Seminar 6 - Third Wave Approaches in Sport Psychology

Question 1

What are the three waves in sport psychology?

Answer 1

1st wave - Behaviour Therapy/operant conditioning

2nd Wave - Classic Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

3rd Wave - Acceptance Commitment Therapy, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

Question 2

What is the third wave of sport psychology and how did it come about?

Answer 2

Mindfulness and acceptance

Third wave of behaviour therapy; behaviour therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy first two waves.

Borne out of a lack of empirical support for above methods.

CBT techniques well validated, but links to cognitive science are weak.

Underlying models of CBT have also received mixed support.

Attempts to indirectly affect behaviour through changing individual’s relation to the event.

Question 3

What are the benefits of mindfulness and acceptance-based interventions?

Answer 3

Effective across a range of clinical and subclinical problem areas (e.g., depression, anxiety, alcohol and substance abuse, eating disorders)

Improves mood and general psychological functioning

Heighten immune functioning

Enhanced alertness, orienting, and conflict monitoring

Question 4

Mindfulness
What is Langer’s Mindfulness (LM)?

Answer 4

A flexible state of mind in which we are actively engaged in the present, noticing new things and sensitive to context (Langer, 2000, p.220)

Active processing of new information

All stimuli can be seen from multiple perspectives

Able to see different POV enhances one’s ability to respond to the environment effectively and appropriately

Question 5

Mindfulness
What is Eastern Mindfulness (EM)?

Answer 5

Roots in Buddhist Philosophy

Paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally

Non-reactive awareness and unconditional acceptance of whatever rises in the present moment

Question 6

What are the mechanisms (neurological changes) of mindfulness?

Answer 6

Enhanced self-regulation from:

Attention
- Changes in activity and structure of anterior cingulate cortex

Emotion Regulation/stress Reduction
- Various patterns of engagement in fronto-limbic networks

Self-awareness
- Altered midline prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex

Question 7

Compared to mindfulness, what is psychological skills training (PST) based on?

Answer 7

• Based on building capacity to manage internal states such as cognition, emotions, and sensations to achieve optimal internal state for high performance
• Use of cognitive-behaviourally oriented PST techniques to achieve this state of readiness
• Requires conscious effort to suppress or control cognition, emotions, and sensations

Question 8

What is the problem with PST?

Answer 8

Ironic Process Theory
* Efforts to suppress cognitions, emotions, pain, and fatigue have been shown to lead to increases in the disruption caused by those processes

Reinvestment
* Athletes perform less well under pressure when they direct conscious attention to the execution of the skill, rather than allowing the skill to be executed automatically

• Inconsistent empirical support for traditional PST theories and interventions

Question 9

What are mindfulness and acceptance based programmes like, compared to PST?

Answer 9

• Optimal performance does not require reduction or control of internal states
• Non-judging (i.e., not good, not bad) moment-to-moment awareness and acceptance of one’s internal state
• attentional focus on task-relevant external stimuli and behavioral choices

Question 10

How does mindfulness account for the ironic process theory and for reinvestment?

Answer 10

Ironic Process Theory
- Overcome ironic processes by fostering acceptance rather than suppression of the thought or feeling, allowing attention to be directed to more useful cues

Reinvestment
- Mindfulness and acceptance approaches are proposed as an antidote to this process by noticing unhelpful shifts in attention to thoughts, feelings, or attentional foci, and instead redirecting attention to more useful, task-relevant cues

Question 11

What are the three 3rd wave approaches?

Answer 11

Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Mindfulness Acceptance Commitment (MAC)
Mindfulness Sport performance enhancement (MSPE)

Question 12

What is ACT?

Answer 12

Acceptance Commitment Therapy

• General goal to improve psychological flexibility
• Developed from Relational Frame Theory (RFT)
• Symptom reduction is not the goal; it is a by-product
• Alters the relationship we have with our difficult thoughts and feelings
• Works on this notion of “Experiential Avoidance”
• Control is the problem, not the solution

Question 13

What does ACT target?

Answer 13

Psychological Inflexibility due to:

• Experiential Avoidance
• Cognitive Fusion
• Dominance of the Conceptualized Past and Feared Future
• Attachment to the Conceptualized Self
• Lack of values, Clarity; Dominance of Pliance and Avoidant Tracking
• Inaction, Impulsivity, or Avoidance Persistance

Question 14

What are the 6 processes of ACT?

Answer 14

Acceptance - involves the active and aware embrace of
those private events occasioned by one’s history without unnecessary attempts to change their frequency or form, especially when doing so would cause psychological harm

Cognitive defusion — altering undesirable functions of thoughts rather than the form, frequency, and situational sensitivity

Being present - non-judgmental contact with psychological events and events in the environment as they occur

Self as context — sense of self is a context for verbal knowing, not the content of that knowing. Allows for awareness of experiences without judgement or investment

Values — chosen qualities of purposive action

Committed Action - development of larger and larger patterns of effective action linked to chosen values.

Question 15

What is cognitive defusion?

Answer 15

Attempts to change the way one interacts with or relates to thoughts by creating contexts in which their unhelpful functions are diminished.
It seeks to engender a decrease in believability of, or attachment to, private events rather than an immediate change in their frequency.

Question 16

What is Mindfulness Acceptance Commitment (MAC)?

Answer 16

• Draws heavily from ACT.
• MAC model is the first and most detailed (and empirically researched) mindfulness-based and acceptance-based model within sport/performance psychology
• Initial fixed 90 min x 8 session protocol to current flexible 7 module protocol
• Modules are 1) psychoeducation, 2) mindfulness and cognitive defusion, 3) values and values-driven behaviour, 4) acceptance, 5) commitment, 6) skill consolidation and poise, 7) maintaining and enhancing mindfulness, acceptance, and commitment

Question 17

What evidence supports the use of MAC?

Answer 17

(Hasker, 2010)
- significantly increased ability to describe and be nonreactive to their internal experiences
- an increase in experiential acceptance
- an increased ability to commit to behaviors directly related to achieving their athletic goals and values

(Gross et al., 2018)
- reductions in substance use, hostility, and emotional dysregulation over time when compared to PST
- reduced generalized anxiety, eating concerns, psychological distress, and increased psychological flexibility across from post- intervention to 1 month follow-up
- increases in sport performance over time

(Dehghani et al., 201 8)
- 8 week MAC programme, 90 mins
- significant increase in subjective ratings of performance, as well as significant decrease in experiential avoidance and sports anxiety

Question 18

What is Mindfulness Sport Performance Enhancement?

Answer 18

MSPE
- Expanded from 4 to 6 sessions
- Group sessions of 90 mins weekly, with daily home practice
- Intention is to train athletes in the fundamentals of cultivating mindfulness, and then to help them apply it gradually into their sporting performance routines.
Core exercises include 1) candy exercise, 2) sitting meditation of increasing duration, 3) body scan, 4) mindful yoga, 5) walking meditation, 6) sport-specific meditation
- Exercises are taught progressively, moving from sedentary to active mindfulness practice

Question 19

What evidence supports the use of MSPE?

Answer 19

(Kaufman et al., 2009)
- Community sample of archers and golfers
- 4 week MSPE programme
- Significant increases in aspects of state and trait mindfulness for golfers, and state flow for both samples
- Post-workshop feedback indicated athletes found the workshop had positively impacted their performance, and expected additional benefits in the future

(De Petrillo et al., 2009)
- Runners
- 4 week MSPE programme
- Significant increases state mindfulness and a dimension of trait mindfulness pre to post-intervention
- Significant decreases in aspects of sports-related anxiety and perfectionism
- No significant changes in performance (self-reported best mile time)

MSPE evidence (Thompson et al., 2011)
- 1-year follow-up on previous 2 studies
- Athletes reported a significant increase in trait mindfulness since attending the workshop
- Golfers and archers reported significant improvement performance, though there was no control group to compare
- Golfers’ scores significantly related to increases in the unambiguous feedback dimension of trait flow
- Runners’ performance improvements associated with increases in mindfulness

Question 20

What was found in a systematic review of mindfulness acceptance approaches by Noetel, M., Ciarrochi, Van Zanden, B., & Lonsdale. C. (2019)?

Answer 20

• Risk of bias — comparison groups were sampled from different populations/sport/level of competition.
• Though there were large effect sizes found for mindfulness being beneficial, the quality of evidence was judged to be of low quality due to risk of bias and imprecise reporting of effect sizes.

Question 21

What are the potential issues with mindfulness?

Answer 21

• Research evidence is weak
• Being touted as a cure for all problems
• Possible detachment from self
• Focuses on the self
• Neglects the wider context
• Quite a long programme