Locus of Control and its Relationship to Results of Soccer National Arab Teams Participated in the Seventeenth Championship of Arabian Gulf Tournament

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in locus of control among soccer national Arab teams participated in the XVII championship of Arabian Gulf Tournament and how these differences related to team results. A descriptive approach was used by the researchers since this approach is suitable to the nature of this study. The population included all the soccer players participated in the tournament which was held in Qatar from September 10th till the 24th of the same month in the year of 2004. Participants amounted to 118 players. The researchers used locus of control questionnaire developed by Salim, (1985). The questionnaire is composed of 30 questions with 3 choices of yes, some time and no. Participants were instructed to choose only one choice. The researchers used the mean, standard deviation, t-test for differences between means, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation coefficient and Spearman correlation coefficient of ranks for statistical analyses. Results indicated that there were differences in locus of control among soccer players participated in the research. Players of the winner team had an internal locus of control that was higher than the players of the other teams. There were non- statistically significant differences in locus of control between players of a group of winning teams and a group of losing teams. In fact, the comparison between players of a group of winning teams and a group of losing teams showed that both groups of players came in the middle of internal and external locus of control. Their results were close to 60 in a scale ranging from 30 (maximally internal) and 90 (maximally external). Non-statistically significant relationship was found between locus of control and results of participated teams.