Investigation of cognitive flexibility, sportive self-confidence and sport specific achievement motivation in individual and team athletes

The research was carried out to examine the cognitive flexibility, sportive self-confidence and question-specific achievement motivation levels of individual and team athletes and to determine the relationship between them. The research group consisted of 249 individual sports, 251 team sports, studying at Adnan Menderes University, Aksaray University, Ömer Halisdemir University, Erciyes University, Selçuk University, Gazi University and Hacı Bektaş Veli Universities Faculty of Sports Sciences in the 2022-2023 academic year. A total of 500 university students were interested. In the research, "Personal Information Form", "Cognitive Flexibility Scale", "Sports Continuous Self Confidence Scale" and "Sport-Specific Achievement Motivation Scale" were used as data collection tools. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Skewnes-Kurtosis (Skewness-Kurtosis) coefficients were used to test normality in the study. Significance level was accepted as p<0,05. Complementary statistics, arithmetic mean and standard deviation techniques were used to determine the cognitive flexibility, sportive self-confidence and achievement motivation levels of individual and team athletes participating in the research. In addition, t-test for independent groups was used in pairwise comparisons and one-way analysis of variance (Anova) was used in multiple comparisons. Tukey test was used to determine the source of variance. In the study, Pearson correlation coefficient technique was used to determine the relationship between the variables, and multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine the predictors of the variables. While there was no significant difference in cognitive flexibility levels of the athletes in the research group in terms of gender, class level, being a national athlete and sport type (p>0,05), a significant difference was found in terms of income level and years of doing sports (p<0,05). While there was no significant difference in the sports self-confidence levels of the athletes in terms of the variables of class level and being a national athlete (p>0,05), there was a significant difference in terms of gender, type of sport, income level and years of doing sports (p<0,05). While no significant difference was found in the achievement motivation levels of the athletes in terms of gender, being a national athlete and sport type (p>0,05), a significant difference was found in terms of class level, income level and years of doing sports (p<0,05). In another study, it was concluded that the relationship between the cognitive flexibility, sportive self-confidence and achievement motivation levels of the athletes was positively significant. In addition, cognitive flexibility was found to be a significant predictor of sportive self-confidence and achievement motivation.