Causal relationship between self-efficacy, psychological risk-taking and performance of swimmers

Dissertation for M.A.

Field: Physical Education and Sports Science

Tension: Sports Management

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the causal relationship between feelings of self-efficacy, psychological risk-taking and performance of swimmers. The method of this research is causal-correlation and the field method was used by means of a questionnaire to collect data. The statistical population of this research includes all adult female swimmers (200 people) participating in national competitions in 2013. The statistical sample includes 200 adult athletes and female swimmers present in the national competitions of 2013, who were selected as a whole. The tool of this article was Eysenck's personality questionnaire including 40 questions that psychologically examined athletes with 4 subscales (risky behavior, aggression, excitement and anxiety). Its validity was also confirmed by physical education professors and swimming coaches. Its reliability was determined as 0.852. In this research, firstly, descriptive statistics are used to summarize and classify the information using the mean and standard deviation. Then structural equation test will be used to test the model. The findings showed that there is a significant relationship between self-efficacy and psychological vulnerability. All dimensions of self-utility and all dimensions of psychological vulnerability had a significant role in the model. As a result, it can be said that self-efficacy and risk-taking are significant estimators for participants' performance. Introduction Since a person's ability to organize his activities and behaviors has a positive effect (Bandura, 1995), people with high self-efficacy have a greater commitment to participation and adherence to sports activities (Dale and Henderson [1], 2005). The term self-efficacy, which is based on the cognitive theory of Albert Bandura [2] (1977), refers to a person's belief about how well they can succeed in change. In the cognitive-social system, self-efficacy is a concept that refers to a person's feeling of competence and sufficiency in performing actions that he sees in himself.

In the last few decades, sports psychology has become an important part of sports coaching, especially that coaches, as knowledgeable and experienced people, are with the athletes before the competition and during training and training, and they try to measure self-efficacy to the level of self-confidence and the relationship of these factors with success and failure. Besanjand athletes (Tajari, 2018).

Nowadays sports have become a part of life and for some people it is all life. Give a ball to one or more children. They start throwing, kicking, team building and racing and want nothing more. In the world of adults, buildings, devices, equipment and facilities are very costly and expensive for sports applications. People spend hours on sports or sports that they are involved in or watch others do. Finally, sport is a behavior and therefore has a psychological dimension. Psychological skills are the main and proven components of continuous performance at high levels of competition. This issue was also stated by Mahoney, Gabriel and Perkeniz [3] (1987) that high-level competitive athletes have more self-confidence and the ability to focus more before the competition and less anxiety and more commitment and commitment in the field of excellence in sports.

1.1. Statement of the problem

One of the applications of psychology in sports is to help improve performance, learn and implement skills more correctly and easily, which is done by using different methods and techniques, including mental training, a sense of self-confidence and self-utility (Hardy. Lu[4], 2014). Bandura's theory of self-utility states that when the necessary skills and sufficient stimuli (motivation) are available, self-utility predicts natural performance (Ramazani Khalilabadi, 1372). In other words, the theory of self-utility is actually interpreted as the judgment of people about their capacity and ability in action, and it is the result of a complex process of personal beliefs that rely on various sources of information, ability, such as past experiences, beliefs, verbal persuasion and encouragement, and psychological conditions and arousal. (Deborah Feltz [5], 1990).

Psychological skills are the main and proven components of continuous performance at high levels of competition (Sadeghi, 2011).. It is often psychological deficits that prevent elite athletes from performing optimally in training and competition rather than physical errors and deficiencies (Hacker [6], 2000). According to Leon [7] (2002), the most important factor affecting the success or failure of elite athletes is their psychological characteristics (Lenos [8], 2002).

Self-efficacy is not an understanding skill, it is what I believe I can do skillfully under certain conditions, and it actually means that I will probably do what I say. People who have little sense of doing a task are in contrast to those who believe that they should participate enthusiastically in doing a task, especially when faced with obstacles. Weinberg [9] (1981) suggests that the degree of self-efficacy of a person affects performance directly or indirectly through mental and emotional. So that the higher a person's self-utility, the better his sports performance will be (Odora Casey [10], 1995).

In addition to self-utility, the level of risk-taking and risk factors (stress, excitement, increased motivation) affect people's sports performance (Yuzko, Buckman and White [11], 2008). According to Zuckerman [12] (1994), risk as a part of a goal depends on the individual's assessment of this situation, since many risky behaviors cause harm or harm, it depends on the motivations and consequences of risk-taking behavior and the correct interpretation of risk.

Risk-taking depends on the nature of the person and the type of relationships with others, sometimes risk-taking can have positive benefits for individuals and their communities (Hacker, 2005). It is said that risk-taking is one of the characteristics of successful athletes (Schobel and Galvan [13], 2006).  Sometimes risk-taking occurs due to raising the level of arousal, artistic creativity, intensification of emotions and adventure, in fact, people take risks to achieve a desired result (Galvan, 2007). Some people are basically risk-takers and do risky activities, it is said that people's age determines their level of risk-taking, the older people get, the greater their desire for security and the more risk-averse they become (John, 2006 and Allison [14], 2004).

Research on the effects of self-utility and risk-taking and risk power in athletes has been conducted in relation to the relationship between self-utility and the understanding of risk with regard to sports injuries state that the presence of self-confidence in people prevents sports injuries, in addition, in competitive sports, the presence of anxiety leads to people getting injured and the lack of self-interest leads to fear of the sports environment (Mark [15], 2009). Pajares [16] (1996) has concluded in his research that self-efficacy evaluation shows that people's self-confidence makes them successful in accomplishing tasks. Self-interest in athletes leads to more risk taking (Sandra [17], 2004). The level of perception of the risk of injuries is higher in girls than in boys (Anthony[18], 2004).

According to the review of previous research and the advantages of using variables of self-utility and risk-taking in different levels of heroism, it caused questions in the researcher's mind that whether the conceptual model of the causal relationship between the variable of psychological risk-taking and the feeling of self-usefulness and performance is meaningful?

Self-utility 1.2. The necessity and importance of research

One of the most important reasons that prevent athletes from reaching their inherent strengths is the attention to improving physical qualities in the development of sports skills and performances, in other words, they have underestimated the fact that humans are not just bodies. The issue of feeling self-useful is one of the most important factors in the development of sports skills and has an impact on the learning and performance of athletes. The sense of self-utility is the central and fundamental factor in the psychological adaptation and sports success of athletes (Tajari, 2013).

For participants in championship sports, gaining fame and, as a result, using the side points of the championship at different levels are the main motivations, and factors such as personal characteristics, how you relate to other athletes, and the coach's knowledge of the athlete will have an effect on the level of self-utility and the quality of game presentation (Sharififar, 2016).