Proposal for a framework assessing the psychological state of sports group: Two-dimensional approach from the collective efficacy and group cohesion

Abstract

When a questionnaire survey is conducted to assess a psychological states or conditions in team sports, it is natural that the results would be of interest to not only the researchers who conducted the survey but also many coaches (research collaborators). Therefore, the aim of the present study was to suggest an assessment tool that can be utilized to measure collective efficacy and group cohesiveness in applied settings. We examined the effectiveness of our method using a coordinate plane for assessing the mental state of both a whole group and each individual simultaneously. The survey respondents were 25 athletes who belonged to a women's college basketball team. Questionnaire surveys at 3 time points and longitudinal participant observation were conducted. Consequently, outlying data, which would have been missed in a review of changes in only the mean and standard deviation over time, were found on the coordinate plane. Moreover, it became clear from participant observation records that individual athletes actually had a problem with the group. Finally, the effectiveness and future prospects for this assessment method suggested by our study were discussed.