| This study examined the effects of goal setting, imagery, and attentional control on state anxiety, trait anxiety, imagery ability, goal orientation, and attentional style. Subjects were members of two Anchorage area high school ice hockey teams. One team served as the experimental group (n = 26) while the other as the control group (n = 27).;Measures included the Mental Readiness Form (NIRF) (Krane, 1994), the Sport Anxiety Scale (SAS) (Smith, Smoll, & Schultz, 1990), the Movement Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ) (Hall & Pongrac, 1983), the Sport Orientation Questionnaire (SOQ) (Gill & Deeter, 1988), and the Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS) (Nideffer, 1976).;Cognitive and somatic state anxiety and self-confidence were measured using a between-within repeated measures design to check for game effect and interaction between the experimental and control groups. Significance was set at .05. If a significant difference in means was reported a simple repeated measures analysis was employed to determine the statistical significance of change across the season for both the experimental and control groups. If a significant game effect was reported, paired t-tests were used to determine the significance of the change for both groups. Four games were selected for analyses. These included the three games played between the experimental and control teams, and the last game of the season for each team.;Cognitive and somatic trait anxiety, imagery ability, goal orientation, and attentional characteristics were measured using a simple repeated measure design. This was necessary because only three members of the control team completed the measurement tools during the post-testing phase. For this reason, changes that may have occurred within the experimental group were examined.;The findings suggest that the psychological skills training program was able to decrease cognitive state anxiety while increasing self confidence. However, all other psychological measures failed to show any significant differences between the two groups over the course of the season. Possible explanations are offered for why more significant changes did not occur. |
