A psychological skills inventory for sport

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The purpose of this study was to develop a practical, reliablepsychological skills inventory to assess the psychologicalskills of athletes. This primarily involved identifying therelevant psychological skills that affect sport performance. Avariety of developmental procedures were applied in theconstruction of this inventory, including the consultation ofsport psychology literature, identification of articles whichcharacterise successful athletes, analysis of research articlespertaining to the psychological Skills, and review of availablepsychological tests. The initial inventory consisted of 82items which evaluated six psychological skills: achievementmotivation, goal setting, anxiety control, maintainingconfidence, concentration and mental rehearsal. Theinventory was completed by 304 students from theDepartment of Human Movement Science at the University ofStellenbosch. The respondents' data were divided into twogroups depending on their achievement in sport. The resultsindicated that the inventory was able to differentiate betweensuccessful and less successful athletes on the psychologicalskills measured. Other aspects were statistically analysed,namely language, age, and gender differences, correlationbetween individual item and achievement level, and thecontri,bution of each item to its psychological skill. The finalinventory consists of 60 items, with ten items from each ofthe six psychological skills. Information obtained from theinventory can identify the strengths, weaknesses anddeficiencies in the psychological skills of athletes, so that apsychological skills training programme can be developed.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University