Psychological Analysis of Athletes' Anxiety Responses

Abstract

Athletes' self-reported perceptions of and responses to anxiety-eliciting situations were probed for the purposes of describing athletes' anxiety profiles. Intrapersonal variables were used to explain the individual differences evident in the data. College male basketball athletes (N = 40) were administered the following four paper-and-pencil inventories: S-R inventory of anxiousness in basketball, similarity of basketball situations, Sport Competition Anxiety Test (competitive trait anxiety), and personal assessment questionnaire (perceived success and ability). Anxiety factors (outcome uncertainty, outcome certainty, ego threat) were deciphered through principal components analysis. Athletes' anxiety responses varied partially with their perceptions of the situations, congruent with the tenets of the interactional model of behavior. Through individual differences analysis, athletes' anxiety responses across all basketball situations were labeled ego threat, outcome certainty/uncertainty, and anticipation. In a multivariate sense, intrapersonal variables (perceived success and ability, and competitive trait anxiety) accounted for 47% of the anxiety response variance. Outcome and efficacy expectations bear direct relevance to the comprehension of competitive sport anxiety.