Personality of Athletes Prediction of Jogging Behavior ...€¦ · Anxiety, Stage Fright, and Personality of Athletes What are the relationships among anxie- ty tendency, stage fright,

Anxiety, Stage Fright, and Personality of Athletes

What are the relationships among anxiety tendency, stage fright, and personality traits? Niwa examined 520 intercollegiate athletes by analyzing an anxiety scale, seven personality traits from the Yatabe-Guilford personality inventory, tendency for stage fright, and their involvement in sport and cultural clubs in school. The ANOVA and stepwise multiple regression applied to the data demonstrated that: (a) the more subjective and the less involved in his sports club activities, the more the athlete showed anxiety; (b) athletes, especially male athletes, who have greater anxiety show more stage fright and emotional instability; (c) compared to the athletes in other sports clubs, the male athletes in BUD0 (Japanese original sports) clubs and the male and female athletes in individual sports clubs have the more anxiety, stage fright, and emotional instability; and (d) compared to female athletes, male athletes are more variable in trait anxiety due to their more varied sports patterns and also have less stage fright and depression. Based on these results, the author concludes that trait anxiety appears to be affected by the in- teraction of both athletes' personalities and types of sports activities in which they engage.

Niwa, T. The relationship between anxiety tendency and psychological traits in the intercollegiate athletes. Japanese Journal of Sport .Psychology, 1980, 7, 8-15.

Prediction of Jogging Behavior

Tokunaga, Tatano, Hashimoto, and Kanezaki attempted to examine behavioral intention, attitudes, and beliefs of male joggers and nonexercisers and the relation of these variables to their jogging behavior. To facilitate this attempt, Fishbein's Behavioral Intention Model was examined. It was hypothesized in this study that: (a) Joggers and nonexercisers over 20 years of age (average 42) had different attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral intention concerning regular jogging; and (b) Fishbein's Model could be used to predict people's jogging behavior. A total of 204 males completed questionnaires. Two weeks after completing the questionnaires, subjects were asked if they had run regularly during the 2 weeks. Pearson product moment, point biserial, and multiple correlation coefficients were calculated to determine the effect of components in Fishbein's Model. Results clearly demonstrated that joggers responded more positively than nonexercisers to behavioral intention, attitudes toward behavior, belief in the consequences of behavior, and nor- mative belief. In addition, Fishbein's Model was valid in predicting regular jogging behavior. However, the authors maintain that although Fishbein's Mod- el has validity, some modifications which take into account other variables may improve the model in order to improve scientific predictions of sport behavior.

Tokunaga, M., Tatano, H., Hashimoto, K., & Kanezaki, R. Behavioral inten-

SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST'S DIGEST 179

tion, attitudes and belief as factors for predicting sport behavior. Japanese Journal of Physical Education, 1980,25, 179-190.

Getting Rowers Psychologically Ready for the Contest

How is psychological readiness for a competition achieved? Which are the best ways to bring this about? These were the questions Zaitsev attempted to answer by describing his practical experience and research conducted in a team of 27 qualified junior paddlers and canoeists. Two approaches well known in sports practice are advocated by the author: (a) purposeful organization of training and competitive activity con- sisting of attention control, adequate motor sets, and self-regulation skills, and (b) formation of positive attitudes toward the particular contest. The latter was achieved by enhancing athletes' self- evaluations and level of aspiration, con- trolling hidher environment, and moni- toring the subjective importance of the contest outcomes. Both approaches are illustrated by research data and field observations. Implications for individual- ization of athlete's preparation are suggested. One case study demonstrates practical ways to use personality assessment in planning training programs and preparing the rower for the contest.

Zaitsev, P.V. The ways of forming psychological readiness for the contest in paddle and canoe rowing. Rowing. Moscow: Physical Culture and Sport Publishers, 1980.

Assessing the Level of Psychological Readiness in Swimmers

How can the sport psychologist assist coaches in the quick assessment of swim-

mers' level of psychological readiness? This very practical question was investigated by Bysembayeva, Gordon, Gurov, and Yampolsky, who developed a special 11-item scale for coaches in their study of 368 qualified swimmers and 48 coaches. The items were evaluated on a 5-point scale and the items basically covered the following areas: tolerance for competitive stress situations; self- assuredness in one's abilities; capacity to psych oneself up; self-regulation skills; desire to actively compete with strong and equal opponents; psychological en- durance in prolonged performance; and stability of one's sports form. A procedure is described for translating coaches' subjective evaluations into "objective" factor-analyzed scores. These "objective'' scores thus provide an integrative index of psychological readiness of a particular swimmer by placing him or her into one of the five classes. Practical implications are also suggested.

Bysembayeva, D.U., Gordon, S.M., Gurov, V.M., & Yampolsky, L.T. A quick measure to assess psychological readiness of swimmers. Swimming (Vol. 1). Moscow: Physical Culture and Sport Publishers, 1980.

The Coaches' Role in Developing Interpersonal Relationships Among Young Athletes

Moral education of athletes is an integral part of their training and preparation. What is the role of the coach in this process? And how can the athlete use the available psychological tools to assess and control the quality of interpersonal relationships in the team? These were the questions which Mikheyev attempted to answer by describing his practical experience in working as a teacher with a team of 15- to 18-year-old weight lifters.

180 SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST'S DIGEST

Mikheyev uses traditional sociometry, a Correcting Referees Mistakes modified social distance index, Hanin's "coach-athletes" relationships scale, and field observations, and his findings suggest several implications for moral education of athletes and optimization of their relationships within the team. Special emphasis is placed on the role of coach and his or her positive relationships with team members.

In many sport events a lot depends on the accuracy and "objectivity" of human judgment. Referee errors can thus have great psychological impact on athletes, coaches, and fans. Borisov and Novikov suggest three main ways of handling the problem of referee errors in wrestling, including: (a) improvement of professional understanding of wrestling

Mikheyev, A.I. On the role of coach in by organizing special seminars and moral education of Young weight lifters. workshops for referees and coaches; Weight lifting. Moscow: Physical (b) the study of referee interpretation of Culture and Sport Publishers, 1980. existing rules fo r specific ac-

tions/punishments of wrestlers (e.g., stalling tactics); and (c) the assessment of referee's personality, his or her com- petence level, and devotion to wrestling. It is concluded that better understanding

Teaching Water-anxious Subjects to of a referee is the key to the enhance- Swim ment of "coach-referee" relationships.

Fear of water as a specific emotional Borisov, V.I., & Novikov, A.A. Psycho- reaction could be a great psychological pedagogical aspects of refereeing. Sports barrier in learning to swim. A system of wrestling. Moscow: Physical Culture special exercises in shallow and deep wa- and Sport Publishers, 1980. ters to overcome water anxiety and therefore to enhance skill acquisition is suggested by Parayan, who worked with SpOd Waves Of the 38 adolescent male and female beginning Future swimmers. Parayan recommends that small groups be formed which include In a recent article, Singer defines the six to eight water-anxious subjects and field of sport psychology and discusses one adolescent who already knows how its future. Singer indicates that "al- to swim. Great emphasis is placed on as- though psychological processes related suring the beginners of their security in to coping and managing determine an the water as well as the reality that they athlete's success, approaches to under- will successfully learn to swim. It was standing these processes have relied demonstrated that water anxiety is com- more on intuition than science." He pletely overcome after five or six train- points out, however, that this is now ing sessions, and all the subjects were changing with the advent of the science able to swim 25 m following 10 sessions of sport psychology. He also shows that conducted three times a week. like sport medicine, sport psychology is

becoming subdivided into areas of spe- Parayan, G.A. A technique for teaching cialization which include "developmen- water anxious beginners to swim. Swim- tal, personal, learning, and social psy- ming (Vol. 2). Moscow: Physical Cul- chology, and psychometrics." Also em- ture and Sport Publishers, 1980. phasized was the fact that "sport


psychologists deal not only with ways to improve performance-they are also concerned with ethics and values in sport, and the personal development that makes sport rewarding and fulfill- ing to athletes."

Singer, R.N. Sport psychology: Waves of the future. The Physician and Sports- medicine, 1981, 9(3), 153-156.

Child's Play

Sam thinks it is important to do his best in sports; Sally believes it is important to play fair. Why is it that all children do not value skill, winning, fair play, and participation to the same extent? To answer this question, McElroy and Kirken- dall questioned over 2,000 economically disadvantaged girls and boys partici- pating in the National Youth Sports Program. Children tended to choose the same-sex parent as the person most interested in their sports participation. Thus, it might be suggested that interested parents influence their children's sport attitudes. The authors found that when sports attitudes are broken down into professionalized sports attitudes (skill/winning) and non- professionalized sports attitudes (fair play/total participation orientation) males demonstrated a more professionalized sport attitude than did females. "An interpretation of these results sug- gests fathers, through psychological support, encourage their sons to develop an attitude toward sport (win/skill) that is considered appropriate to male sex role socialization. At the same time, mothers may reinforce in their daughters 'social' traits (fair play/total participation) that are traditional female orientations." The authors caution that a causal relationship has not been shown and that alternative explanations are possible. "In the future, strategies that use

longitudinal frameworks designed to trace sport attitude changes throughout the adolescent years would be useful in identifying factors that actually impact on attitude development."

McElroy, M.A., & Kirkendall, D.R. Significant others and professionalized sport attitudes. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 1980, 51, 645-653.

A Thinking Man's Game

There's more to batting than merely standing at the plate and swinging the bat, according to Robert Wipfler, head baseball coach at Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland. Although most good hitters possess natural ability to swing the bat, not all players know the "mentalities" of batting which must be well emphasized before the batters step into the box. The first mentality players must master is "mental batt ing practice9'-which can be a replacement for actual batting practice or a supple- ment to it, particularly on game days. The batters imagine themselves at bat during the game, with a variety of pit- ches being delivered. They mentally make solid contact with each pitch. Wipfler discusses other baseball mentalities, including "in the hold mentality," "on deck mentality," and "green light mentality." "Green light mentality," the basic approach to hitting, as- sumes that the pitch is going to be a hit- table strike. When batters first pick up the ball coming toward the plate, they give their mind a single opportunity to turn on the red light (call off the swing). If they don't, the green light stays on and they swing away. Also presented are the "fastball," "perfect pitch," "run and hit," "hit and run," and "two- strike mentalities." Wipfler emphasizes a positive attitude for all mentalities, but especially for the batters with two


strikes. "A good hitter never thinks 'Don't strike out'; he thinks, 'Make contact somehow.' " What do you say about that, Pete Rose?

Wipfler, R.W. Mental approach to batting. Athletic Journal, January 1981, 61(5), 28-29; SO.

Who Runs and Why

Many nonrunners think runners are crazy or that running is just a fad that will soon go away. They cannot understand what runners could possibly get out of running. However, it was often assumed that runners know what benefits they personally get from running. Harris was interested in assessing runners with varying characteristics as to their reasons for running and their perceptions of changes that occur as a result of running. The 411 runners surveyed varied in age, sex, occupation, ethnicity, running ability, and experience. They ranged in age from 10 to 71 years, had been running for 1 month to 50 years, and ran from 1 to 120 miles per week. The majority were professional workers or students and were white. The major reasons subjects gave for running, regardless of background characteristics, were to feel better physically and psychologically, to control weight, and to relax. The perceptions of changes reported as a result of running were eating less but more nutritious food, sleeping better, and smoking and drink- ing less. Reasons for running also differed according t o sex and age. "Females were more likely than males to report that they started and continued to run in order to become more fit, to lose or control their weight, to look better, or because they had friends and relatives who ran. Older subjects were less likely to have begun running to help with other sports and more likely to report direct

health benefits." Harris concluded that "for many runners it appears that running is less a fad than an important facet in their lives."

Harris, M.B. Runner's perceptions of the benefits of running. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1981, 52, 153-154.

High Self-concept Boys Select Youth Sports

"Does the youth sports experience have a positive effect on a child?" is a question which has been asked many times by researchers, parents, and program administrators. Some researchers have found that children who participated in sports had higher self-concepts than nonparticipants, whereas other researchers have not found these differences. To resolve these conflicting findings, Puckett and Ford investigated this question, using children's preparticipation self-concept scores as a covariate on their postparticipation scores. They measured 224 third and fourth grade males on the Piers-Harris Children's Self-concept Scale prior to 5 weeks of participation or nonparticipation in recreation-league baseball or soccer. Sixty-one percent of the subjects participated and 39% did not. Results indicated a significant difference between participants and nonparticipants on their preseason scores. Participants scored higher in total self-concept and subcategories of behavior, intellectual and school status, physical appearance and attributes, and anxiety. Analysis of covariance on postseason scores indicated no significant differences between participants and nonparticipants. The authors concluded that self-selection ap- parently accounted for the pretest differences.

Puckett, J.R., & Ford, H.T., Jr. Self- concept scores and participation in rec-


reation-league team sports. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1981, 52, 249-250.

How Does One Feel After a 50-mile Run?

A 50-mile run certainly puts one under high physical stress, but the possible affective changes during a run this long are virtually unknown. Using herself as the subject, Joesting self-administered the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist 1 week before her personal race, during the race, and 1 week after the race. The author completed the checklist each hour on the hour during the race by holding it on a clip board and walking a quarter-mile lap. No significant differences were found between pre-, during-, and postrace measures on depression, anxiety, or hostility. The author concluded that although there was only one subject, psychological damage does not appear to result from a long run. The author has learned, however, that under prolonged physical stress, biological needs assume priority over completing paper-and-pencil forms.

Joesting, J. Affective changes before, during and after a 50-mile run. Percep- tual and Motor Skills, 1981, 52, 162.

When Athletes' and Coaches' Attributions Don't M i

Coaches and athletes often differ in the attributions they give to performance. Take, for example, the following situa- tion: An athlete is coming to the end of a long, hard race and runs out of steam. She finishes short of her mark. She attributes her failure to starting out too fast. Her coach, however, tells her she didn't work hard enough. This divergence in attributions can sometimes lead to conflicts in the coach-athlete dyad.

Rejeski, Rae, and McCook conducted a field investigation to examine the potential divergence between athletes' and coaches' perceptions of success or failure. Coach-athlete dyads were randomly selected from the 5,000 m distance event in track. Success and failure were determined by comparing athletes' actual race times with their prerace predictions. Upon completion of the race each coach and athlete responded to an attribution questionnaire designed to tap specific causes of success and failure such as natural physiological potential, level of aerobic fitness, psychological preparation and strategy, prerace prediction value, how typical this performance was (distinctive item), and tiieir perceived ex- ertion. "Canonical correlation analysis was employed to examine the relationships of outcome (success-failure) and perceiver (athlete-coach) variables to the measures of attribution. Two significant variates were detected. Results from the first variate suggested that failure was perceived as more distinctive (atypical) than success. Inspection of the second variate indicated that coaches were more strongly in favor of a dispositional explanation for athletic behavior than were athletes. Since this relationship was discrepant with a recent conceptualiza- tion of the active observer, it was suggested that a re-examination of this con- struct may be necessary."

Rejeski, W.J., Rae, T., & McCook, W. Divergent perceptions of athletic outcomes: A field inquiry into the episte- mology of active observer. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1981, 52, 139-146.

Running and Children's Self- concepts

What can a 7-week running program d o for elementary school students? Percy,


Dziuban, and Martin thought it might improve their self-concept. They administered the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory to 30 fifth and sixth graders prior to the running program in which .5 of the subjects parti$pated. The other half acted as a control. The program consisted of running a minimum of 1 mile at least three times a week. Subjects were allowed to stop along the course if they lacked the stamina to run con- tinuously for a mile, then proceed after a rest. Upon completion of the program the running and control groups were retested on the inventory. Results indicated that children who participated in the running program showed marked in- crease in self-concept scores compared to the control group. The authors suggest that because improved self-esteem in elementary pupils is desirable, the merits of distance running programs for these students should be given careful consideration.

Percy, L.E., Dziuban, C.D., & Martin, J.B. Analysis of effects of distance running on self-concepts of elementary students. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1981, 52, 42.

Traditional Rod-and-Frame Test Biased Against Girls

It is a well-documented finding that females using the Rod-and-Frame Test are more field dependent than males. This test has been viewed as a spatial task which reflects the information- processing mode of the right hemisphere of the brain. The finding that females are more field dependent on the Rod- and-Frame Test has been interpreted as their having less spatial, right hemispheric ability or more left-hemispheric processing with spatial tasks than males. Traditionally, however, the Rod-and-

Frame Test has been administered by having the subject verbally direct the ex- perimenter to move the rod. Berlin and Languis hypothesized that this verbal procedure in the Rod-and-Frame Test may invoke some left hemispheric processing, especially for females. A nonverbal procedure may make the task more purely spatial. Therefore, the pur- pose of their study was to determine the relationship between two versions (verbal and nonverbal) of the Rod-and- Frame Test and the Wechsler Intelli- gence Scale for Children (WISC) Block Design (a right hemisphere, spatial task), with attention to sex differences and in- ferred brain lateralization. Subjects were 38 right-handed children in sixth grade. "The Pearson product-moment correla- tions showed a significant negative correlation between the traditional verbal administration of the Rod-and-Frame Test and the WISC Block Design only for the boys. The nonverbal procedure used to administer the Rod-and-Frame Test showed a significant negative correlation with the WISC Block Design for both boys and girls." The greater the field of independence, the lower the score on the Rod-and-Frame Test. The authors interpreted these results "to reflect a right hemispheric processing for the nonverbal Rod-and-Frame Test and a possible sex bias in the traditional verbal administration of the Rod-and- Frame Test which might inhibit girls' performance. "

Berlin, D.F., & Languis, M.L. Hemispheric correlates of the Rod-and- Frame Test. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1981, 52, 35-41.

Winning With a Formidable Image

How would you feel, as a player, if the opposing team arrived on the court dressed in custom-designed uniforms,


used warm-up balls stamped with the school mascot, and warmed-up with fancy and difficult drills? You would probably be highly intimidated. This in- timidating image is just one of four elements in Van Meter's mental conditioning program for her high school volleyball team. The other three elements of mental conditioning are (a) concentration, (b) affirmation, and (c) compliments and condolences. To develop concentration, Van Meter re- quires players to dress uniformly for practice and allows no activity that does not concern volleyball, such as chit-chat. The affirmation element involves the conditioning of a "positive mood." This is accomplished by having players recite aphorisms over and over again. One such aphorism is, "I am poised, calm, effective, and efficient in stressing and exciting situations." Van Meter also praises "poised" responses and "calm" reactions to reinforce players' affirma- tions. Players are also not allowed to express negative emotions on the court. Once the display of negative emotion has been eliminated, players are trained to offer condolences and congratula- tions to one another whenever appropriate during a game. Adding to these three elements, the image of a formidable team, poised and impeccably dressed, makes the players feel they are unbeatable.

Van Meter, G. The winning image. Coaching: Women 's Athletics, 198 1, 7(2), 35-37.

Ideomotor Training is No Substitute

Movement control takes place on the level of cognitive awareness as well as on the level of sensorimotor regulation which is often not part of the conscious state of mind. Action control must take place on both levels, namely in terms of

improving the basis of information and the development of psychic prerequisites. The effect of mental practice is said to be produced by neural and muscular processes that occur as if the athlete were actually practicing the task. This leads to a stabilization of the neuro- muscular system. The application of ideomotor training for modifying sport skills has shown that this kind of training could improve orientation, enabling the athletes to perform the correct skill at a reduced speed. At the actual speed, however, the athletes showed the same faulty performances. Ideomotor training did not lead to performance improvement; this failure to show improvement may have occurred because the more precise orientation on the cognitive level did not concurrently lead to an adequate alteration of sensorimotor components. The authors conclude that the importance of ideomotor reactions increases relative to the amount of precise sensorimotor components within the mental image which serves as basis for movement execution.

Schellenberger, B., & Gunz, D. Ra- tionale und sensomotorische Kom- ponenten in der Wirksamkeit des ideomotorischen Trainings unter dem Aspekt der Verbesserung der Orien- tierungsgrundlage. Theorie und Praxis der Korperkultur, 1980, 29(9), 675-677.

Immediate Information Feedback Improves Training Quality

Different psychophysical skill levels and prerequisites within athletes make it difficult to determine which movement parameters need informational feedback to achieve a maximum efficiency of the learning process. In early phases of learning, as much feedback as possible is necessary to have a positive effect,


whereas once a substantial amount of learning has occurred, complete information feedback is less important. Research seems to support the need for immediate information feedback, the structure of which should be specific to t h e task a n d depend u p o n t h e individual's level of learning. Pre- and postintervals that are too short (less than 5 sec) have a negative effect; postintervals of 10 to 300 sec (with a constant preinterval) seem to enhance learning. By comparing single parameters of a completed motor performance with pre- vious results, self-evaluation skills are developed to a high degree. One of the best ways to achieve this goal is to clearly structure and present the feedback given after teaching. Aspects of ideomotor training and concentrated teaching ef- forts can successfully be integrated in the process of immediate information feedback, whereas information presented at the wrong time, with a wrong frequency, and with a false contextual emphasis has no effect or even interferes with the training process.

Bauer, H. Das Prinzip der sogenannten objektiv-erganzenden Schnellinforma- tion-Ansatze zur Prlzisierung einer Trainingsmethodik. Theorie und Praxis der Korperkultur, 1980, 29(3), 665-668.

To Jog or Not to Jog

Behind the saying "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink" is the knowledge that individuals do only what they intend to do. Stated more scientifically, a person's behavior is determined by hidher behavioral intention; so if you want to understand jogging behavior, assess jogging intention. Riddle did just that with over 200 nonexercisers and joggers using mail questionnaires. Although the actual study is more complex and involves Fishbein's

Behavioral Intention Model, the results clearly show that jogging and jogging intention are highly correlated (.82). Ac- cording to the author, perhaps "the most useful findings in this study are the differences in beliefs about the consequences of regular jogging. On the whole, joggers had strong beliefs about the consequences of jogging, and these beliefs reflected positive consequences of jogging. The nonexercisers tended to hold more neutral beliefs about the consequences of regular jogging, they were not as convinced about the benefits of regular jogging, and their beliefs refut- ing the negative aspects of jogging were not as strong as the joggers' beliefs."

Riddle, P.K. Attitudes, beliefs, behavioral intentions, and behaviors of women and men toward regular jogging. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 1980, 51, 663-674.

Win, Lose, or Draw

Anything can happen in a soccer game, but do different outcomes allow players to express attributional biases? Scanlan and Passer tested over 160 girls involved in youth soccer and found very little evidence of attributional biases among winners, tying players, and losers. Win- ning and tying players did rate effort and ability as more important causal deter- minants than did losers, but this was not unexpected because ability and effort are salient factors in sport, and after all, winning and tying players did not lose the game. The results had provided little evidence of self-serving biases among players' quantity attributions. Losing and tying players did feel they had more bad luck during the game than did winning players, but the protective function of this attribution was nonfunctional because losing and tying players did not rate luck as an important causal factor.


One of the most interesting findings was that players on tying and losing teams indicated that their own personal ability was comparable to winners', whereas they deemed their teams' ability to be in- ferior. According to the authors, this result occurs because of "winnners' rating their personal ability far below that of their team. It appears that winners may have been abiding by the often observed competition norm that it is more appropriate to aggrandize the team than oneself after victory."

Scanlan, T.K., & Passer, M.W. The attributional responses of young female athletes after winning, tying, and losing. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 1980, 51, 675-684.

Psychological Profiles of Body Builders

Thirer and Greer profiled and compared personality characteristics of three groups of body builders and a group of nonathletic, nonbody builders using The Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS). Multivariate analyses of the data indicated that competitive and intermediate body builders differed from beginners and the nonathletic popula- tion on the factors of achievement and the need for change. Competitive and intermediate body builders were significantly higher on the need for achievement and significantly lower on the need for change than the beginners and nonathletic samples. The authors state that these findings, indicating a general state of normality, should "tend to quell the notion of the existence of extreme personality characteristics among body builders while lending some support to the notion of a personality 'progression' of sorts among a cross-section of participation leveIs."

Thirer, J., & Greer, D.L. Personality characteristics associated with beginning, intermediate and competitive body builders. Journal of Sport Behavior, 1981, 4 , 3-11.

Ability Level and Self-esteem Influence Success Expectancies

Scanlan and Passer asked 11- and 12-year-old boys, who were members of soccer teams, to respond to a pregame expectancy questionnaire which asked them how well they thought they would perform and whether they expected their team to win or lose. The subjects also were asked after the game whether they thought they could beat the same oppo- nent the next day. Ability levels of the subjects were based on the assessment of coaches who rated the players' skills on five standard drills. Measures of self- esteem and anxiety were also administered to the soccer participants. The authors found that players with more soccer ability and higher self-esteem "evidenced higher personal performance expectancies than players with less ability and lower self-esteem." Pregame expectancies for success or failure was not related to competitive trait anxiety, however. The authors state that this finding "might be indicating that the fear of performing inadequately is not the primary cause of the precompeti- tion threat to self-esteem experienced by highly anxious players." Negative evaluation from significant others is offered as a viable explanation as a predominate source of threat that may be related to high anxiety. As expected, situational factors such as past success by a team was significantly related to more positive expectancies for team success in the present competition. Postgame expectancies demonstrated that high and low self- esteem players both responded to success with positive expectancies for fur-


ther competition. Following failure, however, high and low self-esteem subjects responded quite differently. High self-esteem players minimized failure and made extremely optimistic predic- tioris for future performance. Low self- esteem players tended to accept failure and demonstrated little expectancy for future success. The ego-protective behaviors of the high self-esteem players were viewed as a mechanism by which these players were able "to protect their self-esteem from the often debilitating effects of failure."

Scanlan, T.K., & Passer, M.W. Deter- minants of competitive performance expectancies of young male athletes. Jour- nal of Personality, 198 1, 49, 60-74.

Parents/Coaches Misperceive Brecornpetitive Stress

Children involved in competitive AAU swim programs in Northern California responded to a questionnaire designed to assess behavioral manifestations of anxiety. The parents and coaches of these young athletes also responded to the questionnaire by giving their perceptions of stress symptoms experienced by the participants. By comparing the responses of the three samples, Purdy, Haufler, and Eitzen found that coaches and parents are likely to be unaware of an athlete's insomnia problems, more aware of appetite problems, and most aware of overt illness. The more visible the manifestation of stress, the more recognizable the problem becomes to the parent and coach. Parents were found to be generally less aware of stress manifestations exhibited by their children, whereas coaches exhibited response patterns that indicated they perceived stress in the participants where none existed. Swimmers in highly competitive pro-

grams were not as likely as participants in recreational swim programs to experience stress manifestations. The authors explain this finding by noting that the "demanding program provides its participants with more experience at coping with stress prior to a meet." They also mention the possibility that athletes unable to cope with meet stress due to an inability to psychologically change may have dropped out of the competitive group. The article concludes by indicating that stress can actually be a positive experience for youngsters if emphasis is placed upon coping and dealing with emotions and stressful situations.

Purdy, D.A., Haufler, S.E., & Eitzen, D.S. Stress among child athletes: Per- ceptions by parents, coaches, and athletes. Journal of Sport Behavior, 1981, 4, 32-44.

Gender Related to Risky Sports Participation

Nixon evaluated the responses of 494 students attending two colleges in the state of Vermont to determine if any difference in risky sports preference were attributable to birth order, family size, or the gender of the respondent. Three types of orientations to risky sports were evaluated: (a) active participation in risky sports, (b) spectating of risky sports events, (c) preference for contact or noncontact sports. The data indicated that males were more likely than females to play and watch risky sports. Males also showed a greater preference for contact sports than females. Birth order did not seem to effect sport preference, but there was a nonsignificant tendency for male firstborns to be less attracted than later born males to playing risky sports. The author concluded that "the dynamics of socialization and interac- tion in families may help create dif-

SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST'S DIGEST

ferences in feelings about physical contact or aggression in sports and perhaps, elsewhere, for males and females and for those who are firstborns and later borns."

Nixon, H.L. Birth order and preferences for risky sports among college students. Journal of Sport Behavior, 1981, 4, 12-23.

Compilers for Sport Psychologist's Digest

Deborah L. Feltz John Ragan Michigan State University Saint James' School - Los Angeles

Atsushi Fujita Hermann Rieder Nihon University - Tokyo, Japan Institut for Sport und

Sportwissenschaft - Heidelberg, West Germany

Daniel R. Could John Silva Michigan State University State University College -

Brockport, NY

Jack Halbert Julie Simon Adelaide College of Advanced University of Illinois

Education - South Australia

Yuri Hanin William F. Straub Research Institute for Physical Ithaca College

Culture - Leningrad, USSR

Luc M. Lefebvre Hoger Instituut voor Lichamelijke

Opvoeving - Gent, Belgium

Documents

Personality of Athletes Prediction of Jogging Behavior ...€¦ · Anxiety, Stage Fright, and Personality of Athletes What are the relationships among anxie- ty tendency, stage fright,