Amir hossein Mehrsafar; Sajjad Mohammad Yari; Abbas Shakibirad
Abstract
Introduction: The mental appraisal and athlete's ability to deal with stressful factors affect the development of negative emotional states and anxiety. Considering the impact of stress and related psychological responses on performance, interventions that reduce stress and may thus increase athletic ...
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Introduction: The mental appraisal and athlete's ability to deal with stressful factors affect the development of negative emotional states and anxiety. Considering the impact of stress and related psychological responses on performance, interventions that reduce stress and may thus increase athletic performance need to be investigated.This study aimed to determine the effect of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on psychological choking, fear of failure, and shooting performance underpressure in students of Imam Ali Officers’ University.Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted with a pre-test and post-test design that includes a control and an experimental group. Forty students of Imam Ali Officers' University participated in this study. In the pre-test and post-test, the fearof failure and psychological choking questionnaires and also shooting performance tests were used. The tDCS was applied for 20 minutes with an intensity of 2 mA overthe dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) region for 10 sessions. Data were analyzed using univariate repeated measures ANOVA test.Results: The results showed that tDCS over DLPFC could reduce psychological choking under pressure but could not change the fear of failure. The results also showed that tDCS can increase shooting performance under pressure.Conclusion: In general, it can be concluded that tDCS probably increase performance-related indicators in high-pressure military environments. However, more studies are needed to find the underlying mechanisms.
Behrouz Abdoli; Nasour Ahmadi; Elham Azimzadeh; Javad Afshari
Abstract
Success is satisfactory for any athlete. However, some athletes will face anxietyin novel circumstances and fear of future will prevent them from improving. Fearof failure is accompanied with stress and adaptation to stress is the most importantissue for an effective decision. The aim of this study was ...
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Success is satisfactory for any athlete. However, some athletes will face anxietyin novel circumstances and fear of future will prevent them from improving. Fearof failure is accompanied with stress and adaptation to stress is the most importantissue for an effective decision. The aim of this study was to examine validity andreliability of performance failure appraisal inventory (PFAI). For this purpose,203 athlete university students (93 women and 110 men who aged between 19 and23 with the physical activity record 7.70±4.4) completed PFAI. Confirmatoryfactor analysis was used to examine construct validity, Cronbach’s alphacoefficient to examine internal consistency of the items of each factor, and Pearsoncorrelation coefficient to examine inter-factor reliability. Results of confirmatoryfactor analysis confirmed five factors in PFAI: fear of devaluing one’s self-esteem(4 items), fear of an uncertain future (4 items), fear of upsetting importantindividuals (5 items), fear of experiencing shame and embarrassment (7 items) andfear of losing important individuals’ interest (5 items). Correlation analysisshowed an acceptable correlation between all of these factors and fear of failure.The results of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient showed acceptable internal consistencyof items of each subscale.
