The social dimension of the constraints model in skill acquisition and sports performance

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Raúl Sánchez-García

Polytecnic University of Madrid, Spain

Citation

Sánchez-García, R. (2024). The social dimension of the constraints model in skill acquisition and sports performance. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 55(3), 233-256. doi:10.7352/IJSP.2024.55.233

Abstract

This theoretical paper develops the social dimension of the constraints model in relation to skill acquisition and sports performance. First, it presents the evolution of the constraints model since the original proposal by Newell (1986), later developed and applied to physical activities and sport by ecological dynamics. The underrepresentation and misplacement of the social dimension within the constraints model so far, leads to the proposal of a novel analysis, taking into account both the constitutive (S) and interactive (s) facets of the social. Such an analysis not only detects the social dimension of performer, task, environmental and informational constraints, but also helps to suggest two new kinds of constraints: volitional and semiotic. The paper then suggests a new enhanced model of constraints that helps to gain new insights into the question of agency in relation to the process of decision-making during the dynamic interactions of subject-environment.

Keywords: Social, Ecological dynamics, Affordances, Constraints, Deci- sion-making, Agency

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