Psychological momentum shapes athletes’ affordances.

Ruud J.R. den Hartigh (1) , Joske K. van Der Sluis (1) , Frank Zaal (2) , Christophe Gernigon (3, 4)

1 University of Groningen [Groningen]
2 UMCG - University Medical Center Groningen [Groningen]
3 UM - Université de Montpellier
4 EPSYLON - Dynamique des capacités humaines et des conduites de santé

Psychologicalmomentum(PM) in sports can be conceptualized as athletes’ positive or negative dynamics invarious psychologicaland behavioural factors when theyperceive movement toward (positive PM)or away from (negative PM) a desired outcome(e.g., Den Hartigh, Gernigon, Van Yperen, Marin, & Van Geert, 2014; Gernigon, Briki, & Eykens, 2010).In line with this conceptualization, recentresearchrevealedtypical changes in athletes’psychological and behavioural states while they movedtoward or away from the victory(i.e., the desired outcome). For instance, in an experimental study in which a rowing competition was simulated on ergometers, rowers’feelings of efficacy increased when approachingthe victory and decreased when moving away from it. In addition, the rowers coordinated their movements, and regulated their efforts, better when moving toward the victory(Den Hartigh et al., 2014). So far,researchers only assessedvariables at the level of the athletes(e.g.,changes in efficacy, coordination, andefforts)toprovideinsights intopsychological and behavioural dynamics duringpositive and negative PMin sports.Here, we take a new step and propose that PM has an impact on athletes’ perception-action processes, and thereby the way in which athletes connect to their environmentin real-time. More specifically, we proposethat athletes perceive their action possibilities in the environment (i.e., affordances) differently during positive and negative PM (cf. Witt & Riley, 2014).We tested thisPM-affordances link in the context ofgolf. Ourhypothesis was that athletes would perceive the distance from where they can successfully make a puttto be further away from the hole during positive momentum than during negative momentum.

Mots clés: Ecological psychology; Golf; perception-action.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Psychologie et comportements

Ruud J.R. den Hartigh, Joske K. van Der Sluis, Frank Zaal, Christophe Gernigon. Psychological momentum shapes athletes’ affordances.. Journées Nationales d'Etudes de la Société Française de Psychologie du Sport (SFPS), 2017, Montpellier, France. ⟨hal-02880096⟩