Tayyaba Yaseen (BS, 2014-2018) Supervisors: Vicar Solomon & Farah Malik, PhD
The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between self- confidence, self-talk and goal orientation in individual and team sports. It was hypothesized that there would be relationship in self-confidence, self-talk and goal orientation in individual and team sports. Self- confidence and self-talk would to predict goal orientation in university athletes and there would be individual and team sport differences in self- confidence, self-talk and goal orientation. Cross Sectional research design was used. The sample consisted of 120 athletes (n = 71 men, and n = 49 women) with age range of 19-26 years collected via purposive sampling from University of the Punjab, Government College University and the University of Management and Technology. Assessment measures consisted of Self-confidence Inventory (SCI; Robin, 1998), Automatic Self-Talk Questionnaire for Sports (ASTQS; Zourbanos, 2009) and Sports Orientation Scale (Gill, 1998). Pearson product moment correlation showed that there was a significant relationship among self- confidence, self-talk and goal orientation. Multiple regression analysis interpreted that that self-confidence and positive self-talk predicted goal orientation. Moreover, there were significant differences in sports level, gender and playing level among self-confidence, self-talk and goal orientation. The present study provided valuable evidence for understanding the functions of self-confidence and self-talk that would facilitates the development of effective self-talk plans by helping players to overcome the stress in a competition and that motivation will leads them toward achieving their goals in sports.
Keywords: Self-confidence, self-talk, goal orientation, male and female athletes, university athletes.