mood states

Psychological variables that affect mental health are divided into useful and harmful variables. Useful variables are beneficial for improving mental health and quality of life, and increasing well-being, for instance, happiness, calmness, vigor, and mental toughness. Harmful variables reduce mental health, quality, and enjoyment of life, for example, negative mood states, anxiety, and burnout. This study aimed to predict psychological burnout based on mood states and mental toughness of elite athletes with physical disabilities. Participants have included 150 athletes with physical disabilities (77women; 73men) competing at national or international Paralympic sports teams (mean age=42.34 ±7.44y, mean experience=8.38 ± 3.19 y) that were selected in the random method. Participants accomplished the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire, the 32-item Brunel Mood Scale, and the Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis showed that happiness (moderate negative power, 51%), vigor (weak negative power, 28%), fatigue (weak positive power, 22%), mental toughness (medium negative power, 57%), and confidence (weak negative power, 29%) were able to predict the total burnout of the athletes with disabilities. These findings are essential for psychologists since developing and increasing the useful variables and inhibiting or decreasing the harmful variables for mental health can prevent sports burnout.

Background: Identifying the practice conditions that optimize the learning of motor skills is one of the main objectives in the area of human motor learning research. Aim: The present study aims to explore the effect of success criteria in high-error practice conditions on motor learning, self-efficacy, and mood states among female students. Materials and Methods: This practical quasi-experimental study was conducted in a field setting. The participants were 30 female students from Yazd University, selected through convenience sampling. Completing the consent form, the selected participants were randomly divided into three groups: high-error practice with a large target (n= 10), high-error practice with a small target (n= 10), and a high-error control group (n= 10). Then, mixed ANOVA was applied in order to test the hypotheses. Results: The results revealed that both of the large and small target groups significantly outperformed the control group regarding the difference in performance accuracy. Moreover, considering mood states, in the small target group, significant differences were observed in the calmness, happiness, and total mood state subscales, while in the large target group, significant differences were found in the vigor, happiness, depression, and total mood state subscales. In terms of self-efficacy, significant differences were observed in the level and power dimensions in small target group; however, the power dimension was the mere aspect revealing significant difference in the large target group. Conclusion: The use of success criteria in high-error practice methods is beneficial, and it is recommended to adopt this approach to improve accuracy and stability in the practice sessions.