Passion and psychological skill usage among professional sports players in Goa

Pages:425-429
Vijay Viegas (AbbéFaria P. G. Department of Psychology, St. Xaviers College, Mapusa, Goa)
Shanmukh V. Kamble (Department of P.G. Studies and Research in Psychology, Karnatak University, Dharwad, Karnataka)

The present study titled ‘Passion and Psychological Skill Usage among Professional Sports players in Goa’ was intended to study sports passion and psychological skill usage among professional sports players and to understand whether the age of the professional sports players influences their passion and psychological skill usage. The objectives of the study were; to investigate whether passion of professional sport players is significantly related to their psychological skill usage (Dimension wise and Overall), to investigate whether there exists significant difference in passion and psychological skill usage with regard to the age. The study was conducted on a sample of 237 professional sports players (between the age of 15-45 years). The tools used for data collection comprised of the Passion scale by Vallerand et al. (2003) and Test of Performance Stratégies (TOPS) by Thomas et al. (1999). The tools used for statistical analysis were Karl Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation and ANOVA (One Way Analysis of Variance). The findings of the study revealed significant correlations between passion and psychological skill usage, the dimensions of goal setting, emotional control, automaticity, relaxation, self-talk, imagery, positive thinking, and activation correlated significantly and positively to harmonious passion. Significant differences were observed in harmonious and obsessive passion with regard to age of professional sports players. Significant age differences were also observed in overall psychological skill usage and the dimensions of goal setting, emotional control, automaticity, relaxation, imagery.