Author

Daniel Jones

Date of Award

5-2015

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Kinesiology

First Advisor

Katherine M. Polasek, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Erik Lind, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

John T. Foley, Ph.D.

Abstract

There is limited research revealing the underlying trends and influences of imagery use in sports. The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency of imagery use among National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III collegiate athletes. Additionally, the influence of athlete sex and sport skill type was examined. A sample of 337 athletes from 15 different sports participated in the study. The Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ; Hall, Mack, Paivio, & Hausenblaus, 1998) was administered to assess the frequency of imagery use between males and females as well as between open-skill sport (e.g., basketball, hockey, etc) and closed-skill sport athletes (e.g., golf, track, etc). Multiple regression analyses indicated that male athletes as well as open-skill sport athletes use imagery more frequently than female athletes and closed-skill sport athletes, respectively. However, the low amount of variation explained by the data makes it hard to produce definitive predictions. It is likely that individual differences, such as efficacy and ability, play a larger role in predicting imagery use in sport.

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