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Psychological skills assessment of athletes : validation of the test of performance strategies
Author
Lim, Chui Lian
Supervisor
Lee, Bervyn
Abstract
The assessment of athletes' psychological skills is of both theoretical and applied interest in the field of sport psychology; several psychological skills inventories have been proposed. One such instrument, known as the Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS; Thomas, Murphy, & Hardy: 1999), was recently developed to measure the psychological skills and strategies used by athletes in competition and during practice. The purpose of this study was to validate the TOPS with 352 athletes from Singapore competing in a wide variety of sports at different levels. Using confirmatory factor analyses, the factor structure of the proposed models for both the competition and practice inventories were tested. Findings supported the factorial validity of the TOPS competition strategies but not for the practice inventory. Other psychometric properties including internal consistency, construct validity and discriminant validity were also examined. There were evidence of convergence and divergence in the subscales, thus lending support for the construct validity. In support for discriminant validity, statistically significant differences were obtained between the elite and non-elite athletes with the former reporting greater use of imagery, goal setting, self-talk and activation strategies in competition and practice. Results also indicated moderate to strong correlations between the corresponding subscales of the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory-28 (ACSI-28; Smith, Schutz, Smoll, & Ptacek, 1995) as well as the Flow State Scale (FSS; Jackson & Marsh, 1996), supporting its concurrent validity. In conclusion, this study provided evidence for the reliability and validity of the TOPS for this population.
Date Issued
2004
Call Number
GV706.4 Lim
Date Submitted
2004