Bradley D. Hatfield , Ph.D.

Professor

Sport Psychology

Graduate Courses:

KNES 650: Mental and Emotional Aspects of Sport

This course summarizes the foundational topics that are typically included in sport psychology courses. It attempts to provide a theoretical framework for explaining the psychology of high-level psychomotor and sport performance. Topics include basic functional neuroanatomy in order to provide a biopsychological model of the mental processes involved in, anxiety, arousal and attentional factors during competitive performance. This section is followed by lectures on the mind-body link that attempt to explain how the cognitive/emotional state of the performer influences the quality of skeletal muscle action, autonomic or organ and vascular activity, which supports the altered skeletal muscle activity, and the hormonal state. In addition to the potentially disruptive anxiety state the course also provides a neurobiological model of the ideal performance state, popularly conceptualized as the "zone". Basic signal processing concepts as related to electroencephalography are introduced so that the student can appreciate the methodology of the relevant literature. The underlying concept that ties the entire course together is that a superior performer in one who is characterized by mental and physical economy of effort and that poor performance is typically associated with departures from such a state. Additionally, the mechanistic basis that is offered to explain how and why the performer's psychological state affects their physical performance is related to social and personality factors such that a broad systems view of behavior is offered that integrates multiple levels of analysis. Such an approach seems central to kinesiological performance psychology as it is imperative to go beyond the realm of the pure psychological and into that which addresses the relationship between mind and movement.

KNES 651: Psychophysiological Aspects of Exercise Psychology

This course attempts to explain why physical exercise influences both one's psychological state as well as their long-term psychological characteristics. The course content is divided such that the first half focuses on the acute or short-term consequences of exercise and the second half focuses on the chronic or long-term adaptations from training. Several social as well as physiologically based theories are presented, along with supporting evidence, to explain the "feel-better" effect from acute exercise engagement. Such explanations as self-efficacy, mastery feelings, autonomic alterations, central nervous system changes as well as psychoendocrinological responses are outlined. The opponent process theory of mood change is discussed. An attempt is made to critique the designs and statistical methods used in the relevant investigations of these mechanisms. Importantly, the student is introduced to the concept that exercise-induced mood alterations are based on multi-faceted and interactive factors. The fallacy of a single causal agent is discussed. The long-term consequences accruing from a physically active lifestyle are discussed in terms of a mental health model. Meta-analytic reviews are discussed regarding the anxiolytic and the anti-depressive effects of exercise as well as reductions in stress reactivity. Again, the potential mechanistic bases for these effects are discussed such as alterations in vagal or parasympathetic tone, angiogenic effects (i.e., cerebral blood flow changes), etc. Additionally, material is presented regarding the psychophysiological changes that are seen in the brain activity of exercisers versus non-exercisers (i.e., electroencephalograhic and event-related potentials). Much of the discussion of the material in the second half of the course also deals with critiques of the research designs and statistics employed in the relevant literature.

KNES 789R: Advanced Seminar on the Psychology of Elite Performance

This course provides students with an opportunity to further explore the concepts and literature that were introduced in Kinesiology 650. The primary purpose is to discuss the utility and the validity of the efficiency notion as a broad conceptual unifying theme to explain superior psychomotor performance. Efficiency is defined as the resource allocation cost of work output or simply work output/effort input. Basically, this view holds that skill acquisition is marked by a change in mental and physical resource utilization such that performance becomes less effortful or more economical. Such an adaptation is consonant with the Darwinian notion of "survival of the fittest" as any savings in resource allocation under competitive stress would enable the performer to meet the demands of any new additional challenges. That is, the economical movements and cognitive activity associated with skill are symptomatic of this adaptive state that is naturally attained through repeated practice (i.e., repeated exposure to a challenge). In this case athletic competition is seen as a movement challenge under stressful conditions. The efficient state is marked by automaticity in the motor control domain while the skeletal muscle activity is marked by fluidity relative to an unskilled person. For example, a novice basketball player must first concentrate a large share of their attentional resources on dribbling the ball while mastery of the task frees up resources to attend to sophisticated strategic concerns like directing the offensive teamwork "on the floor" upon mastery of the skill. Selected readings are discussed each week from a wide variety of areas in sport psychology and the parent field of psychology to determine their fit within the efficiency concept. If the psychological factors associated with superior performance are consistent with such an organizing principle then many seemingly diverse phenomena studied in sport psychology (from several different levels of measurement) from concentration, personality, and cognition to the effects of organizational and social factors can be parsimoniously subsumed under such a schema to explain why they impact on the quality of athletic performance. As such, the student may be able to more clearly discern the "forest instead of the trees" in their understanding of the field of sport psychology.

KNES 789R: Advanced Seminar: Exercise and the Aging Brain

This course expands on the content discussed in Kinesiology 651 and attempts to understand how practicing a physically active lifestyle by the elderly positively influences their sensory, associative and motor activity. Theories of aging are introduced in terms of both biological and social influences. The problem of the measurement of fitness in the elderly is discussed. Scientific evidence is discussed that addresses the neural and the behavioral differences that exist between physically active and inactive individuals. Explanations to account for these observed differences are discussed. A large part of the course deals with psychophysiological studies of attention and how the involved measures of brain activity to study this construct have been shown differ between active and inactive populations.

KNES 789R: Advanced Seminar: Neocortical Dynamics

This course attempts to generate a deeper understanding of the neural basis of the electroencephalogram (EEG).