Title: American Psychological Association Symposium sponsored by Div. 6 and 47 Integrative Sport Psychology
1American Psychological Association Symposium
sponsored by Div. 6 and 47Integrative Sport
PsychologyIntegrative Athlete Assessment and
Interventions A Field-Tested Protocol
- Roland A. Carlstedt, Ph.D.
- Integrative Psychological Services of NYC
- American Board of Sport Psychology
- Capella University Harold Abel School of
Psychology
2I. Critique of Prevalent Athlete Assessment and
Intervention Approaches
- Mired in a stagnant paradigm based on weak data
and even myth - Assessment and Intervention approaches are
antiquated - Indiscriminately administered
- Administered en masse
- Administered outside the realm of a coherent and
integrative theoretical context - Little is known about athlete responding and
propensities - Yet interventions are prescribed as though we
really do - Assessment and Interventions merely for the sake
of doing something - Failure to consider potent individual measures
that have been shown to meditate - ATTENTION, PHYSIOLOGICAL REACTIVITY and
COGNITION
3Despite promising theories of peak performance
little if any progress has been made in
- establishing group and individualized norms for
attention, - physiological and cognitive responding.
- developing standardized and ecologically valid
protocols designed to measure and manipulate
attention, cognitive processes and physiological
responding. - operationalizing and measuring psychological
performance (e.g., Zone, or Flow states) beyond
the level of self-report. - isolating potent and ecologically valid outcome
measures. - creating psychological performance statistics
allowing for reliable efficacy studies. - widespread utilization of sophisticated
procedures and instruments to gain better insight
of athlete performance.
4II. Consequently, I advance the perspective that
- we must systematically investigate athlete
responding in more ecologically valid competitive
and training situations and longitudinally. - the efficacy of an intervention must be
established at the level of the individual
athlete. - individualized and normative databases need to be
developed to guide and amend mental training
efforts. - practitioners must acquire greater knowledge of
individual athlete responding. - this latter endeavor should be a priority,
superseding intervention attempts that all too
often are applied haphazardly, without
documentation and unequivocal demonstration of
efficacy.
5- the practice of performance enhancement should be
predicated on knowledge and not anecdote or
conjecture. - the failure to take athlete assessment and
interventions to the next level will leave our
field in the dust, mired in a stagnant paradigm
that eventually will call the credibility of
Applied Sport Psychology into question. - it is no longer tenable to ignore or not engage
in empirically based and systematic approaches to
athlete assessment and interventions. - while the field has produced a significant body
of quality research, much of it stands alone,
offering little practical guidance to
practitioners that will assist them in engaging
in a more sophisticated and scientific approach
to applied sport psychology. - the time has come to consider a new
multidimensional and integrative approach to
athlete assessment and interventions, one that
utilizes sophisticated instruments, normative
databases and empirically-based procedures to
better assess athletes and document and analyze
the effects of interventions on psychological
performance.
6III. The protocol that I will present emanates
from research on the Theory of Critical Moments.
- The Theory of Critical Moments Proposes that
- Peak performance and mastery, as well as failure,
is mediated by interactions of specifically
isolated PRIMARY HIGHER ORDER (PHO) traits and
behaviors that have been shown to be intimately
linked to attention, physiological reactivity,
cognition and motor performance, especially
during crucial phases of competition, or CRITICAL
MOMENTS when the impact of these measures will be
the greatest. - Consequently, interventions must consider an
athletes constellation of PHO factors and
temporal gradients associated with their
administration to be effective. - These measures include Hypnotic
Susceptibility/Absorption, Emotionality
(negative/positive affect neuroticism) and
Repressive Coping.
7- Hypnotic Susceptibility (HS) is a
psychophysiological trait that can manifest
itself independent of hypnosis or hypnotic
induction. It is a pervasive and omnipresent mode
of information processing marked by intense focus
on internal or external stimuli as well as
surplus pattern recognition. I refer to hypnotic
susceptibility as the ZONE or FLOW facilitator in
that it is associated with similar descriptors
that have been used to describe peak performance
states, including intense concentration/focus,
effortlessness, involuntariness, dissociation and
freedom from distraction. HS can, however, be a
double-edged sword in that intense and effortless
focus can rapidly shift from stimuli to stimuli
dependent upon a persons concurrent levels of
neuroticism and repressive coping.
8- Emotionality, or negative/positive
affect-neuroticism is a BIG-5 personality
dimension that mediates a persons reactive
tendencies to internal and external stimuli.
Negative affect is associated with a
catasptrophizing cognitive style and excessive
levels of physiological reactivity even at
baseline in the absence of apparent stressors or
perception of threat. Negative affect/neuroticism
can be thought of as the great disruptor of ZONE
or FLOW states.
9- Repressive coping is a behavioral propensity
characterized by the ability to ignore negative
internal and external stimuli and cognitions as
well as pain and physical symptoms. It is
associated with enhanced self-esteem and
confidence. Neurophysiologically, this measure
has been shown to functionally disconnect the
interhemispheric transfer of negative affect from
the right to the left-brain hemisphere, which is
thought to prevent intrusive cognitions from
reaching consciousness and disrupting
performance. As such, repressive coping can be
viewed as the great moderator of ZONE or FLOW
states.
10Emerging Evidence
- Constellations and/or interactions of these
measures have explained up to 44 of the variance
in the performance equation that can be
attributed to psychological factors, as a linear
function of increasing level of critical moments,
an unprecedented finding. In other studies from
the realm of behavioral medicine and clinical
psychology up to 65 of the variance in a variety
of clinical outcome measures related to
attention, physiological reactivity, cognition,
symptomology and treatment efficacy has been
accounted for on the basis of constellations,
interactions or individual measures in the above
triad (Carlstedt, research in progress).
11VARIANCE EXLAINED AS FUNCTION OF LEVELof
Criticality of a Competitive Moment
12IV. Neuropsychophysiological Dynamics of PHO
Factors
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15V. Implications of Findings and the Theory of
Critical Moments for Assessment and Interventions
- PHO factors appear to be crucially involved in
mediating performance. - Findings from research are consistent with
predictions from the Theory of Critical Moments
and in line with the neurophysiological and
psychophysiological dynamics advanced by this
model. - It should also be noted that these findings are
also consistent with components of Dietrichs
Transient Hypofrontality Hypothesis. - Neuropsychological, neurophysiological and
cardiovascular psychophysiological measures are
expected to not only reflect baseline states of
reactivity or activation but also the effects of
interventions. They are also hypothesized to
reflect Zone or Flow states. - Consequently, assessment and intervention
strategies that are designed to document, predict
and enhance performance need to address the above
measures within a comprehensive and integrative
athlete assessment and intervention battery. -
16VI. The Carlstedt Protocol
- Step-by-Step Overview
- Assessment of PHO factors, Relative Cortical
Activation and Neuropsychological/cognitive
tendencies - Instruments/tests Stanford Scale of Hypnotic
Susceptibility Tellegen Absorption Scale
Positive Affect/Negative Affect Schedule or
Eysenck Personality Inventory Marlowe-Crowne
Line-Bisecting Test (Drake Paradigm) Brain
Resource Company Neurocognitive Battery for
Athletes (Internet based test, analysis center
and database). - Off-the-field Psychophysiological Stress Test
- Instruments BioCom Technologies Heart Rate
Monitoring Hard-and-Software Heart Rate
Variability Software
17- On-field HRV/HRD Analysis
- Instruments Biocom Technologies/Brainquiry/Carlst
edt HEART MINDER ambulatory heart activity
monitoring and biofeedback device BioCom
Technologies/Carlstedt Heart Rate Deceleration
Software BioCom HRV Software. - On-field HRV/HRD Analysis with Critical Moment
Analysis (CMPPQ) - Post Competition Data Analysis
- Instruments Heart Minder Internet Based Analysis
and Database Center
18- Intervention Selection- Pre-Competition and
On-the-Field - Efficacy Testing-Intervention
- Mental Training using most efficacious
Intervention - Continual Monitoring-Data Bank
19Rationale for Protocol Assessment and
Intervention Strategy
- The Carlstedt Protocol is based on an initial
assessment of PHO factors including hypnotic
ability/absorption, neuroticism, repressive
coping and relative cerebral laterality.
Establishing a benchmark profile predicting
psychophysiological propensities. -
20- Once an athletes profile has been established,
psychophysiological testing is used off and on
the playing field. An initial Psychophysiological
Stress Test (PST) is administered to determine if
physiological reactivity in the
laboratory/practice is consistent with what would
be expected on the basis of an athletes
constellation of PHO factors and cerebral
laterality.
21- Thereafter, heart rate variability/heart rate
deceleration responses are measured during both
training and actual competition while analyzing
physical/technical, tactical and statistical
performance using the Carlstedt Critical Moment
Psychological Profiency-Index (CCMPP-I)
statistical analysis system for evaluating
psychological performance during competition.
22- Assessment of physiological responding and
psychological performance during actual
competition are done in attempt to validate
concurrently PST responses on the field. It is
also carried out to determine the predictive
validity of an athletes PHO factors relative to
on-the-field performance and physiological
responding.
23- Once a trait-like profile of psychophysiological
reactivity/responsivity is established on the
basis of longitudinally acquired data (at least
3-5 complete measurement occasions) interventions
are selected and implemented to modify responding
in the desired direction.
24INTERVENTIONS INCLUDE
- Neurofeedback and on-the-field Manipulation of
Cortical Activation - Heart Rate Variability, RSA and EMG Biofeedback
with Stimulus Manipulation (e.g., video viewing) - RSA Biofeedback on-the-field
-
- Active-alert hypnosis
-
- Recovery hypnosis
-
- Mental Imagery
-
- Cognitive intervention
25- An important component of the Protocol is
efficacy testing of interventions using the
CCMPP-I system to determine the extent to which
an intervention influences outcome
(physical/technical, tactical, physiological or
statistical success/won-loss outcome measures).
26- If an intervention appears to be ineffectual, it
is usually supplanted with an alternative method
until an ideal mental training modality is found.
Thereafter, mental training is routinely engaged
in as a prophylaxis in an attempt to optimally
prepare an athlete for competition.
27- Mental training during actual competition
includes affect monitoring and altering using
cerebral laterality manipulation to activate the
left-brain hemisphere prior to action (gaze
manipulation, etc.) and during time-outs
(line-bisecting test and PANAS schedule). - Whenever possible, athletes are also monitored
during actual competition and training. - The acquired data are then analyzed, discussed
with the athlete and coaches and stored.
28Rationale for Applying an Intervention
- The rationale for applying a specific
intervention to an athlete can be traced to the
research on the Theory of Critical Moments and
Wickramasekeras High Risk Model of Threat
Perception (1988) This research suggests that
persons possessing specific PHO factors were more
or less amenable to certain forms of treatment.
Specifically it is proposed that
29- 1) Persons high in hypnotic ability/absorption
who are more fantasy prone and imaginative
compared to lows were found to benefit more from
hypnosis and imagery-based interventions than
therapies that are more reality based, such as
rational-emotive psychotherapy and biofeedback.
30- SINCE A HIGH MAJORITY OF ATHLETES HAVE BEEN FOUND
TO BE LOW IN ABSORPTION AND HYPNOTIC
SUSCEPTIBILITY, MENTAL IMAGERY, THE MOST
WIDESPREAD INTERVENTION MAY BE AN INTERVENTION
THAT MOST ATHLETES WILL NOT BENEFIT FROM UNLESS
ADMINISTERED IN THE CONTEXT OF INDIVIDUALIZED
PROTOCOLS THAT CLOSELY MONITOR AND ANALYZE ITS
EFFECTS.
31- 2) By contrast, individuals that are high in
repressive coping who are more skeptical and
reality-oriented than lows, benefited more from
biofeedback, a modality providing objective
feedback about mind-body interactions they would
otherwise not believe or tend to ignore.
32- 3) Those who were low in hypnotic
ability/absorption were less likely to benefit
from hypnosis and imagery and instead were also
more likely to benefit from biofeedback, whereas
individuals low in repressive coping were found
to be more amenable to hypnosis and imagery
provided that they were not also low in hypnotic
ability/absorption. - Individuals exhibiting a more rare constellation
of high hypnotic ability/absorption and high
repressive coping were considered good candidates
for both hypnosis/imagery and biofeedback.
33An Appeal to Practitioners
- In this era of high-technology replete with
psychophysiological monitoring devices and
sophisticated computer analysis, it is no longer
tenable to administer interventions that have not
been tested for reliability, validity and
efficacy. - All Sport Psychology practitioners should be
trained in psychophysiology and biofeedback and
equiped to monitor and assess the
psychophysiology of athletes and teams or access
consultants who are
34Contributing to the Development of a New Paradigm
in Assessment and Intervention
- An Internet-Based Athlete Assessment, Analysis,
Intervention and Database Center - Your Personal Sport Psychology Consultant and
Researcher
35Why is there a need?
- Speculative comments, analyses and advice
regarding the mental side of the game are just as
common among Sport Psychologists as they are
among the laity.
36Psycho-babble or the Basis of a Scientific Sport
Psychology?
- mental toughness, motivation, focus, zone, mental
training just do it, etc.
37- Although the above constructs and notions may
indeed form the basis of certain aspects of sport
performance when used in the context of
pop-psychological analyses, they are wanting as
to their meaning.
38- Essentially, the field of Sport Psychology has
fed these meaningless slogans, platitudes and
notions to the masses, such that coaches,
athletes and analysts have bought into many myths
and methods advanced by the field as though they
are the GOSPEL!
39- However, without systematically delineating the
mental components of the performance equation and
operationalizing the pet slogans of Sport
Psychology, coaches, athletes, teams and analysts
have little of empirical value to draw on and
utilize when it comes to making decisions about
athletes
40- In contrast to the physical and technical game
about which there is an abundance - of scientific information and data along with
huge volumes of actual objective performance
statistics (especially in the sports of baseball,
football and basketball), when it comes to the
mental side of the game, there is a paucity of
valid and reliable information about its
dynamics.
41- Consequently, potentially revealing measures such
as zone, focus, and mental toughness have
devolved instead of evolving into potent
constructs and sensitive measures of
psychological performance. They have become
misused and even abused terms that are thrown
about with impunity. At face value they mean
nothing.
42- Essentially, the assessment of psychological
performance, mental training and ultimately
decision making regarding an athletes mental
game and predictions of future performance are
often based on anecdotal speculation instead of
good science.
43- If the field of Sport Psychology is to make
inroads into professional sports and provide all
athletes the best possible service and methods a
paradigm shift pertaining to the assessment and
mental training needs to occur. It must be based
on rigorous scientific approaches and methods,
similar to those seen in the clinical realm where
major advances have been made pertaining to
patient diagnosis and treatment.
44- New approaches to athlete evaluation must produce
meaningful and useful information regarding an
athletes psychological performance that has a
high degree of validity and reliability.
45- Just as a professional scout or coach knows an
athletes vertical jumping ability, foot speed,
performance average, technical propensities,
body-fat index and oxygen uptake, the time has
come to develop individualized normative
databases on psychological and neuropsychophysiolo
gical functioning in athletes for assessment,
comparative and intervention purposes.
46- Practitioners should know an athletes attention
threshold, brain processing speed and reaction
time, emotional reactivity, critical moment
psychological proficiency, heart rate
variability and deceleration response
parameters, and movement related brain-macro
potential readings among other important
performance components if they are to effectively
advise athletes, coaches and teams.
47- The era of merely telling athletes to relax or
just imagine or shut out all negative
thoughts is passé. A new era needs to emerge in
which slogans like just relax are
operationalized in terms of generating more high
frequency heart rate variability prior to
critical moments, or increasing focus would
involve engaging in neurofeedback to achieve a
higher attention threshold. Rather than tell an
athlete to shut out negative thoughts, athletes
would be taught to manipulate relative brain
hemispheric activation to suppress intrusive
thoughts.
48- The current cliché laden just do it approach
needs to be replaced with methods that define
many of the nebulous constructs that pervade
Sport Psychology today. It is time to delineate
Hanins (1980) theory and postulates using
instruments and methodologies that allow us to
measure the states of intensity or physiological
reactivity to which his theory refers.
49- It is no longer tenable for ANY practitioner
delving in the arena of Sport Psychology to speak
in nebulous terms such as he doesnt
concentrate or shes a choker, or hes not
mentally tough or recommend interventions just
because they are the thing to do. Youve got to
visualize or get your intensity up, as slogans
to somehow involve a person in mental training
are insufficient.
50- Athletes and coaches need to be provided with
standardized measures and parameters of sport
relevant psychological and neuropsychophysiologica
l functioning. The time has come for
practitioners to use new language that is based
on empirically derived data and
operationalizations of psychological processes
and their effects on performance.
51- Advanced technology and methodologies are
available to lift Applied Sport Psychology to a
new level of sophistication and credibility, they
just have to be used.
52The Athlete Neuropsychophysiological Performance
Database Project and Internet-based Psychological
Assessment and Performance Center
53- While I recognize that most practitioners do not
have specialized training in Psychophysiology,
Neuropsychology and ambulatory assessment and
monitoring the advent of chip technology has
given rise to numerous products that can be used
by practitioners, coaches and athletes. These
devices can be used to gather data, analyze it
and even entrain ideal neuropsychophysiological
states at home and more recently on-the-field.
54- Consequently, I am advocating that ALL Sport
Psychology practitioners participate in an
international, controlled and standardized
protocol designed to create a normative database
of neuropsychophysiological functioning in
athletes for off-the-field baseline conditions
and tasks, on-the-field during real training and
competition and during critical moments of
competition. The project is multifaceted and will
be easily accessible to practitioners and
athletes.
55- Central to the NPAD project is the Brain Resource
Company (BRC) neuropsychological test battery and
quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) brain
functioning analysis protocol. In the clinical
world, the BRC approach to the establishment of
normative brain databases is emerging as one of
the most valid and reliable indices of cortical
functioning, primarily because of the rigorously
controlled and administered protocol the BRC
adheres to.
56- As the athlete-specific database evolves it is
expected that clear tendencies in brain
functioning will emerge that will distinguish
athletes in terms of psychological performance
and that some of the findings and hypotheses on
cortical functioning in athletes that I present
in my new book will be concurrently validated on
the basis of multiple neurophysiological measures
and markers the BRC protocol captures.
57- The BRC approach is also intended to flexible and
dynamic and will evolve to include new measures
of athlete-relevant cortical functioning on the
basis of the initial database findings. An
in-the-field database neuropsychological protocol
will also be developed in phase II of the BRC
project.
58- The APAPC project is an applied field study
approach to the assessment and evaluation of
athletes. It is separate from the BRC database
project, yet complimentary and predicated on the
ecological validity of monitoring procedures and
data generation.
59- Participating practitioners or individual
athletes will have access to a new and
sophisticated ambulatory monitoring device that
was jointly developed by BraInquiry, Biocom
Technologies and myself. The device is capable of
monitoring various measures including heart rate
variability, EEG, Galvanic Skin Response,
EMG-muscle tension. The APAPC project will
primarily focus on HRV using an adapted version
of the BraInquiry Personal Efficiency Trainer
(PET) containing BioCom Technologies advanced
HRV analysis software, called the Heart-Minder.
60- This device is capable of acquiring continuous
data for up to eighteen hours and can be used
during training and competition to assess and
enhance psychological performance. The
Heart-Minder is linked to an internet-based data
analysis center. Participants in this project
will upload data to the internet data center for
analysis and report generation. Acquired data
will also be used to extend on my own and BioCom
Technologies existing HRV and heart rate
deceleration databases for athletes, normal and
clinical samples.
61- Practitioners and athletes will receive a
customized report along with recommendations for
mental training and comparative norms.
Practitioners who are specially trained in this
protocol will also have access to personal
computer-based analysis software for in-office
evaluation and mental training purposes.
62- The advent of the Heart-Minder, PET and internet
data analysis center go a long way toward
removing barriers associated with ambulatory
monitoring and high-tech assessment of athletes
(see Carlstedt, 2002). The device is quite small,
powerful in its data acquirement and analysis
capabilities and is linked to a professional
support team and center. Moreover, the device has
biofeedback capabilities that allows for
in-the-field mental training and self-regulation
interventions.
63- The BRC protocols allow for highly valid and
reliable analyses of brain functioning that is
relevant to sport performance. The BRC brain
analysis battery includes measures of executive
functioning, subliminal cognitive and emotional
processing, responding and reaction time tasks
measured at the level of the brain, comprehensive
EEG activity (qEEG) and central nervous system
reactivity to select stimuli.
64- Although such a high-tech approach to athlete
assessment and intervention may seem complex and
inaccessible to the average practitioner, it need
not be and thus should be sought by any
professional sport organization, coach, athlete
or practitioner who is serious about the
psychological side of the game. It is inexcusable
and perhaps even unethical for practitioners to
continue to advocate and use a paradigm that does
not test its methods for efficacy or use the most
advanced and sophisticated approaches available.
One can think of issues of practice and
competency using the following analogy.
65- For example, if a Psychologist or Psychiatrist in
the course of routine therapy, upon hearing that
a patient had chronic headaches, merely dismissed
the complaint and failed to refer the patient for
further assessment from a Neurologist, he or she
would be considered negligent and liable were the
patient to die of a brain tumor. Just because a
practitioner does not have access to an MRI
machine, let alone know how to use it or evaluate
a brain scan, doesnt mean he or she should not
seek out experts who use this advanced
technology.
66- Similarly, just because a practitioner does not
have high-tech equipment to assess brain
functioning or heart rate variability in athletes
or do efficacy studies on applied interventions
does not mean he or she should not seek out
specialists who can. The argument that it is not
necessary to validate the effects of
interventions or basic assessments in athletes is
becoming increasingly tenuous as more research
comes to light attesting to the utility and
benefits of advanced and technologically
sophisticated assessment, monitoring and mental
training methods.
67- The above multifaceted and high-tech approach to
applied Sport Psychology offers athletes, coaches
and teams access to cutting edge scientific
methods and technology that will illuminate
psychological performance as never before.
68- Interested practitioners and athletes are invited
to participate in this internet database and
analysis project. Doing so will help the field of
Sport Psychology generate normative data on the
psychological performance of athletes as well
assist practitioners in providing coaches and
athletes the most advanced approach to assessment
and mental training intervention available.
69- For more information on this project please visit
the American Board of Sport Psychology website
at www.americanboardofsportpsychology.org. A
portal or link to the project website can be
found there. - You can also email Dr. Roland A. Carlstedt at
DrRCarlstedt_at_aol.com or contact or call
212-860-8500 (ext. 25) or 917-680-3994 to learn
how to participate in this groundbreaking project.
70References
- Carlstedt, R.A. (2004). Critical moments during
competition A mind-body model of sport
performance when it counts the most. NY
Psychology Press. - Carlstedt, R.A. (2004) Line-bisecting performance
in highly skilled athletes Does rightward error
reflect unique cortical functioning and
organization. Brain and Cognition, 54, 52-57. - Wickramasekera, I. (1988) Clinical behavioral
medicine. NY Plenum.
71About the Author
- Roland A. Carlstedt, Ph.D. is a Licensed
Psychologist and Sport Psychologist. He directs
Integrative Psychological Services of NYC. - His clinical specialties are Behavioral
Medicine, Health Psychology and Applied
Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. Dr. Carlstedt
is the Director of Sport Psychology Research
Heart and Brain Processes with BioCom
Technologies and a Consultant to the Brain
Resource Company. He is a member of the Capella
University Harold Abel School of Psychology and
Chairman and Head Mentor of the American Board of
Sport Psychology. A former Professional Tennis
Player and Coach he worked on the ATP/WTA tennis
tours fulltime for over ten years. He is the
recipient of the American Psychological
Association Division 47 2001 Dissertation Award.
His dissertation was also nominated for the
Society for Neurosciences 2001 Donald Lindsley
Dissertation Award.