The relationship of attentional style and anxiety patterns to performance tendencies in intercollegiate basketball competition

Author

Edward McLean

Date of Award

3-1984

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major Professor

Craig A. Wrisberg

Abstract

This investigation was designed to study the arousal/attentional attributes of two collegiate basketball players, playing a position with similar tasks and situational demands. The subjects were two male college students (each 20 years of age) who were members of a Division I collegiate basketball team. The Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TATS) was utilized to assess each athlete's attentional, control and interpersonal style characteristics. The Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT) was used to determine each athlete's trait anxiety. The State Anxiety Inventory (SAI) was used to assess each athlete's state anxiety level immediately after each of 10 intercollegiate basketball games. The head coach assessed each athlete's performance after each regular season basketball game by using the Coach's Performance Evaluation Questionnaire. Each player's attentional self—assessment was compared with one representing the head coach's assessment for each athlete. These assessments were then subjectively related to the trait anxiety, state anxiety, and game performance patterns of each athlete in order to determine the extent to which specific game performance might be predicted from the attentional patterns and anxiety responses of each athlete. The findings suggested that: (a) pronounced attentional characteristics of each athlete were consistent with their performance in game situations; (b) the coach's perception of the way an athlete might respond to attentional and interpersonal style questions may be considerably different than the athlete's actual responses; (c) a high trait-anxious athlete may not necessarily enter a competitive basketball situation with a high state anxiety level, and (d) an athlete's game performance statistics and the coach's subjective evaluation of an athlete's game performance may not necessarily be corroborative.

Recommended Citation

McLean, Edward, "The relationship of attentional style and anxiety patterns to performance tendencies in intercollegiate basketball competition. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1984.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/12916