Entries by Jessica

Mental Skills Training: 3 Team Cohesion Strategies

By Jessica Maes I discussed team/group cohesion at length in my post titled: An Analysis of Cohesion in Sport and Performance. Be sure to check out that post if you haven’t already! Here are three examples of cohesion strategies: Cohesion Strategy 1: Take time to learn something personal about the other people on the team. […]

An Analysis of Cohesion in Sport and Performance

By Jessica Maes In the study of cohesion, Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development defines four stages: Forming: When a group/team is forming and setting the ground rules for the group/team. Storming: When the group/team begins to communicate with each other but each group/team member still sees themselves as an individual. Norming: When the group/team begins […]

Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory: Definition and Application

By Jessica Maes When I started graduate school, my only reference to Albert Bandura was the Bobo Doll Experiment. However, Bandura’s research produced much more than that. Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory is a situation-specific theory related to confidence. This can be an effective theory to utilize when working with performers who are stuggling confidence. There are 4 […]

An Analysis of Goal Setting in Education Administration

By Jessica Maes Goal setting is one of the most popular and proven-to-work motivation tools, and it’s also the most misused tool in the motivational toolbox. Administered properly, the sky is the limit as evidenced by people like Entrepreneur Daymond John and Olympian Michael Phelps.  Incorrect goal setting can result in no results, lack luster […]

A History of Sport Psychology

By Jessica Maes While the field of sport psychology is relatively young, it’s older than one may think. All the way back in 1897, Norman Triplett was studying cyclists. He wanted to see how an audience impacted performance. What he observed is that most cyclists performed worse when there was competition. Only the most elite performers […]

Impressions on Midterm Exams

By Jessica Maes My first semester of graduate school midterm exams are officially in the books! Every week of this semester has been been a new adventure since this is my first year of grad school. I don’t know what I don’t know about so. many. things. Luckily, you learn a lot about perspective  when […]