Abstract
Based on Nowak and Vallacher’s (1998) dynamic approach to social psychology, the purpose of the present study was to capture how thoughts pertaining to the perception of control, anxiety, and self-confidence vary and are interrelated during a timeout in volleyball. Right after an important game, one female national-level volleyball competitor listened to the audiotape of a selected timeout of the game. While listening, she had to continuously express on a computer her reactions to the content of the coach’s speech in regard to a single item reflecting one of the variables under study. This procedure adapted from Vallacher and Nowak (1994) was renewed for each variable. Perception of control item was adapted from the CDS II (McAuley, Duncan, & Russell, 1992). Anxiety and self-confidence items stemmed from the CSAI-2 (Martens, Burton, Vealey, Bump, & Smith, 1990). Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance (p < .001) revealed important differences in the scores of each variable, at different moments of the timeout. Cross-correlation analyses also revealed important variations in the patterns of synchronization between perception of control and anxiety (–.98 ≤ r ≤ .93), perception of control and self-confidence (–.78 ≤ r ≤ .99), and self-confidence and anxiety (–.99 ≤ r ≤ .98), at different moments of the timeout. A dynamic approach to sport psychology could provide promising research for overcoming some inconsistencies that static approaches have yielded concerning the relationships between performance related thoughts and emotions.