Self-consciousness and trait anxiety of university basketball players

Introduction

The paper researches the relationship between self-consciousness trend of different types and social anxiety as well as trait anxiety. It holds that if self-consciousness is closely related with trait anxiety, the improved self-consciousness will contribute to the improvement of trait anxiety of the players.

Methods

Ninety-six students of Department of Physical Education, Beijing Sport University, male, major in basketball, are investigated with two questionnaires. Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS, Fenigstein, Scheler, Buss, 1975) altogether 23 items used for self-consciousness test, including 3 separated sub-scales, inner self-consciousness, outer self-consciousness and social anxiety. The test on trait anxiety depends on Social Anxiety Scale (SAS, Smith, Smoll, Schntz, 1988). There are altogether 21 items including physical anxiety, worry and distraction.

Results

Self-consciousness is related with trait anxiety. There is a positive correlation between the inner self-consciousness (SC) and the outer SC form ( r(90)=42, P≤.001); the inner SC and social anxiety ( r(90) =.34, P≤.001); the outer SC and social anxiety ( r(90)=.35, P≤.001); SC and social anxiety form ( r(90) =.41, P≤.001).

The results show that both the people who have strong inner SC and the people who have strong outer SC have a high level of social anxiety. The people who have a strong self-consciousness will have more anxiety.

Discussion/ Conclusions

People who have strong SC are more sensitive to self-evaluation and environmental evaluation than those who have weak SC (Fenigstein et al, 1975, Scheier & Carver 1985). In competitions, players may pay more attention to the audience and the environment and/or themselves. They try to evaluate and establish the relationship between themselves and the environment.

It’s suggested that the performance would be better if the state anxiety were to be improved starting from the formation of self-consciousness such as differentiate themselves from the objects, clarifying the relationship between the subject and the object and so on.

References

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