Discriminant Effectiveness of Psychological State Measures in Predicting Selection during Field Hockey Trials

The results concur with earlier proposals of Terry that psychological state measures decline in predictive effectiveness in long duration, open skill team sports.

Abstract

Field hockey players (N = 128) completed the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 and the Profile of Mood States about 45 min. before a British Universities trial. Single-factor multivariate analysis of variance indicated no significant differences between selected and nonselected players for any preperformance mood or anxiety measure. Discriminant function analysis showed that 74 participants (57.81%) could be correctly classified as selected or nonselected players on the basis of preperformance mood scores. This figure rose to 83 participants (64.84%) when scores on the anxiety subscales were also included in the discriminant function analysis. Anxiety scores alone discriminated 71 participants (55.47%). These results concur with earlier proposals of Terry that psychological state measures decline in predictive effectiveness in long duration, open skill team sports.