Introducing a basic psychological performance demand model for sport and organisations

ABSTRACT

This study presents the development of a basic psychological performance demand model (PDM) for sport and organisations, adopting a process view of performance underpinned by reversal theory (Apter [2001] An introduction to reversal theory. In M. J. Apter (Ed.), Motivational styles in everyday life: A guide to reversal theory (pp. 3-36⁠). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association). Six elite coaches with extensive coaching experience at European, Commonwealth, Olympic and Paralympic Games were interviewed. Their interview statements were analysed using a combination of deductive and inductive analysis procedures for qualitative data. In conjunction with the interviewer, coaches developed PDMs for their specific sports. Analysis of interview data and coaches’ specific PDMs identified four main cross-sport themes or fundamental psychological capabilities required for meeting performance demands. These were: Mastery motivation, Decision making, Execution, and Teamship. The PDM offers a starting framework for a new basic performance model that is novel and pragmatic with potential applicability across sports and organisations. The model is useful in its existing form, but needs further testing, extended practical application and reflection by coaches, athletes, and sport psychologists. It has potential for use in other coaching contexts beyond sport, such as business, leadership development, education, and health.

KEYWORDS:

• Performance demand model
• elite coaches
• elite athletes
• executive coaches
• coaching practice
• reversal theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Joanne Hudson, Ph.D. is an Associate professor in Sport Science at the University of Swansea and has taught in Higher Education for 20 years. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a British Association of Sport and Exercise Science Fellow with Accreditation for Research. She is also a British Psychological Society Associate Fellow, and a Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist with Health Care Professions Council Registration. In sport psychology, among other topics her research focuses on stress, appraisal and coping in athletes and she is co-author of Coping and Emotion in Sport (2004).

Jonathan R. Males, Ph.D. is a London-based executive coach and sport psychologist. He has worked with Olympic and Paralympic athletes since 1992, and his business clients and senior leaders in range of industries. He is a former Olympic athlete and has worked as a sport psychologist at recent Olympic games. He is involved in coaching elite athletes and is the author of In the Flow (2014), a guide to performance psychology for canoeing and kayaking.

John H. Kerr, Ph.D., is Adjunct Professor of Sport & Exercise Psychology with the School of Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia. Previously, he held university positions in the U.K., The Netherlands and Japan. He has published widely in psychology and sport and exercise psychology journals and is author, co-author or editor of ten psychology books, including Violence in rugby (2012); Rethinking Aggression and Violence in Sport (2005); Counselling Athletes: Applying Reversal Theory (2001); Motivation and Emotion in Sport (1997); Understanding Soccer Hooliganism (1994). He is a former high level rugby player and coach.