Social Learning Theories By Freud, Dr. David Hersey & Other Phychologists

In 1915, in his research of mentally ill patients, Freud came up with the idea of Unconscious Mind versus Conscious Mind where the: “Conscious mind contains all your memories, feelings and all emotions” Unconscious mind is the feelings of urges and memories that are unacceptable or unpleasant. Many unconscious thoughts and reactions are developed in a person’s childhood.

In 1923 Freud extended the psychodynamic approach to personality by saying that the mind is made up of three parts:

1. Ego is the conscious mind which is the part we are fully in control of.
2. Super ego is your moral conscience. This is how we feel about the conscious thoughts we have.
3. Instinctive drive (also known as ID) is the thing we automatically do; this is an unconscious state of mind.

An unconscious sporting example would be a footballer taking a penalty in the cup final in front of a crowd of 50,000 and freezing under pressure as his mind isn't used to the situation he is in; this can lead to anxiety. A conscious sporting example would be something the person is more familiar with, for example playing football in the park with friends. A positive aspect of this theory is it shows how the mind affects sporting performance by long-term and short-term memory. A negative aspect of this theory is that it was only tested on mentally ill patients. This meant there was no comparison with how the non-mentally ill would react to certain situations. The theory, therefore, could be said to be inaccurate.

Situational Approach

The Situational Approach, developed by Dr. David Hersey, is different from other trait theories as it says that behaviour is dependent on a person’s situation or environment and believes this is far more important than traits. A situation can influence a person’s behaviour but it cannot predict sporting behaviour as the individual’s personality traits need to be considered as well. There is acceptance for the situational approach in sporting behaviour, as individuals may be introverted but may participate in a sport that requires them to be more extroverted and show characteristics like aggression in a sporting situation; Paul Scholes is a good example.

A similar theory to the Situational Approach is the Social Learning Theory. One of the main founders of the social learning theory of personality was a psychologist called Albert Bandura (1977). He suggested that when an individual forms their personality they are more likely to model themselves on people who they see as powerful or who they feel are similar to themselves, for example, parents, friends.

Bandura identified four stages in the process of observational learning:

1. Attention
2. Retention
3. Reproduction
4. Motivational response

The social learning view sees the individual’s personality developing in this way as a result of observing the behaviour of others, paying attention, reproducing the behaviours of significant others and continuing to do so if those behaviours are rewarded. Both theories are very similar as they both talk about how others copy and imitate others’ behaviour. A person’s performance can depend on the role models’ actions as this will influence how a person performs by copying the body language, techniques or what they say. For example, if a young boy watches a tennis match, which is the sport he plays, he will copy and absorb the older and more experienced player’s movements and techniques into his own game. The boy pays particular attention to the losing player because he knows what it feels like to be in a losing situation.

1. Attention: the boy notices how the player spends a few moments with his eyes closed and body relaxed. He comes out for the next game looking very controlled. His stance shows confidence, his facial expression shows intense concentration, he goes on to win the set.
2. Retention: the boy remembers the player's relaxed posture and subsequent confident approach, as well as his success in winning the set.
3. Reproduction: the next time the youngster is in a losing situation he imitates this behaviour, sitting with his eyes closed, trying to appear relaxed, and then goes on to the court looking confident.
4. Motivational response: if he feels more confident and improves his game when he behaves in this way, this rewards his behaviour and makes him more likely to repeat it.

A positive aspect of the theory is that role models have a massive impact on the way people play. This has evidence to back it up, as children will imitate the way Ronaldo takes a free kick. A negative aspect of the theory would be if the role model does something bad, like getting sent off or doing something incorrectly; this can have a negative effect on the way a child can perform by copying the bad habits that their chosen role model has done in a game.

Interactional Approach

The Interactional Approach (IT) considers both psychological traits and situational influences on behaviour and the way they mix and combine in unique ways to impact behaviour. This approach is widely accepted by sport psychologists when explaining behaviour. Consider a football player who may have a 'short fuse' which often leads to rash actions. The same player will not show that behaviour all the time and only does so when made to react to psychological behaviour triggers. The player becomes aggressive and snaps in a violent manner, for example, Eric Cantona leaping in to the crowd at Crystal Palace after being provoked by a fan.

IT suggests that when situational factors are particularly strong, for example, during competitive sporting situations like penalty shootouts in football, they are more likely to predict behaviour thanpersonality traits. The athlete who tends to be quiet and shy in an everyday situation is likely to run towards a cheering crowd screaming if he scored the winning penalty.The interactionist view combines the trait and social learning perspectives. It proposes that personality is altered and behaviour is formed when inherited traits are activated by an environmental incident. This unpredictable response from the team player may have been caused by anger, a build-up of anxiety or even a lack of sleep before the game. Despite these problems, Gordon Bower (1977) believed that ‘the interactionist view alone explains twice as much as trait and social learning perspectives’.

Conclusion

In conclusion my opinion is that the way one acts off the field can impact the way one performs on the field. People are heavily influenced by their role models’ behaviour which can affect one either positively or negatively in their chosen sport.