Chris Englert * and Alex Bertrams **
(*) Institute of Sports and Sports Sciences, Department of Sport Psychology, University of Heidelberg, Germany
(**) School of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Mannheim, Germany
Citation
Englert, C., Bertrams, A. (2014). What is self-control depleting in sports? Effects of vicarious experiences on performance. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 45(1), 1-10. doi:10.7352/IJSP.2014.45.001
Abstract
In the present study, we investigated the influence of sport specific vicarious depletion of self-control strength on performance in a Stroop task. In a betweensubject design N = 40 participants were randomly assigned to either a depletion condition in which they read a story about a soccer player who had to strongly regulate himself, or a non-depletion condition in which they read a story about a soccer player who did not have to regulate himself. Participants in both conditions were instructed to relive the soccer players’ thoughts and feelings and we hypothesized that in the depletion condition participants would perform worse in a subsequent self-control task. The results were as expected as depleted participants showed longer latencies on the Stroop task. This study delivers a first indication that athletes are confronted with self-control demanding situations during sporting competitions which can lead to a depletion of self-control strength and impaired performance.
Keywords: Ego Depletion, Self-Control, Self-regulation, Sport, Stroop