We all know what internal conflict can do to a team, even a talented team with high expectations for winning. Every coach strives for team cohesion because the spirit of a team is as important to success—perhaps even more important—than their skill level and training. It’s vital to study team cohesion in detail and gain an understanding of its different types. On the practical day-to-day side of this issue, there’s a need to influence team cohesion in a positive way. Leadership is directly related to cohesion, which evolves from theory to application and how its presence or absence impacts athletic performance and outcome.
The basketball team I played on in college experienced different degrees of talent and heart as I progressed through my four years. The first two years, our team wasn’t deep in talent, yet we had a lot of heart. Our goals were the same on the court (task cohesion), and we got along with each other off the court (social cohesion). As a result, we played together incredibly well and were able to overcome more talented teams. Because we were thin on talent, no one predicted that we would make it to postseason play. To the amazement of everyone but ourselves, we qualified for the NCAA tournament—for only the second time in school history.
A myriad of problems marred my second two years. Incoming freshmen and a few transfers from other schools dramatically changed the character of our team. Seemingly overnight, we split into divisive cliques which disrupted our former cohesion. Individually, we were loaded with talent—an all-star caliber team. Collectively, it was a different story. We couldn’t perform to our ability. Players put their personal agendas in front of the team’s goals and talked behind each other’s backs. With this more talented team, we lost games to less-skilled teams.
Looking back on the experience now as a sport psychology consultant, I can understand how the team of my first two years morphed into the squad of my final two seasons. It makes perfect sense in terms of the topic of this lesson: team cohesion. Initially, we weren’t very talented, yet we won due to our incredible sense of task and social cohesion. The last two years, with a better team, we didn’t make it to the NCAA tournament. The moral of the story is that we had amazing talent, yet couldn’t work together because we lost our sense of both task and social cohesion.
Daniel Goleman is perhaps best known for his critically acclaimed book, Emotional Intelligence. In this video, Goleman presents some of his theories as to why we as human beings are not as compassionate as we could be.
The concept of “emotional intelligence” has always fascinated me and I think Goleman is quite masterful at deconstructing the pieces of the emotional psyche. Are there moments from your everyday life that illustrate Goleman’s points regarding compassion? If so, please share them with the rest of your student community.
I think our Psychology students will find this very clever video intriguing. It really speaks to the power of music to re-contextualize reality and thus alter our perceptions. Please share your thoughts…
I randomly stumbled upon this pscyhology video that succinctly breaks down the concept of “Open Mindedness.” I think everyone can relate to the type of faulty logic that strains our interpersonal communications in everyday life. There are some interesting points to ponder here…
Most famous for his radical theories on language learning and evolutionary psychology, Steven Pinker is a thinker with a vision that tends to provoke strong emotional responses in anyone who will listen. The reason may be rather simple. Pinker analyzes human intelligence from a zero sum perspective in which he meticulously deconstructs the foundations of what’s been established as scientific fact.
The following video presentation was made at Google Headquarters. The Google geniuses always seem to bring in other geniuses to make the room smarter. Afterwards, please share your thoughts with the Ashworth Psychology community.
Although he had dabbled in music when younger, he never took lessons and went on to have a business career. Although he had always dreamed of being on stage, his musical career only began at the age of 40 following an accident. After jumping into his mother’s pool to catch a football, he sustained a concussion when he struck his head on the bottom of the pool.
The concussion affected his hearing but there appeared to be no other cognitive problems as a result. It was only while sitting at a friend’s piano that he discovered that he had he could play music by ear. As he would report later, “I just sat down at the piano and, by chance, started playing,” he remembered. “Obviously, I could never play piano so it was kind of surprise.” Amato discovered that he could play kind of music. He has since left his business job and started a career as a recording artist.
While cases of savant syndrome involving unusual cognitive abilities have been recorded in the neurological literature, they are usually linked to autism spectrum disorders or other developmental disabilities. Examples of acquired savant syndrome developing later in life are considerably rarer. Read the rest of this entry »
My name is Michelle, but my friends call me ‘Chelle (so please feel free to do so.) I’ve been in the psychology program for almost a year, but experienced an upsetting time in my life and had to put it on hold for several months.
However; I just forged ahead into my study habits again. I just finished Lesson 3 of Human Relations.
I’m a 45 year old disabled housewife. I find it totally ironic and absolutely wonderful that even though I hated school when I was younger, I find it awesome and fantastic as a mature adult.
I’ve always had a yearning to learn about psychology, especially forensic and abnormal psychology. Maybe because I’m married to a cop, huh? Anyway, I’m tickled pink to find out that I can talk to others on the student forum that are in the same program and learn the same things.
I’m also thrilled to hear about the Bachelor’s Program and will be checking into how I can transfer to the Bachelor’s Program as soon as it’s available.
How do we choose a life partner? Magazine articles on choosing the right mate abound. “What should you look for in that special someone?” “What is the ideal man/woman?” Take a minute to think about that. What do you want in a life partner? What words come to mind to describe your Princess or Prince Charming? Whatever you’re looking for, or have already found, the words you have chosen to describe your “ideal mate” are almost certainly personality traits: kind, considerate, funny, ambitious, loving.
Somewhere on your list are probably good-looking and healthy, but even things like health are affected by the personality. The things you want in a life partner are pretty much the same things that everyone else is looking for.
So, do we get what we’re looking for? Generally, we do. But, a better question might be, are we happy with what we get? Well, that depends upon what you were looking for in the first place. You are most likely to be happy if you look for, and end up with, someone who is agreeable, emotionally stable, and open.
The next question that might come to mind is how can we know if the relationship with that special someone will last? Well, for starters you can assume that marrying someone who is the opposite of agreeable, emotionally stable, and open, is probably a bad idea. Low impulse control and lack of dependability also predict relationship breakup. And, finally, relationships seem to work best when the partners are similar in background, religion, goals, education, and personality. Fortunately, we tend to meet people like ourselves, because we gravitate toward certain types of situations that are compatible with our own personalities. Selection of situations, then, enhances our chances for meeting like-minded people. If, for example, you are bookish and quiet, you are likely to spend time in a library or museum, where you will meet other bookish and quiet people.
So, have you found what you’re looking for? Are you more alike or different? Please share your thoughts with our Ashworth University psychology community!
Thanks to Eduardo Vedia for permission to use this Photo.
I once worked with an athlete on the U.S. ski team with Olympic aspirations. The problem was that he was “burned out” and unable to perform at his customary high performance level. This athlete had heard about my success as a sports psychologist helping athletes who were going through this difficult stage and contacted me. After hearing his story, I agreed to work with him. My first effort was to help him get in touch with what he was experiencing. He didn’t want to leave the team, but thought he had no other option.
I began by dealing with the issue of time management to see if he could find the extra time he needed for other desired activities. I also recommended that he take about three weeks off from his sport simply to rest his mind and body. Obviously, his coaches did not respond to this strategy with much enthusiasm. Once they realized that the alternative was to remove him from the team, they consented to giving him some time off. We used this hiatus to work on relaxation strategies and stress reduction. I also helped him rediscover why he was skiing in the first place. By the time he returned to his sport, he felt renewed and invigorated. He was back to his old self.
Many athletes who yield to the initial impulse to get away from their sport when burnout symptoms set in are left with a lifelong sense of regret and dissatisfaction. They always wonder what might have been if burnout had not robbed them of the pleasure of competition and the pursuit of victory. For those willing to seek the intervention of a skilled and understanding sport psychology consultant, the result can be quite positive. It really is possible to “have it all”—high-level achievement and a life outside one’s sport.
Take a moment to consider your own athletic experiences and the negative feelings you may have had at times about participating in your sport(s). Ask yourself if the decisions you made at the time were the right ones for you. Would you have made other choices if you knew then what you know now? Whatever your response, never forget that life is ahead of you, not behind. There’s still time to “get it right.”
Nicole Detling Miller, M.S.
Sport Psychology Instructor Ashworth College
Thanks to cliff1066 for permission to use this Photo.
Around the world, girls and women have higher rates of suicidal ideation and behavior but lower rates of suicide than boys and men. A review in the April 2008 issue of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry examines the significant variation in gender patterns and meanings suicidal behavior within and across cultures. For example, in the United States, suicide is most common among older “White” men, and is typically considered “masculine” behavior. Women who kill themselves are viewed as acting like men, and therefore deviant. By contrast, in other societies, including China, suicide is viewed as an act of the powerless, and is most frequent in young women. In these societies, men who kill themselves are considered weak and effeminate.
The cultural diversity in gender patterns and interpretations of suicidal behavior challenges essentialist perspectives on gender and suicidal behavior. It also challenges the assumption, common in industrialized countries, that women are protected from suicide as long as they stay “feminine” and subsumed within the family. This cultural diversity also points to the pitfalls of theorizing about clinical phenomena as if they were culture-free, and calls for culturally grounded theory, research, and practice. Click here for the abstract.
Romeo Vitelli
Creator of Providentia Ashworth Contributing Blogger
*A man who has lived a fascinating life, Dr. Romeo Vitelli spent fifteen years as a staff psychologist in Millbrook Correctional Centre, a maximum-security prison run by the Ontario government. In 2003, he successfully escaped prison and went into full-time private practice and currently also serves as a Disaster Management volunteer with the Red Cross. He is one of the web’s most respected and trusted sources in matters of psychology. We here in the Ashworth community are honored to share with Dr. Vitelli’s gifts with our students and would like to express our gratitude to him. Visit Providentia to learn more about the life and work of Dr. Romeo Vitelli.
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