PhD, Associate Professor, S.A. Vasyura¹
Dr.Hab., Professor N.I. Iogolevich^2
1Udmurt State University, Izhevsk, Russian Federation
²Industrial University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russian Federation

Keywords: sports, stress, athlete, individuality, sports activities, coping.

Introduction. In January 2020, Bronislav Alexandrovich Vyatkin, Doctor of Psychology, professor, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Education, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, turned 85 years old. This is the anniversary of the Perm Scientific Psychological School head, a prominent sports psychologist, the author of more than 250 works in the field of stress psychology, personality, individuality of a person and the conditions for its development in various activities, including sports.

Aim. The paper presents an analysis of theoretical and experimental research of team of scientists of the Perm Psychological School that played a significant role in the sports psychology development.

Materials and methods.

The study uses the theoretical analysis of Vyatkin's and his colleagues scientific works on the sports psychology problems.

Results. Bronislav Alexandrovich Vyatkin is the author of numerous scientific papers, an organizer of university science, and one of the Russian differential sports psychology founders. His contribution to the development of sports psychology is really impressive. B. A. Vyatkin's doctoral dissertation “The influence of mental stress on sports activity and its management depending on personality traits” (1981) was carried out under the guidance of the outstanding Russian psychologist Wolf Solomonovich Merlin, the creator of the doctrine of the integral person’s individuality, and was presented at the Scientific Research Institute of Scientific Practical Sciences of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. Developing V.S. Merlin’s ideas in the field of differential psychology, Bronislav Aleksandrovich conducted experimental studies on the sports psychology problems and organized a research group that focused on the study of mental stress in sports and individuality manifestations in sports.

Back in the 1970s, B.A. Vyatkin noted that sport imposes high demands on the human psyche, training and competitions of athletes take place in emotional stress conditions, intense mental activity associated with an accelerating life pace and a variety of external stimuli. The scientist conducted several successful studies of psychodynamic aspects of an athlete's activity from a systemic perspective, and in 1972-1980 worked as a psychologist for the Olympic team of our country.

It should be noted that in line with differential approach, B.A. Vyatkin analyzed the issues of temperament and dynamics of sports activity, namely: temperament and adaptation to the activity requirements in sports, temperament and dynamics of motor skills formation in various conditions. The scientist noted that the different properties of the nervous system, as well as the temperament properties, with the same degree of excellence in activity, determine the uniqueness of its dynamic side. This allows athletes with various properties (regardless of the severity of these properties and activity requirements) to use the individual qualities of their temperament to achieve success [6].

From the differential approach standpoint, the scientist considered the issues of temperament and competitive stress, paid attention to the role of temperament in the stress influence on various sports activity manifestations - musculoskeletal feeling, volitional activity, interpersonal relationships in collective game activity. So, in the laboratory of B.A. Vyatkin, L.V. Likhachev studied the stress effect on the game relationships of basketball players, depending on the strength of the athletes’ nervous system. The study found that basketball players with a strong nervous system under stress increase the intensity of communication, management of the sports team as a whole and partners, and censure of partners. Athletes with a weak nervous system are characterized by a decrease in the communication intensity, an increase in overall team management, censure of partners, a decrease in personal management, and a negative response. Thus, stress worsens the game relationships in the team of athletes with a weak nervous system [8]. Of course, the usual interpersonal relationships violation in a sports team can be an additional stressful factor and it reduces the effectiveness of the game. Therefore, it is necessary to purposefully coordinate the athletes’ interpersonal relationships in the game, taking into account the properties of their nervous system in order to increase resistance to competitive stress during important tournaments.

An important scientific and practical aspect of B. A. Vyatkin's research is the development of recommendations for the training process organization, taking into account the athlete’s temperament [2]. For example, as for gymnastics trainers, recommendations are specified taking into account the athletes’ individual psychological characteristics. In competitive stress conditions, anxious gymnasts need to be kept from excessive waste of energy, and their attention should be focused on beauty, emotionality, and expressiveness of their movements. Non-anxious gymnasts need to be additionally stimulated before the start, and their interest in performing should be increased by setting specific goals and tasks. In addition, B.A. Vyatkin identified the following functions of a psychologist for managing stress in a sports team:

• gnoistic – studying the characteristics of the sports and sports specialization, in which they determine the athlete’s psyche and personality and impose certain requirements on him/her;
• constructive – planning of general and immediate psychological preparation of athletes for competitions;
• consulting – explanation and interpretation of the athletes’ conditions, the features of their behavior in training and competitive practice;
• enlightening – communication to trainers and athletes of information on general and sports psychology necessary for the psychological preparation process;
• educational – education of athletes, the formation of certain personal qualities in them, the impact on the organization of favorable interpersonal relationships in the group;
• practical – implementation of measures to manage mental stress, control the stress level, especially during the athletes’ performance in important competitions [2].

In the 1970s-1980s B.A. Vyatkin and his colleagues conducted a number of psychological (empirical) multifaceted studies, which were summarized in two monographs, “The Role of Temperament in Sports Activities,” and “Management of Mental Stress in Competitions” [6, 8]. The monograph on managing mental stress was translated and published in Italy in 1984. In it, the scientist presented to the scientific community the author's concept of mental stress as an integral systemic phenomenon defined by several systems of different hierarchical levels. This concept has contributed to changing perceptions of the mental stress nature, and has contributed to the development of specific ways to manage stress, depending on the individual person. In fact, the scientist scientifically substantiated the process of preparing a person for activity in extreme sports activity conditions.

In the 1990s, the focus of B. A. Vyatkin's research was an integral individuality of an athlete and its development in conditions of sports activity. In search of ways to increase the athletes’ effectiveness in intense competition, he investigated the problem of athletes’ emotional activity [3, 4]. Under the guidance of B. A. Vyatkin, P. V. Tokarev completed a dissertation study that identified individual styles of emotional activity in athletes [10]. On a sample of highly qualified athletes of speed and power athletics, it has been empirically proved that the emotional activity style is a multi-level and multi-component system of competitive motives, personal relationships and emotional experiences, caused by a symptom complex of multi-level individual properties, aimed at achieving the highest sports result. It is proved that the individual style of emotional activity in the athlete’s personality structure performs not only an adaptive function in stressful conditions, but also a system-forming function [ibid].

Conclusion. Currently, B.A. Vyatkin continues his research in the field of sports psychology, studying the style of coping with mental stress in sports competitions. The data obtained in V. V. Popova's research under the guidance of B. A. Vyatkin on the styles of coping with mental stress among athletes create the prerequisites for the further development of the style problem, which is referred to as "human style" in psychology. In particular, under the guidance of B.A. Vyatkin V.V. Popova conducted a study of Kyokushinkai karate athletes who are representatives of the teams of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, having a sports category no lower than the master of sports of Russia [7, 9]. The research design included the study of the athlete’s tactical and technical actions in different activity conditions, the study of the multilevel properties of the athlete’s personality, the determination of the presence of stress and coping behaviors. Significant differences in the athlete’s condition in the background (training) conditions and during the competition were determined using the method of voice spectrographic analysis developed by B. A. Vyatkin [1]. It was found that the athlete as a result of changing the state from background to stress, has an increase in the number of actions of the attacking, counterattacking, and defensive type. Coping with stress during the competition manifests itself in an increase in the number of connections of attacking actions with the properties of the psychodynamic level of an athlete’s personality. More complex counterattacking actions of an athlete extend to all levels of his/her personality. It should be noted that in the style study in the research of the Perm Psychological School representatives, led by B.A. Vyatkin, a polysystemic approach was identified, namely: style acts as a system-forming factor of the integral individuality of a person involved in it, at the same time, integral individuality acts as a system-forming factor in relation to style [5,11].

In recent years, B.A. Vyatkin together with his colleagues, on the basis of the integral individuality theory, has been developing a model for the interaction between subjects of sports activities “athlete-trainer-psychologist” [12]. The model presents the directions of an individual approach to an athlete, which provide a high level of self-realization, taking into account the integration of subsystems of its integral individuality.

References

1. Vyatkin B.A. The application of spectral voice analysis as an indicator of the level of mental stress during sports competitions. Sportivny psikholog. 2012. No. 2 (26). pp. 49-51.
2. Vyatkin B.A. Selected psychological researches of the individuality: theory, experiment, practice. Perm: Knizhny mir publ., 2005. 390 p.
3. Vyatkin B.A. Integral individuality of a person and its development in specific conditions of sports activities. Psikhologicheskiy zhurnal. 1993. V. 14. No. 2. pp. 73-83.
4. Vyatkin B.A. Integral individuality of a person and psychological preparation for activity in extreme conditions. Problem of integral study of individuality and its practical aspects]. Proc.. Perm: PGPI publ., 1984. pp. 3-10.
5. Vyatkin B.A., Shchukin M.R. History and methodology of research of human styles of human in V.S. Merlin's school. Metodologiya i istoriya psikhologii. 2018. No. 3. pp. 127-150. DOI 10.7868/S1819265318030081
6. Vyatkin B.A. The role of temperament in sports activities. Moscow: Fizkultura i sport publ., 1978. 134 p.
7. Vyatkin B.A., Popova V.V. Style of coping with mental stress during sports competitions. Rudiov conference. Proc. VIII international research-practical conference of physical education and sports psychologists. Moscow: RGUFKSMiT publ., 2012.  pp. 129-132.
8. Vyatkin B.A. Mental stress control during sports competitions. Moscow: Fizkultura i sport publ., 1981. 112 p.
9. Popova V.V. Coping with Stress during pre-season training. Psikhopedagogika v pravookhranitelnykh organakh. 2014. No. 3 (58). pp. 61-64.
10. Tokarev P.V. Individual style of emotional activity of athlete in competitions. PhD diss. abstract (PhD). Perm, 1991. 18 p.
11. Vyatkin B.A., Dorfman L.Y. Theory of integral individuality by V.S. Merlin: history and nowadays. Obrazovanie i nauka. 2017. Vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 145-160. DOI: 10.17853/1994-5639-2017-2-145-160
12. Vyatkin B.A., Markelov V.V., Sysoev Yu.V., Kraev Yu.V. Training process individualizing by athlete-coach-psychologist triad synergy. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2019.  no. 3. pp. 81-86.

Corresponding author: iogolevichni@tyuiu.ru

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of theoretical and experimental research by Bronislav Alexandrovich Vyatkin who is one of the founders of Russian differential sports psychology, the head of the Perm Scientific Psychological School. Developing the ideas of the outstanding Russian psychologist V. S. Merlin, in the 1970s, the scientist organized a research group that studied mental stress in sports and human individuality manifestations in sports activities. At this time, he was interested in issues of temperament and competitive stress, the role of temperament in the stress influence on various sports activity manifestations – musculoskeletal feeling, volitional activity, interpersonal relationships in collective game activity. The central direction of B. A. Vyatkin's research in the field of sports psychology is the person's individuality manifestation in the sports activity conditions. The article pays special attention to the mental stress concept developed by B. A. Vyatkin as an integral system phenomenon, as well as to the rationale for the process of preparing a person for activity in extreme sports activity conditions. At present, Bronislav Alexandrovich continues systematic research in the field of sports psychology, coping with mental stress in sports competitions. Currently, the scientist is exploring the coping style from the perspective of a polysystem approach: style acts as a system-forming factor of the integral individuality of a person involved in it, at the same time, integral personality acts as a system-forming factor in relation to style. Another line of B. A. Vyatkin’s research is the interaction of sports activities subjects "athlete-trainer-psychologist", the integration of the triad subjects’ activities allows you to develop a trajectory of the athlete’s individual development.