5 Gould’s research into tennis
You have already seen that burnout has three dimensions, and that prolonged stress is a key contributor. You will now explore Gould’s research into burnout in tennis in a little more detail, which will help you identify a range of further conditions that have an influence on whether or not an individual suffers burnout.
Activity 6 Exploring burnout causes
Read the abstract from the research article below (Gould et al., 1997) and make a list under two headings:
- Burnout causes that you have already learned about in this session.
- Burnout causes that are new to you.
Abstract
Individual differences in burnout are examined by discussing … profiles from three athletes who were identified as having burned out. … These cases were chosen as they represented different [strains] of social psychologically driven and physically driven burnout. In particular, the three cases included: (a) a player characterized by high levels of perfectionism and overtraining; (b) a player who experienced pressure from others and a need for a social life; and (c) a player who was physically overtrained and had inappropriate goals. It was concluded that although important patterns result … across participants, the unique experience of each individual must be recognized.
| Burnout characteristics already mentioned in this session | Burnout characteristics that are new to you |
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Discussion
| Burnout characteristics already mentioned in this session | Burnout characteristics that are new to you |
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You can see that there are numerous causes that can contribute to burnout. Human performance is a complex phenomenon and interpreting these is one of the reasons studying burnout is worthwhile. In the final section of Session 1 the two other benefits of learning about burnout are outlined.