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The nature of social cognition in high performance adolescent team athletes

University of British Columbia

Fifty adolescent ice-hockey players, ranging from 13 to 15 years of age, were studied in order to determine whether high performance players differed from non-high performance players on measures of social cognition in the sport context. Two Divisions of Bantam hockey players were studied: (1) Division A or high performance players, and (2) Division B or non-high performance players. Participants were examined for differences on a measure which assessed level of Case's neo-Piagetian Central Social Conceptual Structure (CCS; Case, 1992) and for differences on three measures of elaborations on the basic structure. No differences were found between groups in a Multivariate Analysis of Variance, with participant's weight and Division of play as independent variables, on the four dependent variables. A Hotellings T2 analysis revealed no differences between high and non-high performance players of the same chronological age on Case's CCS. Univariate ANOVAs following the main analysis revealed no differences between the two groups of players in Concentration which is the ability to detect advance cues which would predict opponent's actions. High performance players demonstrated higher levels than non-high performance players in Flexibility, which is the ability to provide adequate solutions to social game problems. High performance players also demonstrated a greater orientation toward Intensity which is an orientation toward achieving Mastery goals (Dweck, 1992) than non-high performance players. Seven factors were obtained in an oblique Principal Components analysis of the Concentration scale. An ANOVA of Division of play on the first principal component revealed no significant differences between high and non-high performers. Number of words used in responding to the problem set assessing CCS were correlated with Structural Level (.56, p <.01) and Flexibility (.47, p <.01). The findings have the following implications for theory and practice in the area of high performance: (1) structural level, which is largely maturational, does not account for differences between high and non-high performers, (2) encapsulated abilities, which appear to have a high learning component, explain differences between high and non-high performers, (3) significant increases in performance will most likely occur as a result of efforts to develop the encapsulated component of development rather than the structural component.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-07-03

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/10037

Special Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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