Ch.7 Exam Prep Psychological Skills Training

CHAPTER 7 TEST BANK

Multiple Choice

1. What is the purpose of psychological skills training?
   1. All of the above
   2. To maintain concentration
   3. To regulate arousal
   4. To enhance confidence
2. When might an athlete need emotion-focused coping, rather than problem-focused coping?
   1. When the situation is out of the athlete's control, and stress levels are involved
   2. When the problem is manageable and involves physical skills
   3. When the problem can handled with additional training
   4. All of the above
3. According to matching hypothesis, which of the following should a baseball player use to help with nearly always striking out when the pitcher is throwing curve balls?
   1. Problem-focused coping
   2. Emotion-focused coping
   3. Progressive muscle relaxation
   4. Biofeedback
4. Which of the following happens during the acquisition phase of PST?
   1. Learning specific strategies for mastering psychological skills
   2. Learning that psychological skills can be taught
   3. Overlearning skills and integrating skills into specific performance challenges
   4. An athlete learns to never attempt an event again because of a previous negative experience.
5. Why might a coach choose not to use psychological skills training?
   1. All of the above
   2. The coach does not want to cut into physical practice time
   3. The coach does not believe that those types of skills can be taught
   4. The coach lacks understanding on how PST can help athletes
6. A tennis player feels high levels of anxiety right before a big match. Her trainer notices that she is keeping her shoulders raised higher than she should--a sign of tension. Which technique would be MOST beneficial for the tennis player to use to combat shoulder tension?
   1. Progressive muscle relaxation
   2. Arousal energizing
   3. Meditation
   4. Hypnosis
7. Which arousal regulation technique may involve measuring heart rate response to relaxing thoughts?
   1. Biofeedback
   2. Stress inoculation training
   3. Cognitive-affective stress management training
   4. Meditation
8. Which arousal regulation technique involves a series of phases, including the induction phase and waking phase?
   1. Hypnosis
   2. Mindfulness
   3. Stress inoculation training
   4. Meditation
9. Which arousal regulation technique often involves focusing attention on, and sometimes verbalizing, a single thought?
   1. Meditation
   2. Cognitive-affective stress management training
   3. Autogenic training
   4. Hypnosis
10. A soccer player is frequently distracted by the intrusion of negative thoughts ("don't fall, don't mess up") while she is trying to move the ball toward the goal. Which of the following techniques would help her MOST to move past her negative thoughts?
    1. Mindfulness
    2. Biofeedback
    3. Arousal energizing
    4. Autogenic training
11. Which arousal regulation technique involves the athlete practicing their new skills in low-stress, and then, over time, high-stress situations?
    1. Stress inoculation training
    2. Autogenic training
    3. Cognitive-affective stress management training
    4. Mindfulness
12. Which of the following techniques can be used as an arousal energizing strategy?
    1. Listening to loud, fast music
    2. Meditation
    3. Progressive muscle relaxation
    4. Autogenic training
13. How might a person in the crowd (a fan of the visiting team) try to influence a home-team player to focus on irrelevant information while the player is trying to take a free throw?
    1. Hold up a distracting sign
    2. Text on their cell phone
    3. Clap and chant with the enthusiastic home crowd
    4. Sit quietly and stare down the player
14. The ability to focus on only important factors and not be distracted by irrelevant information is called:
    1. Selective attention
    2. Attentional focus
    3. Inattentional blindness
    4. Attentional flexibility
15. How can an athlete increase their ability to show selective attention?
    1. Practice necessary physical skills
    2. Try to pay attention to all elements in the environment at once
    3. Practice using imagery during their performance
    4. Practice arousal energizing
16. Focusing on the execution of a given skill (an ice skater performing a toe loop or a football quarterback throwing a pass) belongs to which dimension of attentional focus?
    1. Narrow and external
    2. Broad and internal
    3. Narrow and internal
    4. Broad and external
17. Analyzing one's thoughts and feelings regarding a performance (a golfer making a shot selection, a baseball pitcher selecting the next pitch) is in which dimension of attentional focus?
    1. Broad and internal
    2. Narrow and external
    3. Broad and external
    4. Narrow and internal
18. Why are athletes who use an associative attentional style more successful than athletes who use a dissociative or distraction attentional style?
    1. Athletes who use an associative style focus on their bodily functions and feelings, and are thus more in tune with their body
    2. Athletes who use an associative style are able to ignore the distractions of their bodies and can push themselves harder than those athletes who use a dissociative style
    3. Athletes who use an associative style are more focused on the task at hand than athletes who use a dissociative style, and can manipulate their bodily functions to match what they need their bodies to do
    4. None of the above
19. Researchers studying the link between automatic movement and performance asked soccer players to squeeze a ball with either their left hand or their right hand right before they took penalty kicks in a high-pressure situation. What was the finding of the experiment?
    1. Squeezing the ball with the left hand improved performance because the right hemisphere of the brain controls automatic movements
    2. Squeezing the ball with the left hand improved performance because the left hemisphere of the brain controls automatic movements
    3. Squeezing the ball with the right hand improved performance because the right hemisphere of the brain controls automatic movements
    4. Squeezing the ball with the right hand improved performance because the left hemisphere of the brain controls automatic movements
20. What is one of the primary goals of "trash talk"?
    1. To distract the other player
    2. To hurt the other player's feelings
    3. To gain respect from teammates
    4. To focus your own attention on the goal
21. Why is it important for athletes to practice in realistic settings?
    1. This allows the athlete to learn to manage feelings of anxiety
    2. This helps athletes learn to have an internal focus
    3. This allows the coaches to expose athletes to arousal energizing strategies
    4. All of the above
22. How does creating and maintaining a routine help athletes perform at higher levels?
    1. Routines create a feeling of structure and familiarity
    2. Routines allow athletes to have a broad and internal focus during the game, event, or competition
    3. Creating a routine eliminates the need for a coach's feedback
    4. Creating a routine encourages an increase in anxiety
23. What is one reason that athletes who act on superstitions tend to perform slightly better than those who do not?
    1. Because they believe in the power of the superstition
    2. Because more elite athletes tends to be more superstitious than amateur athletes
    3. Because as skill level increases, so do superstitious behaviors and beliefs
    4. All of the above
24. Which strategy involves verbalizing, out loud or in one's head, specific thoughts and feelings?
    1. Self-talk
    2. Meditation
    3. Hypnosis
    4. Mindfulness
25. Which of the following strategies is being used in this example: and athlete talks to herself as she prepares to shoot the basketball, "Ok, just focus, knees bent, arms strong, eyes on the net, you've got this".
    1. Self-talk
    2. Meditation
    3. Stress inoculation training
    4. Mindfulness
26. Attention control training aids in which key factor in a successful performance?
    1. Avoiding negative thoughts
    2. Getting "pumped up" before the game
    3. Being aware of your heart rate and breathing
    4. Using self-talk
27. Which of the following senses is especially important when using imagery?
    1. Kinesthetic
    2. Auditory
    3. Tactile
    4. Olfactory
28. A tennis player is imaging himself getting ready to take a serve, and can see himself as a spectator would, from several yards away. His position is good, but he needs to turn his body slightly. What technique is the tennis player using?
    1. External imagery
    2. Attentional flexibility
    3. Selective attention
    4. Biofeedback
29. Which of the following theories on the power of imagery states that mentally imaging actions and actually engaging in these actions involve the same neurophysiological processes?
    1. Functional equivalence hypothesis
    2. Symbolic learning perspective
    3. Psychoneuromuscular theory
    4. Matching hypothesis
30. Why is imagery such a powerful tool for athletes to use to prepare for performances?
    1. All of the above
    2. Imagery can help athletes practice new skills
    3. Imagery can help athletes learn and practice strategies for specific situations they may encounter
    4. Imagery may help athletes build confidence in their ability to acquire skills or perform a certain way

True/False

1. Problem-focused coping is best used in situations when the athlete has no control and is mainly dealing with stress levels.
2. If an athlete is having difficulty recognizing when they feel stressed, using relaxation and biofeedback will help them cope with this problem.
3. Autogenic training is a behavioral arousal-regulating strategy.
4. An athlete wishes to learn a technique to help them calm down before performances. Meditation would be beneficial to this athlete.
5. Cognitive-affective stress management training involves the use of biometrics to teach athletes how to bring their heart and breathing rates down.
6. Attention is defined as the ability to focus on relevant information and to ignore irrelevant information.
7. An internal focus usually results in a better performance.
8. Focusing on past mistakes and future events can both interrupt present performance.
9. An athlete is most likely to choke when they are in a high-pressure situation and they have internal distractions.
10. A flashing advertisement on a baseball field can easily be an external distraction to the pitcher.

Critical Thinking

1. What makes useful "self-talk" different from an athlete just speaking aloud?
2. Compare and contrast the goals and strategies of stress inoculation training and autogenic training. Are there conditions where one might be more beneficial than the other?
3. What makes a scientific study of "trash talk" difficult? How would attempt to fix these issues in your own experiment?
4. Which sports /events might be particular amenable to improvement through imagery? Why?
5. How would you explain the benefits of psychological skills training to a coach worried about already short practice times?