Evaluation Strategies, Self Esteem, and Athletic Performance.

The relationships between self esteem, self evaluative information use, and athletic performance were examined among 103 intercollegiate athletes. As predicted, personal standards were rated as the most useful form of information with downward social comparisons and feared selves information as the least useful. Athletes high in self esteem used more personal standards and ideal selves information and fewer feared selves. Higher self esteem was associated with better athletic performance. Controlling for self esteem, hours practiced, and social desirability, better athletic performance was associated with using upward, lateral, and downward social comparisons. Athletes using negative performance information from the past performed more poorly. [84] --------------[85] A great deal of research has examined self evaluation strategies and their importance to self regulatory tasks (Higgins, Strauman, & Klein, 1986 for review). Although dozens of studies have examined self evaluation processes in the context of achievement domains, only a few have been conduced in the athletic domain (see Horn & Amorose, 1998 for review). Self evaluation processes have been implicated as central to the formation of competence beliefs, known to affect athletic performance (Weiss & Ebbeck, 1996). Because self evaluation processes are ubiquitous in the athletic domain, appear to play a central role in athletes' competency assessments, the present study examines athletes' preferences for self evaluative information, whether these preferences are associated with self esteem, and the kinds of self evaluative activity associated with performance. Self Evaluative Information A variety of information types are useful for self evaluation (see Higgins et al., 1986 for review). Taylor and colleagues (Taylor et al., 1995; Wayment & Taylor, 1995) summarized a diverse literature and described ten basic information types that have received attention in the literature. One type of self evaluative information is termed objective information. In his theory of social comparison, Festinger (1954) argued that, when available, people prefer objective information over all other types of information. Another type of self evaluative information is direct verbal evaluation, such as feedback from friends, acquaintances, or experts about a particular subject (Taylor et al., 1995). A third type of evaluative information is an individuals personal standards. For example, by comparing athletes' performances against the standards and goals they have set for themselves, they may be able to better see the areas they need in order to improve (Albert, 1977; Sedikides & Skowronski, 1995). Other types of self evaluative information consist of temporal comparisons, both positive and negative (Albert, 1977), as well as either desired or feared visions of one's performance in the future (Markus & Nurius, 1986). The final types of self evaluative information consist of social comparison information (Festinger, 1954). In an athletic context, social comparison information involves comparing one's performance with someone who is performing better (i.e., an upward comparison), with someone who is performing at about the same level (i.e., a lateral comparison), or with someone who is not performing as well (i.e., a downward comparison; Wills, 1981). One consistent finding to emerge from self evaluation research is that personal standards are the most used information type for evaluation processes, even more than social comparison information (Sedikides & Skowronski, 1995; Taylor et al., 1995; Wayment & Campbell, 2000; Wayment & Taylor, 1995). Self Evaluative Information and Athletic Performance Very few studies have specifically examined the kinds of self evaluative information athletes use. Horn and Hasbrook (1987) examined how young athletes form self perceptions of their physical ability. Specifically, they tested Harter's (1981) claim that children who have a strong sense of confidence and belief in their ability in a specific domain will develop an internal set of information that is used for self evaluation. Horn and Hasbrook (1987) found that children that do not have such a belief in their ability developed a dependence on external sources of information. Athletes with a high belief in their athletic ability used personal standards information (such as how they improved over time) to evaluate themselves. The athletes with low belief in their athletic ability used information such as game outcome (e.g., objective information) and parental feedback to evaluate themselves. Locke and Latham (1985) examined the relationship between goal setting and athletic performance and found that setting both long and short term goals were correlated with improved performance. This use of goals is similar to the use of hoped for future selves and personal standards information. The importance of personal standards and social comparison information has also been examined in the context of achievement motivation in sport (Duda, 1993; Gill, 1993). [85] --------------[86] Self Esteem and Self Evaluation Several studies have shown that people who participate in athletics have higher levels of self esteem than those who do not (Mahoney, 1989; Taylor, 1995). Research examining self esteem and self evaluative strategies among college students in academic and interpersonal domains has found that individuals high in self esteem tend to use objective and personal standards information to evaluate themselves, while people low in self esteem rely more on social comparison information (Taylor et al., 1995; Wayment & Taylor, 1995; Wayment, 1992). Scanlan and Passer (1981) conducted a study that examined the pre and post game expectancies of young male soccer players. The post game expectancies were significantly affected by level of self esteem, especially if the player's team had lost the game. Losing players with high self esteem had very positive outlooks (e.g., hoped for future selves information) concerning a rematch with the team that had just beaten them. However, losing players with low self esteem expected to be beaten by the same team if a rematch occurred (e.g., feared selves information). The goal of the present study was to assess athletes' perceptions of the usefulness of ten types of evaluative information for evaluating their athletic performance, to examine if these self evaluative strategies were associated with self esteem, and to examine the impact of these strategies on athletic performance. Since previous research on athletic performance levels in relation to practice behavior suggests that it is important to control for the amount of practice (Helsen, Starkes, & Hodges, 1998), we also examined whether the total number of hours athletes practiced per week was positively related to athletic performance. In line with previous research, we hypothesized that athletes would say they used personal standards information most often. Athletes high in self esteem were predicted to be more likely to use hoped for future selves, personal standards information, and upward social comparisons to evaluate themselves than those low in self esteem, while athletes low in self esteem would be more likely to use feared selves information for self evaluation. Given the relative lack of empirical evidence regarding the specific types of self evaluative information use that might predict enhanced athletic performance, we ventured only a few predictions. We predicted that self esteem would be positively associated with athletic performance, as would total hours practiced per week. We also hypothesized that given the central role personal standards, hoped for future selves information, and upward social comparisons have for self improvement (cf. Taylor et al., 1995; Taylor & Lobel, 1993), personal standards, upward social comparisons, and hoped for future selves would be associated with better athletic performance. 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