Exploring Common Ground: Comparing the Imagery of Dancers and Aesthetic Sport Performers

The imagery of aesthetic sport athletes and dancers was compared, and the relationship between imagery and self-confidence was explored. Materials included the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ; Hall, Mack, Paivio, & Hausenblas, 1998 Hall, C. R., Mack, D. E., Paivio, A. and Hausenblas, H. A. 1998. Imagery use by athletes: Development of the Sport Imagery Questionnaire. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 29: 73–89. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the Dance Imagery Questionnaire (DIQ; Nordin & Cumming, 2006 Nordin, S. M. and Cumming, J. 2006. Measuring the content of dancers’ images: Development of the Dance Imagery Questionnaire (DIQ). Journal of Dance Medicine and Science, 3&4: 85–98. [Google Scholar]), the Trait Sport Confidence Inventory (TSCI; Vealey, 1986 Vealey, R. S. 1986. Conceptualization of sport-confidence and competitive orientation: Preliminary investigation and instrument development. Journal of Sport Psychology, 8: 221–246. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), and open-ended questions. Participants were 144 dancers and 124 aesthetic athletes, mainly female, 18.98 (SD = 3.91) years old, and ranging from recreational to elite levels. Aesthetic athletes engaged in less imagery of roles and movement quality than dancers, and seemingly less imagery overall. Dancers at higher levels imaged more frequently than lower level dancers, but this was not the case for athletes. Performers who imaged more frequently were more confident, and for dancers the DIQ predicted additional variance in self-confidence beyond that offered by the SIQ. Altogether, the DIQ might be suitable for investigating the imagery of aesthetic athletes as well as dancers.