- Title
- Enhancing the psychological strength of adolescent rugby players in South African secondary schools : The effects of Rational-Emotive Behavioural Therapy and Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment Therapy
- Creator
- Munnik, James Barry https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8211-4260
- Subject
- Rational emotive behavior therapy
- Subject
- Acceptance and commitment therapy
- Subject
- Psychotherapy
- Date
- 2021-02
- Type
- Doctoral theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/22111
- Identifier
- vital:51984
- Description
- This thesis aimed, firstly, to test the psychological effects of two psychological interventions designed to enhance the psychological strength of competitive athletes; and, secondly, to possibly determine which intervention might be considered superior to the other. The third aim of this thesis was to explore the results of the findings in terms of both their shared and differential theories. The two psychological approaches in question were Rational-Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT) – supplemented with adjunctive Mental Skills Training (MST) techniques and the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) approach. To test the psychological strengthening effects of both interventions and to compare the results, a non-equivalent pre-test post-test control group design was followed which utilised a control group along with purposive sampling. Various dependent variables were investigated using seven instruments. Variables tested included: - mental wellbeing, irrational beliefs, mental toughness, achievement motivation and competitive anxiety, as well as anger and frustration levels and subjective performance. The instruments used to capture these variables were: - The Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF); Shortened General Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (SGABS); the Sport Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ); the Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT); as well as one five-point Likert question written by the researcher and one question from the Psychological Skills Inventory (PSI). Seventy-one male adolescent rugby players, from three different schools were sourced to take part in this study. Thus 32 (Mage = 17.33; SD = 6= .729) participants from one high school completed the seven-session REBT-Based MST intervention. 21 (Mage = 17.23; SD = .669) from another school completed the seven-module MAC intervention and 18 (Mage = 15.52; SD = .326) from an additional school were used as a control group school. All three group participants filled out the instrument questionnaires prior to undergoing the various interventions and just following it. Each intervention’s sessions were about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes long. The control group just filled out the instrument questionnaires in about the same time frame that the other schools had their pre- and post-intervention assessments. The results demonstrated that generally both interventions improved the psychological strength of their players more so than the control group, however, the REBT intervention decreased irrationality and improved subjective performance measures more significantly when compared to the other treatment group.
- Description
- Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2021
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (374 leaves)
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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UFH Department of Psychology
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | MUNNIK JAMES BARRY THESIS.pdf | 8 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |