Abstract des Autors

This study examined the presence of optimistic and pessimistic cognitive orientations in collegiate female softball players and the association between these cognitive styles and anxiety response to sport competition. This issue is important, because there has been no previous explanation of the wide variability of individual differences found in precompetition levels of anxiety experienced by athletes. Hence, a major concern of the IZOF (Individual Zones of Optimal Functioning) model has been its lack of an explanatory mechanism delineating why individual zones exist (Gould & Tuffey, 1996). In other words, why are there differences in the precompetition levels of anxiety among athletes, and why do athletes possess unique individual zones of anxiety in which they perform optimally? Results from this study support the primary hypothesis that the cognitive orientation style of the athlete would influence the predicted and actual levels of precompetition anxiety. In summary, while IZOF research has consistently demonstrated a wide degree of heterogeneity in individual anxiety response to competition, no mechanism has explained these differences. Recent multidimensional views of this relationship have suggested that anxiety is the result of complex interactions between multiple cognitive and somatic components. Findings from this exploratory study suggest that cognitive orientation styles, such as optimism or pessimism, may exert a strong influence on the way individual female athletes perceive precompetition anxiety. Further research needs to be conducted using larger sample sizes to extend these findings to determine the effect cognitive orientation styles exert on optimal levels of anxiety and performance. Aus dem Text