In team sports, athletes' goals may focus on the task (enhancing performance, developing better skills, etc.) or on ego (being better than the others, achieving superiority, etc.). This study investigated the relationships between athletes' goal orientation and their tendency to cooperate with teammates and coaches. 158 professional men (M age = 24.1 yr., SD = 4.6) who played on various sport teams participated in this study. Goal orientation was measured with the Portuguese version of the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire, and cooperation was measured with the Questionário de Cooperação Desportiva. Cooperation was positively correlated with task orientation, and negatively correlated with ego orientation. Overall, the findings support that in sports, directing the players' focus on task may promote prosocial behavior.

This study attempts to analyze the relationship between two key psychological variables associated with performance in sports – Self-Determined Motivation and Competitive Anxiety – through Bayesian Networks (BN) analysis. We analyzed 674 university students that are athletes from 44 universities that competed at the University Games in Mexico, with an average age of 21 years (SD = 2.07) and with a mean of 8.61 years’ (SD = 5.15) experience in sports. Methods: Regarding the data analysis, firstly, classification using the CHAID algorithm was carried out to determine the dependence links between variables; Secondly, a BN was developed to reduce the uncertainty in the relationships between the two key psychological variables. The validation of the BN revealed AUC values ranging from 0.5 to 0.92. Subsequently, various instantiations were performed with hypothetical values applied to the “bottom” variables. Results showed two probability trees that have extrinsic motivation and amotivation at the top, while the anxiety/activation due to worries about performance was at the bottom of the probabilities. The instantiations carried out support the existence of these probabilistic relationships, demonstrating their scarce influence on anxiety about competition generated by the intrinsic motivation, and the complex probabilistic effect of introjected and identified regulation regarding the appearance of anxiety due to worry about performance.

The clear decline in the practice of physical activity (PA) in contemporary society has well-documented problematic consequences in public health. It has led to a clear investment of research efforts in the attempt to identify the psychological constructs associated with health behaviors such as PA, in particular, the motivation that leads people to adopt these behaviors. In this context, the objective of the present study is to present a suggestion of a Portuguese version of the Physical Activity and Leisure Motivation Scale (PALMS), denominated PALMS-p. This instrument evaluates the reasons for the practice of PA. The psychometric qualities of the instrument were evaluated in a sample of 234 participants (86 males, 148 females) who practiced different PA in a recreational context. Confirmatory factorial analysis confirmed the factorial robustness of the PALMS-p (χ2/df = 2.010 comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.950, goodness of fit index (GFI) = 0.855, Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.939 root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.021, P(RMSEA ≤ 0.05) < 0.001), and the results show that this version presents good internal consistency. The present study corroborates the fidelity and validity of PALMS-p as a motivation measure for the practice of PA in the Portuguese population.

The purpose of the present study was to discover the relationships between athletes' perceived coach behaviors during training and competition, and cooperation via Bayesian network (BN). Professional male atheletes from several team sports (N = 158) completed the Portuguese version of the Leadership Scale for Sport and the Questionário de Cooperação Desportiva to assess cooperation. Relationships were identified between perceived coach behaviors in training and competition environments and with athletes tendency

Resumo O principal objectivo do presente artigo é apresentar uma sugestão de versão portuguesa do Questionário de Cooperação Desportiva (Garcia-Mas et al., 2006 AbstractThe main objective of this study is to present a proposal for the Portuguese version of the "Cuestionário de Cooperación Deportiva" (Garcia-Mas, 2006). This instrument assesses the degree Laboratório de Psicologia, 10(1): 35-46 (2012) © 2012 A. Garcia-Mas Universidade das Ilhas Baleares, EspanhaA correspondência relativa a este artigo deverá ser enviada para:

La eficacia de la metodología old way/ new way en la corrección de un error técnico automatizado y su impacto en las habilidades psicológicas del atleta: estudio de caso en el tenis The efficacy of the old way/new way methodology on the correction of an automated technical error and its impact on the athlete's psychological skills: case study in tennis A eficácia da metodología old way/ new way na correcção de um erro técnico automatizado e o seu impacto nas competências psicológicas do atleta: estudo de caso no ténis

This study is framed on the Information Theory as a constructive criterion to generate probabilistic distributions &ndash;through the elaboration of Bayesian Networks- and to reduce the uncertainty in the occurrence and relationship between two key psychological variables associated with the sports&rsquo; performance: Self-Determined Motivation and Competitive Anxiety. We analyzed 674 universitary students/athletes who competed in the 2017 Universitary Games (Universiade) in M&eacute;xico, from 44 universities, with an average age of 21 years old (SD = 2.07), and with a sportive experience of 8.61 years of average (SD = 5.15). Methods: Regarding the data analysis, first of all a CHAID algorithm was carried out for to know the independence links among variables, and then two Bayesian networks (BN) were elaborated. The validation of the BN revealed AUC values ranging from 0.5 to 0.92. Subsequently, various instantations were carried out with hypothetical values applied to the &ldquo;bottom&rdquo; variables. Results showed two probability trees that have Extrinisic Motivation and Amotivation at the top, while the anxiety/activation due to the worry for performance was at the bottom of probabilities. The instantiations carried out support the existence of these probabilistic relationships, demonstrating the little influence on the competition anxiety generated by the intrinsic motivation. In conclusion, the reduction of the uncertainty made up by the restricted BN may aloe to re-introduce Information Theory principles in psychosocial studies, allowing authors to obtain useful probabilities values upon target psychological variables related with sportive performance.