PsychWorks Winter 2014

Winter 2014

PsychWorksIrish Sport Psychology News Bulletin

Editor

Co-Editors

Editorial Board

DSEPP Committee

Contact

Patrick Healy B.Sc.

Louise McCagh

Laura McMahon

Dr. Tadhg McIntyre

Dr. Mark Campbell

Chair: Dr. Mark Campbell

Email: [email protected]

Treasure: Dr. Tadhg McIntyre

Secretary: Dr. Olivia Hurley

PRO: Patrick Healy

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Editorial

Patrick Healy Bsc.

Hello2014 is another big year in the sporting world. The Winter Olympics and paralympics were held in Sochi, Russia last month. The FIFA World Cup will be held in Brazil in June, while Gleneagles will play host to the Ryder Cup and this years European team will be led by Dubliner Paul McGinley. This along with all the usuals Six Nations, All-Ireland, Premier League, Champions League, Super Bowl XLVIII, I could go on and on. This year there are also a few changes in PsychWorks namely a new look and New Editor. Admittedly a neophyte but with the backing of the now one year old Division of Sport Exercise and Performance Psychology we hope to bring you a regular update on all the is sport, exercise and performance psychology. PsychWorks is not just for practitioner it is also a resource for athletes and coaches. This issue has a number of interesting articles and interviews with industry professionals. Hannah McCormack M.Sc. discusses the importance of being positive. The current issue takes a brief look back at the Sochi Winter Olympics and the presence of sport psychology at those winter games. This issue also has interviews with Dr. Said El Asker and Professor Aymeric Guillot who both discuss their research, experience and why they entered the eld of exercise, sport and performance psych (ESPP). We will also look at some of this years events that may interest you along with details of these events. All that is left for to say I that hope you all enjoy this issue.

Enjoy

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Book Review19 Winner Effect: The Neuroscience of Success and Failure by Professor Ian H. Robertson

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Contents

Articles

Interviews

Athletes Corner

Events

BASES Expert Statment

2 Be Positive, Be Well

5 Dr. Said El Ashker8 Professor Aymeric Guillot

12 DSEPP Views on Goal Setting15 Mental Health Risk for High Performance Athletes

22 Using your Minds eye: Known Knowns, and Known Unknowns.

27 A Statment form Dr. Tadhg McIntyre

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24 Up Coming Events

3Be Positive, Be Well

Hannah McCormack Msc.

Be positive! This is not basic sport psychology 101. Think positively! You can do it! Being positive is about much more than thinking you can achieve what you believe. Positive psychology is a movement that evolved from a new paradigm in psychology. Positive psychology started getting recognition in the last decade or so as an idea to change the way we approached general psychology, it was a shift away from the medical model, the idea that psychological treatment is about nding out about what is wrong with you-making miserable people less miserable. According to Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, psychologists had become victomisers and pathologisers, it was about looking for the negatives in peoples lives, and normal people were neglected ironically. The alternative proposal was that the lives of normal people should be enhanced, developing our skills should be encouraged and those of us who were relatively untroubled should be living a life that is happier and more fullled. The above ideas resonate with those familiar with the development of sport psychology in two ways. Firstly, stereotypes of sport psychology practice focus on the idea that consultants work with problem athletes. Our eld has history in this regard. An early publication in sport psychology was entitled Problem athletes and how to handle them (Ogilvie & Tutko, 1966). Misconceptions abound -Fix the broken ones, take the negative mind-set of the troubled athletes and make it more positive, or at a minimum: less debilitating. Athletes such as Andy Murray and Dwaine Chambers only (publicly) started working with psychologists when there was something wrong, losing successive major nals (e.g., a performance decrement) and returning to sport after a drugs ban, respectfully. If performance issues and xing the faults is our primary concern, what about the athletes are performing more

consistently?who Should we not be enhancing their sporting lives or their lives outside of sport, ensuring they feel fullled? Taking away a negative does not necessarily leave someone positive. If an individual is suering from depression, and through treatment their depression is cured, it doesnt automatically mean they are going to be happy. If an athlete suers from pre-performance anxiety and you help them solve this debilitating issue, will they actually be able to use this emotional regulation to promote positive mental health and increased enjoyment of the activity. As stated by Seligman (2012), the skills of not being depressed, not being anxious and not being angry are entirely dierent from the skills of enjoying positive emotion, being engaged with the people you are closest with, having meaning in life, achieving your goals, and maintaining relationships. Therefore it seems only reasonable to conclude that the skills that an athlete may want to employ to enhance their performance and their overall well-being, such as positive self-talk, mental imagery, emotional regulation strategies, maintaining eective relationships with coaches, teammates, family and friends, and positive body image, to highlight but a few are often distinct from the skills of not succumbing to negative self-talk, pre-performance anxiety or poor communication. If an athlete presents with any issue, is it enough to nd a solution without empowering them? Indeed if an athlete is not winning, if we work with them and they improve their performance, is that good enough? The second link between sport psychology and positive psychology is that our eld may have provided inspiration for many of the ideas of this new movement (MacIntyre, 2012). In 1988 Martin Seligman and colleagues studied explanatory style among top class collegiate swimmers. They asked swimmers (divided into optimists and pessimists on the

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4basis of Explanatory Style Questionnaire scores) to swim their favoured event and then provided them with false feedback (slightly slower than the recorded times). A short period later they were required to repeat their swim distance and predictably, the optimists improved while the pessimists were slower than their initial eort (Seligman et al., 1990). He concluded after this classic study that you could predict the behaviour of optimists and pessimists, but he said the jury was out on whether you could change their explanatory style. Furthermore, his primary research collaborator, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, developed ideas of ow and peak performance from working with samples including athletes (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). The story of how these two characters met is worth a read (see Chapter 1 Donaldson et al., 2011). Seligman summarises that an individual will be happy when they possess the following, Pleasure, Engagement (or ow, the absorption in a challenging yet enjoyable activity), Relationships (social ties), Meaning (belonging to something bigger than the individual, a family, team or community), and Accomplishment (PERMA). Sport can provide a path towards attaining all of these, but it may also deny them. If an individual becomes too focused on their goals, their relationships or pleasure from goal pursuit could suer. Increasingly we hear of athletes who, on their path to the top of the podium, drop the ball when it comes to relationships, not only with loved ones, but with coaches and management. Without sources of well-being from outside their sport, the cheers of adulation may ring hollow very quickly. Athletic identity may be over-emphasised and their personal development and mental health can suer. Enhancing an athletes positive mental health status can increase their participation, motivation and commitment, reduce burnout and can create a more harmonious team environment. A positive athlete will appraise perceived challenges less negatively; enjoyment in their sport encourages ow or deep engagement and accompanies peak performance; and an optimistic athlete will have a better mood, persevere in the face of adversity, solve problems more eectively and are generally more successful. Positive psychology aims to enhance

the everyday lives of the normal population; we should not presume that because an individual is an elite athlete that they have this idea sewn-up. On the contrary, as stated in the commentary on mental health in elite sport, they may in fact be more vulnerable. Positive psychology aims to promote greater well-being within us all, and recognizing that being positive is about more than just achievement. Because if greatness is the only objective, then being positive may just be the only result we can expect.

ReferencesCsikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: HarperCollins.

Donaldson, S. I., Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Nakamura, J. (2011). Applied Positive Psychology: Improving Everyday Life, Health, Schools, Work, and Society. New York: Routledge.

Mac Intyre, T. (2012). What have the Romans ever done for us? The contribution of sport and exercise psychology to mainstream psychology. The Psychologist, 25 (7), 2-3.

Ogilvie, B. C., & Tutko, T. A. (1966). Problem athletes and how to handle them. London: Palham Books.

Seligman, M.E.P., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Thornton, N., & Thornton, C.M. (1990). Explanatory style as a mechanism of disappointing athletic performance. Psychological Science, 1, 143-146.

Resources:http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu

http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_on_the_state_of_psychology.html

Carr, A. (2011). Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness and Human Strengths. London: Routledge.

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An Interview With:

Dr. Said El Ashker

Section 1: Background

What research and academic based work have you completed to date?

I graduated with Bachelor Degree (B.Sc. 2000) from Faculty of Sports and Physical Education, Mansoura University, Egypt. and subsequently completed a Master degree there in 2004, the MSc titled in'' Eect of developing specic endurance on some physiological responses and skilful performance eectiveness for youth boxers Comparative study'' in athletic training from Mansoura University, Egypt. After that I completed my Doctorate Degree (PhD) in 2010 titled in ''Eect of developing complex motor skills on technical performance eectiveness of junior boxers'' with a scholarship and joint supervision of Mansoura University, Egypt and Gloucestershire University, UK. I worked with Faculty of Sports and Physical Education, Mansoura University as assistance lecturer from 2000 until obtaining PhD degree in 2010 and became a Lecturer and a member of the athletic training department Executive, and led the Research and Graduate Studies, community participation and cultural relations department in the Faculty Quality Assurance Committee centre. Then I took my place in the academic club and published 6 articles in peer-reviewed journals, all are related to sport sciences and boxing, two in Arabic and four in English; (European Journal of Sport Science - International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport - Journal of Physical Education and Sport - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health) in addition to take apart in few sport sciences conferences (BASES Conference - 7th World Congress on Science and Football 2011- Scientic Congress on Martial Arts and Combat Sports Research in

Imagery and Observation Conference and, PE-PAYS Research Forum 2013). Related to the applied practical participation, I was a former boxer, participated in many national championships, and after that worked as physical tness training Instructor in the Egyptian National Project for beginners preparation, boxing head coach in The Egyptian Armed Force sport academy in Suez, and nally rst class referee in the Egyptian Amateur Boxing Association Refereeing & Judging Commission.

What drew your interest to Sports Psychology?

Now, I am a visiting scholar at The Physical Education and Sport Sciences (PESS) department, Faculty of Education and Health Sciences, University of Limerick, making contacts with sport sciences professors and being a member in a research team with Dr Mark Campbell and Dr Tadhg MacIntyre, from the Department of PESS in order to accomplish joint studies during this scholarship and after returning back to home country. I would like to accomplish a multidisciplinary teamwork that look into how to enhance sport excellence techniques and strategies furthermore develop exercise performance. Actually I have the honour to make contact with both of Dr Mark Campbell & Dr Tadhg MacIntyre, as they are Sport sciences specialists particularly in motor cognition, mental imagery, visual attention, and applied sport psychology interventions.

Do you partake in Sport yourself?

Actually my rst interested in Sports Psychology it was from a long time when taking part in sports as a competitive performance (boxing, football and athletics) from school participation until university

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participation. Also when I become an elite boxer, I felt that all of the players in my category (71 kg now the AIBA rules changed to be 69 Kg) are nearly to be physically, technically, tactically the same but the deference is who is more motivated and psychological prepared than others. Helped me in that my trainer and my brother as well the former international boxer Prof. AbdelBaset El Ashker. Additionally within completing my PhD study my interests included motor skill learning, motor development, basic and complex motor skills, and variables aecting boxing training and performance of technical and tactical skills.

Section 2: Career

What qualities or interests do you think you have to have to become a psychologist?

Actually, I think to become a psychologist I should investigate more and more to help applied trainers be more successful, make excellence investigation which gives helpful results to develop performance.

What would be the highlight of your career to date?

Working with military forces sports club at Suez, Egypt give me the chance to play a role not as player, but as boxing coach putting more responsibility on me, because presenting a military team is more incentive to do your best to achieve good results and building up high-skilled new boxers.

Section 3: Sport Psychology

Where would you say your key interests in Sport Psychology lie?

In fact, Sport Psychology is a very wide eld to study, but, personally, I am interesting in understanding how a single boxing session of exercise which called acute exercise/activity inuence cognitive performance. Most of the experts examined exercise eects on cognition on the account of intensity of the exercise generally; however examining this specically will add more importance results to the applied eld generally and in boxing specically.

There are of course the technical definitions of the field of Sports Psychology, but as someone who is somewhat of an expert in it, how would you describe the field to a layman?

From my little view and few reading within the applied sport and exercise psychology we can say that sports psychology involves all of the extending theories and researches within the sports ground toward educating trainers, players, families, and sport professionals concerning to the psychological features of their sport.

In recent years there has been an increased popularity in Sports Psychology why do you think this is?

I think it is an important query! There is no doubt of this fact. And I suppose that coaches and athletic trainers developed into being conscious of the usefulness that psychology based familiarity and knowledge can contain and how it can create an inuence on the considerations and behaviours of their players. One might struggle a selection of sport psychology drills, however remember that a little are more eectual when directed or trained by a qualied psychologist.

Section 4: Current Research

Can you tell us a little about your current research?

I am not sure if I have the right to speak on this point or not, as I am working with two other researchers (Dr Mark Campbell & Dr Tadhg MacIntyre). But I can say generally that, good planning of training loads and intensities in each workout containing the appropriate quality of specic drills should supply to the development of psychological abilities in boxing. Therefore, the aim of the current research is to examine the eect of designed specic boxing protocols on cognitive psychology of boxers.

UCD recently held the RIO conference in Dublin. Did you attend and if so what were your opinions on the research that was presented?

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Presenting recent research results and thoughts, and then making a great group discussion is one of the amazing meetings pushes the wheel of sport psychology to the front. From my little opinion, I found within the two days conference many researches executed and presented by the vary elds researchers whom they are working with sport sciences, biological substrates underlying cognition, and motor imagery. Most of the key speakers have a well expertise and the presentations add very constructive information helps to develop applied sport sciences; they also showed a large wide of new sills and techniques to use within our research.

Section 5: Future

Where do you see the field of Psychology in the next ten years?

(Dicult question) it needs brain storming with ten lecturers after reading all/most of the current directions of the eld of Psychology.

What advice would you give to a student wishing to pursue a career in Sports Psychology?

For sure this is also dicult question, but I think sport psychologists should believe that future of training and teachings in applied sport psychology have to comprise theoretical education as well as applied or practical education planned to build up ability in checking with methods, events, and skills.

What are the biggest changes in Sports Psychology that you expect to see going forward?

The biggest changes in sports psychology will come upon researches examines the amount to which the health belief involvements to encourage exercise behaviours responding to: inspiring self-eciency, promoting perceived competence, reproducing appropriate specic exercise workout and enhancing the human power to achieve more new records within sport competitions.

Looking Back

Novermber 2013

Disability Sport and Exercise Psychology: From Participation to Paralympics

Jerey Martin is currently a full professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan (USA) where he has been for the last 22 years. He obtained his Ph. D. in exercise and sport psychology in 1992 under the guidance of Dr. Diane Gill at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has published/in press over 125 research articles and book chapters. His major research agenda has been on the psychosocial aspects of disability sport and physical activity. His research has been predominately on understanding the determinants of elite disability sport performance using self-ecacy theory with an additional focus on understanding physical activity engagement using social cognitive theory. In addition, he has also written extensively on psychological skill development using a personal development model of psychological skills training. He has published extensively in the Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education and the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. He has received over $8 million in federal and foundation funding to support he and his colleagues research programs. Furthermore, he is currently the Editor for Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, the ocial journal of Division 47 of the APA. He is a former Associate Editor of the Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly and section editor for the Research Quarterly in Exercise and Sport. He is currently on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology and the Pamukkula Journal of Sport Science and sport psychology section editor for Palestra. A Canadian citizen, and former professional athlete, Dr. Martin represented Canada in the 1985 and 1987 World Cup Marathons.

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An Interview With:

Professor Aymeric Guillot

Section 1: Background & Research

How did your interest in Sports Psychology develop?

Quite early when I engaged in sport studies at the university, I have been interested in mental training and mental preparation of athletes. I read some exciting papers related to imagery techniques and found that it was a quite promising but neglected method at the moment. I then focused my interest and my research on imagery in sport and later on its therapeutic ecacy in the rehabilitation of motor disorders. Despite my real interest in Sport Psychology, however, I studied motor imagery more from a neurophysiological approach, including assessment of physiological correlates of mental practice.

Do/Did you play sport yourself?

I practice ghting sports for many years. I have a black belt in Krav Maga, and further teach this sport. I also previously competed in other sports such as soccer, and table tennis for a long time. I regularly use imagery during practice, for dierent outcomes and at dierent moments. Of course I try by myself the dierent ways we and other researchers nd. Apart of using it voluntarily, and as I often explain to students, my view is that athletes frequently perform a kind of imagery without necessarily being aware that they are engaging in such a specic mental training. What is important is thus to understand and control the content of the mental training. I can therefore personally test and apply imagery research ndings during my own practice.

Section 2: RIO

Have you ever attended a RIO

Iconference prior to this year?

Unfortunately I did not because I was not able saving the date and coming to the conference since I became a member of the RIO group. Actually I think the group and the conference are growing and will become more and more important in the future, with probably an increased number of researchers and students as new members. This is a great opportunity as international researchers from all (and far) countries attend and exchange during these two days. Personally, I really appreciated the conference this year. Aidan Moran and his collaborators made a great work.

Was there a standout point of the conference for you?

To be frank, I am not sure there was a particular standout point during the conference. As Paul Holmes nicely said at the end of the conference, during his closing talk, I was also impressed by the quality and originality of the research. I totally agree as all presentations were interesting and experimentally appealing. I further like the combination of imagery and observation research which is encouraged in the RIO group.

Where do you think research in imagery and observation is going?

It is dicult to say because a lot of things have been done, though there is still a place for new research. I do think that researchers will pay more attention in future years to the association of imagery and observation. Clearly, there are an impressive number of studies in each of these topics, but very few experiments considered both imagery and observation concurrently. Along with Stefan Vogt and other colleagues from Lyon and Lancaster, we are currently nishing a paper

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9focusing on this aspect as we are convinced that action observation and imagery researchers ignored each other for a long time, while both approaches can be easily combined.

Section 3: Research

If you could sum up your research philosophy in a few lines what would that be?

My research focuses on the eects of motor imagery on motor performance and motor recovery following dierent types of injury and motor impairments. Three main aspects are considered: i) Determining the optimal condition of imagery use to improve motor skill learning. ii) Evaluating the eectiveness of motor imagery in promoting motor recovery both in injured athletes and patients with motor disorders (e.g., persons with spinal cord injury, burned patients, amputees...).

iii) Exploring the neurophysiological basis of motor imagery using physiological recordings such as autonomic nervous system activity measurement and neuroimaging techniques.

One main and transversal issue is to objectively evaluate the accuracy and vividness of the imagery experience. Along with my colleagues and some international collaborators, we have demonstrated the eectiveness of combining dierent methods including psychological imagery questionnaires, physiological recordings (both central and peripheral nervous system activities using fMRI, MEG, and autonomic nervous system recordings), as well as mental chronometry.

You have completed a large number of studies to date how do you find time to complete such a vast amount of research?

To be frank, I consider that my position as a researcher/academic is a real chance as work is fascinating and you can study a topic with a manifold approach. Conducting experimental protocols, reviewing existing studies, writing opinion papers, all these aspects of my work are really interesting. I also have very nice and productive colleagues and students here in France and some fruitful collaborations with well-known imagery researchers. While some people are competing, I prefer considering that every researcher can make a substantial contribution and that collaborating is a greater idea. For this reason I believe the RIO group is an excellent idea and a step in that direction.

Can you tell us a little about why you think mental imagery research is so vital to the field?

As mentioned previously, imagery is a cost-eective technique which can signicantly contribute to improve motor performance or enhance motor recovery. This technique is also widely used for motivational purpose and to improve self-condence, or to limit anxiety and improve tactical learning. In other words, there are multiple outcomes which can be, of course, combined. The benets of imagery have been extensively demonstrated in hundredths of experimental studies. Of course, there are some limits and restrictions that need to be considered, but from a global viewpoint, imagery is really helpful for athletes and practitioners. Furthermore, imagining ones action is so natural that every athlete has experienced it during his career. For this reasons, imagery seems to be vital and researchers have to determine the optimal conditions of imagery use.

Apart from mental imagery do you have other areas of particular interest?

While the main part of my research focused on imagery, I do have other areas of interest. Among them, studies looking at action observation, mental rotation, and all other aspects of mental training, are highly attractive. I further appreciate research dealing with the recovery of motor impairments in patients or injured athletes, as well as experiments related to brain computer

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interfaces. Keeping an eye to other research areas remains, of course, necessary and important.

Section 4: Future of Sport Psychology

How do you feel about the change in Sports Psychology to performance psychology?

Sport psychology and more generally research in the area of sport is a part of research dealing with (motor) performance. Techniques which are helpful in athletes are also potentially benecial either in the exercise domain, for injured persons, or for everyday life situations. One can, for instance, use imagery to prepare an important professional meeting or manage stress and anxiety before an exam. As well, one can train mentally to enhance quality of life, well-being and artistic/musical performance. In that sense, it seems to me that considering research in the area of performance psychology is a good point, where research in sport psychology is then a specic domain with overlapping, but also more specic, characteristics and restrictions.

What do you see for the future of Sports Psychology?

I do think that the future of Sport psychology necessarily requires more links with other areas of research. For example, but not exhaustively, neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists also study mental and motor imagery. Despite some dierences and conations (but also, fortunately, some similarities), confronting these approaches is really constructive and promising. Unfortunately, too many researchers do not consider, or even ignore, the results provided in these areas. Of course, the reverse is true. What I am trying to explain is that everyone is likely to contribute to a greater understanding of the foundations/use of imagery, and not considering all these complementary approaches is basically counterproductive. While I illustrated this point for the study of imagery, one can have, of course, the same reasoning for every topic of research. Sport psychology is of wide interest and rich, but research in sport/performance will certainly become still more robust with a multiple

theoretical approach.

What advice would you give to someone wishing to pursue a career in Sports Psychology?

In accordance with my previous remark, I think that, nowadays, Sport psychology researchers should be open to other complementary approaches and theoretical accounts of their topic of research. As well, combining the conceptual frameworks and experimental techniques to have a great overview is critical and fruitful.

Looking Back

PSI 2013The Annual Psychology Society of Irelands Conference was held in SLigo this year. The Division of Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology held a symposium titled The Growing Inuence of Technology and Media in Psychology: Challenges and Opportunities. The session was chaired by Dr. Mark Campbell.

This years presenters (Dr. Mark Campbell, Patrick Healy, Dr. Olivia Hurley and Dr. Tadhg McIntyre.

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Goal Setting

Mental Health

12 Division of Sport Exercise & Performance Psychology

15 Division of Sport Exercise & Performance Psychology

Athletes Corner

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Goal Setting

Patrick Healy

Introduction

There are a number of dierent factors that need to be considered when setting performance goals. The Division of Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology (DSEPP) has put together a list of ve principles that will help you whether you are an athlete or just someone who hopes to get tter and more active in the New Year.

Personal & Meaningful: Set goals that are related to your own performance. Avoid setting goals based on other individuals. Goals need to be based on your own aims and abilities; through building on prior experience self-ecacy can be enhanced. Look at the areas that you need to improve or work on and set goals that will help you to improve those areas. Setting goals based on other individuals can lead to you reduce motivation and reduced commitment to reaching those goals.

What Does Research Say?

Achievement Goal Theory is one explanation of how motivational and goal setting work. According to this model, goals can be either Mastery or Performance orientated. Mastery orientated goals are goals that are based on improving an individuals performance and ability (for example, setting a goal time for 5km run). Performance orientated goals that are measures against the performance of others. Research has found that people who set mastery orientated goals enjoy sport or exercise more, and are more committed than individuals who set performance orientated goals.

Specific and Measurable: Set specic and clear goals that are easily measurable. Setting ambiguous goals, can make it dicult for you

you to determine when you have reached your goal, for example, dont set the goal of getting t. Set a specic goal, for example, that you want to run a 5km race. If you do not set specic goals it is dicult to determine when you have actually reached your target. Another important factor to consider is whether the goal you set is measurable. If you are unable to measure your goals then it can be dicult to tell when you reach them. One way of doing this is writing down these goals somewhere (ink it dont just think it). That sense of satisfaction is greater when you can actually see the progress you have made. When you reach your goal review your progress, this will help to enhance the eect of your achievement. If you set vague goals it can take away the satisfaction of reaching those goals.

What Does Research Say?

Research suggests that the clarity of goals can be an important factor in the eectiveness of those goals. Clearly stated goals lead to more eort and better performance goals that are vague or ambiguous. Research has found that athletes who are given clear and measurable goals perform to a higher level than those who are simply told to do their best.

Attainable & Controllable: Set goals that are within your control. If you only set the goal of winning a tournament or event then you are not completely in control of the result. To a certain degree you are relying on the performances of others. Set goal that you as an individual have control over to improve they likelihood of you reaching that goal.

What Does Research Say?

Research suggests that setting goals that the individual has control over are more aect

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than goals that are controlled by external factors. As stated earlier setting mastery orientated goals are more eective than performance orientated goals. Performance orientated goals are based on the results of other individuals and are therefore, out of the athletes control. Therefore through setting mastery orientated goals (for example, personal best) the athlete stay in control of the outcome of the goal. This lead to a number of benets including increased eort and enjoyment.

Challenging: Set goals that are possible for you but that will challenge you at the same time. Set goals that will challenge you and force to push yourself to reach them, (i.e. aim to improve your current skill level). Goals that require little eort are less eective. Through doing this you will feel a greater sense of achievement when you nally reach your goals.

What Does Research Say?

Research has found that individuals that set challenging goals get more benets that those who set easy goals or people how do not set goals, 75% eort has been found to be the most eective amount of eort (for example, if you put deliberate eort into improving a skill you are more likely to improve that skill than if you do not practice or do not challenge yourself ). However, research also suggests that goals can also be too challenging, (i.e., a more complex goal can lead to higher levels of self-ecacy if it is completed, however, the more challenging the task the less like and individual is to complete it). Research has suggested that setting moderately challenging goals is more benecial and lead to a more positive outcome than goals that are either too easy or too dicult.

Multiple: Set more than one goal as it will increase that sense of ultimate achievement. Set small goals that lead to that ultimate goal that way you can actually see the improvement and it will spur you on to reach that nal ultimate goal. You will also get a sense of achievement each time you reach one of the stepping stone goals.

What Does Research Say?

Research suggests that setting a number of short term goals is more benecial than setting one long term goal. This is for two reasons, rstly, an individual can feel too far removed from a long term goals, and this can lead to feeling of lack of control and decreased motivation and eort. Secondly setting a number of short term goals leads to positive feeling of success as you reach of these goals. Research has suggested that it is the positive feel of self-ecacy from reach goals that leads to higher levels of motivation and increased eort in reaching future goals. Research examined Self-Determination Theory has found that through raise an individuals intrinsic (internal) motivation leads to those individuals having higher levels of enjoyment that individuals with low levels of intrinsic motivation.

Conclusion

There are a number of other important issues to take into consideration when you are setting goals. Overall research has found that setting goals has positive eect on athletic performance, however, this is on the bases that the goals are well dened and are moderately challenging. Setting ineective goals can lead to a number of negative outcomes. Goals can have a Jekyll and Hyde character, and the potential contraindications include goal xedness, self-destructive goal pursuit and setting unethical goals. An individual must determine if the goal is something that they really want to achieve, and determine do they want to change or should they be more accepting of whom they are. People should attempt to not set goals based on body image as it can lead to a self-destructive goal pursuit (i.e. goals should be set to make you a healthier individual, not to make you skinnier).Over prescribing of goals or goal xedness, can eect athletes performance in competition, for example, an athlete may become so engrossed in reach their pre-set personal goals that their place in the competition can become unimportant (for example, a swimmer may be happy with their performance if they reach their time goal despite the fact they nish without a medal).

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Goal setting has also been found to lead to unethical behaviour, in particular for athletes who fall just short of their goals; this can be dues setting bad goals that are either too challenging or results that are out of the athletes control. Another important point to make is that athletes who set ego orientated goals are more likely to participate in unethical or unsportsmanlike behaviour than athletes who set task orientated goals (for example, an footballer may be so obsessed with reaching the next round of a competition they may be tempted to use their hand to score a goal). Goals should also be used to improve other area of an individuals life not just sport and exercise. Setting goals for personal growth, psychological well-being and personal growth are important for developing an identity outside of sport and exercise. In conclusion setting eective goals can be highly benecial to either athletes or individuals hoping to participate in more exercise. However, it is important that you set goals that are aimed at improving current skills and to attempt to reduce comparisons with other individuals.

Glossary

Self-Determination Theory Is a motivational theory which examines positive eect of intrinsic motivational on individuals, this initiate motivation is dependent on three elements, autonomy, relatedness and c o m p e t e n c e . http://www.selfdeterminationtheory.org

Achievement Goal Theory Is a motivational theory which focuses on competence of goal type onathletic performance.

Mastery Goals Are goals that are based on the improving of an individuals current skills.Performance Goals Are goals that are measured against the performances of others.

Further Reading

Kremer, J. & Moran, A.P. (2012). Pure sport: Practical sport psychology (2nd ed.) Routledge: Sussex.

Moran, A.P. (2012). Sport and exercise psychology: A critical introduction (2nd ed.) Routledge: Sussex.

Websites:

Applied Sport Psych: Principles of eective goal settinghttp://www.appliedsportpsych.org/resource-center/resources-for-athletes/principles-of-eective-goal-setting/

BPS Going for Gold: Discussion on the importance of goal setting http://www.bps.org.uk/videos/goal-setting-1460-days

Sochi 2014

How many sports psychology represented at the recent winter olympics?

We have assembled a brief list the number of sport psychologists that some of the participating countires sent to Sochi.

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CountryNumber of

Sport PsychsAustralia 1Canada 11Denmark 1Germany 4Great Britain 3Japan 1Netherlands 1New Zealand 1Norway 4Sweden 5Switzerland 1United States 7

15

Mental Health

DSEPP

Introduction

Accounts of elite sport participation have traditionally focused upon the positive mental health benets for performers. However, a growing research base suggests that the high performance environment has the potential to be a risky domain for many elite performers (e.g., Anshel & Sutarso, 2010; Pisarek et al., 2011; Schaal et al., 2011; Wylleman et al., 2004). Based on the available evidence it is challenging at present to quantify the precise extent and nature of the problem (Hughes & Leavey, 2012). Nevertheless, evidence has highlighted the following issues:

Setting excessively high standards and failing to appreciate current levels of performance can lead to negative perfectionism (e.g., burnout)

Detrimental coaching climates (e.g., restricting athlete autonomy),

Lifestyle behaviours that denigrate positive mental and physical health (e.g., inconsistent sleep patterns),

Overemphasis on athletic identity as a source of self-esteem can exacerbate maladaptive responses during injury and transitions out of sport (e.g., psychological distress from inactivity),

Vulnerability of children, adolescents and young adults in sport systems (e.g., abusive relationships),

Organisational stress within elite sport systems (e.g., subjective selection policies),

Overtraining, burnout and injury (e.g.

premature return to play),

Increasing disordered eating prevalence among males and females (e.g., notably in weight category sports),

Maladaptive transition from elite sport contexts (e.g., post-games retirement),

Concussion and cognitive impairment in contact sports (e.g., inadequate diagnosis and recovery),

Doping, supplementation and risk-taking behaviours (e.g., hazardous drinking),

Provision of psychological support based solely on a mental skills training approach (e.g., may be insucient to detect psychopathology among athletes).

Inadequate training of sport science support personnel (e.g., lack of awareness of risks of mental health issues among athletes, coaches and practitioners).

The issues noted above may precipitate co-morbid mental health disorders including depression or expose athletes (and others) to unnecessary risks in the performance environment. A key challenge for future practitioners and researchers will be to identify the key boundary conditions that determine whether high performance environments

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have benecial or detrimental eects on elite sports performers. These boundary conditions (Rousseau, 2001) may be a function of the performer (e.g. perfectionism), the team or organization (e.g. coaching climates) or a mismatch between the needs of the performer and the team/organisatonal climate (Li & Roe, 2012,). Invariably, investigating such contextual boundaries will enable a more complete understanding of the resources available to elite performers. The committee will undertake, over the coming months, the development of a position statement on this topic to inform those working with athletes on the best practice to maintain positive mental health and to establish a comprehensive continuum of well being. Research is needed in the areas of prevalence, risk factors, prognosis and the unique experiences facing athletes and others in the high performance environment (e.g., coaches). An athlete-centred approach is now required with the provision of primary prevention strategies to promote athlete welfare, well-being, resilience and the adoption and maintenance of therapeutic lifestyle changes (Walsh, 2011) in sport systems (e.g., education using online training by qualied practitioners). This can augment the existing provision of counselling support within sport within the high performance environment (e.g., McArdle et al. 2010). Systematic screening for those at high risk and in transition may also be required (e.g., Women in endurance sport). Given the inappropriate language used to describe optimum performances (e.g., killer instinct) there is a need to increase the psychological literacy of the key stakeholders in sport systems. Similar to other mental health contexts, only trained and accredited personnel should engage in consultation with athletes in the areas of performance enhancement, performance restoration and athlete well being (Andersen et al., 1994; Brewer & Petrie, 2002). In conclusion, It would be remiss for sporting governing bodiesto assume athletic immunity to mental health disorders (Hughes & Leavey, 2012,p. 96).

Division of Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology,

Psychological Society of Ireland

References:

Andersen, M. B., Denson, E. L., Brewer, B. W., & Van Raalte, J. L. (1994). Disorders of personality and mood in athletes: Recognition and referral. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 6, 168-184.

Anshel & Sutarso, (2010). Conceptualizing Maladaptive Sport Perfectionism as a Function of Gender. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 4, 263-281.

Brewer, B. W., & Petrie, T. A. (2002). Psychopathology in sport and exercise. In J. L. Van Raalte & B. W. Brewer (Eds.), Exploring sport and exercise psychology (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: APA.

Hughes, L. & Leavey, G. (2012). Setting the bar: athletes and vulnerability to mental illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 200, 95-96;

Li, J. & Roe, R.A (2012). Introducing An Intra-Team Longitudinal Approach to the Study of Team Processes. European Journal of Work & Organizational Psychology, 21 (5), 718-748.

McArdle, S., Martin, D., Lennon, A., & Moore, P. (2010). Exploring debrieng in sports: A qualitative perspective. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 22 (3), 1-13.

Pisarek, A., Guszkowska, M., Zagrska, A., & Lenartowicz, M. (2011). Characteristics of athletes approach to the question of physical health and health behaviors: Do athletes lead healthy lifestyles? Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 23(4), 459-473.

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Rousseau, D. M. (2001). Schema, promise and mutuality: The building blocks of the psychological contracts. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 74, 511-541.

Schaal K., Taet, M., Nassif, H., Thibault, V., Pichard, C., Alcotte, M., et al. (2011). Psychological balance in high level athletes: genderbased dierences and sportspecic patterns. PloS ONe 6(5), e19007.

Walsh, R. (2011). Lifestyle and mental health. American Psychologist, 66 (7), 579-592.

Wylleman, P., Alfermann, D., & Lavallee, D. (2004). Career transitions in sport: European perspectives. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 5, 7-20.

Acknowledgements:

The committee wishes to acknowledge feedback on the draft statement from Professor Mark Anshel, Prof. Judy Van Raalte, Dr. Alan Ringland, Dr. Deirdre MacIntyre, Dr. James Morton, Claire-Marie Roberts, Hannah McCormack, Jonathan Males & Dr. Deirdre OShea.

Recommended Resources:

http://www.femaleathletetriad.org

http://www.olympic.org/hbi

http://www.stopsportsinjuries.org

http://www.appliedsportpsych.org/resource-center/

Sochi 2014

What role could psychlogy have on atlhetes who competed at the recent Winter Olympics that were held in Sochi Russia. We located a this video on YouTube where Sean McCan talks about some of the aspects that are unique to winter sports and how sport

psychologists can assist.

Sean McCann, senior sport psychologist for the United States Olympic Committee, and

former president of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, on the role that

sport psychology plays in Olympic performance and winter sports.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXjQHGDUQQ8&feature=youtu.be

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Book Review

Events

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19 Winner Effect: The Neuroscience of Success and Failure by Professor Ian H. Robertson

Imagery Workshop

Dr. Tadhg MacIntyre

Will the real winner please stand up? A review of the Winner Effect: The Neuroscience of Success and Failure by Professor Ian H. Robertson

Neuroscientist Ian Robertson has again delved into penning a popular text but this time he has surpassed himself. Previously, he wrote Opening The Minds Eye and Mind Sculpture: Unlocking Your Brain's Untapped Potential which appealed to those interested in skill development, recovery and optimising potential. They were high brow explanations of the potential for cognitive changes to support recovery and individual growth. In The Winner Eect he shifts to our social world and provides a neuroscientic account of the rise of power. It is essentially a rough guide to the unrelenting challenges that achieving power entails. Vignettes provide a route for the sceal and the warnings are interspersed like series of road signs on a mountain pass. Thus the book is not so much a handbook but a treatise where the author is an advocate for the power of psychology in understanding our social, political and even our sporting world. Currently Professor of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin, he founded the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN) in 2002. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and has published over 250 scientic articles in high impact journals. He champions the eld of psychology, both through his blog http://professorianrobertson.wordpress.com/blog/ and via activities with the Science Gallery, Trinity. This advocacy role is not unfamiliar to Ian Robertson who has always been concerned with disseminating the key messages of psychology to an audience beyond the narrow remit of our journal outputs and Department seminars. It is widely recognised that the main challenge for psychology will be to convey its value in providing solutions across

an array of societal problems. Increasing scrutiny in the current economic context provides a backdrop in which we need to speak to multiple audiences and more importantly engage in public discourse and advocacy. As the PSIs Director of Professional Development has eloquently stated: It never ceases to strike me just how much the discipline of psychology has to oer and how impressively we come across in fora, particularly in terms of our instinctive evidence-based approach and our ability to grapple with and disseminate complex ideas. Ian Robertson is acutely aware of the role of psychology in understanding contemporary issues. For example, his blog has recently explored some of the acts of Putin, Blair and even BOD (Brian ODriscoll). His analyses echo the vignettes from The Winner Eect and they are written in lucid prose a style reminiscent of Christian Jarrett (former writer for The Psychologist).

Before we tackle the new text let us reect upon the role that Ian Robertson has undertaken. Is it simply public engagement? A valuable role in itself, it may enrich the audiences knowledge and act as a form of myth busting for our discipline. Or is it advocacy for the discipline of psychology, which after over a Century of science has still not realised its potential. Our eld is still somewhat like Walden Two by B. F. Skinner, a utopia that makes for interesting reading but a discipline that certainly in Ireland has been slow to gain traction in both policy and practice (see MacIntyre et al. 2014). There has been a long tradition of advocacy among great thinkers within the eld of psychology. For instance, among the top 10 most inuential psychologists of all time, three of them, Abraham Maslow, Albert Bandura and Carl Rogers have been past-Presidents of APA (Hagbloom et al., 2002). Other APA leaders have included William James and more

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recently Alan Kazdin, Diane Halpern, Richard Suinn, Robert Sternberg and Martin Seligman have all held this mantle. It appears that advocacy has been coupled with brilliance in the emergence of our scientic discipline. And now let us return to The Winner Eect by Ian H. Robertson. Evidence emerging from the biological sciences suggests that when an animal beats a weaker opponent it gets on a roll and is this enhances its abilty to defeat a stronger opponent. Termed the winner eect, it is a result of a hormonal response to the initial success. Animals who win are primed to continue to prevail. The place of mankind within the animal king is subject to debate but this biological eect transcends our distinctive human characteristics. The book answers whether there is such a thing as a naturally born winner? What factors enable a rise to power? How does power change us? And if some of the biological implications of acquiring power are more Mr. Hyde than Dr. Jekyll, how can we avoid these negative consequences? The vignettes in the book provide an illuminating backdrop to the research largely drawn from the 25 years of neuroscience and more recently, the eld of social cognition. Could we predict that Oscar winners would live an average of four years longer than nominees? Or did you expect that the colour of the jersey facilitates Olympic athletes to win more often? Six chapters in the book outline a range of underlying assumptions which are subsequently probed by a series of questions. For example, in the rst chapter The mystery of Picassos son, the question of why did Pablo Picassos son did not achieve the greatness of his father is posed. The phenomenon of hiding the ladder is identied and the process of mis-attribution is among those employed to explain the challenge of following in the footsteps of parental greatness. Perhaps a case of the emperor being naked until luck or hard work enabled them to convert eort into success, but their attribution may mistakingly focus on their destiny and talent, leaving their ospring with no roadmap for success. This idea of genetic fatalism resonates throughout the book and lessons from positive psychology, neuroscience and social cognition are intertwined in a seamless narrative.

Self-limiting behaviours demonstrate that people often put glass ceilings on their own ability to live up to (inaccurate) societal expectations. Enron provides a clear example of vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and perhaps we dont even have to look across the pond for such striking examples. Arguably the strongest argument in the book is that power can seduce us, just like money and sex. The products of gaining power go beyond the trapping of wealth and inuence and a democrat can quickly become an autocrat (Maybe even a Republican). Other challenges are consistent and predictable and myopia appears to be a consistent challenge for those climbing the ladder to sucesss. Keeping one another in check (e.g., peer mentoring) and maintaining contact with your social group (e.g., keeping grounded) can prevent some of the perils of self-destructive goal pursuit. Distinctions are made between the distinct power types (p-power is power need for personal goals and s-power is for group/institution goals). Not surprisingly, people who score high on the p-power index are hungry for the next thrillwhich makes them more likely to be engage in risk taking behaviours than people with a high s-power index. Finally, if you read this book it will change your televisual habits. Breaking Bad, Love/Hate and House of Cards and Revenge all show examples of the challenges of chasing power. When Jesse Pinkman says to Walt Are we in the meth business, or the money business? you know the school teacher has lost the plot. And now you know a little of the why too. Winners must be careful not to fall victim to their own success but this text shows that psychology is the real winner.

Robertson, I. H. (2012). The Winner Eect: The Neuroscience of Success and Failure. London: Bloomsbury.

See links:www.TheWinnerEect.com.http://professorianrobertson.wordpress.com/blog/ http://www.psychologywriter.org.uk/Index/Welcome.html References:Haggbloom, S. J., Warnick, R., Warnick, J. E., Jones,V. K., Yarbrough, G. L., Russell, T. M. et al. (2002).The 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century. Review of General Psychology, 6, 139152.

MacIntyre, T., Moran, A., Campbell, M. (2014). Looking back: Out from the shadows.The Psychologist, 27 (3), 210-211.

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Previous Events

Event Timetable

22 Using your Minds eye: Known Knowns, and Known Unknowns.

15 Division of Sport Exercise & Performance Psychology

Events

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Imagery Workshop

Hannah McCormack Msc.

Using your Minds eye: Known Knowns, and KnownUnknowns.

On Friday 24th of January, as part of the All Ireland Post Graduate Conference in Physical activity and Sport Science a Psychological Society of Ireland accredited CPD workshop entitled Using your minds eye: Known knowns and unknowns was held in the PESS Building at UL. The workshop was headed by Dr. Tadhg MacIntyre (PESS) who was joined by Dr. Alan Ringland (Paralympics Ireland), Dr. Olivia Hurley (IADT), and Dr. Laura McAvinue (Dept. of Psychology University of Limerick). Dr. Mark Campbell (PESS) and Dr. James Matthews (University College Dublin) were additional members of the team that developed the workshop concepts. The ninety minute workshop focused on the juxtaposition of evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence on the topic of mental imagery. It involved a review of the evidence to date and reections on the application of imagery in dierent contexts. These ranged from applied sport settings, to the use of imagery in rehabilitation and neuro-rehabilitation domains. The workshop also provoked thought on the possible contraindications of imagery interventions (MacIntyre et al., 2013). A pre-workshop survey evaluated the workshop attendees perceptions of imagery, their practitioner experience of imagery, their imagery abilities and their individual motives for attending the workshop. According to results of the survey the majority of those who attended were interested in performance psychology and predominatly interested in the role of imagery in sport contexts. Attendees also included those who worked in rehabilitation contexts and the eld of physical activity. The key survey ndings were presented at the beginning of the workshop to the 25 attendees who ranged from undergraduate students, to doctoral

candidates to experienced practitioners working in the eld. Mental imagery is dened as a symbolic sensory experience that may occur in any sensory mode (Hardy et al., 1996, p. 28). Imagery is more than just seeing something in your minds eye or visualising something which is why the phrase mental imagery is preferred to the term visualisation. The eld has evolved greatly since William James rst wrote that your minds eye enables you to skate in Summer and swim in Winter. Imagery is now employed in multiple ways and the traditional approach of using mental practice has been superceded by other possible outcomes from imagery use (See Guillot & Collet, 2008). Three areas were emphasised: the use of imagery in performance enhancement and performance restoration, the need for individualised interventions and the role of imagery ability assessment. It is hypothsised that imagery is grounded in our experience and consequently related to our expertise. For example, an architect may have an enhanced spatial imagery ability, a gymnast who uses imagery to rehearse a vault may have high motor imagery abilities, and a eld game player who may be focused on simulating a dynamic open-skill, may require heightened abilities across a range of abilities. When an expert performer simulates a skill through imagery, the duration of that image will correspond to the time to execute the movement-the so-called mental travel eect. Consequently, it was suggested that the correltation between the simulation time and motor execution time is an eective measure of imagery quality. Furthermore, the traditional recommendation of employing all your senses during imagery was called into question-the cognitive load or mental eort may diminish the accuracy of the imagery in the most pertinent senses (e.g., motor imagery). While imagery isnt constrained in the same way as physical

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practice, it may still be fatiguing-a possible contraindication being the use of imagery for long durations. Using mental imagery in order to practice a skill or movement can be exhausting; the areas of the brain are activated in the same way (the information is processed in the same way) as physically executing the skill or movement. The overlap between action observation (watching someone perform a skill) and simulation (imagining a skill) are interrelated processes (Vogt et al., 2013). Dr. Laura McAvinue, a cognitive neuroscientist at UL, discussed a case study on the use of motor imagery to reduce phantom limb pain (McAvinue & Robertson, 2011). Dr. McAvinue introduced us to the idea that although the body is physically damaged the neurons in the brain are unharmed, and lie idle. With no physical limb to activate, they may begin to randomly re causing dierent sensations from a tickle or an itch, to an ache or stabbing pain in a limb that no longer exists. Rather than allow these neurons to remain idle, Dr. McAvinue employed motor imagery as an intervention and taught her participants the skills to activate the mind. Motor imagery activates similar pathways to theactual movement, and thus the idle neurons would no longer be idle and as a result, the phantom limb pain could be alleviated. Dr McAvinue found contrasting results in her study, with some participants reporting a decrease in phantom limb pain and some reporting no aect from the treatment. What this study showed us was that there is potentially a way to recover from injury and manage pain by using mental imagery. The brain is tricked into thinking it is using a limb that is immobile or no longer there. What this means is that athletes can physically recover without having to put excess strain or stress on an injured limb, they will hopefully not lose the ability that they had pre injury, the mind stays focused on the task of recovery. Return to play is a much smoother process and the gap between physical readiness and psychological readiness can be reduced. In the workshop we were presented with 3 cases studies. They included an international female rugby player (out-half ); a 20 year old academy rugby player who had injured his ACL and was in recovery, and a 77 year old female who has suered a stroke. All case studies challenged usto nd

the optimum use of mental imagery for the individual in question. As with every aspect of sport science support, it is not a one size ts all scenario. The timing and use of imagery will dier depending on the needs of the individual. The senses employed and the emotions evoked will also dier. A recovering athlete will utilise the sensations within the injured limb, mental imagery can decrease anxiety, aid intrinsic motivation and increase self-condence in both the injured and non-injured athlete according to research by Guillot and Collet (2008). We were left to reect upon the similarities and dierences between the use of mental imagery for sports rehabilitation and the use of mental imagery for stroke rehabilitation. We were also given the take home message that sometimes mental imagery does not work, and in fact, can be counterproductive if used inappropriately. Mental imagery just like any other skill needs to be practiced and developed. Instructing an athlete to change the way they think, how they think and when they think is like changing any other skill: it will take time getting used to it. During that time it is not unreasonable to expect for their performance to suer, but once the skill has been honed through practice and implementation, imagery can improve performance, psycholgical well-being and aid recovery. Beyond the lessons learnt, connections were made across the community of practice and the images of this workshop will resonate with practitioners and researchers long into the future.

ReferencesGuillot, A. & Collet, C. (2008). Construction of the motor imagery integrative model in sport: A review and theoretical investigation of motor imagery use. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 1 (1), 31-44.

MacIntyre, T., et al. (2013). The BASES expert statement on the use of mental imagery in sport, exercise and rehabilitation contexts. The Sport and Exercise Scientist, 38, 10-11.

McAvinue, L. & Robertson, I. (20). Individual dierences in response to phantom limb movement therapy. Disability and Rehabilitation, 33(2324), 21862195.

Vogt, S., Di Rienzo, F., Collet, C., Collins, A. & Guillot, A. (2013). Multiple roles of motor imagery during action observation. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 807.

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Up Coming Events

PsychWorks

Date Event Website

April 8th & 9th BASES Annual Student Conference

April 11th & 12th Student Congress

May 16th & 17th RIO Annual Meeting

July 8th - 13th Applied Psychology Conference

August 7th - 10th APA Annual Convention

October 15th - AASP Annual18th Conference

http://tinyurl.com/qzb8v4a

http://tinyurl.com/pbtom6n

http://tinyurl.com/kgj72ft

http://www.icap2014.com

http://tinyurl.com/7gk753o

http://tinyurl.com/nvqv73j

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Date Event Website

November PSI Annual Conference

November 25th BASES Annual& 26th Conference

http://www.psihq.ie/

http://tinyurl.com/m7losw6

Up Coming Events

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Expert Statment27 Bases Expert Statement from Tadhg MacIntyre

Bases

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Bases Expert Statement

Dr. Tadhg MacIntyre

Sainriteas ar an sid a bhaintear as omhineachas Meabhrach i gcomhthacsanna Spirt, Aclaochta agus Tarnaimh.

Conas is fidir r n-inchinn a sid chun feabhas a chur ar ghnomhaochta spirt agus ar tharnamh ghortuithe? T lonra taighdeoir Ollscoil Luimn (Dr. Tadhg MacIntyre, Dr. Mark Campbell) agus n gColiste Ollscoile, Baile tha Cliath (Dr. Aidan Moran, Dr. James Matthews) agus ollscoileanna eile timpeall na hEorpa ag danamh taighde ar an gceist seo i lthair na huaire. T athbhreithni dhanamh ar an tionchar a bhonn ag an omhineachas meabhrach i dtimpeallachta agus i gcomhthacsanna agsla. Sard is br le omhineachas Meabhrach n Largas gan mhoth agus dfhadfadh nos m n cadfach amhin a bheith san ireamh agus muid ag tabhairt faoi. Dantar iarracht gnomhaocht n eachtra a bhragshamhl chun tortha agsla a bhaint amach. Go minic sidtear an cur chuige seo chun feabhas a chur ar scil irithe n ar phriseas siceolaochta ar ns inspreagadh n muinn. Go deimhin sideann laochra spirt ar ns Ronan OGara agus Tiger Woods na teicnc seo ina gcuid cleachtais. Dfhorbair an lonra taighde seo 12 mholadh praiticiil ar bhonn anaise a thacidh le daoine a bheidh ag baint side as an omhineachas meabhrach agus as an lirshamhl. Tugtar molta maidir le trithe omhineachais (c mhad cadfach ar chir a sid) agus maidir le difrochta cumais san omhaineachas ionas gur fidir feabhas a chur ar sid an omhineachais. Bunaodh na molta go lir ar an taighde eolaochta tagartha is dana. Maidir le crsa ama agus an cumas a bhonn ag daoine tabhairt faoin omhineachas meabhrach go cruinn, bonn comhghaol lidir idir ghnomhaochta

samhalta agus for-ghnomhaochta an

tsaineola. Ach bonn drochthionchar ag gort ar an gcomhghaol seo agus fsann bearna ama idir na gnomhaochta samhalta agus na forghnomhaochta d bharr. Bonn an bhearna ama seo ag othair le mchumas luaile freisin agus iad ag danamh iarrachta gnomh a shamhl.

Lonra Taighde: Dr Tadhg MacIntyre (PESS, Ollscoil Luimn Promhthaighdeoir); Prof Aidan Moran (Coliste Ollscoile, BC); Prof Aymeric Guillot (Universit Claude Bernard Lyon 1); Prof Christian Collet (Universit Claude Bernard Lyon 1); Dr Mark Campbell (PESS, Ollscoil Luimn); Dr James Matthews (Coliste Ollscoile, BC); Jim Lowther (Ollscoil Uladh)

Buochas: Maoinithe ag an British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) tr dheontas sainritis agus foilsithe san iris Sport and Exercise Scientist (38 Winter, 2014, p. 10-11. http://www.bases.org.uk/Use-of-Mental-Imagery-in-Sport-Exercise-and-Rehabilitation-Contexts

Sochi 2014

This is an article we found which which slalom skier American Mikaela Shirin talks about the Sochi Winter Games.

http://www.npr.org/2014/02/21/280528551/worlds-best-slalom-skier-prepares-for-olympic-event

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PsychWorks

Professional Members in Psychology Declan Ahern PhD Alan Lyons MA

Kevin Clancy MA Tadhg MacIntyre PhD

Gerry Fitzpatrick MA Aine McNamara PhD

Niam FitzPatrick MSc Siobhain McArdle PhD

Brendan Hackett MA Mary Margaret Meade MSc

Gerry Hussey MA Lucy Moore PhD

Olivia Hurley PhD Phil Moore Canice Kennedy MA Aidan Moran PhD

Kate Kirby PhD Alan Ringland PhD

Jim Lowther MSc PJ Smyth PhD

Ciara Losty MA Mark Campbell PhD

What is the Professional Quality Assurance Programme (PQAP)? The Institutes Professional Quality Assurance Programme (PQAP) aims to ensure that athletes are supported by service providers of the appropriate quality so that the best practi-tioners work with the best athletes. Professional Membership of the Institute is awarded to service providers who demonstrate the ability to apply professional knowledge to bring about a significant positive change in elite performance within an ethical framework.

The IIS requires proof of competency in three domains via a case study, degrees and references: Education: Relevant academic qualications up to a minimum of Masters level in the discipline. Training: Evidence of ongoing CPD in your discipline that is relevant to high performance sport. Experience: Evidence of 3 years or 200 days post Masters experience in working in the discipline relevant to high performance sport.

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PsychWorksIrish Sport Psychology News Bulletin

PsychWorks is currently accepting submissions for future issues. If you would like to submit an article, notify us of an event, or gain further information about submissions please contact us at

[email protected].