Survey Monkey Questionnaire

Participants were recruited through an email that was sent to all Simpson College students that included a link to our Survey Monkey questionnaire. Participants were undergraduate students at Simpson College who were collegiate athletes at the time of the survey. Fifty-one total students participated in the study; however, only student athletes’ results were included in the analysis, so the results are based on thirty-one participants (16 females, 15 males). The age range of the athletes was 18 to 22 years old and the average age of the participants was 20 years old. Students in specific classes were offered extra credit for completion of the survey. The survey contained a series of questions that allowed us to measure the correlation between

Implicit theories were measured by an adaptation to Carol Dweck’s Theories of Intelligence Scale (Dweck, 1999). Participants were asked to rate themselves on a series of eight questions to determine their implicit theory toward athletics. Based on their answers, participants were identified as having a growth mindset (e.g., “No matter who you are, you can significantly change your athletic ability.”) or a fixed mindset (e.g., “Your athletic ability is something about you that you can’t change very much.”). The mindset scale had a Cronbach’s alpha of .940. Participants were also assessed on their helplessness behavior (e.g., “You prefer to play teams that you know you are very likely to beat.”). After removing two questions that yielded lower internal reliability, the Cronbach’s alpha for this scale was .655. Beliefs about underdog status were also measured (e.g., “The underdog always wins.”). For this scale, upon removal of three questions that did not fit with the measure, the Cronbach’s alpha was .566. Each category previously mentioned included questions which were answered on a Likert scale of strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (6). Additionally, we measured the amount of time students spent training on their own per week while in season and the amount of time they spent training with their team per week while in season (e.g., “How many hours a week do you spend training for your athletic event with your team (while in