Comparison of Motivational General-Mastery and Motivational General-Arousal Imagery Interventions and Their Impact on Perceived Team Cohesion in a Collegiate Volleyball Team

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2011

Disciplines

Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Advisor

Stephen Stelzner, Psychology

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between team cohesion and Motivational General mental imagery for a Division III collegiate volleyball team. A secondary purpose was to determine whether team cohesion scores varied with personality type based on the Five Factor Model of personality. Thirteen players participated in the study, listening to one of two different mental imagery scripts in alternating fashion before each home volleyball game. The first script was Motivational General-Arousal imagery and the second script was Motivational General-Mastery imagery. Following each game, the players recorded their feelings about team cohesion based on the Group Environment Questionnaire. The results did not support the hypothesis that Motivational General-Arousal imagery would be more highly correlated with an increase in team cohesion as compared to Motivational General-Mastery imagery. Rather, the results indicated that team success may have more of an impact on perceived team cohesion, regardless of the type of mental imagery used. There were also a number of significant correlations in perceived team cohesion depending on the Big Five personality factors. The results suggest that future research should compare teams with varied success to see whether mental imagery affects teams differently depending on success.

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