Sport psychology
Edexcel GCSE Physical Education revision on Sport psychology. Aligned to the Pearson Edexcel GCSE PE 1PE0 specification. This bank has 5 practice questions on this topic.
Sample questions (3 of 5)
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Question 1
Intrinsic motivation comes from...
- A) External rewards (money, medals)
- B) Within - personal enjoyment
- C) Coaches
- D) Sponsors
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Answer: Within - personal enjoyment
INTRINSIC motivation: doing something for its own sake - enjoyment, pride, mastery, sense of progress. Research: linked to long-term commitment + wellbeing. EXTRINSIC motivation: external rewards/punishments - money, trophies, fame, approval from others. Both can be useful but intrinsic generally more sustainable.
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Question 2
Arousal is...
- A) Excitement only
- B) The general physiological + psychological state of alertness/readiness
- C) Performance
- D) Fear
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Answer: The general physiological + psychological state of alertness/readiness
Sports performance + arousal: there's an OPTIMAL level. Too low = drowsy, unfocused. Too high = anxious, jittery. INVERTED-U HYPOTHESIS: performance is best at moderate arousal. Different sports/skills need different optimal levels: archery (low - need calm), boxing (high - need intensity). Personality matters too - extroverts handle higher arousal.
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Question 3
The inverted-U hypothesis says performance is best at...
- A) Low arousal
- B) Moderate (optimal) arousal
- C) Maximum arousal
- D) Zero arousal
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Answer: Moderate (optimal) arousal
Yerkes + Dodson Law (1908). Graph: arousal on x-axis, performance on y-axis = inverted U shape. Too low: not engaged. Too high: anxious/over-aroused. PEAK in middle. Optimal arousal varies by: type of task (precision vs power), skill level (experts handle higher), personality (extroverts higher).
Want to test yourself on the remaining cards for this topic?
2 more questions on Sport psychology — plus mistakes tracking and spaced repetition across the whole Physical Education spec.