GOAL ORIENTATION AND COPE WITH SUCCESS IN SPORT (original) (raw)

2017, Proceeding book of International Scientific Congress "Applied Sports Sciences", Sofia

The subjective experience of success could lead to different kinds of behavior effects-from mobilization and psychic upheaval to self-reassurance, disorganization, and loss of activity. Regardless its great practical importance, the issue of cope with success is still not sufficiently explored. The aim of the present study is to examine the connections and interrelations among goal orientation, definition, determinants and consequences of success and the coping strategies used. The research was done among 115 competitors practicing different kinds of sport, divided into groups according to their age, gender and qualification. We used: 1) Specially developed scale for examining the attitude towards success; 2) Task and Ego orientation in Sport Questionnaire (Duda&Nicholls, 1992), adapted for Bulgarian conditions (Domuschieva-Rogleva, 2003). The competitors define success mainly as confidence and self-proving. Mobilization and belief in one's abilities are dominant. The most significant factors for success are good preparation and input efforts. There are some negative consequences with some of the athletes-relaxation, insufficient efforts, and enhanced emotional reactions. The goal orientation towards the task and the cognitive engaged coping strategies are dominant. There are significant differences depending on gender, age and qualification. The relations between the researched indexes were outlined. The obtained results, as well as the established regularities point at the possibilities of mastering and regulating the negative consequences in the process of preparation, with certain purposeful, scientifically grounded influence, part of which are coping strategies.