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Effects of Multiple Concussions on Retired National Hockey League Players

Jeffrey G. Caron, Gordon A. Bloom, Karen M. Johnston, and Catherine M. Sabiston

The purpose of this study was to understand the meanings and lived experiences of multiple concussions in professional hockey players using hermeneutic, idiographic, and inductive approaches within an interpretative phenomenological analysis. The interviewer was an athlete who had suffered multiple concussions, and the interviewees were five former National Hockey League athletes who had retired due to medically diagnosed concussions suffered during their careers. The men discussed the physical and psychological symptoms they experienced as a result of their concussions and how the symptoms affected their professional careers, personal relationships, and quality of life. The former professional athletes related these symptoms to the turmoil that is ever present in their lives. These findings are of interest to athletes, coaches, sport administrators, family members, sport psychology practitioners, and medical professionals, as they highlight the severity of short- and long-term effects of concussions.

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Passion and Coping: Relationships With Changes in Burnout and Goal Attainment in Collegiate Volleyball Players

Benjamin J.I. Schellenberg, Patrick Gaudreau, and Peter R.E. Crocker

This study examined the relationship between harmonious and obsessive passion and coping, and assessed whether coping mediated the relationship between passion types and changes in burnout and goal attainment. College- and university-level volleyball players (N = 421) completed measures of passion, coping, burnout, and goal attainment at the start and end of a season. Results of structural equation modeling, using a true latent change approach, supported a model whereby types of passion were indirectly related to changes in burnout and goal attainment via coping. Harmonious passion was positively related to task-oriented coping which, in turn, was positively associated with change in goal attainment. Obsessive passion was positively associated with disengagement-oriented coping which, in turn, was positively and negatively associated with changes in burnout and goal attainment, respectively. This study identifies coping as a reason why passionate athletes may experience changes in burnout and goal attainment over the course of a season.

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Coping Under Pressure: Employing Emotion Regulation Strategies to Enhance Performance Under Pressure

Yannick A. Balk, Marieke A. Adriaanse, Denise T.D. de Ridder, and Catharine Evers

Performing under high pressure is an emotional experience. Hence, the use of emotion regulation strategies may prove to be highly effective in preventing choking under pressure. Using a golf putting task, we investigated the role of arousal on declined sport performance under pressure (pilot study) and the effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies in alleviating choking under pressure (main study). The pilot study showed that pressure resulted in decreased performance and this effect was partially mediated by increased arousal. The main study, a field study, showed that whereas the choking effect was observed in the control condition, reappraisal and, particularly, distraction were effective emotion regulation strategies in helping people to cope instead of choke under pressure. These findings suggest that interventions that aim to prevent choking under pressure could benefit from including emotion regulation strategies.

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Psychological Mechanisms Underlying Doping Attitudes in Sport: Motivation and Moral Disengagement

Ken Hodge, Elaine A. Hargreaves, David Gerrard, and Chris Lonsdale

We examined whether constructs outlined in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2002), namely, autonomy-supportive and controlling motivational climates and autonomous and controlled motivation, were related to attitudes toward performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in sport and drug-taking susceptibility. We also investigated moral disengagement as a potential mediator. We surveyed a sample of 224 competitive athletes (59% female; M age = 20.3 years; M = 10.2 years of experience participating in their sport), including 81 elite athletes. Using structural equation modeling analyses, our hypothesis proposing positive relationships with controlling climates, controlled motivation, and PEDs attitudes and susceptibility was largely supported, whereas our hypothesis proposing negative relationships among autonomous climate, autonomous motivation, and PEDs attitudes and susceptibility was not supported. Moral disengagement was a strong predictor of positive attitudes toward PEDs, which, in turn, was a strong predictor of PEDs susceptibility. These findings are discussed from both motivational and moral disengagement viewpoints.

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Sources of Self-Efficacy and Coach/Instructor Behaviors Underlying Relation-Inferred Self-Efficacy (RISE) in Recreational Youth Sport

Paul D. Saville, Steven R. Bray, Kathleen A. Martin Ginis, John Cairney, Deborah Marinoff-Shupe, and Andrew Pettit

Interpersonal feedback from coaches may be instrumental in the formation of children’s self-efficacy to learn or perform sport skills. We report on two studies that explored perceived sources of self-efficacy and relation-inferred self-efficacy (RISE) in one-on-one interviews with sport camp participants (N = 61; ages 7–12) and focus groups with recreational league participants (N = 28; ages 8–12). Participants’ responses indicated that prior experiences and socially constructed interactions contributed to the development of self-efficacy and RISE beliefs. Results support Bandura’s (1997) theorizing that self-efficacy is developed through processing of experiential feedback as well as Lent and Lopez’s (2002) tripartite theory proposing interpersonal feedback from influential others contributes to children’s RISE and self-efficacy.

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Athlete Social Support, Negative Social Interactions, and Psychological Health across a Competitive Sport Season

J. D. DeFreese and Alan L. Smith

Social support and negative social interactions have implications for athlete psychological health, with potential to influence the links of stress-related experiences with burnout and well-being over time. Using a longitudinal design, perceived social support and negative social interactions were examined as potential moderators of the temporal stress–burnout and burnout–well-being relationships. American collegiate athletes (N = 465) completed reliable and valid online assessments of study variables at four time points during the competitive season. After controlling for dispositional and conceptually important variables, social support and negative social interactions did not moderate the stress–burnout or burnout–well-being relationships, respectively, but did simultaneously contribute to burnout and well-being across the competitive season. The results showcase the importance of sport-related social perceptions to athlete psychological outcomes over time and inform development of socially driven interventions to improve the psychological health of competitive athletes.

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Reappraising Threat: How to Optimize Performance Under Pressure

Lee J. Moore, Samuel J. Vine, Mark R. Wilson, and Paul Freeman

Competitive situations often hinge on one pressurized moment. In these situations, individuals’ psychophysiological states determine performance, with a challenge state associated with better performance than a threat state. But what can be done if an individual experiences a threat state? This study examined one potential solution: arousal reappraisal. Fifty participants received either arousal reappraisal or control instructions before performing a pressurized, single-trial, motor task. Although both groups initially displayed cardiovascular responses consistent with a threat state, the reappraisal group displayed a cardiovascular response more reflective of a challenge state (relatively higher cardiac output and/or lower total peripheral resistance) after the reappraisal manipulation. Furthermore, despite performing similarly at baseline, the reappraisal group outperformed the control group during the pressurized task. The results demonstrate that encouraging individuals to interpret heightened physiological arousal as a tool that can help maximize performance can result in more adaptive cardiovascular responses and motor performance under pressure.

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Generalization of Self-Efficacy to a Continuum of Stressors upon Mastery of a High-Risk Sport Skill

Evan B. Brody, Bradley D. Hatfield, and Thomas W. Spalding

This study examined the generalization of self-efficacy to additional stressors upon mastery of a high-risk task (i.e., rappeling). A secondary purpose was to determine if reductions in the psychophysiological anxiety response would occur to controlled laboratory challenges as a result of any psychological changes derived from the mastery experience. To investigate these issues, the researchers assigned college-age males (N=34) to treatment, consisting of participant-based modeling with self-directed mastery, or control. Self-efficacy was enhanced toward the rappel situation after treatment and the perceived increase was generalized to the area of high-risk activities. State anxiety was significantly reduced toward the treatment situation (i.e., rappel) at posttest, but no parallel change in stress reactivity or self-reported anxiety generalized to the laboratory stressors. This finding was expected, as no changes were noted in self-reported efficacy to accomplish the laboratory challenges. These results support the generalization of self-efficacy to relatively similar situations.

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An In-depth Study of Former Elite Figure Skaters: I. Introduction to the Project

Tara K. Scanlan, Kenneth Ravizza, and Gary L. Stein

This article introduces a project focused on the sources of sport enjoyment and stress, and the role that significant others have in these experiences. These issues were studied in depth using primarily qualitative interview techniques that were then complemented by quantitative assessments. Study participants were 26 former elite figure skaters who had competed at the national level and were currently coaching. The interviews lasted an average of 2 1/2 hours and yielded over 1,000 transcribed pages. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide an underlying coherency to a series of articles through which this wealth of information will be presented. Information common to all articles and the methodological framework to the entire project are discussed. Details about the talented individuals studied, including descriptive data regarding their development of commitment to their sport, are presented. Consistent with research concerning other talent domains (Bloom, 1985), the findings show a progression from initial casual involvement to intense dedication.

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Causal Attributions and Affective Reactions to Discontinuing Outcomes in Motor Performance

Edward McAuley and Terry E. Duncan

Research suggests that attributional search is a consequence of disconfirming outcomes and that causal dimensions influence affective reactions to achievement outcomes. The present study manipulated future expectancies for performance and actual outcome in a competitive motor task. Following competitive outcome, causal attributions for and affective reactions to the outcome were assessed. Discriminant analysis indicated that winners experienced significantly more positive affect than did losers, who reported more intense negative affects. Regression analyses examined the relationship between causal dimensions and affective reactions. The locus of causality and stability dimensions significantly influenced a number of negative affects in losers, whereas all three dimensions in combination significantly influenced confidence in winners. The findings are discussed in relation to previous attribution-affect research in achievement settings and the role of disconfirm-ing experiences in the attribution process.