroe-Chandler et al. (2008) imagery and confidence in youth football: background and procedure	Recall questions on the aim and hypotheses of Munroe-Chandler et al.'s 2008 study of imagery and confidence in youth football, its correlational method, the players sampled, why football was chosen, how imagery, self-confidence and self-efficacy were measured, and what players had to do.	10
Munroe-Chandler et al. (2008) imagery and confidence in youth football: results, conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Munroe-Chandler et al.'s correlations between imagery and confidence, sex and level of play, regression findings for self-confidence and self-efficacy, their conclusion, and the strengths and weaknesses of the study.	8
Strategies for motivating athletes	Recall questions on strategies for motivating athletes, including SMART goals, outcome, performance and process goals, mastery imagery, the overjustification effect, extrinsic rewards, attribution retraining, vicarious experience, choice in training, advising coaches, and evaluating strategies.	16
Personality, its measurement and its relationship to sport	Recall questions on personality and trait, situational and interactionist approaches, Eysenck's dimensions, the 16PF, Hollander's structure, credulous and sceptical positions, Type A and B personalities, the iceberg profile, athlete comparisons, and measuring personality by questionnaire, interview and observation.	18
Kroll and Crenshaw (1970) personality profiles of four athletic groups: background and procedure	Recall questions on the purpose of Kroll and Crenshaw's 1970 study of personality profiles in four athletic groups, the problem it addressed, the 16PF method, the athletes sampled and excluded, discriminant function analysis, and the factors contributing most.	8
Kroll and Crenshaw (1970) personality profiles of four athletic groups: results, conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on how accurately Kroll and Crenshaw's profiles predicted sport, which groups were identified best and could not be separated, differences between gymnasts, karate participants and wrestlers, their conclusion, and the strengths and weaknesses of the study.	10
Using knowledge of personality to improve sports performance	Recall questions on using knowledge of personality to improve sports performance, including athlete and performance profiling, advising coaches about neuroticism, introversion, extraversion and Type A athletes, choosing roles and anxiety techniques, and the ethics and limits of personality testing.	15
Teams, cohesion, coaching and leadership	Recall questions on teams and groups, Steiner's model of productivity, the Ringelmann effect and social loafing, task and social cohesion, Carron's model, the Group Environment Questionnaire, Tuckman's stages, leadership theories, the Leadership Scale for Sports and coaching styles.	18
Smith et al. (1979) coach effectiveness training: background and procedure	Recall questions on the aim, method and variables of Smith et al.'s 1979 study of coach effectiveness training, the coaches and players, the behavioural guidelines and training session, feedback and self-monitoring, data collection, and observed differences in coaches' behaviour.	8
Smith et al. (1979) coach effectiveness training: results, conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Smith et al.'s findings on players' perceptions and attitudes, self-esteem, which children benefited most, win-loss records, their conclusion, and the strengths and weaknesses of the study.	10
Strategies for improving team performance	Recall questions on strategies for improving team performance, including team building, reducing social loafing, role clarity and acceptance, team goals, task and social cohesion, sociograms, coach effectiveness training, reducing co-ordination losses, advising coaches and evaluating programmes.	16
How an audience can facilitate or inhibit sports performance	Recall questions on social facilitation and inhibition, Zajonc's four types of others and drive theory, why a crowd helps experts but hinders novices, tasks inhibited by audiences, evaluation apprehension, and the distraction-conflict explanation.	8
Home advantage and audience effects in sport	Recall questions on home advantage and its explanations, territoriality, home disadvantage and choking, crowd density, trait anxiety and audiences, learning skills without spectators, hostile away crowds, and limitations of drive theory.	10
Zajonc et al. (1969) social facilitation in cockroaches: background and procedure	Recall questions on the aim and method of Zajonc et al.'s 1969 cockroach experiments, the earlier finding they reinterpreted, the variables, participants and apparatus of the first experiment, the floodlight and goal box, the audience and control conditions, and timing in the coaction condition.	9
Zajonc et al. (1969) social facilitation in cockroaches: results, conclusions and evaluation	Recall questions on Zajonc et al.'s running times and starting latencies in the first experiment, the purpose, sample, conditions and results of the second experiment, their conclusion, and the strengths, weaknesses and relevance to audience effects in sport.	9
Training for and playing in spectator sports	Recall questions on strategies for training for and playing in spectator sports, including overlearning, simulation training, introducing audiences, reducing evaluation apprehension, cue words, pre-performance routines, imagery, preparing for hostile away grounds, using home crowds, and evaluation.	15

Sport and Exercise Psychology is 309 of the 3,537 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.