The Relationship Between the Team Cohesion and the Level of Aspiration among the Soccer Players in West Bank

Abstract This study was aimed to understand the relationship between the team cohesion and the level of aspiration among the soccer player in West Bank, in addition to determine the differences in the cohesion and aspiration levels among the soccer players in the West Bank according to academic qualification, playing position , experience, and the club degree variables. To achieve that, the study sample was composed of 387 soccer players from professional, first degree and second degree clubs in the West Bank. The sample represents 30% of study population,The (Group Environmental Questioner) (GEQ) (Carron, &etal, 1985) was used to measure the team cohesion which is composed of 34 items and distributed into four domains which are, group integration tasks, individual attraction to group social, group integration social and individual attraction to group tasks. Aspiration scale developed by (Moawad& Abdel Atheem,2005) was applied to determine aspiration level, which consists of 36 items distributed into four domains, optimism, ability of formulate objectives, acceptance of new ideas and depression tolerance. To address questions in the study, means, percentages, standard deviation, person correlation, One Way ANOVA and Scheffes’ post-hoc test were used. The results showed that the team cohesion level of the soccer players in the West Bank was high for all domains, where the percentage of response was more than 70%, and was high for the total score of cohesion (75.6%), the rank order of domains were as follows: firstly, group integration social (78%). Secondly, individual attraction to group tasks (77.4). Thirdly, Group integration tasks (76%). Finally, individual attraction to group social(71.4%). Moreover, the results showed that, the aspiration level among soccer players in the West Bank was high for all domains, The ability of objectives formulation occupied the first position (77%). Secondly, optimism (75.75%). Thirdly, depression tolerance (74.5%).Finally, renewal acceptance (73.75). Furthermore, the results showed that there were a significant correlation between the team cohesion and the aspiration level among the soccer players in the West bank where the value of person correlation was (r = 0.74). Also ,the results showed that there were no significant differences in team cohesion according to the academic qualification and playing position. Whereas, there were significant statistical differences according to playing experience, since soccer players having more than 10 years experience had team cohesion higher than those having 5 years experience and less. And those having 6-10 years experience had team cohesion higher than those having 5 years experience and less. Moreover, there were a significant differences accoeding to the club degree, since the proficient's showed the highest group cohesion, The results also showed that there were a significant differences in the aspiration level according to the academic qualification, since the soccer players who have bachelor degree or another degree higher had the highest aspiration level. And there were a significant differences according to playing experience and club degree. Since those who had more than 10 years playing experience as well as those who belong to a second degree club had the highest aspiration level. Based on the findings of the study the researcher recommended to that: - Aspiration and cohesion development particularly, among the low experience soccer players, through increasing their awareness to the importance of these aspects to develop the team level. - Conducted of similar studies among younger soccer players as well as for other sport activities.