Discriminant Effectiveness of Psychological State Measures in Predicting Selection during Field Hockey Trials

Field hockey players (N = 128) completed the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 and the Profile of Mood States about 45 min. before a British Universities trial. Single-factor multivariate analysis of variance indicated no significant differences between selected and nonselected players for any preperformance mood or anxiety measure. Discriminant function analysis showed that 74 participants (57.81%) could be correctly classified as selected or nonselected players on the basis of preperformance mood scores. This figure rose to 83 participants (64.84%) when scores on the anxiety subscales were also included in the discriminant function analysis. Anxiety scores alone discriminated 71 participants (55.47%). These results concur with earlier proposals of Terry that psychological state measures decline in predictive effectiveness in long duration, open skill team sports.