It Depends on the Partner: Person-Related Sources of Efficacy Beliefs and Performance for Athlete Pairs

J Sport Exerc Psychol. 2017 Jun 1;39(3):172-187. doi: 10.1123/jsep.2016-0348. Epub 2017 Sep 11.

Abstract

This study explored person-related sources of variance in athletes' efficacy beliefs and performances when performing in pairs with distinguishable roles differing in partner dependence. College cheerleaders (n = 102) performed their role in repeated performance trials of two low- and two high-difficulty paired-stunt tasks with three different partners. Data were obtained on self-, other-, and collective efficacy beliefs and subjective performances, and objective performance assessments were obtained from digital recordings. Using the social relations model framework, total variance in each belief/assessment was partitioned, for each role, into numerical components of person-related variance relative to the self, the other, and the collective. Variance component by performance role by task-difficulty repeated-measures analysis of variances revealed that the largest person-related variance component differed by athlete role and increased in size in high-difficulty tasks. Results suggest that the extent the athlete's performance depends on a partner relates to the extent the partner is a source of self-, other-, and collective efficacy beliefs.

Keywords: collective efficacy; dyad; other-efficacy; performance role; self-efficacy.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Athletes / psychology*
  • Athletic Performance / psychology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Interpersonal Relations*
  • Male
  • Self Efficacy
  • Students
  • Universities
  • Young Adult