Reflection

The topics mindfulness and flow in sports are tremendously interesting to me, when I keep going over the literature, the sound argumentation, exploding empirical evidence, I am baffled by the complete and utter absence of anything mindfulness-related in this master’s program. The current project Matilda and I are involved in, looks promising, provided that we are allowed to make some serious modifications and additions, in terms of molding the research more towards sport & exercise psychology. Cancelled meetings, mixed signals, things could really use some clarification at this point. Motivation has taken some blows, luckily we can be mindful about it and make lemonade with whatever lemons we are given.

First Draft Literature Review & Tentative Outline Master’s Thesis Project

Times are changing. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and mindfulness-based approaches are taking over most psychological fields: stress, depression, anxiety, psychosis, eating disorders, work performance, to name a nice bunch (Baer, 2003; Hayes, 2004; Moore, 2009). There is ample empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of ACT and mindfulness-based approaches (Cullen, 2008; Hayes, 2004). Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about first wave behavioralism and second wave cognitive therapy (Hayes, 2004). These two earlier streams were not entirely wrong, but they did have some serious flaws. Behavioralism failed to deal adequately with cognition, while cognitive therapy did so, in a too mechanistic manner, depicting human cognition as an information processing computer, thereby also neglecting the behavior therapy link and basic theory (Hayes, 2004). ACT builds upon both earlier waves.

Also sport psychology is catching up, the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) approach developed by Gardner & Moore (2004) has shown preliminary effects. At this point it would be a good idea to make a distinction between ACT and mindfulness. Mindfulness is the main ingredient of ACT, but not the only one. Commitment and values are the other two key points in the ACT hexaflex, whereas acceptance, cognitive defusion, self-as-context, and living in the present moment are the mindfulness-parts. Nonetheless, various other mindfulness-based approaches are out there; e.g., Mindfulness-Based-Stress-Reduction therapy (MBSR; Kabat-Zinn, 1990), the afore mentioned MAC, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (Segal, 2002), etc. to name only a few. The theoretical underpinnings of ACT, and its application in practice, shall be discussed in further detail, later in this literature review.

 

Web-based self-help intervention programs have shown to be effective in a number of studies (Andersson, 2009; Cuipers, 2009; Kaltenthaler, 2004; Marks, 2007; Ruwaard, 2009), including mindfulness-based approaches. This has not yet been investigated with ACT, although preliminary evidence is apparent (Lappalainen et al., publication pending). These web-based self-help interventions are important for several reasons: (1) cost-efficiency, number or therapists is limited, as are resources; (2) stigmatization, shame involved in seeking psychological help; and (3) engagement to the program might be easier if one can do it in the comfort of his/her own home, at whatever time suits him/her best.

 

Tentative Outline Master’s Thesis 

Highest priority at this point is clarifying the scope of the project, and particularly, how sport & exercise psychology will be involved. Additional meetings with our supervisors and the Department of Psychology are planned in the following few weeks. Until then, there is little left for us (Matilda and me) to do, besides digging some more into the literature. However, I hope the interesting articles I find nowadays will be relevant to the thesis (e.g., relationships mindfulness – flow, qualitative studies flow & mindfulness). Also, we should shortly start reading more about qualitative research methods, if this will indeed be a part of the project. Even constructing a literature review at this point is not as easy as it might seem; the queue is massive, but I am not completely sure what articles to let in. In sum, another meeting is urgent.

Spring 2012: Literature review; clarifying details research with co-workers; start working on the actual intervention material; depending on the outcome of meetings: start contacting/ finding athletes for qualitative part research

Fall 2012:  Completion web-based self-help intervention; contact participants + planning; implementation intervention; pre-, during-, and post-measurements, research diary (qualitative part)

Spring 2013: Data-analysis, perhaps follow-up measurements/ interviews

 

References

Baer, R. A. (2003). Mindfulness training as clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10, 125-143.

 

Cullen, C. (2008). Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT): a third wave behaviour therapy. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 36, 667-673.

 

Gardner, F.L., & Moore, Z.E. (2004). A Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) based approach to performance enhancement: Theoretical considerations. Behavior Therapy, 35, 707–723.

 

Gardner, F.L., & Moore, Z.E. (2007). The psychology of enhancing human performance: The Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) approach. New York: Springer.

 

Hayes, S. C. (2004). Acceptance and commitment therapy, relational frame theory, and the third wave of behaviour therapy. Behaviour Therapy, 35, 639–665.

 

Hayes, S. C., Masuda, A., Bissett, R., Louma, J. and Guerrero, L. F. (2004). DBT, FAP, and ACT: how empirically oriented are the new behaviour therapy technologies? Behaviour Therapy, 35, 35–54.

 

Moore, Z. E. (2009). Theoretical and empirical developments of the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) approach to performance enhancement. Journal of Clinical Sports Psychology, 4, 291-302.

Goals update

My current goals are very much in line with the course’s goals: construct a solid literature review; improve my presentation skills; gain some in-depth knowledge of qualitative research methods using the given book references in this course; clarify the whole first/third person active/passive voice story; and learn more on how to provide constructive, useful feedback.

ARTICLE OUTLINE

Gardner, F. L. & Moore, Z. E. (2004). A Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment-based approach to athletic performance enhancement: Theoretical considerations. Behavior Therapy, 34, 707-723.

Note: This article does not follow the usual APA-outline.

• Abstract 

In the abstract, Gardner & Moore briefly describe how different their MAC-approach is from traditional cognitive-behavioral skills-training-based approaches to athletic performance. Firstly the traditional approaches are described in one sentence: “negative thoughts and emotions must be controlled, eliminated, or replaced for athletes to perform optimally”. However, it is noted that recent evidence suggests that this may actually have the opposite effect, considering the well-established application of these traditional approaches in sport psychology nowadays, this certainly drew my attention. Further, their alternative, or supplemental, approach (MAC) is presented, as we will see later, well backed-up by ample empirical evidence and ‘grand’ theories. Needless to say, the abstract just gives a brief summary of the article.

• 1.0 Introduction 

Gardner & Moore start their introduction by briefly delineating the history of acceptance-based approaches, in relation to the older, traditional approaches. However, they just shortly ‘touch’ the subject, to elaborate on in more detail, later in the article. In this way, the main purpose of the article, presenting a new approach, is described. In short, Gardner & Moore describe how empirical support for an acceptance approach (rather than direct change, suppression, and/or control) had recently begun to be advocated and demonstrated by behavioral theorists in professional psychology. Furthermore, this has led to the ‘genesis’ of their MAC-approach, adapted from clinical models of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999), and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002).

•  1.1 Historical Development of Psychological Skills Training

This paragraph starts with the very beginning (rather broad, to narrow it down later on) of skills training models of cognitive-behavioral interventions (Meichenbaum, 1977) and Bandura’s social cognitive theory (1977): it is explained how, based on these theories, the first attempts to create the ideal performance state, developed. Almost immediately, Gardner & Moore grasp the opportunity to criticize psychological skills training (PST) by stating that a number of authors frequently describe and support the use of PST, while concurrently commenting on the inconsistent and inconclusive empirical support for such approaches (Burton,
Naylor, & Holliday, 2001; Gould, Damarjian, & Greenleaf, 2002; Gould & Udry, 1994; Meyers, Whelan, & Murphy, 1996; Weinberg, 1994, 2002; Williams & Leffingwell, 2002; Zaichkowsy & B altzell, 2001). This attack continues, as they try to tackle even the theoretical assumptions, backed-up by empirical data, which, ironically enough, again was provided by traditional-approaches-supporting researchers: e.g., reduction in ‘negative’ affective states such as anxiety, and/or increase in self-confidence, did not consistently result in significant increase in athletic performance (Burton, 1989; Daw & Burton, 1994; Holm, Beckwith, Ehde, & Tinius, 1996; Maynard, Smith, & Warwick-Evans, 1995; Murphy & Woolfolk, 1987; Weinberg, Seabourne, & Jackson, 1981). Gardner & Moore continue by describing more previous studies, all of which support their  own point.

• 1.2 An Alternative Approach to Athletic Performance Enhancement

Directly, one major argument is brought onto the show: Wegner’s ironic process of mental control: “attempting to suppress unwanted thoughts and emotions can actually have a paradoxical effect, triggering a meta-cognitive scanning process that actively searches for signs of ‘negative’ or unwanted cognitive activity and brings it to awareness when detected (Purdon, 1999; Wegner, 1994)”. Gardner & Moore continue: “as such, excessive cognitive activity and task-irrelevant focus replaces meta-cognitive task-relevant attention and functional goal-directed behavior”. More players come into play: “efforts at thought suppression or control
might actually result in an increase in frequency of unwanted thoughts and emotions” (Clark, Ball, & Pape, 1991). This goes on for a while, as always, backed-up by previous research. I described the latter in considerable detail because, in my point of view, Gardner & Moore made a pretty strong point here. Next, self-regulatory processes are added to their ever growing arsenal of arguments. I will include a few more potent points: “internal control-based approaches to performance enhancement may inadvertently result in overly cognitive (verbal-semantic, self-focused) rather than meta-cognitive (in-the-moment, nonjudgmental) activity, resulting in a reduced capacity to automatically engage (i.e., trust) previously developed athletic skills, appropriately respond to necessary contextual cues, and maintain optimal task-relevant focus”. In between, many recaps are given.

Yet another powerful point: “Internal experiences are viewed as naturally occurring events that regularly come and go as normal, expected facets of human existence. From this overarching perspective, human difficulties evolve, at least in part, from the tendency for individuals to “fuse” with their internal experiences such as thoughts, feelings, and self-other evaluations, and thus view internal processes as absolute literal truths that provide reasons for events and in turn guide/cause behavioral choices (Hayes et al., 1996). As a result, rather than engaging in behaviors reflective of a commitment to valued goals (quality practice, hard training, aggressive competitive performance, maintenance of strategic plans and choices), competitive choices/behaviors are often made for the purpose of avoiding and thus controlling/limiting internal experiences judged as unacceptable or uncomfortable.” This argument goes along with the inclusion of valued goals in the eventual MAC-intervention.

Subsequently, the concept of mindfulness is explained in detail. Since Gardner & Moore seem to love empirical support, of course this is included (effectiveness mindfulness-based interventions in clinical problem areas etc.). Then they start connecting the dots they laid out earlier: mindfulness enhances moment-to-moment awareness; can reduce the verbal-linguistic component of anxiety and worry; may lead to the development of greater self-awareness, and habitual ways of responding to external cues can be more easily identified, which may result in enhanced behavioral flexibility in response to athletic demands, etc.. Funny example:  high-performing golfers showed less left-hemisphere cortical activity, indicative of lowered levels of verbal-linguistic activity. Gardner & Moore gain credibility for me by honestly adding that this has not yet been investigated, or confirmed, in open-skills sports (basketball, hockey, etc.).

• 2. MAC-Based Performance Enhancement

In this section, the MAC-intervention is described and explain in great detail, continuously grabbing back to previously mentioned arguments and theories. Furthermore, the concept of flow is introduced, and Gardner & Moore argue how closely related this is to mindfulness, in order to make their point that the MAC-intervention will most likely also promote flow in athletes. In the next paragraphs of this section, the five distinct phases of the MAC-intervention are highlighted and described: psycho-education, mindfulness, values identification & commitment, acceptance, and integration & practice.

• 3.0 Case Studies of the MAC-Based Performance Enhancement Approach

Short introduction of the section: case examples highlight the different components of the intervention.

• 3.1  Case Study I: DG

DG (a person) is described: age, sport, reasons to seek out sport psychology services, etc.. Further, his ‘athletic problems’ are described (too much self-evaluation, judgment, and such), and how the MAC protocol could be utilized to help. Several measures are included, as well as resulting changes that support the effectiveness of the intervention. The structure of this case study example looks a lot like an actual research article (participants, procedure, results, discussion, conclusion, etc.).

• 3.2 Case Study II: LD 

Similar structure, story, results. Only now the main problem concerned attention. In this way, Gardner & Moore describe how their intervention can successfully deal with a variety of athletic problems.

• 4. Conclusions

As there had been added several concluding remarks at the end of each case study section, this current section merely summarizes the main points of the entire article. Mindful, non-judgmental, present-moment attention, acceptance of internal states as natural human experiences, and a willingness to remain in contact with these internal states (regardless of intensity and nature), is emphasized in the presented approach. Additionally, the focus of attention is on performance-related (task-relevant) cues, contingencies, and contextually appropriate behaviors in the service of valued athletic goals. Finally, Gardner & Moore conclude by expressing their hope that the theoretical position and intervention they proposed in the article, will spur sport psychologists to consider alternative methodologies to supplement traditional psychological skills training procedures in the process of developing an evidence-based practice of sport psychology.

ANNO BIB

• Robinson, J. (2006). Kobe Bryant Interview: Talking 81, Lakers, and NBA 07. Retrieved from: http://sports.ign.com/articles/726/726842p1.html

Everything was happening in slow motion for me, and you just really want to stay in that moment. You don’t want to step outside of yourself and think about what is going on because then you are going to lose that rhythm. You just need to keep going, then at the end of the game, I really just felt numb. I couldn’t really grasp what had just happened.

What it is, you start seeing where guys are going before they get there. It gives you the effect of the game being in slow motion. It’s a combination of anticipation and visualization.

I was just determined. I was locked in, tuned into what was going on out there. These points tonight mattered. We needed them. The points I put in the basket were instrumental. It means a lot more.

- Kobe Bryant after his legendary 81 (!) points-game in 2006 (regarded by many as the greatest performance ever in the NBA): The sport psychological concept ‘Flow’ is described quite soundly by Kobe here: e.g., transformation of time (slow motion), loss of self-consciousness (don’t step outside yourself), action-awareness merging ((automatic) rhythm), clear goals (determined, needed points), sense of control/concentration (anticipation, locked/tuned in), etc..

Perhaps needless to say, also Kobe’s free throw percentage was rock-solid that evening (18/20). Moreover, he even snapped a streak of 62 consecutive made free throws in this game. The congruousness between Kobe’s description of how he experienced his performance, and most of Csikszenmihalyi’s dimensions of flow (1990), is remarkable. This illustrates the tangibility of flow in sports.

• Moore, Z. E. (2009). Theoretical and empirical development of the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) approach to performance enhancement. Journal of Clinical Sports Psychology, 2009, 4, 291-302.

In this article, Moore stipulates the unacceptable state of affairs with regard to the lack of evidence base in applied sport psychology. Moore explains how the efficiency of the traditional mental skills training approach is empirically unsupported; in fact, evidence suggests that trying to control naturally occurring states (as the traditional approaches do) is at best ineffective, and at worst counterproductive (Gardner & Moore, 2004; Sbrocco & Barlow, 1996; Wegner, Ansfield, & Pilloff, 1998; Wegner, & Zanakos, 1994). For these reasons, an essentially opposite perspective is proposed: the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) approach, since optimal performance does not require the reduction or control of internal states, but rather requires a non-judgmental moment-to-moment awareness and acceptance of one’s internal state, and an attentional focus on task-relevant external stimuli and behavioral choices that support one’s athletic endeavor. Accordingly, the MAC approach is elaborated in more detail, including the 7 steps of such an intervention.

 

₪ The article by Moore is a critical source, this entails that it is reviewed by (academic) peers, which makes it a more reliable source of information. In peer-reviewed articles, authors can’t just write anything they want; everything has to be backed by ‘facts’, usually meaning that every statement needs a reference (‘Says who?’, ‘where did you get this information?’). Researchers often refer to other researchers in an article; previous studies concerning empirical evidence, ‘big-shot’ researches that came up with a certain concept, definition, are often referred to in many articles. However, you should still be careful about blindly accepting everything you read in a critical source as pure facts, as there often are ongoing discussions in research. For instance, in the above summarized article, Moore is pretty harsh for the traditional mental skills training approaches, saying they lack empirical evidence, and that they probably are even counterproductive. Now, this can be true, but it would still be wise to consider (a lot) more sources on the subject. You can’t just judge everything about traditional mental skills training approaches, I think the key is to find the useful, effective features in these traditional approaches, as they can still help to enhance, for example, acceptance-based intervention programs.

Funny thing about Moore being so hard on the traditional approaches, and so convinced of her own MAC-approach; I really liked her quote on critical thinking:

Critical thinking requires independence and open skepticism. That is, being neither gullible nor cynical, neither looking for reasons to believe nor reasons to deny

(Moore, 2007, p. 10)

The other source mentioned earlier (Kobe Bryant’s quote/interview), is of a completely different nature. Even though, funny enough, Kobe happens to describe ‘Flow’ as if it could have been Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi himself. But the main difference lies within peer-reviews; the first source is merely an interview, and has little to do with research. No references are required in sources of this kind, it is perfectly acceptable to state things like “Kobe’s 81 points game is the best performance ever in the NBA”, in articles/sources like this. Your statements don’t have to be  grounded in research, or based upon ‘facts’. Although, given, it could help to elaborate a little more on claims like this.

• Gardner, F. L. & Moore, Z. E. (2004). A Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment-based approach to athletic performance enhancement: Theoretical considerations. Behavior Therapy, 34, 707-723.

In this article, Gardner & Moore (2004) posit the claim, in order to enhance performance, one does not need to control, eliminate, or replace negative thoughts and emotions, as the traditional cognitive-behavioral skills-training-based approaches suggest. Recent evidence even suggests that efforts to do so, may actually have the opposite effect. Rather, one should aim to develop a mindful (non-judgmental) present-moment acceptance of internal experiences such as thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations, along with a clarification of valued goals and enhanced attention to external cues, responses, and contingencies, in order to attain optimal athletic performance. Arguments presented include Wegner’s ironic process of mental control (1994), ample empirical data, and self-regulatory processes. Subsequently, their MAC-approach is proposed and described in detail, again deeply grounded in established theories and empirical data. Lastly, two case studies, clarifying the efficiency of a MAC-intervention, are included.

• Kaufman, K. A., Glass, C. R., & Arnkoff, D. B. (2009). Evaluation of Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE): A new approach to promote flow in athletes. Journal of Clinical Sports Psychology, 4, 334-356.

This article aims to emphasize and explain the promising possibilities that lie within new mindfulness-based approaches to enhance performance and the experience of flow, in athletes. Flow, and several psychological characteristics that contribute to the experience thereof, are introduced and described in detail. Subsequently, by doing the same for mindfulness, Kaufman et al. show how closely related these two constructs are. To further strengthen this main point, various supporting data is presented, including several MAC-interventions. Next, their own (new) approach, MSPE, is elaborated on, and the implementation of this new training in research is described: method, mindfulness training, and numerous psychological trait measures. Results revealed significant changes in trait variables, as a result of the training. Most importantly, significantly increased flow (F = 3.64, p > .10) was reported for both archers and golfers.

• Jackson, S. A., Thomas, P. R., Marsh, H. W., & Smethurst, C. J. (2001). Relationship between flow, self-concept, psychological skills, and performance. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 13, 129–153.

Psychological factors of potential relevance to athletic flow experiences, are examined in this article. Also, the relationship between flow and optimal performance, was empirically investigated. It is stated that this would help to make flow more accessible to researchers and practitioners. Athletic self-concept, psychological skills, and flow, were measured in competitive athletes (231), through dispositional assessments, before and after a specified competitive event. Results displayed positive relationships between flow and aspects of self-concept, between flow and psychological skills use, and between post-event flow assessment and performance criteria.

GOALS

My goals for this course:

1. Improve my academic English.

I hope to achieve this goal by writing academic English myself, but also by reading more articles, theses, etc. I might also check out some work of our course instructor, Marlen Harrison, since teaching English to non-native speakers is one of his specializations.

2. Become more familiar with the conventions, language, and principles of academic writing in sport psychology.

By participating actively in class and completing all assignments, I hope to achieve this goal. I am particularly interested in learning the differences between journals, in terms of  rules for submitting articles.

3. Improve my presentation skills

My hope is that I will learn several helpful tips about how to give a good presentation, during this course. And of course, practice presenting, which is part of the course.

 

I can honestly say I’m looking forward to this course. The format and materials are appealing to me at first sight, very up-to-date as well. Perhaps needless to say, research communication is a crucial part of our master (EMSEP), so I’m eager to ‘master’ it. Also, I am going to try to publish my master’s thesis of last year, with which this course will probably help me a great deal.