Teams

1
Teams
SPORT PSYCHOLOGYChapter 9
Lavallee et al. (2004) Sport Psychology
Contemporary Themes (Palgrave Macmillan,
Basingstoke)
2
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

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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

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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

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Theories and Models

• Individual performance in teams
• Social Facilitation
• Various explanations, including Zajoncs drive
  theory (mere presence), Cottrell (evaluation)
  Baron (conflict)
• Social Loafing
• Competing theories, including Latanes social
  impact theory
• Integration
• 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

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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 team
• Antecedents
• 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

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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
  cohesion
• Team maturity
• Stage model (forming, storming, norming,
  performing) (Tuckman, 1965)
• More latterly, cycles of change (Arrow, 1997)

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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

9
Theories and Models

• Team Roles
• Contingency models of leadership, including
• Fiedlers Contingency Model (situational control)
• Vroom and Yettons Normative Model (decision
  making)
• Hersey Blanchards Situational leadership
  Theory (maturity of followers)
• Houses Path-Goal Theory (motivation)
• Chelladurais 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

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Theories and Models

• Smith Smolls 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)

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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

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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 Yettons 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)

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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)
• Childrens self-esteem shown to relate to
  preferred coaching styles
• Arizona State Univ. Observation Instrument
  (ASUOI, 13 categories)

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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

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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

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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.

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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?

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Study Questions

• How may social loafing and social facilitation
  influence individual behaviour in team sports?
• Critically evaluate the relationship between
  cohesion and success in team sports
• Home advantage - does it exist and if so, when,
  where and why?
• Discuss the contribution of contingency
  leadership models to our understanding of
  successful coaching in sport
• Assess the effectiveness of team building as an
  applied technique for enhancing team performance

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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