Psychological Effects of Hardiness on Sport Injury - Essay Example

Psychological Effects of Hardiness on Sport Injury Various studies and researches have been done in various sport institutions to determine the psychological effects of hardiness on sport injury. One of such studies was conducted over a period of two years with about 694 participants in United Kingdom (Kipp 2). The main aim of the study was to determine and investigate the effects of an athlete’s personality on the frequency on sport injury occurrence. Again, the study aimed at investigating both direct and moderate effects of an individual’s personality characteristics as well as their effect on the injury rates. Therefore, from this study, the independent variable was hardiness while the dependent variable was sport injury. In addition, the study used three methods to collect data, as well as longitudinal research design. These methods of data collection include Pearson product moment, bootstrapping procedure and logistical regression. Furthermore, from this research, the hypothesis was that hardiness would be directly related to psychological responses, thus hardiness will reduce the chances of sport injury. Another hypothesis related to response was that hardiness would give positive emotion focused and desirable coping strategies, thus minimizing problems and sport injury. Consequently, the results from the study indicated that athletes with high levels of hardiness are usually less likely to experience injury in their sport process. However, in the event of any injury occurrence, athletes with high levels of hardiness can easily use their psychological coping strategies and psychological recovery procedures in order to overcome such injuries. In that sense, the results of the study fully support and correlate with the hypothesis. How Psychology Strategies Minimize Sport Injuries The current data indicates that athletes who usually use psychological strategies and skills in cases of occurrences of injury always heal faster than those who do not apply these strategies. Again, the same study also indicates that athletes with fast healing mostly used various goal setting procedures and positive talk strategies that allow them to heal at a faster rate. Besides, the use of psychological interventions and recovery skills has been shown to help in improving athletes’ injury recovery rate (Golden 189). Furthermore, athletes who are usually involved in more relaxation and those who take part in guided imagery always experienced fewer injuries in sports. Therefore, it is important and critical that athletes apply positive strategies including self-talk and goal setting strategies to enable them experience less injuries in sports. There are four main approaches that can be applied in psychological strategies to help in reducing chances of injuries in sports. These include education, goal setting, psychological skill training, and social support. To begin with, education through provision of relevant information to athletes should be done in order to reduce their injuries. This is because proper information will allow athletes to understand the causes of the injuries as well as how to avoid them. Secondly, provision of both emotional and physical support to athletes is very important, as this will improve their injury recovery rates. Thirdly, athletes’ psychological skill training is important, as this would allow them to cope with life stress and other mood related anxieties. Finally, athletes should be involved in proper goal setting in order to achieve good performance, thus increasing their self-esteem and reducing chances of getting injury. All in all, rehabilitation psychology should be properly applied in order to help athletes with various injuries in their recovery process. Psychological Effects of Illness and States of Mood on Sport Injury A study was done in Groningen province at the center of sports Medicine of the University of Physiotherapy of Medical Center Leeuwarden, where about 95 athletes who were aged between 16 to 65 years and who had at least about 30 injuries on their bodies participated in the study. The main purpose of this study was to investigate and analyze the effects of illness perception and states of athletes’ mood on the injury rates during sports activities. Furthermore, the hypothesis of the study was that illness and mood conditions are directly related to athletes’ injury. Therefore, the independent variable was mood conditions and illness perceptions while the dependent variable was the injury rate. Besides, study employed questionnaire method of data collection known as Illness Perception Questionnaire- Revised Sports (IPQ-R-S). In addition, the study used Profile of Mood States (POMS) as another method of data collection. The first data collection method was used to collect data such as illness causes and how to control them. The latter data collection method was used to collect data such as anger, mood depression, tension, and fatigue. The results of the study indicated that various injuries that athletes experience were directly related to their states of mood and illness perceptions. Furthermore, another psychological study also indicates that stress level is one of the factors that promote athletes injuries. For example, life stress such as death of loved one and change in economic well-being will generally predispose athletes to more injuries. Therefore, athletes with high levels of life stress are more likely to experience many injuries than those with less stress. Actually, it is important that athletes adapt to various stress coping skills to enable them avoid life stresses, which are in most cases inevitable. Moreover, research also indicates that individual athletes with low self-esteem are those that are usually pessimistic are more likely to experience injuries in sports than those who have high self-esteem and are optimistic in life (Chondrou et al 4). Nevertheless, it is worth noting that psychology is one of the strategies and approaches that can be used to help athletes reduce and avoid daily occurrences of injuries in sports. Therefore, it is clear that, although there are other strategies of minimizing injuries in sports, psychology, especially rehabilitation psychology, plays a major role in the process of helping athletes avoid and reduce injuries in sports. These strategies include, goal setting, social support and psychology training skills. SKELETON OUTLINE I. Introduction 1. Psychology rehabilitation 2. Sport injuries 3. Various studies (three articles provided). II. BODY PARAGRAPHS 1. Psychological Effects of Hardiness on Sport Injury - Timeframe - Variables - Hypothesis - Findings 2. Psychological Effects of fear of Re -Injury and Pain on Sport Injury - Timeframe - Variables - Hypothesis - Findings 3. Psychological Effects of Illness and States of Mood on Sport Injury - Timeframe - Variables - Hypothesis - Findings 4. How Psychology Strategies Minimize Sport Injuries Rehabilitation Psychology Goal setting Social support Psychology training skills III. CONCLUSION 1. Topic re-statement 2. Summary of main points 3. Relevance of the study Works Cited Chondrou, Armatas et al. Psychological aspects of rehabilitation following serious athletic injuries with special reference to goal setting: A review study. N.d. Golden, Charles (Ed). Current Topics in Rehabilitation Psychology. Orlando, FL: Grune & Stratton, 1984. Kipp, Kimberly. An examination of hardiness throughout the sport injury process.2014. 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