Mood profiling of international athletes in argentina

Mood Profiling of International Athletes in Argentina: Theoretical and Applied Developments

Patricia Wightman, National Training Center for Elite Athletes (CENARD), Buenos Aires, Argentina
PeterC. Terry, University of Southern Queensland, Faculty of Sciences, Toowoomba, QLD, Australia, 4350
Nelly Giscafre, National Training Center for Elite Athletes (CENARD) Buenos Aires, Argentina

Moodassessments based on the Profile of Mood States (POMS: McNair, Lorr, & Dropplemann, 1992) have been utilized by psychologists at the National Training Center for Elite Athletes (CENARD), BuenosAires, Argentina from 1991 to the present, as part of a range of sport psychology services provided to national and international athletes. During this period, a database of more than 1000 administrationsof the POMS has been accumulated from international athletes across a wide range of sports. This presentation reports on the theoretical and applied developments that have accrued from retrospectiveanalysis of this dataset. Developments include the establishment of tables of normative data of specific relevance to an Argentinean context, which show variation from both the original POMS norms andthe sport-specific norms provided by Terry and Lane (2000). These norms have led to the development of typical POMS profiles that can be dichotomized into green, amber and red light categories forscreening purposes. The red light profile, in particular, has proven helpful in identifying risk of psychopathology such as dysphoria, depression, eating disorders and suicide ideation among Argentineanathletes. Results also show, consistent with the proposals of Lane and Terry (2000), that high scores for anger and/or tension can be facilitative of performance for many athletes rather thandebilitative, and are not necessarily indicative of a threat to mental health. The POMS iceberg profile, of high vigor scores with low scores for tension, depression, anger, fatigue and confusion, has...