The Mediation of Affect on Imagery Use and Self-Efficacy in Collegiate Athletes

Document Type

Presentation

Presentation Date

2019

Abstract or Description

Poster presented at the Southeast Regional Conference of the American Association of Sport Psychology

In the sports domain, understanding the psychological factors that play a key role in maximizing performance has become essential to research. Previous research has suggested that an individual’s performance can be highly influenced by the psychological variable of self-efficacy (e.g., Bandura, 1997; Calmels & Fournier, 2001). Self-efficacy has been used to describe individuals’ perceived capability of achieving a certain level of performance in the domain of sport (Feltz, 1998). Previous research has also demonstrated that the tendency of athletes to interpret their imagery as either facilitative or debilitative affects specific constructs known to enhance or impede sport performance (Nordin & Cumming, 2005; Quinton et al., 2016; Short et al., 2002). As a result, part of this present study aims to evaluate imagery more broadly by including different types of involuntary imagery (i.e. spontaneous, intrusive) to determine the extent to which these imagery types contribute to collegiate athletes’ positive and negative affective states. Affective states of individuals when performing an activity is one of the most important variables for determining general self-efficacy (Bandura, 1994). The relationship between self-efficacy and MG-M imagery has also been closely examined, which suggests that the use of MG-M imagery is beneficial for increasing athletes’ self-efficacy levels (Martin et al., 1999; Moritz at al., 1996). Though previous research has examined the varying associations among self-efficacy, imagery use (i.e., MG-M, spontaneous, and intrusive) and affect independently, there has been a lack of studies examining these variables collectively. Further, there has been very little examination of involuntary imagery and affect, and involuntary imagery and self-efficacy among athletic populations. The purpose of the present study is to examine the predictive relationship between imagery use (i.e., MG-M, spontaneous, and intrusive) and self-efficacy with affect as the mediator in collegiate athletes. It is hypothesized that affect will significantly mediate the relationship between imagery use and self-efficacy in collegiate athletes. The data will be analyzed using the PROCESS tool created by Hayes (2012).

Sponsorship/Conference/Institution

Southeast Regional Conference of the American Association of Sport Psychology

Location

Statesboro, GA

Source

https://appliedsportpsych.org/students-center/regional-conferences/

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