Einleitung

The issue of women's involvement in, and feelings of confidence in sporting situations has been an issue for practitioners and researchers for many years. One of the major issues to be addressed has been women's lack of confidence compared to male confidence. In 1977 Lenney suggested that females lacked confidence in certain situations. These were: situations which were male oriented, situations where feedback was likely to be ambiguous, or where the task was competitive or comparative. Lirgg (1991) has provided an extensive meta-analysis which supports this view. As most sports have been classified as being masculine in orientation and by nature are competitive, it is not surprising that these results have been found. In Great Britain the sport of association football is the national game and receives more media coverage than any other sport. It has been characterised as being masculine in orientation, but is played in growing numbers by females. According to social cognitive theory mastery experiences and vicarious experience are important sources of self efficacy. As women gain more experience of, and acceptance in, a game such as football it would seem plausible that their confidence levels would increase. The main aim of the study was to investigate this view with respect to males and females in association football. Previous work has shown that the gender of an audience can significantly affect performance and feelings of evaluation apprehension. A further aim therefore was to examine the effects of gender of audience on the participants' performance and on their self confidence. Einfuehrung