SUPERSTITIOUS BEHAVIOR: THE INVINCIBLE AND INVISIBLE PHENOMENON IN BASKETBALL SPORTS

The present study was aimed to identify the role of superstitious behavior in performance of basketball players. For this purpose, sixty female basketball players of 19 to 25 years of age were selected. All the subjects, after having been informed about the objective and protocol of the study, gave their consent and volunteered to participate in this study. They were divided into three groups; (i.e., N₁=20; District, N₂=20; State and N₃=20 National). To measure the level of superstitions behaviors of the subjects, the superstitions beliefs and behaviour scale constructed by Bleak and Frederick (1998) was administered. One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was employed to compare the three groups of basketball. Where F values were found significant, LSD (Least Significant Difference) Post-hoc test was applied to find out the direction and degree of difference. For testing the hypotheses, the level of significance was set at 0.05. Summarizing from the above findings we can say that insignificant differences were found in basketball players on the sub-variables of Clothing and Appearance, Fetish, Preparation, Game/Competition, Team Ritual, Prayer, Coach and superstitions behavior.