Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a six-week psychological skill training (PST) program that is based on a cognitive-behavioral conceptual framework on team cohesion, confidence, and anxiety of an intact team. Thirty-six male basketball players, 19 athletes for the experimental group and 17 athletes for the control group, aged between 15-16 years old voluntarily participated in this study. For the quantitative part of the study, the Group Environment Questionnaire, Trait Sport-Confidence Inventory, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were given during the pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up tests. Qualitative methods were also employed in the current study to support validation of the implied PST program. Six players and the coach of both teams were interviewed utilizing a semi-structured interview schedule. Statistical testing within factor analyses of the experimental group reveals a significant difference over time for team cohesion and for self-confidence but no significant difference for anxiety. Moreover, comparisons between the experimental and control groups' results indicate that there is a significant difference between groups. Overall, it is concluded that the experimental team's participation in the PST program affected the team's cohesion levels and the athletes' self-confidence levels positively but there is no significant effect on the athletes' anxiety levels.
Highlights
IntroductionThere has been a rapid growth of interest in the mental preparation of athletes
Over the past decade, there has been a rapid growth of interest in the mental preparation of athletes
Self-confidence mean values of experimental group results showed that they reached the highest value at third follow up test while –unlooked for- self-confidence of attractions to the group–social (ATG-S) F(2.44, 83.1) = 11.16, p < .05 η2 = .127, and group integration– task (GI-T) F(2.74, 93.18) = 9.69, p < .05 η2 = .187 subscales
Summary
There has been a rapid growth of interest in the mental preparation of athletes. This interest was first reflected in the increased volume of cognitive research in sport psychology and has more recently resulted in integrating various applied “psychological skills” training programs into the traditional training regimens of all competitive sports [1]. Vealey declared that mental preparation is the learning and implementation of traditional cognitive behavioral techniques “with the objective of assisting sports participants in the development of mental skills to achieve performance success and personal well-being” Bacon suggested that once the basics of each mental skill have been learned, they can be used to help achieve the athletes’ other competition and training aims [4]
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