Abstract “why” Thoughts About Success Lead to Greater Positive Generalization in Sport Participants

Frontiers in Psychology

Jens Van Lier¹ 

关键词: sport psychology;    retrospective thinking;    cognitive processes;    positive generalization;    self-esteem;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01783

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Generalizing from a single failure or success to future performances and their self-concept could have an important impact on sport participants. This study examined the impact of the way sport participants think about success on positive generalization. Sport participants (N = 222) completed an online experimental study in which they were induced to think about meanings, causes and implications (i.e., abstract-“why”-thinking) or about more perceptual concrete aspects of their performance (i.e., concrete-“how”-thinking). We hypothesized that abstract-“why”-thinking would lead to greater positive generalization and that this effect would be moderated by self-esteem. Our results supported our hypothesis that abstract thinking increased positive generalization, and this effect was more clearly visible in sport participants with higher self-esteem. These results suggest that retrospective thinking about the “why” of a good performance may benefit athletes in the long run because they generalize the outcome to future performances and their self-concept which may boost their motivation and consequently their performance.

【 授权许可】

CC BY