| The general purpose of this dissertation was to extend previous research pertaining to imagery use by athletes. Three studies were designed to this end. In Study 1, the influence of time of season (early versus late) and type of sport (team versus, individual) on athletes' use of imagery were examined. Male and female varsity athletes (N = 350) representing 10 sports completed the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ; Hall, Mack, Paivio, & Hausenblas, 1998) at both times. Results indicated that cognitive general (CG) and cognitive specific (CS) imagery significantly increased from early to late in the season for fencing, field hockey, rugby, soccer, and wrestling. The motivational specific (MS), motivational general-mastery (MG-M), and motivational general-arousal (MG-A) imagery showed a significant increase from early to late in the season for rugby, soccer, and wrestling. The majority of the sports demonstrated a significant increase in the use of MS imagery over time, while the most consistent finding was that for all sports, except badminton, the use of CG imagery increased. These results indicate that imagery use changes from early in the season to late in the season, but these changes depend on the sport. As well, the results showed no systematic differences in imagery use between team and individual sport athletes.;The purpose of the Study 2 was to identify and describe (using in-depth interviews) imagery use by athletes as well as to confirm and elaborate previous research on the four w's of athletes' imagery use; where, when, why, and what. The participants were 14 elite athletes (7 male and 7 female) representing 7 different sports. A conceptual framework was developed to display the four w's of imagery use during and outside practice, as well as for pre-competition, competition, and post-competition. Results from this study confirmed previous findings as to where and when athletes use imagery, as well as confirmed and extended previous findings on the why and what of athletes' use. It was proposed that a better understanding of the athletes' images can serve as a guide to future research, and from a practical perspective, facilitate the development of more effective imagery interventions.;Study 3 examined the types of goals athletes set, in both training and competition, and the imagery used in trying to accomplish these goals. Participants (N = 249), representing 18 different sports completed an open-ended questionnaire. The five functions of imagery (Hall et al., 1998) were used as the basis for formulating the questions for both goal setting and imagery. It was hypothesized that athletes set goals for many of the reasons they use imagery. Results showed athletes' reported use of goal setting and imagery are to a large extent serving similar functions. It was concluded that the imagery athletes use should relate back to the goals they initially set. In other words, should follow, to a large degree, from goal setting. |
