Mental skills training and locus of control in university level athletes
Date
1993
Authors
Kruisselbrink, Leroy
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine if a mental skills training program consisting of imagery rehearsal, relaxation, and self-talk could influence an athlete's general locus of control and sport specific locus of control towards internality. Data were collected from 48 university level athletes (25M, 23F) randomly assigned to a treatment and a control condition. The experimental design employed a pre-test and a post-test for both groups. General locus of control and sport specific locus of control were assessed by the I-E Locus of Control Scale (Rotter, 1966) and the Sport Locus of Control Scale (Stauss, 1975), respectively. Analysis of the data were conducted using a MANCOVA on the post-test scores for scales with pre-test scores of each serving as the covariate. The multivariate effect was not significant F(2,43)=0.83, p=.44. Effect sizes were also calculated. Effect sizes for the treatment group on both the Sport IE Scale and the IE Scale were greater than those of the control group. Following the analysis of total scores, the same procedure was applied, post-hoc, to the subset of personal control items (PCI) for both scales. Once again, no significant multivariate effect emerged F(2, 43)=1.59, p=.22. The effect size for the treatment group on the Sport IE Scale PCI was larger than that of the control group. No identifiable effect size difference was found between groups of the IE Scale PCI. A post-hoc analysis of differences between male and female athletes on their general locus of control and sport specific locus of control revealed no significant gender effect on either scale. It was concluded that the mental skills training may have produced a slight shift towards internality in sport specific persona control beliefs. This subset of personal control items on the Sport IE Scale were considered to be most relevant to the athlete's sport specific perceptions of control. It is recommended that practitioners could better use a short form of the Sport IE Scale based on the personal control items.
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UN SDG 4: Quality Education