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Date of Award

Spring 2025

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Department or Program Affiliation

Sport and Exercise Psychology

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Health and Human Development

First Advisor

Arthur-Cameselle, Jessyca

Second Advisor

Keeler, Linda

Third Advisor

Czopp, Alex

Fourth Advisor

MacDonald, Samantha L.

Abstract

Superstitious rituals (SRs) are performed by over half of athletes across sports and cultures (e.g., Sasvari et al., 2019), and are defined as repetitive actions or behaviors, distinct from technical performance, that present an illusion of control (e.g., wearing the same article of clothing for luck; Brevers et al., 2011). Research on the effects of SRs on competitive state anxiety and objective sport performance outcomes is inconsistent and limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of personal SRs on competitive anxiety, self-confidence, and free-throw performance under pressure. Using a within-subjects design, 14 adult competitive basketball players (12 men, 2 women; average 7.9 yrs of competitive experience) with personal superstitions shot free-throws with and without their superstition (Time 1 and Time 3: 8 free-throws with SR; Time 2: 8 free-throws without SR). Participants completed the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-II Revised (Cox et al., 2003) at each time point. Pressure was induced through videotaping and awarding a monetary incentive for top performers. A repeated measures ANOVA revealed no statistically significant differences between participants’ cognitive state anxiety across the time points, but there was a large effect size, F (2, 26) = 3.292, p = .053, ηp2 = .20. According to post hoc analyses, participants’ cognitive anxiety was lower when using their SR. There were no statistically significant differences in participants’ somatic anxiety, self-confidence, or free-throw performance across the time points. Thus, athletes’ personal SRs may decrease cognitive state anxiety under pressure but may not affect actual performance.

Type

Text

Keywords

athletes, superstition, free-throws, competitive anxiety, self-confidence, performance, sport

Publisher

Western Washington University

OCLC Number

1521409928

Subject – LCSH

Superstition; Basketball players--Psychological aspects; Free throw (Basketball); Competition (Psychology) in sports; Self-confidence; Performance anxiety

Format

application/pdf

Genre/Form

masters theses

Language

English

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Rights Statement

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/

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