M.A. / Sport in South Africa forms part of the fabric of our society. Unfortunately research into the psychology of sport has largely been overlooked in South Africa and where it has been applied it was based mainly on results arrived at in other countries. The development of future cricketers has enjoyed great success in both Australia and South Africa, with many current international cricketers having been through the respective Academies. The identification of future talent may be facilitated through the use of appropriate psychological interventions. The role of anxiety in sports has been much researched over the past four decades. There have been many theories advanced with regards the role that anxiety plays in effecting sporting performance. There is however a lack of research in a South African context. Foreign studies have found that anxiety (somatic) tends to follow an inverted-U and extremes of anxiety will negatively impact on performance. State anxiety has been found to enjoy an area or zone in which an atWetes performance is enhanced and outside of which performance is negatively effected. Research has found contradictory evidence as to the relationship between cognitive anxiety and performance. It is proposed that there is a negative relationship between the two. Research with regards to temperament has not been conducted in a cricketing context. The Iceberg Profile posits that there is a personality profile which identifies elite athletes. Studies have been conducted using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and have found that vigour, extraversion and the interest variable were significantly different between athletes and non-athletes. In order to establish whether there is a statistically significant difference in the levels of anxiety between successful and unsuccessful cricketers, three measuring instruments were used. The Revised NEG Personality Inventory, The Sport Competition Anxiety Test and the Profile of Mood States. Temperament differences were examined using the Revised NEG Personality Inventory and the Profile of Mood States. The two groups consisted of 20 male cricketers each. The successful group were all part of the 1999 Plascon Cricket Academy and the other cricketers were from non-premier league cricket sides. The study revealed that the successful group were significantly lower on the Neuroticism scale of the NEG PI-R and were less vulnerable to stress and anger than the unsuccessful group. The study also found that the successful cricketers were more extravert, had more energy, were more receptive to emotions and more sympathetic, less trusting and modest, more straightforward and had higher levels of aspiration than the unsuccessful cricketers. This supported some of the findings of the foreign studies. The Iceberg profile was not supported using the Profile of Mood States however, the fatigue sub-scale was found to be higher for the unsuccessful group. The Sport Competition Anxiety Test did not reveal significant results. A discussion of the results, limitations of the study and recommendations for future research follow this.

A brief history of the Canadian Players, a theatre company which toured across Canada and the United States from 1954 -1966. The company played in cities and university centres and in small towns and communities from Moosonee and Flin Ron in the North to the southern United States and from Newfoundland and the New England States to Vancouver Island and southern California. The nucleus of the Canadian Players came from the Stratford Shakespearean Festival. Robin Patterson and Laurel Crosby crossed the continent as agents of the company, interesting influential citizens in sponsoring a theatrical company performing the plays of Shaw and Shakespeare. From a small company of eight actors performing Saint Joan on a bare stage the company grew to two casts and crews of up to twenty members, who spent eight months annually travelling by bus to perform across the length and breadth of the continent. The information about the Canadian Players was obtained from letters, chiefly those from Robin Patterson to Tom Pattterson, from newspaper reviews and reports in the press,which are gathered together in several scrap books, vertical files and micro-fiche in the Theatre Department of the Toronto reference Libr ary and from conversations with some of the surviving members of the company. Most of these conversations have been recorded on tape. Other information was gathered from transcripts from taped interviews which were supplied by Robin Patterson. I was also privileged to be permitted the use of manuscript material of Florence Pelton Patterson, the first secretary, and that of Tony Van Bridge, an actor and director for several years. The contribution made to Canadian theatre by the Canadian Players in their taking drama to every part of the country and their involvement of local communities in developing an audience for the regional and other theatres which followed them is discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

M.Phil. / In the South African context, sport plays an important role in uniting and uplifting the morale of people. Francois Pienaar, leading the Springboks (Amabokoboko) to victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final at Ellis Park, filled many young talented South-African rugby players with the hope of succeeding at international level. As public figure, the elite rugby player requires many different skills to equip him for circumstances with which he might be confronted in lieu of his professional commitments. The professional sports person has become a commodity product through whom sponsors market their products. The dilemma professional rugby players encounter is that not only do they participate in the sport, but provide an input towards sport production. This involvement in the sports industry becomes important because of the image, which needs to be portrayed by all role players. Therefore it is necessary that research be done to offer guidelines for the holistic development of players. Addressing this problem South African role players need to facilitate sport development, which enables multi-dimensional and optimal personal- and career development of the elite rugby player.

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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 172 college basketball players (56 males, 116 females) from NCAA Divisions I, II, and III were analyzed to determine how mental imagery ability (lA) relates to high and low physical performance. Investigation centered on performance lA (the ability to create, recall, and manipulate images during action) as a potential factor for competitive separation (athletic distinction between high and low performers). More specifically, research examined which of several imagery functions or types were the best predictors of successful basketball game performance. It was hypothesized that kinesthetic imagery and cognitive imagery would be the most important imagery functions. The Basketball Background Questionnaire (BBQ; Eslinger, 2002), Movement Imagery Questionnaire-Revised (MIQ-R; Hall & Martin, 1997), and the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ; Hall, Mack, Paivio, & Hausenblas, 1998) were utilized as measures of lA while physical performance was calculated using the Basketball-Performance Statistic Rating (B-PSR; Eslinger, 2002). Additional data was collected from selected athletes to identify characteristics related to imagery use and development. Results from correlation, multiple regression, t-tests, ANOVA, and discriminant function analyses suggest that, in general, basketball performance is best enhanced through kinesthetic imagery and motivational specific imagery. Elite players are able to perform consistently at a high level because they have an ability to feel the action and increase their internal drive for success before and during games. Surprisingly, cognitive general imagery scores were higher in low-level players, suggesting these athletes think "too much" during competition. In addition, depending on gender, playing position, and NCAA division, other types of imagery may be important influences of performance. Differences and associations between high and low performers and imagers as they relate to the B-PSR and seven types of imagery ability are discussed. A new model of performance imagery is highlighted based on previous theories and current results. Directions for future research are covered that shape sport psychology research, application, and possible imagery training techniques for basketball players and coaches. / 2031-01-01

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Thesis (M.Sc.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2005. / Bibliography: leaves 101-125.