The Comparison of Decision-Making Skills between Athletes and Non-athletes among University Students

Abstract

Cognitive skills are one of the components of mental skills. These skills deal with a high level of cognitive processing, including decision-making. Athletes with high cognitive skills have superior positive thinking and decision-making. The objectives of this study are to evaluate mental skills performance on athletes and non-athletes in university and to investigate the difference of mental skills among athletes and non-athletes in university. 229 active students from Bachelor of Sports Science, Universiti Teknologi MARA Perlis Branch participated in this study. Descriptive statistical methods were used using Microsoft Excel 2020 and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 25.0 version). The significant value for determining the significant difference of the data gathered was valued as p < 0.001 and p < 0.05. All descriptive data calculated were presented in mean ± standard deviation (SD). A statistically significant of the result for vigilance’s approach showed that there was no significant difference between athletes and non-athletes. As for buck-passing and procrastination approach, there was a significant difference recorded as the test result indicated p < 0.001 and p < 0.05 respectively. Lastly, hypervigilance approach showed that there was a significant difference between athletes and non-athletes with the value p < 0.001. This study suggests that there is a significant difference of buck-passing, procrastination and hypervigilance between athletes and non-athletes among university students. Future study can consider investigating demographic and athletes’ competitiveness factors to understand better on the underlying influences on how individual participation and exposure in sports affecting mental skills development.