The effect of putting-confidence on putting-performance

• Published in: Journal of sport behavior 1996-06, Vol.19 (2), p.148
• Main Authors: Picken, Morris M, Rotella, Robert J, Gansneder, Bruce M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Athletes; Confidence; Golf; Psychological aspects; Putting (Golf); Sports; Sports psychology
• ISSN: 0162-7341; 2641-3477

Much research in sport psychology has examined the relationship between confidence and performance during a competitive event by administering a questionnaire to subjects about an hour before the competition and then correlating responses to questionnaire items with performance results. A major criticism to this approach is that if the time between confidence assessment and performance is too large, intervening cognitions, not assessed, may occur and cause the original assessment to be less relevant. In order to account for this drawback, a study was designed which allowed for confidence assessment during competitive performance. Fifty-four golfers participated in an 18-hole putting match against a competitor. Immediately before the first putt of each hole, players stated whether they were very, somewhat, or not confident of making the putt they were attempting. After the first putt of each hole, players stated how confident (very, somewhat, or not) they were during the putting stroke that they had made the putt attempted. From post-experiment questionnaire responses, any player who stated that he could not report confidence without taking the result into account was omitted from the analysis. Confidence measures taken before and during the first putt of each hole were then correlated with putting performance for each hole. Putting performance was defined as whether or not subjects made or missed the putt they attempted. Results showed that confidence during putting had a stronger relation with performance than confidence before putting. Confidence also had a stronger relation with performance during match-play competition than medalplay competition. Future research might examine many different measures of performance to determine if the criterion variable used affects the relationship found between confidence and performance.