Introduction to Psychology,
Sport, and Exercise
Lesson 3
Asst. Prof. Raymond B. Esperida, MSPT, PTRP, FRIPOT, GDMT, CNMT, PhD©
College of Sports, Physical Education, and Recreation
Cavite State University
Psychology’s Beginnings
• Scientific psychology began at the end of the 19th
century and grew out of British empiricism and
German physiology.
• At the beginning of the 20th century two major
approaches, psychoanalysis and behaviorism
emerged.
• Psychoanalytic theory was developed by Freud,
and focused on the unconscious forces that drive
behavior.
• Behaviorism was developed by [Link], who
argued that psychology should only take
observable behavior into account.
Psychology’s Beginnings
• 1950s and 1960s humanistic psychology
emerged with its emphasis on people as higher
beings with a desire for self-actualization;
Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
• 1960s saw the beginning of cognitive psychology,
in which people were viewed as complex
processors of information who made active
decisions based on their interpretations of
situations.
• Cognitive psychology is the dominant approach
used by most academic psychologists today.
History of Sport and Exercise Psychology
• Sport and exercise psychology’s first experiment
was carried out in the late 1890s by Norman
Triplett on social facilitation.
• One of the first sport psychology laboratories was
set up in 1925 by Coleman Roberts-Griffith, the
‘father of sport psychology’.
• Early research focused on motor skills.
• 1970s saw the emergence of research on mental
rehearsal, goal- setting, cohesiveness and
leadership.
• 1980s research on confidence, anxiety,
attribution theory, achievement goals and
exercise began to flourish.
History of Sport and Exercise Psychology
• Exercise psychology began to be influential in the
mid 1980s.
• In part this was driven by the need to explain why
around 50% of people who begin to exercise soon
drop out.
• Dishman’s ‘Exercise Adherence’, published in
1988, is a milestone marking the emergence of a
wider interest in exercise psychology.
• The 1990s saw strong growth in the area.
Perspectives in Psychology
• Psychology is characterized by several schools of
thought or perspectives.
• Each perspective has its own set of assumptions
about what people are like (it has its own implicit
‘model of people’).
• While it might appear somewhat problematic for
a science to have these differences of opinion,
especially when some of these differences are
mutually exclusive, it can be argued that this is
not necessarily a bad thing.
• Multiple perspectives allow us a broader
understanding of why people do the things they
do, since each offers a complementary, rather
than simply a competing view.
Biopsychosocial Perspective
• This perspective takes the view that the best way
to explain human behavior is to investigate its
biological basis.
• This includes the reductionist approach that
focuses on the detailed psychophysiology of the
nervous system, and the evolutionary psychology
that has built upon the ideas of Charles Darwin.
• Biopsychology assumes that human behavior is
best explained in the same terms as those used
for lower animals.
• It also assumes a strong role for heredity and genetic
influences on behavior.
Psychoanalytic Perspective
• Psychoanalytic theory suggests that unconscious
processes drive behavior.
• In Freud’s view the mind consisted of three parts.
• 1. The id was said to be impulsive, and selfish,
consisting of two innate drives, sex and
aggression.
• 2. The superego, is the conscience, and it
develops as we learn society’s rules.
• 3. The ego, concerns itself with the world as it is
experienced.
Psychoanalytic Perspective
• The mind is characterized by a constant conflict in
which the ego tries to balance the demands of
the id and the superego.
• The method favored by Freud for investigating
the mind is ‘free association’.
• Freud believed dreams reveal unconscious
wishes.
• Freudian theory has been heavily criticized in
scientific psychology, because the theory is not
always testable.
• One idea that has endured is the notion of the
defense mechanism.
Behaviorist Perspective
• Behaviorism was the brainchild of [Link] who
argued that to be truly scientific, psychologists should
study overt behavior not thoughts or feelings
(Watson, 1913).
• Watson asked what observable stimulus could be
associated with what observable response?
• For behaviorism the environment determines
behavior.
• Behaviorism is mechanistic.
• It denies free will and claims that we respond to the
environment.
• Behaviorism is underpinned by Pavlov’s work on the
conditioned reflex, and by Skinner’s ideas on operant
conditioning and instrumental learning.
Humanistic Perspective
• The humanistic/phenomenological approach
stresses the higher functions of humans.
• The founding father of humanistic psychology
was Abraham Maslow, who suggested the need
hierarchy theory of human motivation.
• Self-actualization (the need to realize one’s
potential) is central to humanistic psychology as
is the notion of free will.
• Humanistic psychology takes a phenomenological
approach.
Humanistic Perspective
• Phenomenology is the belief that each person
has their own view of the world around them,
and that if we want to understand human action
we have to find out what each individual’s
perspective is.
• Rather than doing experiments, the humanistic
psychologist asks people why they did what they
did.
• Humanistic psychology has had its biggest
influence in counseling and psychotherapy.
Cognitive Perspective
• Cognitive psychology sees human beings as complex,
thinking beings who process and interpret
information and make decisions about the situations
they are in.
• Cognitive psychology is willing to look inside the
black box and deal in mental or abstract constructs,
such as beliefs or feelings or memory stores.
• It differs from the humanistic perspective, in that it
adopts a positivist approach, employs experiments
and uses nomothetic as opposed to the ideographic
methods.
• Cognitive psychology sees people as more like
complex computers than environmental ping-pong
balls.