Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology

The goal of the present research was to test whether score-related changes in opponents' nonverbal behavior influence athletes' confidence in beating their opponents. In an experiment, 40 participants who were experienced basketball players watched brief video clips depicting athletes' nonverbal behavior. Video clips were not artificially created, but showed naturally occurring behavior. Participants indicated how confident they were in beating the presented athletes in a hypothetical scenario. Results indicated that participants' confidence estimations were influenced by opponents' score-related nonverbal behavior...

Perfectionism is a personality characteristic that has been found to predict sports performance in athletes. To date, however, research has exclusively examined this relationship at an individual level (i.e., athletes' perfectionism predicting their personal performance). The current study extends this research to team sports by examining whether, when manifested at the team level, perfectionism predicts team performance. A sample of 231 competitive rowers from 36 boats completed measures of self-oriented, team-oriented, and team-prescribed perfectionism before competing against one another in a 4-day rowing competition...

Previous research has shown that the effects of basic psychological needs on the flow experience in sports are moderated by implicit motives. However, so far, only leisure and health-oriented sports have been analyzed. In a pilot study and a main study (N = 29, 93), we tested whether the implicit achievement and affiliation motives interact with the need for competence and the need for social relatedness satisfaction, respectively, to predict flow experience and well-being in extreme endurance athletes. Results showed that highly achievement-motivated individuals benefited more from the need for competence satisfaction in terms of flow than individuals with a low achievement motive did...

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...

Gain-framed messages are more effective at promoting physical activity than loss-framed messages. However, the mechanism through which this effect occurs is unclear. The current experiment examined the effects of message framing on variables described in the communication behavior change model (McGuire, 1989), as well as the mediating effects of these variables on the message-frame-behavior relationship. Sixty low-to-moderately active women viewed 20 gain- or loss-framed ads and five control ads while their eye movements were recorded via eye tracking...

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of exercise intensity, age, and fitness levels on executive and nonexecutive cognitive tasks during exercise. Participants completed a computerized modified-Stroop task (including denomination, inhibition, and switching conditions) while pedaling on a cycle ergometer at 40%, 60%, and 80% of peak power output (PPO). We showed that a bout of moderate-intensity (60% PPO) to high-intensity (80% PPO) exercise was associated with deleterious performance in the executive component of the computerized modified-Stroop task (i...

The focus of this multiphase research was to generate and test the psychometric parameters of the Coach Identity Prominence Scale (CIPS). First, a pilot study was conducted with context (n = 10) and construct (n = 6) specialists, who evaluated the technical quality and content validity of 20 items developed from semistructured interviews. Thirteen items were selected for Study 1, which tested the factorial validity and reliability scores of coaches' (n = 343) responses to the CIPS items. An eight-item structure, consisting of two factors (centrality and evaluative emotions) was selected as the final CIPS measure, which was examined with a final sample of coaches (n = 454) in Study 2 to evaluate the factorial validity, group invariance, concurrent validity, and nomological validity of respondents' scores to the CIPS...

The aim of this study was to examine differentiated effects of internally focused attention in endurance sports. Thirty-two active runners ran 24 min on a treadmill at a fixed speed of moderate intensity. For each 6-min block, participants had to direct their attention on different internal aspects (movement execution, breathing, or feeling of the body) or received no instructions. Oxygen consumption (VO2) was measured continuously to determine running economy. Results revealed that the different internal focus instructions had differentiated effects on VO2: A focus on breathing as well as a focus on the running movement led to higher VO2 than a focus on feeling of the body which showed similar VO2 as the control condition...