Investigating the effects of positive and negative imagery content and ability on cognitive, affective, and behavioural outcomes

• Main Author: Quinton, Mary Louise
• Published: University of Birmingham 2017
• Subjects: GV Recreation Leisure
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.731922

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the effects of positive and negative imagery content and ability on cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes. After reviewing the literature in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 examined whether negative image interpretation was influenced by imagery content and skill level. This chapter also investigated the effect of imagery content and skill level on performance, anxiety, and confidence in a golf putting task. Following a similar study design to Chapter 2, Chapter 3 investigated imagery’s effectiveness for regulating psychological and cardiovascular responses to competition stress. This chapter also examined whether mastery imagery ability was associated with psychological and cardiovascular outcomes. Following an experimental investigation of mastery and affect imagery ability, Chapter 4 explored these types of imagery ability as mediators between confidence and appraisals and responses to stress. This chapter also explored negative imagery ability’s role in these models through a negatively worded version of the Sport Imagery Ability Questionnaire. Overall, this thesis makes novel contributions to imagery literature by adding new relationships to the revised applied model of deliberate imagery use, testing a new measure of negative imagery ability, and highlighting mastery imagery ability’s role for protecting against debilitative imagery and regulating stress outcomes.