Psychological Interventions for Individual and Team Performance in Sports and Exercise Environments

Assessed Learning Outcomes Numbers

LO3: Analyse the effect of various intervening psychological variables on performance. 
LO4: Examine and analyse the process leading to the effective functioning of groups and teams in sport and exercise environments

 

Word Count 2000 words 
Each case study needs to consist of 1000 words.  

Brief

You will be provided a series of case studies, both individual and team. The case studies will have a range of issues from sport and exercise environments. You are to choose 2 case studies and write a review of the psychological issues and interventions that could be used for each. You will need to choose one case study that looks at an individual and one case study that looks at a team. Case Studies are attached. Choose one individual and one team

 

Marking Criteria

Understanding of key psychological theories that underpin interventions used in both exercise and sports environments Individual case study, that identifies the psychological issues and interventions with a full analysis and justification of the interventions recommended based on applied research. Team or group case study, that identifies the psychological issues and interventions with a full analysis and justification of the interventions recommended based on applied research.  

 

Case study 1 – Individual  
Eva is a 16-year-old sprinter. She competes in the 100m for her school, county and regional. Eva is the fastest sprinter in the county and region for her age group. Eva’s coach puts her success down to the amount of time and effort she puts into her training and how she constantly challenges herself to improve. Eva believes she will be successful in every race. She goes on to the track thinking that she is fitter and faster than her opponents, due to her training schedule and healthy lifestyle. When Eva is on the track waiting for her race to start, she does not talk to her opponents; she has an upright posture and appears calm and relaxed. When the race starts, she channels all her efforts into being successful. However, six weeks before the national schools’ championships Eva suffers a minor injury during a race. 
 
Eva returns to training two weeks before the championships. Her coach notices that Eva is very tense when she runs, and she is holding back from sprinting at full speed. During the training session, Eva avoids eye contact with her coach. When the coach walks over to her, Eva says she feels sick and wants to go home. Eva later texts her coach saying she is going to withdraw from the national championships as she believes she has no chance of winning. Her coach is supportive and thinks Eva should still compete. The coach also suggests that Eva may benefit from visiting a sports psychologist before the event. Eva agrees that she will meet the sports psychologist. On meeting the psychologist, Eva explains that she cannot sleep or eat properly and wakes up with doubts about whether she is able to compete at a regional standard again. Eva finds that she worries constantly about losing and letting her coach and family down.  

Brief

 

Case Study 2 – Individual  
Ricky left school five years ago. Since then, he has gained excess weight around his stomach and chest and is concerned about his fitness level. Ricky joins a gym, and he enjoys going as it has up-to-date equipment and high-quality facilities. His mum is very supportive and helps by driving him to the gym three times a week. When Ricky trains he sets himself very difficult goals. He also chooses advanced exercise classes at a higher ability than his fitness level to ensure he really challenges himself to improve. 
 
After three months, Ricky notices that he has lost some excess body fat and is developing muscle definition. He is pleased when his friends say how good he looks, and this encourages him to keep going to the gym. He compares his appearance to other people he sees training and he thinks he looks better than most of them. One day Ricky talks to Guy, a gym member who has been training for over ten years. Guy tells Ricky that he must be doing something wrong as he still looks fat around his stomach, and his arm muscles are much more developed than his leg muscles. Ricky is very upset by these comments and starts to question his self-image. He stops going to the gym for a month but because he is not training, he becomes irritable and moody. He decides to join a different gym. Once again, he loves the buzz of training and being in the gym with people who have similar goals. He starts training every day and sometimes even twice a day. Because of the extra time he spends training he stops socialising and makes excuses to miss family events, such as his sister’s 18th birthday party. 
 
Ricky’s training programme produces the results he wants, but he starts to have serious shoulder pain and sometimes his legs are so stiff that he finds walking uncomfortable. Also, he often has a cough and cold but never misses a training session. One morning Ricky tells his mum that he is so tired from training that he is not going to work that day. His mum is very worried about him and thinks he may have a serious problem. She suggests that he visits a sport and exercise psychologist. 

 

Case Study 3 – Team  
Eamon is the coach of a local football team. His team has had a very poor season and finished bottom of the league. Eamon decides that he needs to improve the quality of the team and he brings in six new players. Eamon uses pre-season training to introduce the new players and bring the team together. He makes them work in small groups and he keeps changing the groups so that the players can get to know each other and build relationships. He also organizes social activities to help the bonding process. 
 
Eamon watches the team, and he notices that one of the new players, Jason, is playing very well. Jason is reliable and he communicates well, so Eamon makes him captain. However, this decision is not popular with some of the players, including Luke who was captain last season. A split develops in the team. The new players support Jason, but the players who were in the team last season still want Luke to be captain. Eamon thinks that making Jason’s captain will eventually help to improve the team’s performance. 
 
Eamon understands that motivation is important in a team. He wants all the players to put in maximum effort, so at the end of each match he tells each player the mark out of ten he has given him. The player with the highest mark is presented with a trophy. At the end of each month, Eamon pays for the best player in the team to go out for a meal with a friend. However, when the season starts results are still poor because the team lose the first four matches. Eamon knows that some players are not putting in as much effort as other players. He has noticed that the players who played last season do not pass to the new players very often and they don’t talk to them on the pitch. The split team have separate areas in the changing rooms, they warm up and cool down on opposite sides of the pitch and they eat post-match meals at different tables. 
 
Eamon thinks that confidence in the team is low and he calls a meeting to discuss team performance and group dynamics. The players argue about tactics, selection, and leadership. Luke, who was captain last season, is very loud and he says that the new players are not good enough and do not understand how the team plays. Luke and two other players leave angrily before the end of the meeting saying they will never play for the team again. The other players decide to try to work together. Eamon is very worried about the dynamics of the group and their low levels of confidence. He decides they would benefit from the support of a sport psychologist.