The cognitive emotion regulation strategies and defense mechanisms in the elite athletes

Abstract

There is no research on the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and defensive styles especially in elite athletes that face different emotions in the competitive atmosphere. The present study was carried out with the purpose of analyzing the cognitive emotion regulation strategies and defense styles in elite athletes. In total, 385 (285 male and 100 female) elite athletes were selected applying random cluster sampling method. All the participants completed cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire short version and Defense Styles Questionnaire version 40. The results showed that mature defense style is positively associated with acceptance, positive refocusing, and positive reappraisal; where as, it is negatively associated with self-blame. Immature defense style was negatively associated with acceptance and positive reappraisal but positively associated with rumination. Moreover, neurotic defense style was negatively associated with acceptance but positively associated with self-blame. The results of regression analysis indicated that mature defense styles can be positively predicted by acceptance and positive refocusing. In addition, selfblame could positively predict the neurotic defense style and both immature, neurotic defense styles could be negatively predicted by acceptance. It can be concluded that ego defense mechanisms are influenced by cognitive regulation unconsciously.

The Mediating Role of Psychological Wellbeing in the Relationship Between Defense Mechanisms and Therapeutic Alliance Among Therapists and Psychiatric Nurses

“…Some studies speculate that psychological wellbeing can predict improved performance and successful interpersonal relationships. The literature also highlights the significant role of defense mechanisms in predicting psychological wellbeing (Mousavi, Vaez Mousavi, & Yaghubi, 2017;Lyke, 2016). Therapists' defense mechanisms may, therefore, predict therapeutic alliance by affecting their psychological wellbeing.…”

Protecting and Promoting the Wellbeing of High-Performance Swimmers

“…They are likely to have high personal resilience Martin et al, 2021;Sarkar & Fletcher., 2014), practice self-reflection (Lundqvist & Sandin, 2014), be able to maintain balance and perspective, and have a broad sense of identity (Sarkar & Fletcher., 2014). In addition, they are likely to have mature defence mechanisms (Mousavi et al, 2017), accept that they hold multiple roles (e.g., athlete, student, partner), and have high levels of sport confidence (Lundqvist & Sandin., 2014).…”

“…Athletes with higher levels of wellbeing also report having more sleep (Kuettel et al, 2018), and higher quality sleep (Biggins et al, 2018). Conversely, athletes who experience lower levels of wellbeing are more likely to have neurotic defence mechanisms (Mousavi et al, 2017), perfectionistic tendencies (Lundqvist & Raglin, 2015), and report lower quality sleep (Biggins et al, 2018). Retiring athletes who report lower wellbeing are also likely to have an extreme athletic identity (Diehl et al, 2020).…”

“…Further, the majority of athlete wellbeing studies have been conducted in western cultures, such as the United States (e.g., Diehl et al, 2020;Jones, 2016;Wahesh et al, 2021), Canada (e.g., Ferguson et al, 2019;Hammond et al, 2013;Pankow et al, 2021), Australia (e.g., Vella et al, 2021;Walton et al, 2021), the European Union (e.g., Kuettel et al, 2021;Lundqvist & Raglin, 2015;Lundqvist & Schary, 2014;Rouquette et al, 2021,) and the United Kingdom (e.g., Biggins et al, 2018;Brown & Arnold, 2019;Jowett & Cramer, 2009), although a small number of studies have explored athlete wellbeing in nonwestern populations, such as South Africa (Stander et al, 2017), China (Zhang et al, 2021), Iran (Mousavi et al, 2017), Taiwan (Chen et al, 2017), and the Caribbean (Thomas et al, 2021). Even so, the dominance of studies in western cultures means the factors related to athlete wellbeing largely reflect western conceptualisations of wellbeing, that may not be the same across all countries.…”