Factors impacting on performance: overview of the SQA Advanced Higher Physical Education theory
An overview of the Factors Impacting on Performance area of SQA Advanced Higher Physical Education, covering mental, emotional, social and physical factors, the methods used to collect data on them, and the cyclical process of analysing and developing performance, with study tips and links to each key area.
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Factors Impacting on Performance is the theory backbone of SQA Advanced Higher Physical Education. It develops your independent research, analytical and evaluative skills by investigating how mental, emotional, social and physical factors affect performance, and by using data to develop performance. This page maps the key areas and shows how they connect to the project.
The key areas
- Mental factors
- Level of arousal and the inverted-U, cognitive and somatic anxiety, concentration and attentional focus, decision-making, mental toughness, and the approaches that develop them.
- Emotional factors
- Managing anger and aggression, fear and apprehension, happiness, sadness and frustration, resilience, and the approaches that regulate emotions.
- Social factors
- Group and team dynamics, cooperation and competition, roles and responsibilities, task and social cohesion, and how to develop cohesion.
- Physical factors
- Physical and skill-related fitness, skill level and classification, tactics and composition, and how these sub-factors interact within a performance.
- Methods of collecting information
- Qualitative and quantitative methods, observation schedules and video analysis, questionnaires and self-report inventories, standardised fitness tests, comparison with a model performer, and the reliability and validity of data.
- Analysing and developing performance
- The cyclical analysis process, setting goals from data, the principles of effective practice, methods and models of practice, the principles of training, and monitoring and evaluating development.
How to study this area
- Keep the four factor groups distinct. Mental, emotional, social and physical factors overlap (a strong emotion raises arousal), but each question rewards the factor it asks about. Learn the sub-factors of each group precisely.
- Always justify, do not just describe. Advanced Higher rewards explaining how a factor affects performance and how an approach changes it, with reasoning. Naming a technique earns little on its own.
- Link factors to data and development. For each factor, know a method to collect data on it and an approach to develop it, because the project asks you to do exactly that.
- Treat development as a cycle. Baseline, analyse, set goals, plan, implement, monitor, re-test, repeat. Examiners expect the loop, not a finish line.
The key areas in detail
Each key area has its own answer page with worked questions and cross-links. Use the quiz below to check your recall across the whole area, then work through the individual key areas and into the project.
For the official course specification
The SQA publishes the full Advanced Higher Physical Education course specification and past papers at sqa.org.uk. Always revise from the current specification and SQA past papers.