A Descriptive Paradigm Research On The Sport Decision Making

The sport decision making is a common phenomenon in sports. In many sport matches, the level of sport decision making directly influences the consequences of the match. In order to improve the level of sport decision making, we need to firstly have a correct acknowledge on sport decision making. Decision is a critical component of the social practice of the humankind, which involves every field of the human life. Based on the different definitions on the decision and conceptions of the decision making process in the various studies, there are two different kinds of research paradigm on the decision according to the research results. One is the normative paradigm and the other is the descriptive paradigm. The normative one is widely associated with psychology, especially the cognitive psychology. The studies around the sport decision making are based on the normative paradigm. In the sport psychology, there is very little research done on the advanced cognitive activities, especially on the sport decision making. While in the past research, it is hard to find a clear clarification on the conception of "sport decision making". From the theoretical level, the theoretical studies on the sport decision making are very weak, most of which mainly concentrate on the conception level and do not have a complete theoretical framework. About the methodologies, the methods on the sport decision making are still limited in number. On the social demand, the sport decision making is a common phenomenon in the rivalry sport and the level of the sport decision making of the athletes are the important factors influencing the consequences. Therefore the studies of sport decision making based on the tennis can help us not only know the features of the sport decision making of the tennis players, but also reveal the essence of the sport decision making with common meanings through researching tennis, and advanced activities of sport decision makings. This research clarifies the conception of "sport decision making"for the first time, clearly pointing out that sport decision making is not a process of conception prediction in the sport, but a process of thought, in which the athletes can quickly and directly solve the problems based on limited information in the specific situation. This study uses the descriptive paradigm as the base of the methodology. Based on the decision theory and decision model of the descriptive paradigm, this research firstly constructs the sport decision making theory. It proposes that the sport decision making is a functional system of cognitive adjustment in the selection of sport actions. Meanwhile, the sport decision making occurs in specific practical situations, which is very complex and with much uncertainty. So the sport decision making is also a system with highly adaptivecapacities. The exploration on the mechanisms of the sport decision making can reveal the essence of the sport decision making and provide theoretical ground for the psychological training of the athletes. At the same time, this research synthetically uses expert-novice study design, film fixation examination method and the oral report method. It studies the decision making process of the athletes from both the perspectives of external information processing and the nerve center processing. This study provides new solution to the decision studies. II. The methodologies: This research is methodologically based on the descriptive paradigm. It uses the methods of cognitive psychology to study the sport decision makings in the tennis matches. The sample includes forty three excellent tennis players (first grade or above), twenty four middle level players (second grade) and twenty nine novices. I use the expert-novice comparison method to explore the differences of level on sport decision making in order to study the essence of sport decision making. The specific methods applied are as follows: 1. The sport decision making system model constructed through the literature review and theoretical analysis under the direction of descriptive paradigm and based on the decision theory and model from the descriptive paradigm. 2. Independently designed examination system of the sport decision making based on the decision theory, which can carry out the psychological measurement for the sport decision making of both the expert and novicein the match. I find that the sport decision making has two levels such as the analytical decision and the intuitive decision. 3. Establishing measurement model for the tennis players by their oral record in order to research the process of thoughts, in which the player nerve center processes the information in the situation of the match. III. The results and conclusions 1. This research primarily sets up a theory of sport decision making with some new conceptions and ideas, such as 1) sport decision making is a process, in which the agent quickly and directly solves the problem based on limited information in a complicated sport situation; 2) the sport decision making is quick, situation-embedded, with different sport levels and limited information; 3) sport decision making is a sub-conception of the independent decision. It is at a high level of cognitive skills and occupies a unique position in the sport thoughts; 4) there are differences in the sport decision making according to the sport level, individual level and developmental level. From the functional perspective, the sport decision making is a functional system of cognitive adjustment in the process of choosing sport activities. The sport decision making is a process, in which the player is under the goal to win, chooses and processes the external impulsive information, establishes the information connections or generates new information, and then solves the problem. The sport decision making is intensively illustrated in the process of choosing the sport actions and the selective process of action is in fact a process of sport decision making.2. The synthetically empirical studies on the sport decision making I firstly use the psychological measurement method to carry out the experimental study on the sport decision making at two levels of information amount. (1) The research verifies: there are two kinds of decision for the sport decision making under the two level of information amount, namely the analytical decision and the intuitive decision. With the decrease of the information amount, the expert use more intuitive decision than the novice. That is, under the complex situation of the quick, the heavier time pressure, the uncertainty of the result (unpredictable) in the tennis match, the agent especially the expert, could do sport decision makings, which are quick, direct and accurate. (2) The research verifies: the analytical decision and the intuitive decision in the tennis sport are two different kinds of task. Individuals show difference in those two types of tasks. (3) The research also verifies: There exists mutual-constraining relationship between the accuracy and speed of the decision. The analytical decision and the intuitive decision have high correlation at a same indicator of a same task. I further use the oral report method to do the comparative analysis on the problem features and features of the sport decision making of the tennis experts and novices in the semi-matches., in order to research the fundamental reasons for the expert and the novice in the information processing level. It verifies: (1) There are more conceptions of the problem features for an expert than anovice, as can be shown by the more whole conceptions, conditional conceptions and action conception owned by the expert. An expert has more complicated and delicate level structure in terms of problem features than a novice. The expert has more "rivalry-targeted"aim conceptions and more "based on internal information"conditional conception. The expert can show more complete conception types than the novice and the expert has more connections among the conception of "condition-action"than the novice. (2) The expert is more positive in terms of the sport decision making in solving the problem. The expert tends to show more tactics and be more intelligent in the action selection. From the pattern of information processing, the expert tends to show obviously "top-down"pattern than the novice in the sport decision making. 3. A primary exploration on the mechanism of the sport decision making Finally this study points out that the better performance in terms of the sport decision making shown by the expert in a sport situation is based on the higher level of information processing. The expert adopts better strategies in solving the problems and uses unique logic mechanism. The more sport knowledge and experiences the expert has, the more he or she would like to use the decrease-neglection or jumping pattern in order to make an intuitive decision. From the thought developmental level, the expert's sport decision making shows more features of the "generative pattern"thoughts. The "generative pattern"thoughts are not only taken as the essential part of the intuition in the sport decision making of the tennis expert, it can also act as the direction principle in sport practice to strengthen the thought training of the athletes and improve the intuition of the athletes in sport decision making. Insuch high-strategy sports as tennis, we can induce the athletes to do the "generative pattern"study, positively explore the connection between the action and conditions of the generative pattern, acquire the skills to solve the problem of the tailwinds induction more efficiently in order to reach the level of intuition.