Tara K. Scanlan

Predictors of competitive trait anxiety in male youth sport participants.

This field study examined intrapersonal and significant adult factors related to the levels of dispositional or competitive trait anxiety experienced by 9- to 14-yr-old male participants of a competitive wrestling program. Competitive trait anxiety (CTA) is a personality disposition which reflects the tendency to experience stress in situations involving competitive sport (20). Multiple regression analyses of questionnaire data revealed that boys with more frequent somatic competitive trait anxiety symptoms 1) had lower self-esteem, 2) reported greater upset if they performed poorly, and 3) expressed a greater preference for avoiding a tournament match. Investigated cognitive anxiety symptoms involved characteristic precompetitive worries about failure and worries about adult expectations and evaluation. Youngsters with more frequent worries about failure placed greater importance on wrestling well and felt greater upset when they performed poorly, in comparison with boys who worried less frequently about failure. More frequent adult-related worries were predicted by greater personal upset for poor performance and perceptions of 1) greater parental and coach shame and upset, 2) more negative adult evaluations, and 3) greater parental pressure to wrestle.

The effects of success-failure on the perception of threat in a competitive situation.

Forty-one high competition trait-anxious and 42 low competition trait-anxious fifth- and sixth-grade boys were tested to assess the effects of success-failure competition outcomes on the perception of threat to self and the response to threat in terms of self-protective behavior. Three groups including success, moderate-success, and failure were established by manipulating win percentage. State anxiety was used as the indicant of perceived threat and self-protective behavior was assessed by causal attribution, opponent preference, and preference for social comparison others. The data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance, analysis of variance, and chi square techniques. The findings strongly indicate that success-failure is an important variable affecting the perception of threat to self in a competitive situation. Further, examination of both the results and the existing paradigmatic differences lead to greater insight regarding the conditions under which self-protective behavior is evoked.

Perceptions and Responses of High- and Low-Competitive Trait-Anxious Males to Competition.

Abstract This experiment investigated the manner in which high- and low-competitive trait-anxious men perceive an evaluative competition situation compared with a noncompetition situation, and how they respond to competition. Specifically, the perception of threat to self-esteem was examined as indicated by state anxiety. State anxiety was measured at rest, during noncompetition, and while competing against an opponent of equal ability. Responses included whether the men preferred performing in the noncompetition or competition situation, and whether they sought comparative appraisal information regarding their motoric competence through opponent selection. The findings revealed that high-competitive trait-anxious men perceived greater personal threat during competition than low-anxious men, but that both groups preferred performing in the competition situation and sought evaluative ability information by selecting opponents of equal or greater relative ability. These results, combined with the findings o...

Personal turning points on the road from laboratory experimentalist to mixed methodologist

This is a very personal, inside the ‘head and sometimes the heart’, narrative of my passage from laboratory experimentalist to mixed methodologist. With a mixed methods approach, various quantitative and qualitative methods are integrated into a programme of research to meet the demands of the research issue at any given time. The account is personal because of the urging of younger colleagues to share and ‘humanise’ the research process. Ideally, this effort will stimulate others to discuss their own scientific journeys. From the collective, we will better understand the constants and idiosyncrasies of the research process, and not just the published outcomes. The manuscript ends with a suggested direction for future research in our field.