Psychological Flexibility in Competition

Psychological flexibility in sport is the ability to respond to challenging or stressful situations in competition so you can always perform your best.

Psychological flexibility is

• doing what matters even when you feel challenged
• having the skills to get out of your head
• associated with satisfaction and wellbeing

Psychological inflexibility is

• reducing or avoiding discomfort
• trying to think positively all the time
• associated with anxiety, negative body image, pain and poor performance

We will measure psychological flexibility using the Personalised Psychological Flexibility Index (PPFI) for sport.

Why is psychological flexibility relevant to sport?

Basketball player feels anxiety before a big game but thinks this is a sign of weakness so hides it from their teammates by avoiding the team warm up.

Rower notices they are worried about an opponent they have lost to before but is able to redirect attention to their pre-race preparation plan whilst allowing the thought to be there.

Hockey player is angry about some feedback they just received from their coach and uses the anger to sharpen their focus and intensity for the next quarter.

Measuring Mental Performance in Competition (MPC)

Why AIS are measuring the psychological flexibility of Australian athletes?

• enhance athletes’ mental performances in competition.
• individualise athletes approaches to mental preparation for competition.
• increase athletes’ readiness for intense competition-related stress.
• increase athletes’ abilities to direct focus and attention to their performance.

Research project overview

Aim

AIS is conducting research with George Mason University (USA), and Adelaide University to validate the PPFI-Sport and identify best practice interventions to help athletes mentally prepare for competition.

Participant groups

This research received ethics approval and will commence in 2022. The target participant group is categorised Australian athletes aged 16 years and above in the performance pathway.

Data management

A network of registered psychologists will act as points of contact (POC) for the project in NSO's and NIN to ensure ethical and confidential management of the data.

Data collection

Data will be collected via an IOS App that will be used to administer the research and to capture and analyse data in a single secure location as well as provide participants with their results.

Outcomes

Measuring mental performance in competition will assist in building a unique picture of the underlying psychological mechanisms that impact on mental performance.

Applying the research

The data will lead to the design of interventions for individuals and sports with a level of relevance not previously available.

What are AIS measuring?

• Wellbeing: satisfaction, self, relationships and meaningful tasks.​
• Personality: characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving.​
• Cognitive abilities: selective attention, sensory input discrimination, and reaction time​.
• Psychological flexibility: tendency to respond to challenging or stressful situations in ways which facilitate goal directed behaviour..​
• Performance in competition: performance at a selected benchmark event relevant to the athlete’s stage of development.

The aim is to develop the Personalised Psychological Flexibility Inventory – SPORT or the PPFI-SPORT.

Research team

The Australian Institute of Sport and the following individuals and organisations have partnered to provide the National High Performance Sports System with evidence-based information on psychological flexibility in competition.

Jim Doorley

Clinical fellow, Integrated Brain Health Clinical and Research Program (IBHCRP) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)

Jim Doorley is a clinical fellow at the Integrated Brain Health Clinical and Research Program (IBHCRP) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and a clinical psychology doctoral candidate at George Mason University.

His research and clinical interests include mindfulness- and acceptance-based treatments as well as mind-body interventions to reduce anxiety/avoidance and enhance physical functioning among individuals with pain and sport-related musculoskeletal injuries.

Jim’s interests also extend to understanding the role of psychological flexibility in improving emotional and physical outcomes among these patient populations. Previously, he worked with athletes recovering from injuries and provided sport psychology consultation at the Inova Hospital Sports Medicine Concussion Program and United States Naval Academy. For his dissertation, Jim received a grant from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to explore the role of positive emotion regulation and self-compassion in promoting resilience and performance rebound among college athletes.

Richard Fryer

Psychologist working in applied high performance in Australia.

Richard Fryer is a psychologist working in applied high performance in Australia. He is the current national psychology lead for archery as well as working with the Australian Institute of Sport and the Royal Australian Air Force.

With a background in rowing coaching and two decades’ experience helping some of the worlds’ largest and most successful organisations achieve their goals, Richard is at the leading edge of the practical application of performance psychology research.

Dr. Todd B. Kashdan

Professor of Psychology, George Mason University

Dr. Todd B. Kashdan is Professor of Psychology at George Mason University. He is a leading authority on well-being, curiosity, psychological flexibility, and resilience. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and his work has been cited over 30,000 times. He is the author of several books including Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life (William Morrow), and The Upside of Your Dark Side: Why being your whole self - not just your “good” self - drives success and fulfillment (Penguin). His research is featured regularly in media outlets such as The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review,

The New York Times, NPR, Fast Company, and Time Magazine. He is a keynote speaker and consultant for organizations as diverse as Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz, Prudential, General Mills, The United States Department of Defense, and World Bank Group. He received the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology. He's a twin with twin 14-year old daughters, with plans to rapidly populate the world with great conversationalists.

Associate Professor Carolyn Semmler

Leads the Applied Cognition and Experimental Psychology (ACEP) research group

Associate Professor Carolyn Semmler leads the Applied Cognition and Experimental Psychology (ACEP) research group, focusing on the application of theories and models of cognition, judgement and decision-making to defence and medical contexts.

The ACEP research group develops mathematical models to understand human performance and interaction with intelligent agents, developing human-machine interfaces for defence and national security. Her work has been cited over 1120 times and she has been funded by the Next Generation Technologies Fund, Australian Research Council, and the National Science Foundation (USA). Lab Capabilities: ACEP capabilities include experimental methods and computational modelling of cognitive processes, neurophysiological and physiological measurement to understand and improve human decision-making in important contexts, such as health, policing and national security.

Our work uses human experiments to achieve high levels of performance and design of technology to enhance proficiency. In doing so, we hope to improve the accuracy and efficiency of decisions made by personnel in various operational contexts.