Cognitive Skills and Performance

Beliefs and performance

The cognitions, or thought processes, in which an athlete engages, may be critical to performance. Several assumptions underlie the use of cognitive-behavioral inventions:

Cognitions can affect athletic performance
These thought processes can be changed
This change can influence behavioral change, and therefore, improve performance.

Williams and Leffingwell (1996) identified several areas of irrational beliefs that can affect the athlete’s performance. In particular, they indicated that perfectionist demands may cause a poor self-concept or feelings of inadequacy which increase the likelihood of failure. However, they distinguish between perfectionist demands and perfectionist desires indicating that a perfectionist desire, which is achievable and not judgmental, may increase the likelihood of success. Other irrational beliefs include making failure a catastrophe, basing self-worth on achievement, focusing on fairness in competition, and generalizing from a single performance to overall competence.

Goal Orientation and Performance

For the purpose of examining goal orientation and performance, King and Williams (1997) had novice martial arts college students rate their satisfaction and performance; in addition, their instructors rated their performance in basic skills, effort, persistence, and consistency. Task orientation is a mastery approach that focuses on hard work, learning goals, improving skills, and gaining understanding, whereas a performance orientation is focused on ego, competition success, gaining recognition, establishing superiority over others, and a belief in natural ability rather than hard work. Generally, traditional martial arts are focused on mastering self-defense and perfecting techniques which is consistent with a task orientation approach whereas contest-oriented martial arts is focused on tournament preparation and is consistent with a performance orientation. King and Williams (1997) found that a task orientation predicted performance and was positively correlated with enjoyment.

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