Advances in cognitive-socialpersonality theory: applications to sport psychology

Abstract

Many theories and intervention techniques in sport psychology have a cognitive-behavioral emphasis, and sport psychologists have long been interested in individual differences. Recent developments in cognitive social personality theory offer new opportunities for understanding sport behavior. The finding of stable individual differences in situationbehavior relations has helped resolve the person-situation debate of past years, and idiographically-distinct behavioral signatures have now been demonstrated for coaching behaviors across differing game situations. Moreover, coaching behaviors are differentially related to athletes’ liking for the coach, depending on whether they occur during winning or losing game situations. Mischel and Shoda’s (1995) Cognitive-Affective Processing System offers a new template within which to study sport psychology constructs, such as achievement goal orientations and anxiety. Just as social cognitive theory can inform research, theory development, and interventions in sport psychology, research in sport settings can advance the future development of cognitive social personality theory.