Imagery use in sport: Mediational effects for efficacy

Abstract

The factors that influence whether an athlete chooses to engage in imagery are largely unknown. One reason may be the amount of confidence athletes have in their ability to image. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships among efficacy in using imagery, imagery use and imagery ability. Consistent with Bandura's ( 1986 Bandura A 1986 Social foundations of thought and action Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall , 1997 Bandura A 1997 Self-efficacy: The exercise of control New York: Freeman ) theory, it was hypothesized that there would be a positive correlation between efficacy in using imagery and imagery use, and that efficacy in using imagery would mediate the relationship between imagery ability and imagery use. Participants were 74 female athletes from various sports. The instruments we used were the Movement Imagery Questionnaire – Revised (Hall & Martin, 1997 Hall, CR and Martin, KA . 1997. Measuring movement imagery abilities: A revision of the Movement Imagery Questionnaire. Journal of Mental Imagery, 21: 143–154. ) for imagery ability, the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (Hall, Mack, Paivio, & Hausenblas, 1998 Hall, CR , Mack, D , Paivio, A and Hausenblas, HA . 1998. Imagery use by athletes: Development of the Sport Imagery Questionnaire. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 29: 73–89. ) for imagery use, and a modified version of the latter questionnaire for efficacy in using imagery. Correlations showed that the more athletes were confident in their ability to use a certain image, the more they used it. Efficacy in using imagery was found to mediate only the relationship between imagery ability and cognitive imagery use.