The Influence Of Unconscious Goal Priming On Athletes' Self-confidence

Self-confidence refers to the degree of individual's trust in one's physical,psychological and social nature,which expressed as confidence and no doubt(Huang,2006).In the field of competitive sports,sport-confidence was defiend as the belief or degree of certainty individuals possess about their ability to be successful in sport(Vealey,1988).The unconscious field has been a hotspot of psychological research in recent years.Unconscious goal likes social attitudes,stereotypes,and schemas,is a representation of the state of satisfaction or outcome of behavior in the individual's mind,which includes goal setting and goal pursuit parts(Liao,Yang,& Zhang,2014;Aarts,Custers,& Marien,2008).We hypothesis that unconscious goal priming can improve athletes' self-confidence.In present study,the effect of unconscious goal priming on athletes' self-confidence was explored by experiment 1;the effect of unconscious goal priming intervention on athletes' confidence was explored by experiment 2;the conceptual repeatability of experiment 2 was tested by experiment 3.Experiment 1 was aimed at exploring the effect of unconscious goal priming on athletes' self-confidence.We used a single factor pre-posttest design.The independent variable was priming(priming vs.control),the dependent variables were the Sports State Self-Confidence Scale(SSCI)score,the self-confidence judgment task score,the IAT score and the d-value of the implicit confidence test.According to the G*Power calculation,114 athletes were randomly divided into prime group and control group by lottery,and the athlete's self-confidence goal was primed by a semantic categorization task.The results showed that the subliminal unconscious goal priming had a priming effect on the athlete's explicit confidence;while for implicit confidence,no priming effect was found.In experiment 2,16 rhythmic gymnastics athletes were used as participants.Experiment 2 was aimed at exploring the effect of unconscious goal priming intervention on athletes' self-confidence.We used a single factor pre-posttest design.The independent variable was intervention(intervention vs.control),the dependent variables were the Sports State Self-Confidence Scale(SSCI)score,self-confidence judgment task score,the IAT score and the d-value of the implicit confidence test.After 8 interventions(2 times a week for 4 weeks),we found that the subliminal unconscious goal priming intervention had a priming effect on rhythmic gymnastics athlete's explicit confidence and implicit confidence.In experiment 3,16 judo athletes were used as participants.Experiment 3 was aimed at exploring the conceptual repeatability of unconscious goal priming intervention on athletes' self-confidence.We used a single factor pre-posttest design.The independent variable was intervention(intervention vs.control),the dependent variables were the Sports State Self-Confidence Scale(SSCI)score,self-confidence judgment task score,the IAT score and the d-value of the implicit confidence test.After 8 interventions(2 times a week for 4 weeks),it was found that the subliminal unconscious goal priming intervention had a priming effect on judo athletes' explicit confidence and implicit confidence,and the experiment 2 was repeated successfully.The present study suggests that unconscious goal priming intervention of self-confidence can improve the athlete's self-confidence,this process saves self-control resources because of unconscious,and is more acceptable.Unconscious goal priming intervention may be an approach of training and training athletes' self-confidence.