Abstract

The field study reports the first attempt to define theoretically a phenomenon called psychical impetus and empirically demonstrate its influence. Psychical impetus was defined as an increased or added psychological strength which actually influences physical strength, which otherwise was thought to be absent in the individual. The overall experimental design was a two trial sequence followed by a post-experimental interview. In the first trial (pre-treatment phase) ten competitive weightlifters heart-rate was recorded, immediately following the maximum weight they could benchpress. A fifteen minute rest was given to each subject, and the same subjects were ready to perform in the second trial (post-treatment) of the experiment. Subjects were now informed to develop psychical impetus just prior to the benchpress. Increases in weight used in the benchpress in the second trial were left to the discretion of each athlete; however, an average of 9 pounds (4.086 kilogram) was added by each subject. Based on this theoretical premise, it was hypothesized that a positive correlation exists between the development of psychical impetus and a) an increase in heart rate of each athlete, and b) an increase in the most amount of weight used in the benchpress task. The results strongly supported the hypothesis. Specifically, as psychical impetus develops, an increase in heart rate and amount of weight used in the benchpress task significantly increases. The results were briefly discussed and suggestions for further research were offered. V.-R.