Psychological Momentum During and Across Sports Matches: Evidence for Interconnected Time Scales

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Article: Psychological Momentum During and Across Sports Matches: Evidence for Interconnected Time Scales

Abstract:

This study on psychological momentum (PM) in sports provides the first experimental test of an interconnection between short-term PM (during a match) and long-term PM (across a series of matches). Twenty-two competitive athletes were striving to win a prize during a rowing-ergometer tournament, consisting of manipulated races. As hypothesized, athletes who had developed long-term positive PM after two successful races were less sensitive to a negative momentum scenario in the third race, compared with athletes who had developed long-term negative PM after two unsuccessful races. More specifically, the exerted efforts, perceptions of momentum, and self-efficacy were higher for participants who had developed long-term positive PM, and their perceptions of momentum and self-efficacy decreased less rapidly. These results illustrate a typical complex dynamical systems property, namely interconnected time scales, and provide deeper insights into the dynamical nature of PM.

Author: J.R. (Ruud) den Hartigh

Dr. Ruud Den Hartigh is currently assistant professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Groningen (Netherlands), where he is also the coordinator of the international Master’s program Talent Development & Creativity. In April 2015, he defended his PhD thesis (awarded by the collaborating universities of Montpellier (France) and Groningen with the distinction cum laude) on the study of complex processes of human performance. In general, Ruud’s research focuses on providing an understanding of the “laws” of emergence and adaptation of psychological and performance patterns, mostly in sports. Typical examples of questions he is working on are: ‘How can we understand the complex development of talent?’, and ‘How do periods of positive and negative psychological momentum develop?’

Links:

Author:

http://www.rug.nl/staff/j.r.den.hartigh/

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ruud_Den_Hartigh

Checkout the new MSc. program Ruud and his colleagues have started:

http://www.stairwaytotalent.nl/

Study:

http://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/jsep.2015-0162

Youtube video where Ruud discusses the current study:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lewB1-WeN9M

Quotes:

“It’s not always the case that if you have momentum it is guaranteed success, and if you have negative momentum it is a guarantee that you will lose.”

“I think that it (momentum) does shape your feelings of confidence, your efforts that you exert during a match.”

“The way athletes respond to setbacks during a match is related to, I would even say embedded in the momentum process that has developed during the tournament.”

“The idea that athletes’ responses are actually shaped by the process, is surprisingly often omitted.”

“Examining the process can actually give you answers to the question of when and how athletes psychological states and performance actually change.”

“Do not omit the process, rather, focus on the process.”

‘If you want to understand when and how the psychological states and performance of an athlete changes, the answer probably lies in