The Head and Shoulders Psychology of Success Project: An Examination of Perceptions of Olympic Athletes‪.‬

Over the past several decades, research in sport psychology has greatly enhanced our understanding of the affective, behavioral, and cognitive reactions of sport participants. This research has examined participants from many levels of competition including youth sport (Brustad, 1993; Roberts, 1993), recreational participants (Wesch, Law,&Hall, 2007), and elite performers (Vanden Auweele, De Cuyper, Van Mele,&Rzewnicki, 1993). The purpose of the current project was to investigate the psychology of success among Olympians, thus expanding our understanding of these elite athletes. There were four themes targeted in this research: the impact of fan support, perceptions of the home field advantage, the importance of pre-event rituals, and perceptions of attributes that lead to athletic success. With respect to fan support, one of the earliest studies in sport and social psychology found that audiences play a key role in motor and athletic performance (Davis, Huss,&Becker, 1995; Triplett, 1898). Indeed, a large body of literature now exists detailing the impact of fan and spectator support (Bray&Widmeyer, 2000; Wann, 1997) and it is clear that fans can strongly and with great devotion support their favorite athletes and teams (Wann, Melnick, Russell,&Pease, 2001). For instance, audiences can lead to a social facilitation effect, in which the audience leads to arousal and increases the performer's dominant response (Zajonc, 1965). Consequently, successful athletes tend to perform better in front of an audience while unsuccessful athletes will exhibit a decline in performance. This pattern of effects has been substantiated in sport environments (Davis&Harvey, 1992; Singer, 1965). To extend past work, this research examined athletes' perceptions of three specific aspects of fan support. Specifically, they indicated the extent to which they viewed fans as a source of support, the degree to which they believed fan support had an impact on their performance, and the extent to which they felt that fan support affected their confidence.