Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Much has been researched and written on the concept of intelligence in the last century and \nwhile much of it has been applied in educational settings and commercial organisations, \nlittle has been investigated and applied within a sports context. Early research in the 1970s \nidentified sport intelligence as comprising primarily of reaction time and recall and it was \nonly in 2002, some 30 years later, that it again appeared in the literature with sport \nintelligence being considered a psychological characteristic of Olympic champions. The \nresearch of Gould, Diffenbach and Moffet (2002) into sport intelligence hypothesised that \nsport intelligence included having “the ability to analyse, being innovative, being a student \nof the sport, making good decisions, understanding the nature of elite sport, and being a \nquick learner” (p. 5). Later research by Blue (2009) proposed a comprehensive model of \nsport intelligence as it applied to golf wherein he posited that sport intelligence – albeit in a \ngolfing context – comprised a ‘competition’ and ‘developmental’ intelligence. \nOther than the thematic assessment of Gould et al. (2002) and the golf-specific study of \nBlue (2009) no literature, data or research was available internationally, on the African \ncontinent nor in South Africa. The researcher responded to the call for further research and \ndecided to complete a qualitative, exploratory study in South Africa. \nThe research commenced by covering what was available on sport intelligence literature \nand to build on it by reviewing and considering general intelligence theories. Both orthodox \nand unorthodox approaches were considered and the review suggested that sport \nintelligence would conceptually and theoretically consist of a number of dimensions and \nconstructs including a series of cognitive processes like memory, reasoning, problem \nsolving, decision making and other rational processes. The third source of literature was a review of sport psychology and it emphasised the \nimportance and significance of emotional, motivational and other psychological factors in \naddition to the influences of personality. \nThe literature review led to the researcher identifying 14 hypotheses which were explored \nwith 15 credible sport participants, whereafter a thorough content analysis of the 14 \nhypotheses was performed. 13 of the 14 initial hypotheses were accepted with one included \nas a theme within another. \nThe thematic assessment resulted in the identification and development of a systems model \nof sport intelligence comprising six components as follows: \n A neurophysiological component; \n A cognitive/rational component; \n An emotional/affective component; \n A team/group component; \n A societal/ecological component; and \n A metaphysical component. \nThe investigation and analyses furthermore indicated that the components do not exist in \nisolation of one another and each dimension seems of equal significance. The data \nsuggested a parallel process and dynamic interplay between these components and this led \nto a systemic perspective being adopted when synthesising the model into a logical and \ncoherent framework. Each of the components were critically evaluated from a cognitive and \nsystemic perspective. \nThe systemic perspective proposed challenges the view that performance is not only an \nindividual endeavour but also a systemic endeavour.
Author: Garrath James Rosslee
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1585545117