PSYCHOLOGY OF TEAM SPORTS
1. Introduction
By now it is considered as evidence that achievement in sports are not only affected by physical, and physiological factors, but psychological and psychophysical characteristics are also very influential. These psychological characteristics come in many different types and forms, covering a wide spectrum of psychology from psychophysical parameters (e.g., reaction time, peripheral perception, etc.) to personality traits and social relations. In a broader sense, pedagogical psychology can also be linked to sport, its results can be applied to educate to sport and pedagogical methods may be applied in sports as well.
The psychological background of the highly popular team sports is probably even more profound than in case of individual sports, as all the personal psychological characteristics (motivation, personality traits, etc.) are also present in team sports, but not surprisingly the social aspect is much more important, and pervades team sports more profoundly than individual sports. That is, all the phenomena related to individual sports are also related to team sports, but in team sports there is also an additional dimension stemming from team (group) membership, which is characteristic of team sports and is not present, or at least much less salient in individual sports.