Game standings and psychological crisis in sport: theory and research

Individual psychological crisis in competitive situations negatively affects motor performance. Psychological crisis development is probabilistically defined for every moment of the competition. This study estimates the effect of game standings defined interactively by three components: direction of lead, tendency, and event's expectancy, upon crisis vulnerability of a basketball player. Twenty-eight top basketball experts responded to a 'Game Standing Questionnaire' in which they were asked to assess probabilistically the relevance of game standings to crisis development. The Bayesian likelihood ratio was applied to these estimates. Results revealed that game standings have a considerable diagnostic relevance with regard to the development of an individual competitive psychological crisis. Furthermore, a negative tendency, a lead by the opposing team, and an unexpected event are more likely to occur under crisis conditions than under non-crisis conditions. Various aspects related to the validation and the practical applicability of the study are discussed.