SPORT PSYCHOLOGYChapter 9

Teams

Lavallee et al. (2004) Sport Psychology: Contemporary Themes (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke)

Introduction, History and Development

• In social psychology, the heyday of experimental intragroup research ended by the 1980s

• Primary topics included role differentiation, group structures and performance, social influence, communication and decision-making

• Defining a Team: – Two or more interdependent individuals who

influence one another through social interaction – Along with Interaction, teams defined by - Structure;

Cohesiveness; Social Identity; Common Goals– Team tasks: Additive, Disjunctive, Conjunctive,

Complementary, Discretionary– Primary distinction - Interactive vs. Co-active Sports

Introduction, History and Development

• Individual performance in teams:– Dynamogism or social facilitation (Triplett,

1898)– Social loafing (Ringelmann, 1913)

• Team dynamics:– Team cohesion (Carron, 1988)– Task vs social cohesion– Team maturity– Team identity

Introduction, History and Development

• Teams in context:– Home vs Away– Home advantage may disappear later in

competitions– Dependent on various factors (e.g. crowd

size, noise, type of sport, evaluation)

• Team roles:– Leadership roles– Playing position– Coaching styles– Role conflict & role ambiguity

Theories and Models

Individual performance in teams

Social Facilitation• Various explanations, including Zajonc’s drive theory (mere

presence), Cottrell (evaluation) & Baron (conflict)Social Loafing• Competing theories, including Latane’s social impact theoryIntegration• Harkins & Szymanski (1987); Mullen & Baumeister (1987) -

both phenomena are related• Karau & Williams (2001) - collective effort model• Based on VIE theory, individual effort maximised with high

personal involvement, evaluation, valued and well defined goals, unified team, collective efficacy

Theories and Models

Team dynamics

Defining:• Task cohesion (group integration) & Social cohesion

(individual attraction)• More recently - perceptions of: group integration (task /

social) and individual attractions to the group (task / social)• Cota et al (1995) - also include normative values, position on

teamAntecedents:• 4 sets of factors contribute to a highly cohesive team -

situational, personal, leadership and team Consequences:• Need to consider not only team success but also individual

perceptions• Conflicting research - cohesion may predict success but so

may conflict• Task cohesion best predicts success not social cohesion

Theories and Models

Consequences:• Need to consider not only team success but also

individual perceptions• Conflicting research - cohesion may predict success but

so may conflict• Task cohesion best predicts success not social cohesionTeam maturity:• Stage model (forming, storming, norming, performing)

(Tuckman, 1965)• More latterly, cycles of change (Arrow, 1997)

Theories and Models

Teams in Context

• Home bias research largely atheoretical• More recently, explained with reference to

self-attention and evaluation• Crowd density (not size) - collective effort

model

Theories and Models

Team Roles

Contingency models of leadership, including:• Fiedler’s Contingency Model (situational control)• Vroom and Yetton’s Normative Model (decision

making)• Hersey & Blanchard’s Situational leadership Theory

(maturity of followers)• House’s Path-Goal Theory (motivation)• Chelladurai’s Multidimensional Model (sport specific)

– Behaviour required of coach depends on sport, goals and environment

– Actual behaviour depends on ability, knowledge and interpersonal skill

– Preferred behaviour depends on characteristics of followers and situation

Theories and Models

Smith & Smoll’s Medianational Model– Relationship between coach behaviour, players’

perceptions and player response– Effects mediated by individual differences (gender, age,

anxiety, confidence, etc) and situational factors (sport, competition, team success, cohesion)

Role Episode Model in Sport (Kahn et al)– Contextual and personal factors determine the relationship

between role ambiguity and performance– Dynamic interplay between role sender (coach/captain)

and focal person (athlete)

Methods and Measures

• Individual performance in teams– Audiences: inactive or reactive– Co-actors (players) and regulators (officials):

interactive or non-interactive• Team dynamics

– Sport speciific scales include SCQ - 7 item; TCQ - 13 item; MCSI - 4 factors

– Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ) most popular

• 18 items, measuring 4 dimensions:– Attraction to the group (social) ATG-social– Attraction to the group (task) ATG-task– Group integration (social) GI-social– Group integration (task) GI-task

Methods and Measures

• Teams in context– Input measures include audience characteristics,

venue, sport type, stage of competition, team quality– Outcome measures include score configuration,

assertiveness, aggression, fouling, sport-specific statistics

• Team roles– Various measures of coach behaviour include:

• Coaching Decision Style Questionnaire (CDSQ, based on Vroom & Yetton’s decision tree)

• Coach Behaviour Description Questionnaire (CBDQ 20 items, 8 categories - training, initiation, interpersonal team operations, social behaviour, representation behaviour, organised communication, recognition, general excitement)

Methods and Measures

• Team roles cont.– Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS 40 items, 5 subscales

- training & instruction, autocratic behaviour, democratic behaviour, social support, positive feedback)

• LSS administered in 2 forms (My coach is …; I prefer my coach to ….)

• Individual differences (gender, age) reflect in preferred styles

– Coaching Behaviour Assessment System (CBAS, 12 categories, 2 groups - reactive behaviour and spontaneous behaviour)

• Children’s self-esteem shown to relate to preferred coaching styles

– Arizona State Univ. Observation Instrument (ASUOI, 13 categories)

Practical Issues and Interventions

Coaching• Greater focus now on coach education not direct

interventions• Coach must constantly monitor team dynamics to ensure

effective communication and conflict management• Coach Development

– Gould et al (1990) - US coaches still relied more on hands-on experience than sport science support

– NCF / Sport England etc. - coach education– Smoll and Smith (1998) - Coach Effectiveness Training

• Orientation to winning• Feedback & reinforcement• Establishment of social norms• Decision-making• Self-reflection / Monitoring

– Gender and coaching

Practical Issues and Interventions

Team Building

• Now seen as essential in many team & individual sports, to:– Satisfy belonging needs, Enhance loyalty & Harness

support– Provides stress buffers and feedback on performance– Gives the edge over less ‘together’ teams

• Often uncritically adopted despite potential drawbacks

• May be useful in helping a team develop, identify goals and clarify team identity but must be managed carefully to avoid ‘comfort zone’

Case Study

A close colleague of yours, Jimmy Nelson, has been in contact. He has been elected as coach/manager for his local amateur soccer team for the coming season and he has a few concerns. Jimmy is an ex-player with the team who has managed the youth team for two years with some success. The club as a whole has enjoyed a very good reputation over the years, winning the championship two seasons ago and losing in the final last year. The nucleus of the team is made up of seasoned campaigners who have ‘been there and done that’ several times and Jimmy believes that they may be past their prime. Although there are no very clear signs of major problems, he felt that the league performance tailed off towards the end of the season and the team surrendered a two goal lead in the final to lose 3-2. There are several good young players in the reserve team but the older players do not make them feel particularly welcome and there are rumours that some of the injuries picked up in pre-season training may have been caused maliciously. The captain is one of the established players, although injury sidelined him for most of last season and you are unsure if he should be reappointed. In training it would seem that there are two camps, and with the team about to head off on a ‘team building’ long weekend at an army camp, Jimmy wants to meet to discuss how he should handle matters.

Case Study

Questions

• With reference to the Theories and Models section in Chapter 9, how would you interpret what is happening in this case study?

• With reference to Methods and Measures, what techniques would you employ to help understand and quantify the issues?

• With reference to Practical Issues and Interventions, how would you deal with this situation?

Study Questions

1. How may social loafing and social facilitation influence individual behaviour in team sports?

2. Critically evaluate the relationship between cohesion and success in team sports

3. Home advantage - does it exist and if so, when, where and why?

4. Discuss the contribution of contingency leadership models to our understanding of successful coaching in sport

5. Assess the effectiveness of team building as an applied technique for enhancing team performance

Further Reading

• Bray, S.R. (1999) ‘The Home Advantage from an Individual Team Perspective’, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 11, 116-25

• Carron, A.V. & Hausenblas, H.A. (1998) Group Dynamics in Sport (2nd ed.). Morgantown, WV: Fitness Info. Technology

• Chelladurai, P. & Doherty, A.J. (1998) ‘Styles of Decision-Making in Coaching’, in J.M. Williams (ed) Applied Sport Psychology: Personal Growth to Peak Performance (3rd ed., pp. 115-26). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield

• Karau, S. J. & Williams, K. D. (2001) ‘Understanding Individual Motivation in Groups’, in M. E. Turner (ed) Groups at Work: Advances in Theory and Research (pp. 113-41). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum

• Paskevich, D.M., et al (2001) ‘Group cohesion in Sport and Exercise’, in R.N. Singer, H.A. Hausenblas and C.M. Janelle (eds) Handbook of Sport Psychology (2nd ed., pp. 472-94). New York: Wiley

• Smoll, F.E. & Smith, R.E. (1998) ‘Conducting Psychologically Oriented Coach Training Programs’, in J.M. Williams (ed) Applied Sport Psychology: Personal Growth to Peak Performance (3rd ed.). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield

• Strauss, B. (2002) ‘Social Facilitation in Motor Tasks’, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, vol. 3, pp. 237-56