Science Friction_ Where the Known Meets the Unknown - Michael Shermer [60]
The Science of Sports Psychology
What is the evidence for the validity of sports psychology as an applied science? Those who are not into sports will be surprised to learn that there is a sizable body of scientific literature on the subject, with practitioners teaching courses, attending conferences sponsored by professional societies (e.g., Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology), publishing in professional journals (e.g., Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology), and authoring books specializing in the scientific study of how psychological factors influence physical performance, and how physical activity affects psychological states.
Apropos my connection to the field, sports psychology began in the 1890s when Indiana University psychologist Norman Triplett, an avid cyclist, conducted a series of studies to determine why cyclists ride faster in groups than when alone. Triplett discovered that the presence of other competitors and/or spectators motivates athletes to higher levels of performance, and he corroborated this theory on other activities, such as with children who reeled in more line on a fishing pole while in the presence of other children involved in the same activity. As sports became professionalized in the early twentieth century, psychologists realized that psychological states could influence physical performance in profoundly significant ways. Since then the field has paralleled the trends of psychology in general, applying behavioral models (e.g., how rewards and punishment shape performance), psychophysiological models (e.g., the relationship between heart rate and brain-wave activity and performance), and cognitive-behavioral models (e.g., the connection between self-confidence and anxiety on performance). And as in its parent field, the goal of sports psychology is to apply such theoretical models to real-world situations for the purpose of understanding, predicting, and controlling the thought and behavior of athletes.
Consider the above example of cyclists riding faster in a pack. Controlling for the well-known aerodynamic effect called drafting, studies show that a cyclist will ride faster even when another cyclist is just riding alongside or even behind, and on average cyclists will race faster against a competitor than against the clock. Why? One reason is what is known as social facilitation, a theory with broad application to many social situations where individual behavior is shaped by the presence and motivation of a group (think of mass rallies and rock concerts). But social facilitation is just a term. What is actually going on inside the brain and body? Utilizing components from all three interpretive models we see that competition provides the promise of positive (and threat of negative) reinforcements, stimulates an increase in physiological activity and arousal, and locks the athlete into an autocatalytic feedback loop between performance expectations and actual outcomes. This constant feedback causes competitors to push each other to the upper limits of their physical capabilities.
Mr. Clutch vs. Mr. Choke
As in all psychological theories, there are intervening variables that qualify the effect. For many athletes, competition and crowds cause an increase in anxiety that hampers performance. They crumble under the pressure of fan expectations. They choke under the lights of the crowded stadium. The acceleration of heart rate and adrenaline