arousal imagery effects on competitive state anxiety and performance of the soccer penalty kick
abstract
study participants: 2 soccer teams in northwestern ontario (age 13-18 years). some athletes perceive competitive state anxiety as unhelpful and negative to
performance while it energizes and excites others. perceptions o f anxiety affect motor
performance, consequently it is important to develop strategies which are able to modify
athletes negative perceptions. imagery is used as a common intervention for preparing athletes
for performance. its motivational function refers to images related to physiological and
emotional arousal. most imagery research has primarily been implemented for skill
development/learning of motor skills, and has not investigated the effects o f motivational
arousal imagery on competitive state anxiety. the aims of this study were to determine the
effects of an 8 week imagery intervention based on the motivation general arousal element of
paivio’s (1985) analytical framework of imagery effects in: (a) modifying perceptions of
anxiety from negative to positive, and (b) improving performance o f the penalty kick. using a
treatment (imagery) and no treatment (no imagery) design, two male and two female
representative youth soccer teams (n = 46) completed a modified version o f the competitive
state anxiety inventory-2 (csai-2d) five minutes before taking five penalty kicks. the
csai-2d assesses both intensity and direction (debilitative-facilitative) of the state anxiety
response. participants (n = 28) who reported debilitative state anxiety as indicated by the
csai-2d were then allocated to imagery (n = 14) and no imagery (n = 14) groups
debilitative state anxiety was assessed using csai-2d directional scores. individuals who
scored less than 36 on cognitive or somatic directional scales were considered debilitative.
following the 8 week intervention participants were again assessed on penalty kick
performance. two-way analysis of variance (group x time) with repeated measures on the second factor revealed no significant interactions for cognitive anxiety; somatic anxiety; or
self-confidence intensity and direction subscales. main effects were revealed for cognitive
anxiety direction (e(i,27) = 6.68, p < .05) and self-confidence intensity (e(i,27) = 4.54, p < .05).
the analysis was unable to demonstrate performance effects arising from imagery or no
imagery exposure. this study indicates that using motivational arousal imagery may not be a
compatible treatment for restructuring negative interpretations of state anxiety towards taking
soccer penalty kicks.
collections
- retrospective theses [1604]