Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL AND LESS SUCCESSFUL JUNIOR FEMALE ATHLETES PARTICIPATING IN AN OPEN AND CLOSED SKILL SPORT
Abstract
The purpose of this investigation was to determine if there are cognitive psychological factors used in competition and training which differentiate female athletes participating in an open and closed skill sport. In addition, factors discriminating successful from less successful participants in the open skill sport of softball and the closed skill sport of diving were identified. The subjects were 64 female, junior, advanced and elite softball players and divers competing in the Junior National Fast-pitch Softball Tournament (N = 32), and the Great Plains Swimming and Diving Championships (N = 32). Subjects ranged in age from 13 to 21 years, and had similar backgrounds with respect to competitive experience. Standardized questionnaires designed to measure general and specific psychological factors pertaining to Anxiety and Coping, Imagery, Sport Related Thoughts, Factors Responsible for Poor Performance and Factors Responsible for Better Performance were administered to subjects in the open and closed skill sports. In addition, 10 subjects from each group were randomly selected to participate in 15-minute taped interviews in order to provide supplementary psychological information. The data were analyzed by a variety of procedures including item analyses and factor analyses, discriminant function analyses, multiple regression analyses, and a qualitative and quantitative comparison of selected interview item responses. The greatest amount of difference between groups occurred between successful and less successful open skill athletes, followed by open and closed skill athletes, and finally successful and less successful closed skill athletes. Psychological factors subsumed within the subscales differentiating between open skill and closed skill athletes indicated similarities as well as differences. Both groups revealed internal and external factors which directly or indirectly caused competitive anxiety. These were the internal concerns about being injured or being at one's physical peak, and the external environmental factors related to good judging or receiving a good draw. Interview data revealed that closed skill athletes employed the use of self-talk and imagery (alone or combined with sport related thoughts) to a greater degree than open skill athletes. These data also revealed the importance of coaches' and parents' opinoins and feelings in causing anxiety in competitive settings. In the closed skill sport, only Anxiety and Coping was found to discriminate between successful and less successful athletes. Successful athletes indicated they were able to replace anxiety in competitive situations with positive self-thoughts, while less successful performers indicated higher levels of anxiety before competition. In the open skill sport all five subscales discriminated between successful and less successful athletes. Successful open skill performers reported greater use of combined imagery strategies than less successful athletes in the form realistic dream experiences and the use of self-talk, and generally exhibited a more "coping oriented" or positive mental health approach to competition. Across sport type, successful athletes reported more strategies relating to an internal locus of control, while less successful athletes identified those related to an external locus of control. Specificially, successful athletes reported more concentration on specific plays, replaced anxiety with positive thoughts, and thoughts about psychological recovery, while less successful athletes reported high levels of anxiety and worried over personal problems, the quality of the playing field and the outcome of the game.
Subject Area
Physical education
Recommended Citation
LORENTZEN, DEANA, "PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL AND LESS SUCCESSFUL JUNIOR FEMALE ATHLETES PARTICIPATING IN AN OPEN AND CLOSED SKILL SPORT" (1981). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8124526.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8124526