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Critical Moments During Competition

A Mind-Body Model of Sport Performance When It Counts the Most

• By Roland A. Carlstedt

• Price: $31.95 $28.76
• Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
• Pages: 280
• Published by: Psychology Press
• Publication Date: 28th July 2004
• ISBN: 978-1-84169-094-0

About the Book

This book presents first-time research findings and new empirically based perspectives and applications in sport psychology.Highly provocative data derived from the largest single study ever on athletes is used to advance an original model of peak performance centering on a clearly emerging athlete's profile. Central to the book is the Theory of Critical Moments, which proposes that mental factors are most crucial during specifically delineated psychologically significant periods of competition and helps explain when and why intrusive cognitions influence performance.

Reviews

"Roland A. Carlstedt's impressive book creatively integrates research from multiple subdisciplines in psychology to arrive at a highly original and coherent theory of peak sport performance. Readers will benefit from Dr. Carlstedt's experience as a professional athlete and coach as well as his solid academic credentials and training in the areas of cognitive neuroscience, psychophysiology, behavioral medicine, and personality. His eclectic background brings new insights, methods, and findings to the field of sport psychology that will have an impact for years to come." - Roger Drake, Ph.D., Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and Western State College of Colorado; Cognitive Neuroscientist

"Why do some professional athletes tend to 'deliver' in critical situations, while others are less dependable? Dr. Carlstedt's Mind-Body Model of Sport Performance focuses on this well-known and vexing performance difference between comparably talented professional athletes. He traces these differences to certain basic personality characteristics and their interplay. Depending on their strength and configuration, these general personal propensities may play either a facilitative or counterproductive (but potentially modifiable) role. Carlstedt's model is obviously of great relevance to sport psychologists. Because of its plausibility as well as its amenability to empirical scrutiny and continuing development, it also merits the attention of a wider readership.
It has the potential for evolving into a general model for understanding consistent excellence in response to challenge." - Auke Tellegen, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of Minnesota

"R. Carlstedt brings a thoroughly innovative perspective to the field of sport psychology in this new book. His model of peak performance ambitiously and successfully integrates a wealth of physiological, psychological, and cognitive neuroscience data to forcefully make the case that athletic performance cannot only be studied in a controlled fashion, but can be improved systematically. Although scholarly in its methodologies, this book is highly readable, and will be of interest to a wide range of academics, coaches, athletes, and mental health and sport psychology professionals." - Sanjay Mathew, M.D., Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Department of Psychiatry; Psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and former ranked tennis player

^{"This book provides a timely model for an evidence-based approach to assessment and retraining peak performance in athletes, particularly during critical moments of competition. Importantly, it points the way forward to bridge the gap between anecdote and testable brain science in this field." - Dr. Evian Gordon, founding director, Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia; CEO, The Brain Resource Company, developer of the world's first standardized International Database on the Human Brain; lead author and editor of Integrative Neuroscience}

Table of Contents

Foreword by Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.

Section I: Theoretical Foundations
Chapter 1. Theoretical Foundations
Chapter 2. Critical Moments during Competition: The Theory of Critical Moments
Chapter 3. The High Risk Model of Threat Perception and Athletes
Chapter 4. Primary Higher Order Predictor Variables: Effects on Athletes and Performance
Chapter 5. Neuropsychophysiological Concomitants of Primary Higher Order Factors and the Athlete's Profile

Section II: Emerging Evidence
Chapter 6. Emerging Evidence: Results from a Large Study of Athletes
Chapter 7. Emerging Evidence: Statistical and Empirical Implications
Chapter 8. Psychophysiological Concomitants of Primary Higher Order Factors and the Athlete's Profile: Heart Rate Variability and Heart Rate Deceleration Investigations

Section III: Applied Sport Psychology: Assessing and Mastering Critical Moments
Chapter 9. Assessing Critical Moments
Chapter 10. Toward a Global Psychophysiological Marker of Psychological Performance and Critical Moments during Competition: Quantifying Zone or Flow States
Chapter 11. Assessing and Predicting Psychological Performance during Critical Moments on the Basis of Psychophysiological Stress Testing: A Case Study
Chapter 12. Mastering Critical Moments: The Carlstedt Protocol
Chapter 13. Applying the Carlstedt Protocol: A Case Study
Chapter 14. Active-Alert Hypnosis and the Carlstedt Protocol
Chapter 15. A Design for Implementing and Testing the Efficacy of a Biofeedback Protocol Created for a Fromer Wimbledon Champion: A Case Study
Chapter 16. An Internet-Based Athlete Assessment, Analysis, Intervention, and Database Center: Your Personal Sport Psychology Consultant