When suddenly nothing works anymore within a team - Causes of collective sport team collapse
- Authors: Wergin, Vanessa , Zimanyi, Zsuzsanna , Mesagno, Christopher , Beckmann, Jurgen
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Frontiers in Psychology Vol. 9, no. NOV (2018), p. 1-14
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- Description: Collective team collapse occurs when multiple players of a sport team experience a sudden and extreme underperformance within a game. To date, minimal research has been conducted on the causes of collective team collapse. Thus, goals of this study were to explore perceived causes of collective team collapse in different sports and to define team collapse in contrast to negative momentum. To investigate factors causing and maintaining collective sport team collapse, an inductive, exploratory qualitative analysis of individual interviews was conducted. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 10 athletes of professional German teams of various sports playing in between first and fourth division. Participants were interviewed about a team collapse event they had experienced with their team during the past year. Data were collected and analyzed using a grounded theory methodology. Collective team collapse appeared to be induced by a temporal cascade of causes rather than by single triggers. This cascade included antecedents, which represent factors that make the occurrence of a team collapse more likely; critical events, which include specific events within the game that trigger a team collapse; as well as affective, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes that foster a maintenance of the collapse. Within this theoretical framework, social factors, such as decreased performance contagion or emotional contagion, played crucial roles in causing a team collapse. These results illustrate that collective team collapse is more than the sum of individual choking of multiple players at the same time. In conclusion, a new definition, differentiating team collapse from negative momentum, is introduced. Furthermore, a process model of causes of collective team collapse is proposed. The results provide first insights into causes of collective collapse in a variety of team sports. The developed model is supposed to help future research to better connect to practice and to support athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists.
A comparative investigation of test anxiety, coping strategies and perfectionism between Australian and United States students
- Authors: Kavanagh, Bianca , Ziino, Sarah , Mesagno, Christopher
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: North American Journal of Psychology Vol. 18, no. 3 (2016), p. 555-569
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- Description: The purpose of this study was to ascertain if cross-cultural differences in test anxiety and personality characteristics (e.g., coping strategies, and perfectionism) associated with test anxiety exist between Australian and US students. University students from Australia (n = 89) and the United States of America (n = 143) completed test anxiety, coping strategy and perfectionism questionnaires. Results indicated no difference in test anxiety between the Australian and US samples, with females generally reporting higher test anxiety than males. Test anxiety was positively correlated with avoidant coping and socially prescribed perfectionism in both countries. This study was the first to compare Australian and US students on test anxiety, and provides indirect evidence that recent US test anxiety research may be generalised to the Australian population. © NAJP.
An evaluation of video-based training programs for perceptual-cognitive skill development. A systematic review of current sport-based knowledge
- Authors: Larkin, Paul , Mesagno, Christopher , Spittle, Michael , Berry, Jason
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Sport Psychology Vol. 46, no. 6 (2015), p. 555-586
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- Description: In this review we identified sport-based perceptual-cognitive training literature to systematically evaluate current video-based methodologies and their resultant effectiveness to improve perceptual-cognitive performance (i.e., decision-making). A comprehensive literature search of electronic databases from 1994-2013 was conducted to identify relevant studies. We identified 139 articles, of which 25 met all the inclusion criteria. Study design and test measures of the 25 articles were assessed against a classification scale to rate methodological quality. The methodological quality of the 25 studies varied, with quasi-experimental the most common design. Additionally, studies varied in the skill level of participants and the amount of video-based information presented during the training. We conclude that videobased training programs can be used to enhance perceptual-cognitive performance and outline several recommendations for future video-based perceptual-cognitive training programs particularly with respect to the validity and reliability of the instruments used to measure perceptual-cognitive performance.
Activation of self-focus and self-presentation traits under private, mixed, and public pressure
- Authors: Geukes, Katharina , Mesagno, Christopher , Hanrahan, Stephanie , Kellmann, Michael
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology Vol. 35, no. 1 (2013), p. 50-59
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- Description: Trait activation theorists suggest that situational demands activate traits in (pressure) situations. In a comparison of situational demands of private (monetary incentive, cover story), mixed (monetary incentive, small audience), and public (large audience, video taping) high-pressure situations, we hypothesized that situational demands of private and mixed high-pressure conditions would activate self-focus traits and those of a public high-pressure condition would activate self-presentation traits. Female handball players (N = 120) completed personality questionnaires and then performed a throwing task in a low-pressure condition and one of three high-pressure conditions (n = 40). Increased anxiety levels from low to high pressure indicated successful pressure manipulations. A self-focus trait negatively predicted performance in private and mixed high-pressure conditions, and self-presentation traits positively predicted performance in the public high-pressure condition. Thus, pressure situations differed in their trait-activating situational demands. Experimental research investigating the trait-performance relationship should therefore use simulations of real competitions over laboratory-based scenarios. © 2013 Human Kinetics, Inc.
- Description: 2003010828
Performance under pressure
- Authors: Mesagno, Christopher
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Sport Psychology Vol. 44, no. 4 (July-August 2013), p. 263-265
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Performing under pressure in private : Activation of self-focus traits
- Authors: Geukes, Katharina , Mesagno, Christopher , Hanrahan, Stephanie , Kellmann, Michael
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology Vol. 11, no. 1 (2013), p. 11-23
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- Description: Self-focus and self-presentation traits have been found to predict performance under pressure. The interactionist principle of trait activation indicates that situational demands encourage different traits to be relevant to performance in high-pressure situations. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship of self-focus and self-presentation traits with performance in a private high-pressure setting. Because the private high-pressure situation offered motivational incentives but only minimal self-presentation cues, only a self-focus trait (private self-consciousness), but not self-presentation traits (public self-consciousness and narcissism), was hypothesized to predict performance under pressure in a private setting. After completing personality questionnaires, future physical education university students (N = 59) with experience in sport competitions performed eight throws at a target in low-pressure and high-pressure conditions. The conditions were identical with the exception that the high-pressure condition involved a monetary incentive and a cover story. Participants' state anxiety increased from low to high pressure. Neither self-focus nor self-presentation traits predicted performance under low pressure. Only the self-focus trait, but not self-presentation traits, negatively contributed to the prediction of high-pressure performance. Hence, findings support the applicability of the trait activation principle and underline that the situational demands of private high-pressure situations activate self-focus personality traits. © 2013 Copyright International Society of Sport Psychology.
- Description: 2003010822
Self-presentation origins of choking: Evidence from separate pressure manipulations
- Authors: Mesagno, Christopher , Harvey, Jack , Janelle, Christopher
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology Vol. 33, no. 3 (2011), p. 441-459
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- Description: Whether self-presentation is involved in the choking process remains unknown. The purpose of the current study was to determine the role of self-presentation concerns on the frequency of choking within the context of a recently proposed self-presentation model. Experienced field hockey players (N = 45) were randomly assigned to one of five groups (i.e., performance-contingent monetary incentive, video camera placebo, video camera self-presentation, audience, or combined pressure), before taking penalty strokes in low- and high-pressure phases. Results indicated that groups exposed to self-presentation manipulations experienced choking, whereas those receiving motivational pressure treatments decreased anxiety and increased performance under pressure. Furthermore, cognitive state anxiety mediated the relationship between the self-presentation group and performance. These findings provide quantitative support for the proposed self-presentation model of choking, while also holding implications for anxiety manipulations in future sport psychology research. © 2011 Human Kinetics, Inc.