The Psychological Characteristics of the Indonesian SEA Games

Athletes in the Measurable Sport

Ipa Sari Kardi and Dimyati Dimyati

Sport Sciences Study Program, Graduate Program, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Jln. Colombo No. 1, Sleman,

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

ipaatletikteam@gmail.com

Keywords: Sport Psychology, Sea Games Athletes, Measurable Sport Branches.

Abstract: This research aimed at identifying the difference of the Indonesian SEA Games athletes in the measurable

sport branches. The method is the ex-post facto with a retrospective comparative design and the samples

were 70 athletes. The data collection utilized the Psychological Skills Inventory Sports. The data analysis

used Manova with the significance level at 0.05. The research result showed that: (1) the psychological

characteristic of the Indonesian SEA Games athletes in the measurable sport branches were generally in the

high category in each of sport branches, namely: (a) athletics was in the high category; (b) water ski was in

the very high category; (c) weightlifting was in the high category; (d) cycling was in the high category;

and (e) swimming was in the high category; and (2) the Manova testing resulted the value of Wilk’s Lamda

at 0.688 and sig value at 0.478 (P > 0.05). Then, there was no significant difference between the

Indonesian SEA Games athletes in the measurable sport branches. Conclusion; the psychological

characteristic of the Indonesian SEA Games athletes in the measurable sport branches were the high

category and there was no significant difference between measurable sport branches.

1 INTRODUCTION

The psychological skill was important in the sport

and exercise psychology because the psychological

state was considered to influence the performance in

the management of the sport and exercise, therefore

if the athletes could manage the psychological state,

the athletes would be able to improve their

performances. The psychological skills which would

be disclosed in this research are the motivation, self

confidence, anxiety control, mental preparation,

team priority, and concentration. The six

psychological aspects were badly needed in every

sport branches in accordance to the types of the sport

branches. Nine psychological skill that contributed

to the athlete achievement gain, namely, attitude,

motivation, goals and commitment, people skill,

self-talk, mental imagery, managing anxiety,

managing emotions, and concentration (Lesyk,

2007). Moss confirmed that the themes of

concentration, anxiety management, self-confidence,

mental preparation, and motivation were seen to

have potential importance in skill-level

differentiation (Moss, 2008). As for the

psychological aspects that would be studied using

the instrument of the psychological skills inventory

for sports covered the motivation, self confidence,

anxiety control, mental preparation, team priority,

and concentration (Mahoney, Gabriel, and Perkins,

1987).

Motivational processes could be defined by the

psychological constructs that energize, direct, and

regulate achievement behavior (Hanraham and

Andersen, 2010). It was asserted, further, by

Tenenbaum and Eklaud that understanding and

enhancing motivation was one of the most popular

areas of research in psychology, as well as sport and

exercise psychology (Tenenbaum and Eklaud,

2014). Self confidence rose to be the key skill

possessed by the elite athletes, and the international

elite athletes had identified the self confidence as the

most important mental skill which defined the

mental persistence (Brewer, 2009). Anxiety was

defined as a negative emotional state (feeling fearful

and uncomfortable, experiencing dread)

characterized by nervousness, worry, and

apprehension and associated with activation or

arousal of the body (Hanraham and Andersen,

2010). The experience of anxiety before and during

athletic competitions can have a variety of unwanted

outcomes, including poor athletic performance

(Schaefer, Vella and Allen, 2016).

Mental preparation was the individual mental

where the spiritual abilities, namely, the thought, the

Kardi, I. and Dimyati, D.

The Psychological Characteristics of the Indonesian SEA Games Athletes in the Measurable Sport.

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sports Science, Health and Physical Education (ICSSHPE 2017) - Volume 1, pages 97-101

ISBN: 978-989-758-317-9

will, and the emotion were ready to undergo the

tasks suited to his abilities (Grieve, Whelan, and

Meyers, 2000). As it was disclosed before, athletes’

mental development was as important as three other

factors because even though the athlete’s physical,

technical and tactical developments are perfect, if

their mental states were not developed as well, it

was impossible to get high achievement. Basically

every athlete was the member of a certain sport club

that regularly carried out exercises and competitions.

In such team, every athlete gained experiences, both

the sport sciences and skills. As it was stated that the

effectiveness of a team depended on two things,

namely, the members’ skill and the leader’s ability

to facilitate the process.

Based on some studies above, it is confirmed that

the psychological aspects, such as (1)

motivation; (2) self confidence; (3) anxiety control;

(4) mental preparation; (5) team emphasis; and (6)

concentration are the psychological aspect which

influence the performance or the achievement of the

athletes in any kinds of sport. In other words, to

obtain the achievement in any sports, an athlete

cannot be separated from the influence of the

psychological aspects. Approaching the implantation

of the SEA Games in Malaysia 2017, the Indonesian

athletes’ preparation did not only cover the physic

and technique, but also in the psychological skills in

the hope that it would support the athletes’

performance. However, the information or the study

of the athlete’s psychological aspect, especially the

Indonesian elite athletes, was still minimum.

Based on this, the writer was interested to study

and understand the psychological characteristic of

the Indonesian SEA Games athletes who pursue the

measurable sport branches. Hence, it employed the

instrument of The Psychological Skill Inventory to

disclose the psychological characteristics of the

Indonesian SEA Games athletes. Therefore, this

research was aimed at identifying: (1) the

psychological characteristics of the Indonesian SEA

Games athletes in the measurable sport branches

covering the athletic, water skiing, weightlifting,

cycling, and swimming; and (2) the presence or

absence of the difference of the psychological skills

of the SEA Games XXIX athletes in the measurable

sport branches.

2 METHODS

The research samples were the Indonesian SEA

Games athletes in the measurable sport branches

assigned using accidental sampling technique

involving 70 athletes (male 42 and female 28). The

samples consisted of 12 Athletics athletes, 9

weightlifting athletes, 23 cycling athletes, 16

swimming athletes, and 10 water skiing athletes.

The research employed the ex-post facto method

with a retrospective comparative design. The

research was conducted from 24 February 2017 until

13 April 2017. The data gathering was done in some

cities which became the training centers for the

Indonesian SEA Games athletes, namely, Jakarta,

West Java, Yogyakarta, Solo, and Bali.

The research used the instrument of The

Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports, consisting

of six aspects of psychological skills namely; (1)

motivation; (2) self confidence; (3) anxiety control;

(4) mental preparation; (5) team emphasis; and (6)

concentration. The contents of the instruments are in

table 1, as follows:

Table 1: The Instrument Contents of The Psychological

Skills Inventory for Sports.

Variabel

Aspect

Number of

Item

Psychological Skills

Motivation

Self Confidence

Anxiety Control

Mental Preparation

Team Emphasis

Concentration

Total

Every answer in the statement item in the

questionnaires/instrument was rated by using the

likert scale; every answer had the score ranging from

positive to the negative scores in the ranges of 1 – 5.

The scoring could be seen in table 2, as follows:

Table 2: Answer Scores.

Alternative Answer

Positif Answer

Negatif Answer

Always

Often

Sometimes

Very seldom

Never

The data processing was carried out using the

descriptive statistics and Manova testing. To identify

the psychological characteristics of Indonesian SEA

Games athletes in the measurable sport branches, the

data were categorized using the formula of the mean

and the standard deviation, like in table 3.

ICSSHPE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sports Science, Health and Physical Education

Table 3: The Formula to Determine the Criteria.

Interval

Category

above 159.59 up to 190

Very High

above 129.20 up to 159.59

High

above 98.80 up to 129.20

Medium

above 68.41 up to 98.80

Low

38 up to 68.41

Very Low

The Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports

was the instrument adopted from foreign country.

Therefore, before it was employed, it would be

firstly undergone a validation of contents using the

expert judgment and would be tested to the National

Sport Week in Yogyakarta. The criteria used here

were the range between 0.21 up to 0.35. The result

of the instrument testing was the cronbach’s alpha

score in the amount of 0.890 > 0.60, hence it could

be concluded that the instrument was valid and

reliable to use.

The data analysis techniques utilized the

descriptive statistic and Manova, with significance

level of 0.05. Before multivariate analysis was used,

it would be conducted homogeneity testing using the

Box’s Test of Equality. The result of variance

homogenities was elaborated in table 5, as follows:

Table 5: Box’s Test Equality of Covariance Matrices.

Box’s M

119.994

0.293 > 0.05

Homogen

1.079

df 1

df 2

4204.864

Sig.

.293

Based on the analysis result as shown in table 5

above, it was obtained that the value of Box’s M is

119.994 with the value of sig. 0.293; for the value of

sig. = 0.293 > 0.05, it could be concluded that the

variance of every variable of the psychological

aspect of the Indonesian SEA Games athletes in the

measurable sport branches is homogenous. Thus, the

data matched the requirement for Manova test.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Research Result I

The result of data research obtained was analyzed

using the descriptive analysis to identify the mean

score of which became the criteria of psychological

skill characteristics of the SEA Games XXIX

athletes in the measurable sport branches.

The mean score of the measurable sport branches

in the amount of 152.23 which showed that the

psychological characteristics of the Indonesian SEA

Games athletes in the measurable sport branches

were generally in high category. The psychological

characteristic of each sport branches are as follows:

(a) In the sport branch of Athletic, it was obtained

the mean score in the amount of 156.92, the mean

score indicated that the psychological characteristic

of athletic athletes were in high category; (b) In the

sport branch of Water Skiing it was obtained the

mean score in the amount of 164.80, the mean score

indicated that the psychological characteristic of

Water Skiing athletes were in the very high

category; (c) In the sport branch of Weightlifting it

was obtained the mean score in the amount of

153.89, the mean score indicated that the

psychological characteristic of Weightlifting athletes

were in high category; (d) In the sport branch of

Cycling it was obtained the mean score in the

amount of 148.96; the mean score indicated that the

psychological characteristic of Cycling athletes were

in the high category; (e) In the sport branch of

Swimming it was obtained the mean score in the

amount of 150.88; the mean score indicated that the

psychological characteristic of Swimming athletes

were in the high category.

Figure 1: Radar Diagram of the Psychological

Characteristics of The Indonesian SEA Games athletes in

the measurable sport branches

The Psychological Characteristics of the Indonesian SEA Games Athletes in the Measurable Sport

3.2 Research Result II

The research data result were analyzed using

Manova analysis to identify whether there was any

difference in the psychological characteristics of the

Indonesian SEA Games athletes in the measurable

sport branches, to prove the hipotheses as follows:

Hypotheses:

Ho : there is no significant difference between

the psychological characteristic of Indonesian SEA

Games Nationally-trained athletes in the measurable

sport branches.

Ha : there is significant difference between the

psychological characteristic of Indonesian SEA

Games Nationally-trained athletes in the measurable

sport branches.

Criteria:

(a) If the significance value > 0.05, then Ho was

accepted, hence there was no significant difference

in between the psychological characteristic of the

athletes in the measurable sport branches;

(b) If the significance value < 0.05, then Ho was

rejected, hence there was significant difference in

between the psychological characteristic of the

athletes in the measurable sport branches.

The Result of the multivariate analysis to see

whether there was any difference of the

psychological characteristic of the Indonesian SEA

Games athletes in the measurable sport branches can

be seen in table 7.

Table 7: Multivariate Test.

Effect

Value

Sig.

significant

Sports

Wilks'

Lambda

.688

.992

.478

Based on the output in table 7, it could be

identified that by the multivariance Manova testing,

it could be obtained the value of Wilks’ Lambda in

the amount of 0.688 with F = 0.992 and sig. 0.478.

The value of sig. Was 0.478 > 0.05, then Ho was

accepted, hence it could be concluded that there was

no significant difference among the psychological

characteristics among the Indonesian SEA Games

athletes in the measurable sport branches.

3.3 Discussion

Based on the research result of the psychological

characteristics of the athletes consisting of

6 aspects, namely, motivation, self confidence,

anxiety control, mental preparation, team priority,

and concentration, it was obtained the mean score of

152.23; the score showed that the psychological

characteristic of the Indonesian SEA Games athletes

were generally in the high category. From the

research result, it was also obtained the score of

Wilks’ Lambda in the amount of 0.688 with F =

0.992 and sig. 0.478 that showed that there was no

significant difference of the psychological

characteristic in between the athletes in the

measurable sport branches.

The absence of the difference of the

psychological characteristic the Indonesian SEA

Games athletes because in the measurable sport

branches is because basically the sport branches that

are categorized the measurable sport branches have

the same characteristics, namely, being not face to

face competition and having the limit that the

athletes should achieve or even surpass it, and the

implementation is dominantly carried out by

individual. The relation of psychological skills and

type of sport, significant main effect for motivation,

confidence, anxiety control, mental preparation and

concentration (Elferink, Visscher, and Lemmink,

2005). Besides, among the elite athletes having the

same scores were like the Indonesian SEA Games

athletes who were the elite athletes. The sport branch

of Athletic consisted of some categories, namely,

running, jumping and throwing, each of which was

divided into more specific events, for example, the

category of running consists of short-distance

running (100 to 400 meters), middle distance (800 to

1500 meters), long-distance running (5000 to 10000

meters), and the half marathon (Dosil, 2006).

Talking about the psychological skills of the Athletic

athletes, there are of course many kinds, depending

on the distance categories and the dominant

movement patterns in athletic category the athlete

pursue Dosil also asserted that the psychological

characteristics of this type of event vary enormously

depending on the distance.

The same things happen to the water skiing

which consists of some categories, among others,

jumping and trick riding. In the implementation,

beside demanding a qualified technique, the

psychological aspects have supporting role in the

athlete’s performance. The sport branch of

Weightlifting that has extraordinary challenges, the

athlete needs a very good concentration skill (Gump

and Brauer, 2014). Moreover, they stated that, in the

weightlifting sport branch, the athlete must be able

to centralize all energy to the lift itself, without

anything bothering the mind. In the sport

competition involving distance between 50 km and

250 km, with many environmental challenges, such

ICSSHPE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sports Science, Health and Physical Education

100

as heat, frost, climb and rain, it is demanded that the

athlete have persistent psychological and physical

conditions. On the other side, especially in the

swimming sport branch, Widohardhono said that

training and competitive and recovery programs

should consider the mental, cognitive, and emotional

development of each athlete. Beyond the physical,

technical, and tactical development including

decision making skills, the mental, cognitive, and

emotional development should be enhanced

(Widohardhono, 2014). Similarly, the swimming

study’s results clearly demonstrate the importance of

the interactional model of motivation (Wilson,

2014).

Based on the research result discussed above, it

shows that the psychological aspects in every sport

branch, categorized in the measurable sport

branches, have the same characteristics, hence there

is no significant difference of the characteristics of

the psychological skills among the Indonesian SEA

Games athletes in the measurable sport branches.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Analysis of Material Requirement Planning (MRP)

Based on the research results obtained psychological

skill athletes SEA Games Indonesia measurable

sport branches is in the high category, so it can be

concluded that psychological aspects capable of

supporting athletes achievement. Other than that the

research result also shows that there is no significant

difference in terms of psychological characteristics

among the Indonesian SEA Games athletes in five

measurable sport branches, namely athletics, water

skiing, swimming, weightlifting and cycling.

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