Sports Psychology Flashcards
7 cards from real ITF practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Sports Psychology flashcards as text
Which component of mental toughness is MOST associated with maintaining performance under score pressure in tennis?
Answer: Emotional regulation and resilience
Emotional regulation — the ability to manage anxiety, frustration, and pressure — is the core mental-toughness component linked to clutch performance.
A coach uses 'process goals' rather than 'outcome goals' in training. What is the PRIMARY benefit?
Answer: Players focus on controllable actions rather than uncontrollable results
Process goals direct attention to technique and behavior within the player's control, reducing anxiety about results they cannot guarantee.
Bandura's concept of self-efficacy in sport is BEST defined as:
Answer: A player's belief in their ability to execute a specific task successfully
Self-efficacy is a task-specific, situational belief in one's capability that can be built through mastery experiences, modeling, and verbal persuasion.
A tennis coach observes a player who shuts down emotionally after losing the first set. This is MOST consistent with:
Answer: Learned helplessness following repeated uncontrollable failures
Learned helplessness develops when a player perceives that effort doesn't influence outcomes, leading to passive withdrawal under adversity.
The 'TRAP' model of choking in tennis suggests performance decrements occur when:
Answer: Players shift to explicit monitoring of automated skills under pressure
Choking occurs when anxiety causes athletes to consciously control movements that are normally automated, disrupting fluency through explicit monitoring.
Which mental skills training technique involves creating a vivid mental rehearsal of executing a perfect serve before each point?
Answer: Imagery (visualization)
Imagery involves mentally simulating the execution of a skill using all senses, priming motor patterns and building confidence before performance.
A player's performance is consistently worse in front of large crowds compared to small audiences. This is BEST explained by:
Answer: Social facilitation / inhibition — audiences enhance dominant responses, hurting non-dominant skills
Social facilitation theory states that audiences facilitate well-learned responses but impair less-mastered skills, causing inhibition in developing players.