The Effect of Imagery Use on the Self-Confidence: Turkish Professional Football Players

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of imagery use by the professional football players in Turkey on their self-confidence levels. The study group comprised of 423 professional football players from 24 football clubs from different leagues in 2016-2017 season, Turkey. As data collection tools, in addition to the personal information form, ``Sports Imagery Questionnaire{''} developed by Hall et al. (1998), adapted to Turkish by Vurgun (2010) and ``Self-Confidence Scale{''} developed by Akin (2007) were used. Results showed a positive correlation between internal and external self-confidence and all sub-scales of imagery in the professional football players. Moreover, the cognitive general imagery, cognitive specific imagery, and motivational specific imagery predicted 21.4\% of the internal self-confidence. Similarly, the cognitive general imagery and motivational specific imagery predicted 17.7\% of external self-confidence for the professional football players. Finally, it was determined that the professional football players' self-confidence levels will increase as the level of imagery use increases.