The sport of cricket provides numerous challenges, many of which are mentally demanding. It has long been of great interest to psychologists and sport athletes alike, the study of psychological behaviour in sport performance. A known stimulus or a novel stimulus provides no context for understanding psychological reactions. On the other hand, observing people displaying different levels of behaviour in the context of a sporting task can provide important psychological information. Historically, experiments employed a more reductive approach that dictated the type of research that could be done and limited the number of variables that influenced the findings. However, in order to gain a better understanding of psychological behaviour, research must now progress into methodological approaches that better mirror the specific setting in which behaviour is observed. An individual's psychological behaviour is the result of their adaptive actions, cognitions, and emotions, which is shown through the characteristics of their surroundings (i.e. dynamic). In order to achieve a specific performance goal, tests need to include relevant information to support the action, knowledge, and emotional states of the performers. This paper offers a study comparing the mental activity of senior Telangana cricket players prior to and after playing in a competition.
Key words: Cricket, Psychological information, Reductive approach, Cognition
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