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The insights of cultural/media theorist Douglas Rushkoff are always contemporary and often prescient.  He was deciphering the social codes of the virtual psyche, lifestyle, and marketplace before such concepts were formally identified by the so-called “machine.”  The Merchants Of Cool is a brilliant analysis of the incorporation of youth pop-culture that Ruskhoff created while working as a correspondent for PBS Frontline.  This is a very entertaining documentary.  You’ll learn a lot too.  Let me know what you think in the comments section.

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University

               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 University

           Thanks to the BC Chronicle for permission to use this Photo.

“Everybody loves a winner,” or so we often hear, but it may not necessarily be true, especially at bowl time. According to Joseph Vandello and his colleagues at the University of South Florida (which incidentally boasts a pretty good football team), we like underdogs .

Vandello et al. presented participants with political and sports scenarios that led them to see one side as Goliath and the other as David. For example, participants read an historical article about the Israeli–Palenstinian conflict, but two groups saw different maps. One map showed Israel as smaller than Palestine (hence the underdog), while the other showed Palestine as smaller than Israel. Even though the students read identical essays, they consistently “sided” with the smaller territory they saw.

Why should we back the underdog?

We still have work to do in order to answer that question. Vandello et al. suggest that we have some sort of intrinsic sense of justice or fair play, but personally, I find this a bit hard to swallow. Human history rarely speaks about justice, but says a lot about power. Another suggestion is that we give “A” for effort. Underdogs seem to be trying harder. (more…)

One of my readers, noting that I am both a psychologist and a football fan, asked me what I thought of Bill Belichick. This is really more the turf of my PR daughter Karen, and I’ll see if she has more thoughts to add. I am neither a social nor clinical psychologist, nor do I know Coach Belichick personally, so my comments should be taken in those contexts.

But I’ll do my best:

1. Here is an article from the Boston Globe that sings high praise (prior to the filming debacle) of Belicheck’s management skills.  Among Belichick’s strengths noted by management experts are his attention to detail, work ethic, judgment of talent, willingness to make the “tough call,” and his ability to “learn from mistakes.” One would hope that the latter skill comes into play regarding the filming. 
2. I didn’t like Belichick’s apology . He started out all right (”I accept full responsibility”), but then messed it all up by claiming that his illegal action “had no impact” on the outcome of the game. How do you know? Scientific reasoning just never seems to be a strength among coaches, and I don’t know why. You just can’t talk about causality without doing the experiment! Personally, I like the military’s approach. When caught doing wrong, military personnel are trained to say “No excuse, sir or ma’am.” How refreshing.
3. Not knowing Coach Belichick, and not wanting to slander him in the least, let’s talk about leaders in general. As David Lykken and Robert Hare have eloquently pointed out, there are some disturbing similarities between exceptional leaders and psychopaths. In both cases, we see charisma, an ability to motivate people, supreme confidence, and other admirable qualities. As Mr F. says frequently, the most selfish person and the most altruistic person will often do the same thing in the same situation. The difference is that the altruist is motivated by the greater good, while the psychopath is interested in furthering his/her personal success. Most people fall somewhere between these two extremes. 

Another hallmark of both leader and psychopath is very high self-esteem. Most people expect effective leaders to have high self-esteem, but are often surprised to learn that psychopaths share this trait. We are so accustomed to hearing the the root of all evil is LOW self-esteem. People with low self-esteem hurt themselves (through depression), but people with HIGH self-esteem can be very dangerous to others . They feel “entitled” to all the good things in life, and others exist only as a means to provide those ends.

 
               Thanks to Senek for permission to use this Photo.

For more insight, check out Hare’s fascinating book Snakes in Suits. This is MUST reading for anybody working in an organizational setting. Another gem is David D’Alessandro’s Career Warfare. D’Alessandro is CEO of John Hancock. I’m not going to slander D’Alessandro either, but I sure wouldn’t want to work for him. He comes across as highly manipulative and Machiavellian.

The tricky part is to see who’s who, and Hare is developing his Psychopathy Checklist to help corporations and other organizations to avoid being the next Enron.

So am I calling Belichick a psychopath? No. But like all of us, I fear he has a “dark side.” He has had some issues in his personal life (being named the “other man” in a nasty divorce case). It would be the rare individual who could survive the pressure cooker that is NFL football without starting to believe his own press.

Watching Mr. F and Karen navigate their athletic careers, I have seen coaches do some remarkably evil things (especially when high school and collegiate athletes are concerned). One gets the sense that coaches believe “everybody is doing the same thing” and that “if I don’t do this too, I’ll lose.” It is possible that Belichick is not immune to these traps.

A final observation–part of the responsibility for Belichick, Justin Gatlin, or Barry Bonds falls right in the lap of the fan. We want to see fantastic football, track, and baseball. Perhaps we have raised our expectations so high, that no human being can meet them without resorting to cheating. If performance is just mediocre, we move on to the next bigger, better deal.

I welcome your comments on this–great discussion potential here.

Dr. Laura Freberg
Creator of Laura’s Psychology Blog
AU Contributing Blogger

*Since receiving her Ph.D. in Psychology from UCLA, Dr. Laura Freberg has earned a reputation for being one of the leading educational minds in the psychology field.  She’s the author of numerous well respected textbooks and currently serves as a Professor of Psychology at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA.  Dr. Freberg has been incredibly gracious in offering to share her insights with the AU student community and we are thrilled to have her as a member of our contributing bloggers’ network.  Visit Laura’s great website and Laura’s Psychology Blog to learn more about her life and work.  Thanks Dr. Freberg!