Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Background of study
Imagery has been proposed to be an effective strategy for controlling levels of competitive
anxiety, but little is known about how imagery functions to achieve this. This study will explore the
relationship between imagery use. imagery ability. competitive anxiety and perfonnance. Fifty
Junior Asian Table Tennis Championship competitors will complete the revired Movement Imagery
Questionnaire (MIQ-R), the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ). and the Competitive State Anxiety
Inventory-2 (CSAI-2). These results will suggest that wether imagery can be used to help control
competitive anxiety levels and enhance self-confidence.
Elite sport is characterized by a demand to perform at optimal levels in pressure situations.
Athletes must be able to cope with the stress and anxiety which often accompanies their
preparation and performance. It is not surprising, therefore, that competitive anxiety has received a
considerable amount of research attention (see Jones, 1995 for a review of competitive anxiety in
sport). The importance of this research to athletes and coaches lies in what it tells them about
controlling anxiety. One strategy for controlling anxiety that has been proposed is the use of mental
imagery (Barr & Hall, 1992; Salmon, Hall, & Haslam. 1994). Unfortunately, the exact nature of the
relationship between imagery and anxiety has received limited examination; thus, this relationship
is the focus of the present paper. Most sport psychology researchers have a multidimensional
conceptualization of competitive state anxiety. More specifically, they delineate anxiety into
somatic and cognitive components. Moms, Davis, and Hutchings (1981) defined somatic state
anxiety as “one’s perception of the physiological-affective elements of the anxiety experience, that
is. indications of autonomic arousal and unpleasant feeling states such as nervousness and tension”
(p. 541). Cognitive anxiety was defined as “the cognitive elements of anxiety, such as negative
expectations and cognitive concerns about oneself, the situation at hand and potential
consequences” (Moms et al.. 1981. p. 541). The most common assessment instrument used to
measure state anxiety in sport is the second version of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory
(CSAI-2; Martens, Burton, Vealey, Bump, & Smith, 1990). In addition to somatic and cognitive
anxiety, the CSAI-2 also measures self-confidence.
1.2 Research Question
What is the relationship between competitive anxiety and imagery use?
Does imagery use help to reduce competitive anxiety?
1.3 Definition of Key Terms
Competitive anxiety:
Competitive anxiety is a multidimensional state that arises as a result of the cognitive
evaluation of a competitive situation. There is a tendency to perceive competitive situations
as threatening and to respond to them with feelings of apprehension and tension.
Imagery :
Imagery is also called visualization or mental rehearsal. Imagery means using all of your
senses (e.g., see, feel, hear, taste, smell) to rehearse your sport in your mind.
Chapter 2
Literature Review
2.1 Imagery
Elite sport is characterized by a demand to perform at optimal levels in pressure situations.
Athletes must be able to cope with the stress and anxiety which often accompanies their
preparation and performance. It is not surprising, therefore, that competitive anxiety has received a
considerable amount of research attention (see Jones, 1995 for a review of competitive anxiety in
sport). The importance of this research to athletes and coaches lies in what it tells them about
controlling anxiety. One strategy for controlling anxiety that has been proposed is the use of mental
imagery (Barr & Hall, 1992; Salmon, Hall, & Haslam. 1994).
2.1.1 Imagery and Anxiety
Unfortunately, the exact nature of the relationship between imagery and anxiety has received
limited examination; thus, this relationship is the focus of the present paper. Most sport psychology
researchers have a multidimensional conceptualization of competitive state anxiety. More
specifically, they delineate anxiety into somatic and cognitive components. Moms, Davis, and
Hutchings (1981) defined somatic state anxiety as “one’s perception of the physiological-affective
elements of the anxiety experience, that is. indications of autonomic arousal and unpleasant feeling
states such as nervousness and tension” (p. 541). Cognitive anxiety was defined as “the cognitive
elements of anxiety, such as negative expectations and cognitive concerns about oneself, the
situation at hand and potential consequences” (Moms et al.. 1981. p. 541). The most common
assessment instrument used to measure state anxiety in sport is the second version of the
Competitive State Anxiety Inventory (CSAI-2; Martens, Burton, Vealey, Bump, & Smith, 1990). In
addition to somatic and cognitive anxiety, the CSAI-2 also measures self-confidence. Using the
multidimensional approach to state anxiety, studies have attempted to examine the relationship
between performance and the components of competitive state anxiety (e.g., Barnes. Sime, &
Plake, 1986; Burton, 1988; Gould. Petlichkoff, Simmons, & Verera, 1987; Jones, Swain, & Cale,
1990). After reviewing the literature. Jones (1995) concluded that the “findings have proved
equivocal, with little evidence of the predicted relationships, and also little in the way of explaining
much variance” (p. 459). While he offers various reasons why the research has not proven more
successful, the most important one may be that researchers have primarily viewed anxiety as
debilitative. It is clear, however, that anxiety can also be facilitative. Parfitt and Hardy (1993)
demonstrated that improvements in pattern search were associated with increased cognitive
anxiety in basketball players, and Jones and Cale (1989) found a positive relationship between
perceptuo-motor speed and somatic anxiety in hockey players. Jones (1991) argued that the
positive and negative dimensions of the anxiety response must be distinguished. For example, two
athletes expriencing almost identical symptoms of physiological arousal prior to competition might
label those symptoms at completely opposite ends of the debilitative-facilitative continuum. One
might view them as signs of nervousness while another might see them as indicators of being
psyched up and ready to perform. Given that it can be beneficial for athletes to control their
competitive state anxiety levels, one possible method is to use mental imagery.
2.1.2 Imagery functions
Imagery serves two functions, a motivational function and a cognitive function (Paivio, 1985). These
functional distinctions an reflected in differences in imagery content. The cognitive function is
essentially concerned with the mental practicing of skills and general strategies of play. The
motivational function involves symbolically representing various goaloriented situations (e.g..
imaging oneself winning an event) and images related to general physiological and emotional
arousal (e.g., imaging the stress and excitement of competitions). The cognitive and motivational
functions of imagery are thought to be orthogonal. Thus, athletes can image a specific skill without
thinking about a behavioral goal, or image emotional situations without any specific cognitive
components (i.e.. skills or strategies). They can also image both functions at once. For example,
they can image themselves experiencing an emotional “high” and at the same time image doing a
specific skill successfully. Recent studies (Ban & Hall, 1992; Hall, Rodgers, & Barr, 1990) have shown
that athletes across all competitive levels use imagery extensively, but athletes at higher
competitive levels report using more imagery. Athletes also report using both visual and kinesthetic
imagery, and using imagery more in conjunction with competition than with practice. Furthermore,
they do not always use cognitive and motivational imagery to the same degree. For example,
Salmon et al.. (1994) found that soccer players use imagery more for its motivational function than
its cognitive function and concluded that players use imagery most to arouse themselves to
practice and play. Although it is reasonable to assume that the motivational use of imagery is
related to competitive anxiety, this relationship has not been specifically examined. A recent study,
however, indicates this would be a worthwhile undertaking. VanDenberg and Smith (1993)
hypothesized that imagery would be an effective tool for lessening anxiety in high school wrestlers.
A treatment group participated in an imagery and relaxation program for nine weeks and was
compared to a control group not involved in the program. Both groups were administered the Sport
Competitive Anxiety Test and the CSAI-2 prior to and following the nine weeks. Cognitive state
anxiety and somatic state anxiety decreased significantly for the treatment group but not the
control group. These results suggest imagery combined with relaxation training may reduce
competitive state anxiety, however, it is not possible to separate out the effects due to imagery and
those due to relaxation. The purpose of the present study was to determine if imagery use is
related to competitive anxiety. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the motivational use of
imagery, but not the cognitive use of imagery, would be related to competitive anxiety. Since
competitive anxiety can be both facilitative and debilitative, the exact nature of the relationship
(e.g., positive or negative) was not predicted. One variable thought to influence the use of imagery
by athletes is imagery ability (Hall, Buckolz, & Fishbume, 1992). Hall et al. (1992) suggested that low
imagers might not use much imagery even in situations where it could prove useful. Therefore, a
secondary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between imagery use and imagery
ability. It was expected that athletes having higher imagery ability would be more likely to use
imagery than those with lower imagery ability.
2.2 Competitive Anxiety
Competitive anxiety is a multidimensional state that arises as a result of the cognitive
evaluation of a competitive situation. There is a tendency to perceive competitive situations
as threatening and to respond to them with feelings of apprehension and tension.
Cognitive (thought process)
Somatic (response)
Behavioral
Chapter 3
Methodolgy
3.1 Nature of study
The research will be quantitative in nature because it will accurate results.
3.2 Population of study
50 Asian junior national players from Pakistan,India and china will be the population of
study. The players will be ranged in age from 12 to 18 years old (mean age = 15.39 -C 1.58),
and had an average of five years experience in table tennis.
3.3 Data Collection Tools
Competitive State Anxiety Invento~y-2 (CSAI-2). The CSAI-2 will be used to measure the skaters’
state anxiety and self-confidence levels (Martens et al., 1990). The CSAI-2 consists of 27 items, with
9 items assigned to confidence). The players will respond to each item on a Cpoint Likert-type scale
where 1 = not at all and 4 = very much so. Because test-retest reliability is inappropriate for state
measures, the only methad of examining the reliability of the CSAI-2 is internal consistency. Alpha
coefficients for each of the CSAI-2’s three subscales will be ranging from .79 to 90, demonstrating a
sufficiently high degree of internal consistency for each subscale. For the present sample,
Cronbach’s alpha coefficients will be .79, .87 and .90 for cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and self-
confidence, respectively. The convergent validity of the CSAI-2 will be supported by the observed
relationships between the inventory’s subscales and the scales of related constructs.Sport Imagery
Questionnaire (SIQ). The SIQ (Hall, Mack, Paivio, & Hausenblas, 1997) will be employed to measure
the skaters’ use of imagery.
3.4 Procedure of data collection
The investigators will contact the athletes as they registere for the competition, inform them about
the nature of the study and requeste their participation. Those participants who consented to
participate will be told that the investigators are interested in their thoughts before competing. The
MIQ-R and SIQ will be administered one day prior to actual competition in a dressing room, free from
distractions. The MIQ-R questions will be read by the investigator to ensure that the instructions are
understood by the participants and that the movements required to complete the questionnaire are
being executed correctly. After completing the MIQ-R, athletes will complete the SIQ on their own. 246
VADOCZ ET AL. The following day, each participant complete the CSAI-2 (and SSCI; see Moritz et al.,
1996). Because some of the athletes will be competing in more than one event, the CSAI-2 will be
administered 90 minutes prior to their first event. Although the CSAI-2 is typically will be administered
one hour prior to competing, in the present study some of the athletes may inform the investigators
that filling out the questionnaire in this time frame would interfere with their competition preparation.
