Psychological Rehabilitation: Connor’s Input – Page 1

(Page One – Psychological Research/Evaluations)

Psychological aspect of returning from injury for 25 year old white sprinter with a hamstring injury.

Return from any injury can be difficult for an athlete, specific rehabilitation in the form of physiotherapy,  training and nutrition all play a part. But psychological rehabilitation can be equally as important for the athletes recovery, especially with regards to returning to the competitive circuit.

There are several holistic models that suggest the manner in which rehabilitation can occur including its factors. An example of this is the biopsychosocial model (Brewer, 2009) which shows that there are several psychological and sociological factors that can affect the rehabilitation time; such as personality, life stress and even the rehabilitation environment. Additionally Weise-Bjornstal et al (1998) have a model related closer to the psychological factors of rehabilitation. Such as cognitive appraisal in the form of how much the athlete believes they can return to the sport and do well and situational factors such as environmental agents in the form of coaches, family members etc.

biopsychocial model

Fig. 1. A biopsychosocial model of athletic injury rehabilitation. From ‘‘Psychological aspects of sport injury rehabilitation: Toward a biopsychosocial approach’’ by Brewer, B.w.

If we take both of these two theories into account and then link them to our athlete and take each factor into account we can see her rehab will again be short, from a psychological point of view. This is due to her emotional response to the injury not being  anxiety or depression but a positive attitude to return to competing as strong as ever which links to her own cognitive appraisal which is also high in the form of her coping and self belief. The biopsychosocial model suggests also for our athlete her rehabilitation should be relatively short due to her drive to compete again but also the rehabilitation environment she is in has been  designed specifically to fit her needs perfectly.

O’Connor et al (2005) have a much simpler model of psychological rehabilitation in sport which consists of three steps; Denial – the athlete simply refuses to acknowledge the severity of their injury, this occurs during the early stages of rehabilitation. Distress – the negative emotions that occur due to the injury in the form of anxiety, anger depress etc. Finally determined coping – the athlete has overcome the first phases and begins to focus on rehab, is able to manage the stress and starts to set realistic goals and focus on progressing back into a competitive mindset. We can couple this with Ryan & Deci (2000) have linked regulation style and its characteristics to motivation level for example integrated regulation is linked to congruence and self worth/identity  e.g. the athlete wants to return to the sport because it is a part of their lifestyle.

With our athlete we can relate both of these theories as due to the fact she has been competing at a high level from a young age she already has a high extrinsic motivation. By wanting to return and carry on the sport that has become her life. Furthermore she must has a high level of intrinsic motivation to have competed to such a standard from a young age and a high level of personal enjoyment for the sport. On the other hand our athlete does not personify O’Connor et al’s (2005) model as our athlete has not once entered the denial stage or distress stage but instead jumped ahead to the determined coping phase where she knows how, with our help, she will recover and what she needs to do to get there.

Finally Hagger et al (2005) theorise a trans-contextual model which suggests that motivation is transferable from one context to another. They suggest this on three different levels; “Specific Level – where autonomous motivation of an athlete can become autonomous motivation in adhering to treatment” At a contextual level where “if injured athletes perceive autonomy support from the physiotherapist in the rehabilitation context, they may increase their autonomous motivation in following the treatment.” and ultimately on a global level where ” an internal locus of control determines an autonomous motivation in athletes and their perception of autonomy support from coach or physiotherapist, while an external locus of control determines individual controlled motivation and perception of controlled support from others”

 When we link these theories more specifically to our athlete we need to consider psychological interventions that could be used for her rehabilitation back to a fit/competing level, these will be considered and explained on page two.

Click the link below for page two:

 https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/hamstringsprinterinjury/?p=57

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