Effects of “home advantage” and “away disadvantage” on psychological states of intermediate competitive rock-climbers

• Main Author: Tong, Jeremy Zhi Hao
• Other Authors: Chian Lit Khoon
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Journalism::Reporting on sports
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/66459
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The purpose was to find out the effects of “home advantages” and “away disadvantages” on intermediate rock-climber’s pre-competition somatic and cognitive anxieties, and pre-competition confidence levels. It is hypothesized that “home advantage” had a positive effect in sports like hockey and basketball and noted a higher self-confidence, lower somatic and cognitive anxiety when playing at home. (Schwartz & Barsky, 1977; Varca, 1980; Carre et al., 2006; Anderson et al., 2011). The pre-competition psychological states were assessed using the Revised Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2R; Cox, Martens, & Russell, 2003). The questionnaire was distributed to a sample size of 77 competitors before the competition. After results were tabulated, a total of 9 competitors whose results are ranked top 5 (n = 5) and bottom 4 (n = 4) within the current sample was recalled within one week after the competition for a follow-up interview to find out the reasons for their perceived success or failure. The results show that there was no significant difference in somatic, cognitive anxiety and self-confidence in home and away venues. This is because the Wilks’s Λ of .977 is nonsignificant, F(3,72) = 0.576, p = 0.633, indicating that we cannot reject the hypothesis that participants would have increased self-confidence levels as well as lower cognitive and somatic anxiety when playing in home ground compared to away ground. The univariate ANOVA for somatic anxiety was nonsignificant, F(1, 74) = .022, p = .881, cognitive anxiety was nonsignificant, F(1, 74) = 1.067, p = .305, and self confidence was nonsignificant, F(1, 74) = .171, p = .680. The ANOVA for the dependent variables scores were nonsignificant because the p-value exceeded the required level of .0167. In conclusion, there was no difference in somatic, cognitive anxiety and self-confidence scores in home and away venues.