title: Abstract "why" Thoughts About Success Lead to Greater Positive Generalization in Sport Participants.
abstract: Generalizing from a single failure or success to future performances and their self-concept could have an important impact on sport participants. This study examined the impact of the way sport participants think about success on positive generalization. Sport participants (N = 222) completed an online experimental study in which they were induced to think about meanings, causes and implications (i.e., abstract-"why"-thinking) or about more perceptual concrete aspects of their performance (i.e., concrete-"how"-thinking). We hypothesized that abstract-"why"-thinking would lead to greater positive generalization and that this effect would be moderated by self-esteem. Our results supported our hypothesis that abstract thinking increased positive generalization, and this effect was more clearly visible in sport participants with higher self-esteem. These results suggest that retrospective thinking about the "why" of a good performance may benefit athletes in the long run because they generalize the outcome to future performances and their self-concept which may boost their motivation and consequently their performance.
authors.affiliation: University of Leuven , Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Lier
authors.affiliation: University of New South Wales , Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Michelle L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Moulds
authors.affiliation: University of Leuven , Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Filip
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Raes
keywords: cognitive processes; positive generalization; retrospective thinking; self-esteem; sport psychology