Sport Cyberpsychology

Olivia A. Hurley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351838894
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Applied Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Sport Cyberpsychology is the first book devoted to assessing the influence of technology on human interaction, behaviour and mental health in a sport context, gathering research on the use of technology and the Internet by athletes, coaches and sport science support staff.

The book identifies the potential impact of technology on athletes' mental preparation for competition, as well as the role of technology in improving performance. It explores the use of technology by athletes and sport organisations for social interaction, while also considering the 'darker' side of athletes' Internet use.

It covers topics including:

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• the role of GPS, gaming and virtual reality in training and injury recovery
• the use of social media by athletes and sport organisations
• the psychology of self-presentation and brand management, as well as issues of online privacy
• the use of technology by other elite groups, such as military and medical personnel, and non-elite sportspeople
• cyberbullying and online harassment of athletes
• online gambling and athletes' mental health in relation to their online activities
• virtual learning environments and the educational opportunities the online world can offer athletes

Accessibly written, with a companion website featuring lecture slides, reading lists, video links and suggested social media accounts, Sport Cyberpsychology offers a complete resource for students and instructors alike. It is important reading for any students of sport psychology, sport coaching or sport media, as well as coaches, athletes and sport science support staff.

Part I
Introducing sport cyberpsychology

1
What is Sport Cyberpsychology?

Case Study 1

Patricia is an accredited sport psychologist working with an elite group of young golfers aged between 18 and 24 years. Patricia is preparing a session for these young golfers, to discuss their uses of technology as part of their training and competition routines for their sport. Patricia hopes this session will increase these players’ awareness of the role technology plays in both their sport and non-sport lives. Patricia will direct some of the discussion with these young golfers toward topics related to the potential psychological impact that various types of new technology within golf may have on these golfers’ performances.

• (i) What new technologies could be important for Patricia to discuss during this session with these young golfers?
• (ii) Identify some of the psychological issues that may arise for these golfers, as they discuss this topic on the impact of new technologies used as part of their preparations for their sport of golf?
• (iii) How could Patricia ethically use the information the players share during this session to develop guidelines for other athletes in other sports she works in, on how they too might effectively manage their use of technology within and indeed outside of their sport environment so that it could facilitate rather than debilitate their performances?

1.1 Overview

This chapter introduces the disciplines of sport psychology and cyberpsychology to the reader. It explains, in brief, the historical pathways of both disciplines. It also presents a rationale for considering this new, combined area of sport cyberpsychology study that brings sport psychology and cyberpsychology together under one heading, in order to create an exciting area of research and applied focus for sport psychologists and cyberpsychologists alike.

1.2 Learning objectives

1. To introduce this new discipline of sport cyberpsychology
2. To identify and define key terms related to sport cyberpsychology
3. To provide brief histories of sport psychology and cyberpsychology
4. To highlight some key developments within these disciplines of sport psychology and cyberpsychology that have led to interest in sport cyberpsychology being considered as a new, worthy area of theoretical and practical psychological study in the future

1.3 Definitions of relevant terms

Cyberpsychology

The branch of psychology that examines how people interact with each other when using technology. It includes an examination of how technology developers might be able to create the best possible technologies in order to meet the needs and demands of their users (known as Human Computer Interaction, or HCI). How technology influences the behaviours and mental states of its users is also of interest to cyberpsychologists.

Exercise psychology

The study of mental processes and behaviours within exercise and health settings.

Green exercise

The study of how exercise activities completed outdoors, within natural environments, may benefit the health and well-being of participants.

Performance psychology

The study of psychological principles applied to the performances of individuals not typically referred to as athletes, but whose performances also include demanding physical and cognitive elements. Such performers include dancers, medical personnel (e.g., surgeons), members of the military and defence forces (e.g., police force and army personnel) as well as other emergency service specialists, such as firefighters and rescue workers.

Sport cyberpsychology

The proposed new study of human interaction with technologies, including the Internet, mobile phones, games consoles and virtual reality devices, specifically within sport settings. This area of study could include consideration of the impact, both positively and negatively, of technological advances, on the mental states of athletes using these technologies within their sport environments.

Sport psychology

The area of psychology which examines the principles of psychology within sport settings. Psychology is often defined as a study of mental processes. Within sport psychology, the mental processes of athletes typically are studied in order to determine how they may impact on these athletes’ performances within their sport.

1.4 A short introduction to sport psychology and cyberpsychology

Sport psychology can be considered the discipline of psychology which applies psychological theories, and methods, in order to understand the performances and mental processes of individuals involved in sport participation (Moran, 2012; Moran & Toner, 2017). Sport psychology has been described as one of the most rapidly growing areas of psychological investigation, with the potential to significantly impact a large number of individuals (Attrill, 2015). Cyberpsychology may be considered perhaps the only other sub-discipline of psychology that has had a greater impact on the daily lives of individuals within the past 20 years (Attrill, 2015). These two points alone could explain the recent spark of interest within the psychological community, and indeed, within the general public at large, in these two exciting and influential areas of psychological investigation, but in combination, rather than in isolation. A logical question to follow from such interest could then be: what should the focus of sport cyberpsychology, as a new discipline, be? This question will be explored, and hopefully answered, within the ten chapters of this new textbook, Sport Cyberpsychology.

1.4.1 Sport cyberpsychology – a working definition

Based upon the definitions of sport psychology and cyberpsychology at the beginning of this chapter, sport cyberpsychology could be considered the study of human interaction with technologies, including the Internet, mobile phones, games consoles and virtual reality, within sport settings. In recent years many athletes, their coaches and their support personnel (such as their physiotherapists and strength and conditioning personnel) have introduced an array of new technologies into the athletic environment, in order help improve the training and competition performances of their elite participants. It would be fair to say that such technological developments have resulted in many anecdotal, and some empirical (although somewhat lacking), reports of positive effects being recorded as a result of such technology use, both on the training methods and performance outcomes of many athletes. However, an awareness that these technologies may also result in, or have the potential to affect, the individuals using them in negative ways too should also prevail. As Dr Brenda Wiederhold stated,

Technology, as opined by Carl Jung, is neutral. It is how we use that technology that determines whether it will be positive or negative. On the positive side, we now see technology offering new opportunities for scientific research to be conducted more efficiently, social isolation relieved by networking tools and healthcare transitioned into the home and office. On the negative side, we see Internet gaming addiction, cyberbullying and cybercrime.

(cited in the Foreword of An Introduction to Cyberpsychology by Connolly, Palmer, Barton, & Kirwan, 2016)

The various impacts of new technologies on the mental states of elite athletes, and indeed on all of the sport participants using them (i.e., novice and recreational athletes/exercisers), have remained largely unexplored from an empirical position. Searches for relevant research findings in peer-reviewed journals and texts examining such issues uncovered this lack of consideration on the part of psychology researchers regarding these topics during the writing of this textbook, Sport Cyber-psychology. As a result, the potential positive, and negative, psychological effects of technology use within the world of sport will be the main focus of the material explored within the chapters of this new textbook.

However, in order to fully understand how sport psychology and cyberpsychology may come together to create this new and exciting area of psychological study, a necessary start is perhaps to give the reader an understanding of these two separate fields of psychology (sport psychology and cyberpsychology) in isolation first. From that position, an appreciation for how these two areas might then unite under a combined heading of new academic exploration may become apparent.

1.4.2 What is sport psychology?

Sport psychology, as defined at the beginning of this chapter, is generally regarded as the study of mental process and behaviours of individuals within sport settings. Included in those ‘individuals’ are coaches, managers, support personnel and spectators/fans, as well as the athletes themselves (Moran, 2012; Moran & Toner, 2017). A related area of psychology, namely exercise psychology, can be considered the examination of such mental processes and behaviours among non-elite, novice and recreational participants, who take part in physical, and sport, activities for predominantly health-related benefits. Research studies in such exercise contexts often focus on the impact of exercise on the physical and psychological well-being of the participants. One current ‘hot’ topic of study within exercise psychology is that of green exercise. This term refers to the activity of exercising within natural environments (for example, by the sea or in parks) and the impact of such exercise on participants’ physical and mental health (for a review of this area of psychological study, see Donnelly et al., 2016, and GoGreenEx, 2017). Another area of study linked to sport and exercise psychology is performance psychology. This area will now be explained as it relates in some ways to content presented in some of the later chapters of this text.

1.4.3 What is performance psychology?

Performance psychology, as previously stated, has been linked in recent times to the areas of psychological study, sport and exercise psychology. This trend has led to a number of newly formed postgraduate programmes being established at various academic institutions (for example, at the University of Limerick in Ireland). Such third-level study has enabled students of psychology to study all three related disciplines of sport, exercise and performance psychology in greater depth within the one course. One justification for the bringing together of these three separate sub-disciplines of psychology has been their common theme of studying behaviours within elite and/or physically demanding performance settings. Kavussanu (2017), the new editor of the APA’s peer-reviewed journal, Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology (SEPP), wrote a recent review of the journal’s accomplishments in contributing to academic research within psychology, while also outlining some areas for greater research consideration across these three disciplines. In this review, Kavussanu (2017) expressed a desire to see more research studies carried out within the performance psychology area specifically.

Performance psychology, as described by Martin (2012), is the examination of human performance across a wide spectrum of performance arenas, including the performing arts (i.e., dancers, artists and actors), the military or ‘defense forces’, and those from the medical profession, such as surgeons and doctors. Many of these performers are often asked to work or ‘perform’ within elite, life-saving, high-pressure environments. Such environments involve a necessity for high performance, with fine psychomotor skills and abilities required in order for positive outcomes to be derived (similar to the performance environments that athletes also partake in for their sport disciplines; Kavussanu, 2017; Martin, 2012). While this text on sport cyberpsychology briefly refers to these other populations of ‘performers’ (for example, within Chapter 4, which explores the use of virtual reality (VR) technology within such elite settings), performance cyberpsychology will not be the main focus of the material included because, as Kavussanu (2017) alluded to, there remains a need to increase the specific research offerings within this area. As such, it was considered too difficult, and too large an undertaking at the outset, for this text to focus on presenting material from both the sport and performance psychology research area while also considering it from the perspective of the cyber world. Therefore, the title for this text, of Sport Cyberpsychology, was considered more appropriate in this case. With that in mind, the main areas of study within sport psychology, first, as a stand-alone discipline, are presented next.

1.5 What is studied within sport psychology?

Having presented a definition o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Part I Introducing sport cyberpsychology
• Part II Exploring the use of technology to prepare athletes for their sport
• Part III Sport personnel in the online world
• Part IV The dark side of sport cyberpsychology
• Index