Relationships Between Flow, Mental Toughness, and Subjective Performance Perception in Various Triathletes (original) (raw)
Related papers
2017
1 The purpose of the study was to further examine the relationship between mental toughness 2 (MT) and dispositional flow in sport. A sample of 256 athletes (M age = 23.65 years, SD = 3 5.43), competing at international (n = 59), national (n = 77), and club/university (n = 120) 4 levels completed questionnaires assessing MT and dispositional flow. A significant and 5 positive correlation was found between MT and dispositional flow (r = 0.50, p < 0.001). 6 Mediation analysis revealed that MT had a significant direct effect on the flow dimensions of 7 challenge-skills balance, clear goals, unambiguous feedback, sense of control and 8 concentration on the task at hand, and significant indirect effects on concentration on the task 9 at hand, sense of control, loss of self-consciousness, action-awareness merging and autotelic 10 experience. Findings suggest that MT has direct and indirect effects on the characteristics of 11 flow, offering new insights regarding optimal human function...
International Journal of Sport Psychology, 2017
The purpose of the study was to further examine the relationship between mental toughness (MT) and dispositional flow in sport. A sample of 256 athletes (M age = 23.65 years, SD = 5.43), competing at international (n = 59), national (n = 77), and club/university (n = 120) levels completed questionnaires assessing MT and dispositional flow. A significant and positive correlation was found between MT and dispositional flow (r = 0.50, p < 0.001). Mediation analysis revealed that MT had a significant direct effect on the flow dimensions of challenge-skills balance, clear goals, unambiguous feedback, sense of control and concentration on the task at hand, and significant indirect effects on concentration on the task at hand, sense of control, loss of self-consciousness, action-awareness merging and autotelic experience. Findings suggest that MT has direct and indirect effects on the characteristics of flow, offering new insights regarding optimal human functioning.
Dispositional Flow and Performance in Brazilian Triathletes
Frontiers in Psychology
Flow is a mental state characterized by total immersion and focus in an activity; performing it pleasurably. Such a state is considered optimal for performance. The present study analyzed the relationship between dispositional flow and performance in triathletes. The sample consisted of 328 athletes (294 males and 34 females; mean age of 37.42 ± 7.18 years) competing in the Ironman Brazil-Florianópolis-South American Championship 2017. Instruments were an identification sheet, the Dispositional Flow Scale (DFS-2) and athletes' total race times. Data were analyzed using R, through the Shapiro-Wilk normality test, Mann-Whitney's U, Spearman Correlation, and Network Analysis [Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO)], using strength, closeness, and betweenness as centrality measurements. Results show a positive correlation between age and practice time (r = 0.34), inverse relationship between practice time and total race time (r = −0.25), and inverse correlations between race time and 05 of the 09 flow dimensions (r between −0.17 and −0.11), suggesting better performances were related to more practice time and higher disposition to flow. Flow conditions, flow characteristics, individual characteristics, and performance were separately grouped in the network structure. Challenge-skill balance was the most influential node, with the highest closeness and betweenness values; challengeskill balance, clear goals, control, and action-awareness merge directly influenced better race times. Sample's top 50 performers had significantly higher disposition to challenge-skill balance, clear goals, control and feedback. Practical implications of flow mechanisms are discussed. Dispositional flow was positively related to objective performance in Brazilian triathletes.
The role of mental toughness in the occurrence of flow and clutch states in sport
2020
Mental toughness (MT) is a personality construct that enhances performance in sport, while flow and clutch states are psychological states that underlie excellent athletic performance. This study explored whether flow and clutch states differed between higher MT (HMT) and lower MT (LMT) athletes. Sixteen athletes (HMT n = 8; LMT n = 8) were tracked for five sport performances, and the occurrence of flow and clutch states was explored through event-focused interviews. Data were analysed in the HMT and LMT subgroups in terms of the initiation of both flow and clutch states, and the sustainment of both flow and clutch states. Contrasts were apparent between subgroups, with differences reported in the initiation of flow and clutch states, and the sustainment of clutch states. Findings suggest individual differences in the occurrence of flow and clutch states between HMT and LMT athletes, and extend understanding of MT, flow, and clutch states.
Mental toughness and attributions of failure in high performing male and female swimmers
Journal of Human Sport and Exercise, 2018
This study examined the relationship between mental toughness and failure attributions in high level swimmers. Participants were 80, (Mage=21.64, S.D: 4.96 years) regional and national level swimmers who were currently competing. Participants were asked to recall a perceived failure in the previous four weeks, fill in the controllability, stability, globality and universality attribution measure (CSGU) and eight weeks later complete the mental toughness questionnaire-48 (MTQ48). Multiple regression analysis found a significant effect of mental toughness and stability on controllability (∆R 2 = 0.042, p = 0.021) when the generalizability dimensions were added to the model. Separate multiple regression analysis for both genders, revealed that males mental toughness and stability predicted controllability (∆R 2 = 0.200, p = 0.029) compared to females mental toughness and universality (∆R 2 = 0.080, p = 0.027) predicting controllability. In conclusion the present study found evidence for mental toughness predicting controllability attributions following competitive failure for a group of high level male and female swimmers. Gender differences were found in how the generalizability attributions predicting controllability. Findings are discussed in terms of mental toughness and the generalizability dimensions predicting controllability attributions in response to competitive failure and suggestions to examine the relationship further.
EFFECT OF MENTAL TOUGHNESS ON ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE
Sport Psychology is an emerging new field within the world of psychology and athletics that concentrates on preparing the mind of the athlete as thoroughly as the body. Over the past several years, coaches and athletes alike have started to realize that superior physical performance alone is no longer sufficient enough to win championships. Rather, the field of sport psychology has discovered that optimal performance is contingent upon mental preparation and psychological strength as well as physical preparation and technical skill).It has been this performance triad; whose emphasizes on mental toughness has molded the core of sport psychology. Anxiety affects more than simply the physical aspect of an athlete. There are accompanying physiological and psychological behavioral responses as nerves and anxieties build about an upcoming performance. (Reactions to this type of anxiety many be either positive or negative (rarely both). With positive reactions—called the “fight reaction”—the person is excited about the test and thrives on the challenge. However, most people usually experience the negative reaction—or the “flight reaction.” In response to this reaction, athletes get extremely nervous, to the point of nauseating, before a race and begin to focus primarily on the negative aspects of the upcoming performance. They look for excuses for a potential poor performance and thus, in effect, prepare themselves for one.
The aim of this study was to investigate the higher-order structure of mental toughness and to examine differences in mental toughness between athletes and non-athletes. Participants of this study -927 athletes and 931 non-athletes -completed a battery of questionnaires designed to assess four characteristics of mental toughness: hope, optimism, perseverance and resilience. The higher-order structure of mental toughness was found to be the same for both athletes and non-athletes. The latent mean differences analyses showed that athletes scored higher in mental toughness when compared to non-athletes. Taken together, these findings support the theoretical assumption that mental toughness is a higher-order construct encompassing different characteristics and that sport participation is associated with higher mental toughness.
Journal of sport & exercise psychology, 2014
We argue that basic psychological needs theory (BPNT) offers impetus to the value of mental toughness as a mechanism for optimizing human functioning. We hypothesized that psychological needs satisfaction (thwarting) would be associated with higher (lower) levels of mental toughness, positive affect, and performance and lower (higher) levels of negative affect. We also expected that mental toughness would be associated with higher levels of positive affect and performance and lower levels of negative affect. Further, we predicted that coaching environments would be related to mental toughness indirectly through psychological needs and that psychological needs would indirectly relate with performance and affect through mental toughness. Adolescent cross-country runners (136 male and 85 female, M(age) = 14.36) completed questionnaires pertaining to BPNT variables, mental toughness, and affect. Race times were also collected. Our findings supported our hypotheses. We concluded that BPN...