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286 athletic and 340 non-athletic students of both sexes from Tehran
universities participated in this present study, purpose being to describe and compare psychological characteristics such as self-confidence, concentration,
mot ivation, psyche - level, goal - setting and imagery of athletes and non athletes. The instrument used was a fifty item psychological Abilities Questionnaire (P AQ).
As a first step the reliability and validity of the test for use in the Iranian population was established using specialists' ratings, test-retest, Cronbach's alpha and factor
analysis.
The hypothesis of the present study was examined using Chi-square tests in
order to compare athletes and non-athlet and two way analysis of variance (ANOY A'S) in order to examine possible sex differences between athletic and non ¬
athletilc students.
Results supported all hypotheses except one suggesting that regular and continuous participation in sports and physical activity improves psychological
abilities in subjects. No sex difference was found in the present study. The implication of the results for improving mental health and quality of life arc
discussed.