A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF FLOW STATE IN BASKETBALL PERFORMANCE : A PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBE

Purpose: The present study was conducted to examine the flow state in basketball performance. Materials: The investigator had selected Forty Five (N=45) female basketball players of 19 to 25 years of age to act as subjects. They were divided into three groups; (i.e., N1=15; District, N2=15; State and N3=15 National). The purposive sampling technique was used to select the subjects. All the subjects, after having been informed about the objective and protocol of the study, gave their consent and volunteered to participate in this study. Statistical Analyses: To measure the level of dispositional flow state of the subjects, the flow state battery constructed by Jackson & Eklund (2004) was administered. One way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was employed to find out the intra-group differences. Where F values were found significant, LSD (Least Significant Difference) Post-hoc test was applied to find out the direction and degree of difference. For testing the hypotheses, the level of significance was set at 0.05. Results & Conclusion: The results revealed no significant differences were found among female basketball players on the sub-variables of Dispositional Flow Scale-2 i.e., Challenge Skill Balance, Action-Awareness Merging, Clear Goals, Unambiguous Feedback, Concentration on the Task at Hand, Sense of Control, Loss of Self-Consciousness, Time transformation and Autotelic experience.

Introduction 1  Understanding the psychological factors that accompany successful athletic performance is a high priority for applied sport psychology, with a major area of focus being mental links to optimal performance.To advance knowledge in this area, it is important to examine specific psychological constructs with theoretical relevance to optimal performance in order to understand what psychological processes might be contributing to quality of performance.The first and primary construct examined was flow.Flow is an optimal psychological state that occurs when there is a balance between perceived challenges and skills in an activity [3].According to Jackson, [8] flow experience during exercise can lead to high enjoyment, which, in turn, appears to play an important role in exercise adherence [9,10,14].To advance knowledge in this area, it is important to examine specific psychological constructs with theoretical relevance to optimal performance in order to understand what psychological processes might be contributing to quality of performance.Empirical research has substantiated this prediction [16].Hence, an understanding of factors that promote flow states in exercise will inform the strategies of exercise practitioners who are interested in promoting enjoyment and adherence to exercise.Jackson and Eklund [18] developed and revised the dispositional flow scale (DFS-2) to assess athletes'experience of the nine flow characteristics.In addition, Kimiecik and Harris [13] suggested that flow leads to positive affective reactions, which they equate with enjoyment.Research has shown that each one of these dimension is part of the definition of flow [9,10,12].Using in-depth interviews, Jackson [8], Sugiyama and Inomata [17], and Young [19] assessed athletes' responses regarding the importance of the nine dimensions of flow, as proposed by Csikszentmihalyi (1975).Sugiyama and Inomata [17] investigated the flow experience among semi-professional and university athletes, who were between 18 and 29 years of age, representing three sports, namely, track and field, skating, and swimming.The investigations on flow during sport performance have focused on three main research topics.Firstly, to refine the understanding of the flow construct, as proposed by Csikszentmihalyi [2,3] in a sport context, several studies have analysed qualitative results and their connection to flow dimensions [8,17,19].The findings of these studies will be presented concurrently to point out similarities or differences in the flow experience between groups of elite athletes from various sports [6,7] college and university athletes Sugiyama & Inomata, [17] and elite tennis players Young [19].Flow is generally viewed as a peak performance state, and there is some support for this assumption [11,15].It appears that attaining flow during exercise may promote intrinsic motivation, which, in turn, has been shown to enhance persistence in participation Ryan et al. [16].Brewer et al. [1] noted that the effect of performance outcome on self-report assessments of psychological states could be compromised by methods of retrospective introspection.The athletes are asked about general experiences of the flow experience in a particular activity the athlete chooses.Another scale developed by the same authors is the flow state scale-2 (FSS-2), which assesses the flow state right after completing an activity.As a result, the present study was conducted to determine the significant difference between Flow State in basketball players with regards to dispositional Flow Scale-2.

Sample:
The investigators had selected Forty Five (N=45) female basketball players of 19 to 25 years of age to act as subjects.They were divided into three groups; (i.e., N1=15; District, N2=15; State and N3=15 National).The purposive sampling technique was used to select the subjects.All the subjects, after having been informed about the objective and protocol of the study, gave their consent and volunteered to participate in this study.Instrument: To measure the level of Dispositional Flow State of the subjects, the Flow State Battery constructed by (Jackson & Eklund, 2004) was administered.Statistical Analysis: One way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was employed to find out the intra-group differences.Where F values were found significant, LSD (Least Significant Difference) Post-hoc test was applied to find out the direction and degree of difference.For testing the hypotheses, the level of significance was set at 0.05.It can be seen from table-1 that insignificant differences were found with regard to the sub-variable Challenge Skill Balance among District, State and National female basketball players as the P-value (Sig.).346was found higher than the 0.05 level of significance (p>0.05).It can be seen from table-2 that insignificant differences were found with regard to the sub-variable Action-Awareness Merging among District, State and National female basketball players as the P-value (Sig.).499was found higher than the 0.05 level of significance (p>0.05).It can be seen from table-3 that insignificant differences were found with regard to the sub-variable Clear Goals among District, State and National female basketball players as the P-value (Sig.).756was found higher than the 0.05 level of significance (p>0.05).It can be seen from table-4 that insignificant differences were found with regard to the sub-variable Unambiguous Feedback among District, State and National female basketball players as the P-value (Sig.).813was found higher than the 0.05 level of significance (p>0.05).It can be seen from table-5 that insignificant differences were found with regard to the sub-variable Concentration on the Task at Hand among District, State and National female basketball players as the P-value (Sig.).155was found higher than the 0.05 level of significance (p>0.05).It can be seen from table-6 that insignificant differences were found with regard to the sub-variable Sense of Control among District, State and National female basketball players as the P-value (Sig.).637was found higher than the 0.05 level of significance (p>0.05).It can be seen from table-7 that insignificant differences were found with regard to the sub-variable Loss of Self-Consciousness among District, State and National female basketball players as the P-value (Sig.).249was found higher than the 0.05 level of significance (p>0.05).It can be seen from table-9 that insignificant differences were found with regard to the sub-variable Autotelic Experience among District, State and National female basketball players as the P-value (Sig.).050was found higher than the 0.05 level of significance (p>0.05).It can be seen from table-10 that insignificant differences were found with regard to the variable Dispositional Flow Scale-2 among District, State and National female basketball players as the P-value (Sig.).988was found higher than the 0.05 level of significance (p>0.05).

Conclusion
Summarizing from the above findings we can say that no significant differences were found among female basketball players on the sub-variables of Dispositional Flow Scale-2 i.e., Challenge skill balance, Action-awareness merging, Clear goals, Unambiguous feedback, Concentration on the task at hand, Sense of control, Loss of selfconsciousness, Time transformation and Autotelic experience.

Table 1 .
Significant differences in the results among Female Basketball Players with regard to dispositional FlowScale-2 on the sub-Variable Challenge skill balance.

Table 2 .
Significant differences in the results among Female Basketball Players with regard to Dispositional Flow Scale-2 on the sub-Variable Action-Awareness Merging.

Table 3 .
Significant differences in the results among Female Basketball Players with regard to Dispositional Flow Scale-2 on the sub-Variable Clear Goals.

Table 4 .
Significant differences in the results among Female Basketball Players with regard to Dispositional Flow Scale-2 on the sub-Variable Unambiguous Feedback.

Table 5 .
Significant differences in the results among Female Basketball Players with regard to Dispositional Flow Scale-2 on the sub-Variable Concentration on the Task at Hand.

Table 6 .
Significant differences in the results among Female Basketball Players with regard to Dispositional Flow Scale-2 on the sub-Variable Sense of Control.

Table 7 .
Significant differences in the results among Female Basketball Players with regard to Dispositional Flow Scale-2 on the sub-Variable Loss of Self-Consciousness.

Table 8 .
Significant differences in the results among Female Basketball Players with regard to Dispositional Flow Scale-2 on the sub-Variable Transformation of Time.It can be seen from table-8 that insignificant differences were found with regard to the sub-variable Transformation of Time among District, State and National female basketball players as the P-value (Sig.).133was found higher than the 0.05 level of significance (p>0.05).

Table 9 .
Significant differences in the results among Female Basketball Players with regard to Dispositional Flow Scale-2 on the sub-Variable Autotelic Experience.

Table 10 .
Significant differences in the results among Female Basketball Players with regard to Dispositional Flow Scale-2.