This study investigated the effects of gender, competitive level, and sport type on athletes' use of the functions of observational learning (OL): skill, strategy, and performance. Similar studies on OL (as well as imagery) have either compared OL use between athletes in team and individual sports, or independent and interactive sports. However, the author of the current study felt that these classifications were too general and led to the under representation of certain sports. Therefore the current study used more precise classifications of sport type than has been used thus far. This included an Action component made up of independent and interactive levels, and a Structural component consisting of individual and team levels. The Functions of Observational Learning Questionnaire (FOLQ) was administered to 917 male (n = 465) and female (n = 452) athletes participating in a variety of sports at three levels of competition: novice (n = 410), intermediate (n = 339), and proficient (n = 178). Significant differences in OL use were found between independent and interactive sports (p < .01), and a significant three way interaction was found between the Action and Structure dimensions of sport type, and the OL Function (p < .05). Furthermore, a significant Competitive Level by Function interaction showed differences in the use of the skill function of OL, and a Gender by Function interaction showed a difference in the use of the skill and strategy functions of OL between males and females. Finally, support was found for the results of previous research indicating that the skill function of OL was used significantly more than both the strategy and performance function, while the strategy function was used significantly more than the performance function as well across all sport types and levels of competition.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/27733 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Sunderland, Adam J |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 66 p. |
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