When given opportunities for personal glory in individual settings, people high in narcissism excel. However, less is known about narcissists’ influence in team contexts. Across two studies (utilizing cross-sectional and two-wave longitudinal designs) involving 706 athletes from 68 teams in total, we tested a conceptual model linking narcissism to task cohesion, via intragroup conflict, moderated by narcissistic group composition. We tested a new sports-oriented measure of intragroup conflict using Bayesian estimation and evaluated our theorizing using a multilevel conditional indirect effect hybrid model. Across both studies, we found that narcissism influenced perceptions of task cohesion via process conflict only, with a negative influence at low narcissistic group composition that was weakened (Study 1) or nullified (Study 2) at high narcissistic team composition. Collectively, these findings offer the first example of how narcissism influences task cohesion in team settings and the contextual effects of narcissistic group composition.
Browse
Bulls in a China Shop: Narcissism, Intragroup Conflict, and Task Cohesion
Matt W. Boulter, James Hardy, Ross Roberts, and Tim Woodman
Experience-Dependent Modulation of Rubber Hand Illusion in Badminton Players
Masanori Sakamoto and Hirotoshi Ifuku
Badminton players have a plastic modification of their arm representation in the brain due to the prolonged use of their racket. However, it is not known whether their arm representation can be altered through short-term visuotactile integration. The neural representation of the body is easily altered when multiple sensory signals are integrated in the brain. One of the most popular experimental paradigms for investigating this phenomenon is the “rubber hand illusion.” This study was designed to investigate the effect of prolonged use of a racket on the modulation of arm representation during the rubber hand illusion in badminton players. When badminton players hold the racket, their badminton experience in years is negatively correlated with the magnitude of the rubber hand illusion. This finding suggests that tool embodiment obtained by the prolonged use of the badminton racket is less likely to be disturbed when holding the racket.
Volume 43 (2021): Issue 6 (Dec 2021)
“Negative Things That Kids Should Never Have to Hear”: Exploring Women’s Histories of Weight Stigma in Physical Activity
Garcia Ashdown-Franks, Angela Meadows, and Eva Pila
Scholars have proposed that cumulative experiences of anti-fat bias and stigma contribute to detrimental physical activity experiences, as well as social and health inequities. The objective of this research was to explore how enacted weight stigma experiences are constructed and impact women’s physical activity experiences long term. Eighteen women who identified as having had negative experiences related to their body weight, shape, or size in physical activity contexts participated in semistructured interviews. Using reflexive thematic analysis, four themes were identified: (a) norms of body belonging, (b) distancing from an active identity, (c) at war with the body, and (d) acts of resistance. These findings deepen understandings of how historical experiences of weight stigma can have longstanding consequences on physical activity cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. To equitably promote physical activity, it is imperative that movement spaces (e.g., fitness centers, sport organizations) both target anti-fat stigma and adopt weight-inclusive principles.
Understanding Relationships Between Social Identity, Sport Enjoyment, and Dropout in Adolescent Girl Athletes
Ross M. Murray and Catherine M. Sabiston
The sport team social environment plays an important role in athletes’ experiences, including their enjoyment of sport, and these experiences may influence athletes’ decision to continue or dropout of sport. In the current study, enjoyment was examined as a mediator of the relationship between social identity and sport dropout. Adolescent girls (N = 150) who participated on a community sports team completed a questionnaire assessing social identity with their team and enjoyment of sport, and their sport participation status was measured 1 year later. Controlling for age and socioeconomic position, a path model showed that enjoyment mediated the relationship between social identity and sport dropout, bootstrapped unstandardized indirect effect = −0.04, 95% confidence interval [−0.08, −0.01]; p < .01. Fostering social identity with one’s sport team may contribute to greater enjoyment of sport and reductions in sport dropout in adolescent girls.
Measurement of Physical Activity Self-Efficacy in Adults With Obesity: A Latent Variable Approach to Explore Dimensionality, Temporal Invariance, and External Validity
Nicholas D. Myers, André G. Bateman, Adam McMahon, Isaac Prilleltensky, Seungmin Lee, Ora Prilleltensky, Karin A. Pfeiffer, and Ahnalee M. Brincks
The objective of this study was to improve the measurement of physical activity self-efficacy (PASE) in adults with obesity. To accomplish this objective, a latent variable approach was used to explore dimensionality, temporal invariance, and external validity of responses to a newly developed battery of PASE scales. Data (N baseline = 461 and N 30 days postbaseline = 427) from the Well-Being and Physical Activity Study (ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT03194854), which deployed the Fun For Wellness intervention, were analyzed. A two-dimensional factor structure explained responses to each PASE scale at baseline. There was strong evidence for at least partial temporal measurement invariance for this two-dimensional structure in each PASE scale. There was mixed evidence that the effectiveness of the Fun For Wellness intervention exerted a direct effect on latent PASE in adults with obesity at 30 days postbaseline (i.e., external validity) of this two-dimensional structure.
Digest
Kim Gammage, Jeff Caron, Alyson Crozier, Alison Ede, Christopher Hill, Sean Locke, Desi McEwan, Kathleen Mellano, Eva Pila, Matthew Stork, and Svenja Wolf
Visual Strategies Underpinning the Spatiotemporal Demands During Visuomotor Tasks in Predicting Ball Direction
Alessandro Piras, Matthew A. Timmis, Aurelio Trofè, and Milena Raffi
We investigated gaze behavior of expert goalkeepers during the prediction of penalty kicks in different spatiotemporal constraints: penalties taken from 11 and 6 m. From 11 m, goalkeepers were more successful in predicting ball direction, with longer movement time initiation and a visual strategy with more fixations and greater saccade rates than penalties from 6 m, where they exhibited fewer fixations with higher microsaccade rates. As long as the opponent’s distance is large and time pressure low, gaze can be frequently shifted between the kicker’s body and the ball, due to the low cost of saccades. Conversely, when the objects are close, there is increased reliance on foveal and parafoveal information. In conclusion, when the spatiotemporal constraint is less severe, goalkeepers adopt a visual strategy with more fixations and small saccades. When the spatiotemporal constraint is more severe, they rely on peripheral vision to monitor kickers’ movements through the use of microsaccades.
Valued Insight or Act of Insubordination? How Context Shapes Coaches’ Perceptions of Challenge-Oriented Followership
Marcus Gottlieb, Mark Eys, James Hardy, and Alex J. Benson
Effective leadership is a collaborative effort, requiring a degree of complementarity in how people enact roles of leadership and followership. Using a novel online vignette methodology, we experimentally tested how three contextual factors influenced coaches’ responses to challenge-oriented acts of followership, as well as investigated two potential mechanisms. Coaches (N = 232) watched videos of an athlete provided unsolicited challenge-oriented feedback to a coach. Videos varied by the (a) athlete’s status, (b) presence of third-party observers, and (c) stage of the decision-making process. Following the video, we assessed coaches’ evaluations of the athlete. Challenge-oriented followership was perceived more favorably when enacted by an athlete in one-on-one (vs. in a group) and before a decision has been reached (vs. after a decision is reached). Coaches may appreciate proactivity from athletes in positions of followership, but challenge-oriented followership behaviors enacted at the wrong time and place can elicit negative reactions.
The Two Dimensions of Passion for Sport: A New Look Using a Quadripartite Approach
Benjamin J.I. Schellenberg, Jérémie Verner-Filion, Patrick Gaudreau, and Sophia Mbabaali
Research relying on the dualistic model of passion has consistently found that harmonious passion for sport is positively associated with adaptive outcomes and that obsessive passion for sport is positively associated with maladaptive outcomes. In this research, we tested if various sport outcomes were related to within-person combinations of both harmonious and obsessive passion. Three samples of athletes (total N = 1,290) completed online surveys that assessed various sport outcomes (e.g., sport enjoyment, goal attainment), along with harmonious and obsessive passion for their sport. We found that athletes were best served by having either high harmonious passion or low obsessive passion or, in many cases, high harmonious passion that was combined with low obsessive passion. These results add to our understanding of passion by showing that combinations of harmonious and obsessive passion for sport are differentially associated with indicators of a positive sport experience.