Botswana team sport players’ perception of cohesion and imagery use in sport

Abstract

Perception of cohesion and imagery use among 45 elite team sport players in Botswana were assessed with the Group Environment Questionnaire (Carron et al., 1985) and the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (Hall et al., 1998) to determine whether a relationship exists between the variables, and whether imagery use will significantly predict team cohesion. Results of the correlation analysis revealed a significant (p<.05) positive relationship between Attraction to Group-Social and Cognitive General Imagery. Significant positive relationships (p<.05) were also revealed between Individual Attraction to Group-Task and Cognitive Specific, Motivational Specific and Motivation General Arousal Imagery. The regression analysis revealed no significant (p>.05) composite effect of imagery use on cohesion, while a shared variance of 6.7% was recorded for both variables. Furthermore it was revealed that Motivational Specific and Cognitive General imagery use were significant (p<.05) predictors of cohesion as perceived by the team players. Findings further suggest that the cognitive and affective elements of perceived imagery and cohesion are reciprocally related on the basis of theories concerning the relationship between cognition and affect. The implications of these findings suggest that the team cohesion and imagery relationship could be used for team building and a team intervention tool with other cognitive variables.

Key words: Cohesion; Imagery; Perception; Team.