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Psychological Factors in Sport Performance

The Mental Health Model Revisited

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Abstract

The Mental Health Model (MHM) of sport performance purports that an inverse relationship exists between psychopathology and sport performance. The model postulates that as an athlete’s mental health either worsens or improves performance should fall or rise accordingly, and there is now considerable support for this view. Studies have shown that between 70 and 85% of successful and unsuccessful athletes can be identified using general psychological measures of personality structure and mood state, a level superior to chance but insufficient for the purpose of selecting athletes. Longitudinal MHM research indicates that the mood state responses of athletes exhibit a dose-response relationship with their training load, a finding that has shown potential for reducing the incidence of the staleness syndrome in athletes who undergo intensive physical training. The MHM also has implications for the general care of athletes as support services have traditionally been limited to preventing or treating physical problems. Despite its simple premise and empirical support, the MHM has often been mischaracterised in the sport psychology literature and recently some authors have questioned its validity. This overview will summarise MHM research, including the more recent work involving the model’s dynamic features in an effort to resolve disputes surrounding the model.

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Notes

  1. 1 The issue of psychopathology in athletes is of additional importance because a prevailing model of sport psychology focuses on education rather than treatment. In an influential article, Danish and Hale[24] argued against a more conservative approach based on providing athletes standardised mental health services. In fact, these authors contended that psychological help ‘could actually come at the expense of the athletes” self-esteem and welfare’ (page 98). This perspective was echoed by statements made in an earlier publication by Olgivie and Tutko[8] who also questioned the value of psychotherapy for athletes. Yet, various forms of mental illness are far from uncommon in sports, and in a review of this literature by Brewer and Petrie[25] it was concluded that psychopathology occurs in athletes ‘at rates equal to and sometimes greater than the general population’ (page 269).

  2. 2 The strategy of comparing groups rather than intraindividual assessments in which performance is rated along a continuum has since been criticised.[21,26] However, Morgan[11] recognised that given constraints inherent in studying homogeneous samples of athletes ‘the use of extreme scores can sometimes be quite effective’ (page 77). Such an approach circumvents the challenges that arise from attempting to compare performances across sports, or even between different events in a given sport. Moreover, the theoretical view that intraindividual measures of sport performance are superior to between-group measures[31] has not been supported by research[32,33] that has compared the efficacy of these approaches and found them to be comparable. Similar constraints have also been noted when using physiological variables in the attempt to predict athletic performance. For example, in studies of heterogeneous groups maximal oxygen uptake is consistently and highly correlated with endurance performance. Yet its utility is far less impressive in the case of highly trained athletes. As stated by Costill:[34]‘Maximal oxygen consumption frequently fails to predict the winners when a group of similarly talented runners compete’ (page 13).

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  1. Department of Kinesiology, Indiana University, HPER 112, Bloomington, Indiana, 47405, USA

    John S. Raglin Ph.D.

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Raglin, J.S. Psychological Factors in Sport Performance. Sports Med 31, 875–890 (2001). https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200131120-00004

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