Sports and

z Exercise

psychology
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Highlights of Report

 Competition and Cooperation

 Highlights of your report should be:

 Difference between competition and cooperation

 Discuss the process of competition, and the social factors

 influencing competition and cooperation

 Discuss why competition can be both good and bad

 Assess how to balance competitive and cooperative efforts

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 Defining Competition and Cooperation

 Morton Deutsch defined competition as a situation in which rewards are

distributed unequally among participants (1949a). In essence, the goals
of the participants are interdependent in a negative way: If one person
achieves the goal, the other person cannot.
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Competition as a Process
According to Martens, competition is more than a
single event; rather it involves a process that
encompasses several events or stages.
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Stage 1: Objective Competitive Situation

Martens proposed a definition of the objective competitive
situation, stemming from social evaluation theory (Festinger,
1954), that includes a standard for comparison and at least
one other person.
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Stage 2: Subjective Competitive Situation

Regardless of whether people are in an objective competitive

situation because they seek the situation or because
circumstances place them in it, they must evaluate the situation
in some way. This brings into play the next stage, the subjective
competitive situation, which involves how the person perceives,
accepts, and appraises the objective competitive situation.
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 Stage 3: Response

 According to Martens’ competitive process model, after

a person appraises a situation, she decides to either
approach or avoid it. The chosen response initiates the
third stage of the model. If the decision is not to
compete, then the response stops there. However, a
response to compete can occur at the behavioral,
physiological, or psychological level, or at all three
levels.
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Is Competition Good or Bad? As things now stand,

the competitive ethic is a driving force in today's
sports.
You hear people say, "Competition brings out the best
in us," "Without competition, even minimal
productivity would disappear," and "To compete is to
strive for goals and reach for success." Many
Americans equate success with victory and doing well
with beating somebody:
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We in the physical education field play a crucial

role in the development of the attitudes of
young athletes and sport participants.
Coaches, for example, can convey a win-at-all-
costs attitude that promotes unsportsmanlike
and overaggressive behavior, or they can
emphasize and reward fair play and skill
development.
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Positive and Negative Approaches to Influencing

Behavior There are positive and negative ways to
teach and coach. The positive approach, by
rewarding appropriate behavior, increases the
likelihood of desirable responses occurring in the
future. Conversely, the negative approach focuses
on punishing undesirable behaviors, which should
lead to a future reduction of these inappropriate
behaviors.
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The positive approach is designed to strengthen

desired behaviors by motivating participants to
perform them and by rewarding them when they
occur. The negative approach, however, attempts
to eliminate unwanted behaviors through
punishment and criticism. Thus, the primary
motivation in this approach is fear.
Stage z4: Consequences

The final stage of the competitive process results from

comparing the athlete’s response with the standard of
comparison. Consequences are usually seen as either
positive or negative, and many people equate positive
consequences with success and negative consequences
with failure. However, as we discussed earlier, the
athlete’s perception of the consequences is more
important than the objective outcome. For example,
although you might have lost the game, you might still
perceive the outcome as positive if you played well and
met your own standard of excellence.
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 Positive and Negative Approaches to Influencing

Behavior There are positive and negative ways to
teach and coach. The positive approach, by rewarding
appropriate behavior, increases the likelihood of
desirable responses occurring in the future.
Conversely, the negative approach focuses on
punishing undesirable behaviors, which should lead to
a future reduction of these inappropriate behaviors.
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 The positive approach is designed to strengthen

desired behaviors by motivating participants to
perform them and by rewarding them when they
occur. The negative approach, however,
attempts to eliminate unwanted behaviors
through punishment and criticism. Thus, the
primary motivation in this approach is fear.
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Different Types of Reinforcer’s

• Social reinforce spraise, smile, pat on the back, publicity

• Material reinforce’s trophies, medals, ribbons, T-shirts

• Activity reinforcer’s playing a game rather than drilling,

playing a different position, taking a trip to play another
team, getting a rest

• Special outings going to a professional game, throwing a

team party, hearing a presentation from a professional
athlete
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Present by:

 Ma. Rona Buhat

 Ma. Sol Fojas