East–West measures of evaluative concern and self-presentational thinking in intercollegiate soccer

Abstract

Three facets of self-presentation were examined for 179 intercollegiate soccer players in Canada, Germany, and Japan. Participants completed the brief Fear of Negative Evaluation scale (FNE) and listed their sport-specific self-presentational concerns plus the target people of those concerns. Independent samples t tests and post-hoc Tukey analyses of FNE scores revealed that evaluative fear was significantly higher for the Japanese players than for the Western participants. In addition, content analysis indicated that all three cohorts’ thoughts were both performance- and behaviour-focused, but more team-oriented than individual. Interestingly, however, the highest scoring category in Canada and Germany was that players had no specific concerns/that impressions did not matter; no such response was given in Japan. All of the players listed teammates and both knowledgeable and less knowledgeable spectators as target people, but the Japanese targets differed in that there was greater emphasis on in-groups. The results suggest that positive social evaluation carries considerable weight in Japanese sport, due in part to collectivistic values and the threat of losing “face”. Coaches can reduce evaluative concern in Japan by reframing appropriate behaviours for sport versus those for social contexts. In Western nations, a Japanese-like emphasis on in-groups could lessen some of the pressures that stem from external sources. Follow-up study should examine how evaluative concern affects anxiety and performance quality in non-Western samples, as there are indications that self-presentational thinking may serve an adaptive function in Japan.

Keywords:

• self-presentation
• evaluative concern
• cross-cultural
• soccer
• collectivism