AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE REACTION TIMES AND THE STATE AND TRAIT ANXIETY LEVELS OF THE ATHLETES

Abstract

Besides supposing that the anxiety levels of the athletes have an impact on their performance it is also important to know the level of this impact. In this study it was aimed to investigate the relationship between the anxiety level and the sporting performance especially the reaction time which is the determinant of the speed requiring sudden movements. The study included 60 university students who participated voluntarily, were actively engaged in sports and were living in Esenyurt district of Istanbul. The average age of the participants was 20,68±2,33, their average height was 179,05±6,43cm, their average body weight was 75,55±9,32 kg and their average sport age was 6,31±3,23years. The State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was used in the study in order to determinate and measure the state and trait anxiety levels of participants. The State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was developed by Spielberger and his colleagues in 1970 and its reliability and validity study was carried out by Öner and La Compte by translating it into Turkish in 1983. The analyses of the obtained data were carried out with the SPSS Statistic 17.0 package program. The measurement results were given as mean (x) and as standard deviation (SD). Correlation and regression analysis were applied for the statistical evaluation of the data.  In the conducted study the state anxiety level of the athletes was detected to be  29,62±4,46 points, their trait anxiety level was 32,12±6,39 while their double hand reaction time was found to be 0,23±0,02 sec. A positive low level relationship was detected between the trait anxiety levels and the double hand reaction times of the athletes (r=,279,p<,05) while a positive and moderate level relationship was observed between the state anxiety level and the state anxiety level (r=,311, p<,016). Due to the fact that this research is a preliminary study done in the field of sport science, this study is considered to contribute to other studies planned to be done in the future. As a result, it was detected that with the increase in the anxiety level the response time given to an effect from any external factors lengthened. The fact that there was a low level positive relationship with the trait anxiety level revealed the conclusion that with the increase in the trait anxiety level, the reaction time also increases.

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