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This study investigated the influence of gender and athletic experience on individuals' ratings of their perceived exertion (RPE). Twelve males with high athletic experience, 12 with low athletic experience, 12 females with high athletic experience, and 12 with low athletic experience were recruited from university classes and athletic teams. An estimate of each individual's maximum oxygen uptake (est VO₂max) was obtained from a submaximal bicycle ergometer test. Subjects were then presented with ergometer workloads at 30, 50, and 70% of their estimated VO₂max. Heart rate readings and RPEs were obtained during each workload presentation. Low athletic experience females were the least accurate in their RPEs, followed by low athletic experience males. High athletic experience males were the most accurate in their RPEs, followed by high athletic experience females. Results indicated that differences in RPE accuracy scores may be influenced by gender but that exposure to athletic experiences appears to override any potential gender differences.

Based on the Dualistic Model of Passion (Vallerand et al., 2003), a sequence involving the determinants and affective experiences associated with two types of passion (harmonious and obsessive) toward sport was proposed and tested. This sequence posits that high levels of sport valuation and an autonomous personality orientation lead to harmonious passion, whereas high levels of sport valuation and a controlled personality orientation facilitate obsessive passion. In turn, harmonious passion is expected to lead to positive affective experiences in sport but to be either negatively related or unrelated to negative affective experiences. Conversely, obsessive passion is hypothesized to be positively related to negative affective experiences in sport but to be either negatively related or unrelated to positive affective experiences. Results of three studies conducted with recreational and competitive athletes involved in individual and team sports provided support for the proposed integrative sequence. These findings support the role of passion in sport and pave the way to new research.

Many athletes experience a discrepancy between the roles they expect to fulfill and the roles they eventually occupy. Drawing from met expectations theory, we applied response surface methodology to examine how role expectations, in relation to role experiences, influence perceptions of group cohesion among Canadian Interuniversity Sport athletes (N = 153). On the basis of data from two time points, as athletes approached and exceeded their role contribution expectations, they reported higher perceptions of task cohesion. Furthermore, as athletes approached and exceeded their social involvement expectations, they reported higher perceptions of social cohesion. These response surface patterns—pertaining to task and social cohesion—were driven by the positive influence of role experiences. On the basis of the interplay between athletes’ role experiences and their perception of the group environment, efforts to improve team dynamics may benefit from focusing on improving the quality of role experiences, in conjunction with developing realistic role expectations.

This paper documents the development and validation of the three-factor Subjective Exercise Experiences Scale (SEES), a measure of global psychological responses to the stimulus properties of exercise. Two of these factors correspond to the positive and negative poles associated with psychological health, Positive Weil-Being and Psychological Distress, whereas the third factor represents subjective indicants of Fatigue. The three-factor structure originally established by exploratory factor analysis using young adults was also supported in middle-aged exercising adults using confirmatory factor analytic techniques. Moreover, convergent and discriminant validity for the SEES subscales was demonstrated by examining relations with measures of affect regularly employed in exercise domain. The SEES may represent a useful starting point for more thoroughly examining exercise and subjective responses at the global level, and these dimensions of the scale may represent possible antecedents of specific affective responsivity.

The present study investigated the contribution of positive and negative youth sport experiences (i.e., processes or experiences that occur in a particular activity or setting) to self-reported mental toughness among youth-aged cricketers. A sample of 308 male cricketers aged between 13 and 18 years self-reported mental toughness using the Cricket Mental Toughness Inventory (CMTI; Gucciardi & Gordon, 2009), with 187 of these cricketers also documenting their exposure to a variety of positive and negative developmental experiences. Confirmatory factor and internal reliability analyses supported the hypothesized mental toughness measurement model. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that a variety of developmental experiences were related to various mental toughness components, with initiative experiences evidencing the strongest overall relationship with mental toughness followed by negative peer influences. The number of years playing experience and hours per week training evidenced largely insignificant relationships with the exception of desire to achieve and attentional control components of mental toughness, as well as its global factor. Collectively, these findings lend support for the validity of the CMTI as a valid measure among adolescent cricketers, and highlight the importance of initiative and interpersonal experiences for mental toughness in cricket.

We assessed young adolescent female soccer players’ perceptions of their peer group experiences. Data were collected via interviews with 34 girls from two youth soccer teams (M age = 13.0 years). Following inductive discovery analysis, data were subjected to an interpretive theoretical analysis guided by a model of peer experiences (Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006). Five categories of peer experiences were identified across three levels of social complexity. At the interaction level players integrated new members into the team and learned to interact with different types of people. At the relationship level players learned about managing peer conflict. At the group level a structure of leadership emerged and players learned to work together. Findings demonstrated interfaces between peer interactions, relationships, and group processes while also simplifying some apparently complex systems that characterized peer experiences on the teams studied.

The types and frequency of sensations experienced by runners when required to miss a run or series of runs was studied. Most of 345 runners of various weekly mileage levels reported some kind of distress; irritability, restlessness, frustration, guilt, and depression were reported most often. Sleeping problems, digestive difficulties, and muscle tension and soreness were reported less frequently. Three causes of exercise withdrawal were proposed: (a) a misinterpretation of the return of dysphoria that had been temporarily masked by the effects of running; (b) an inability to cope with stress in periods when the coping mechanism of running is temporarily unavailable; and (c) the loss of regular, predictable reinforcement of feelings of self-fulfillment gained through success or achievement in previously unimagined and unattainable ways. Results, based on cross-sectional data, were consistent with these hypotheses but do not rule out alternative explanations. The reciprocal nature of number of miles run in an average week and exercise deprivation sensations was also studied. Results indicated that runners tended to run longer in order to avoid the negative sensations that would come from not running, but that an escalation in mileage did not necessarily result in more frequent experiences of distress when not able to run.

The purpose of this study was to determine if children's prior performance experience was a mediating factor in their performance of a dominant or novel task in an audience or no audience situation. Eighty 9-year-old boys were divided into experienced (n = 40) and nonexperienced (n = 40) groups based on prior youth sport experience and the absence of any performance experience before a formal audience. Half of each group learned a rotary pursuit task until they could perform the task with at least 60% accuracy. The other half did not practice the task. Groups were again divided for task performance in an audience or no audience situation so that the following treatments were observed for both experienced and nonexperienced groups: dominant task, no audience; dominant task, evaluative audience; novel task, no audience; novel task, evaluative audience. Task performance for each subject was five 20-sec trials on the photoelectric rotary pursuit task. The mean score of each set of five was used for data analysis. An audience of four passive adults was present in each audience condition and made evaluative notations following each performance. Results of a 2 × 2 × 2 (experience × task dominance × audience) ANOVA failed to support Zajonc's (1965) social facilitation theory and Cottrell's (1968) modification of this theory. The well-learned task was inhibited by the presence of an evaluative audience while performance of a novel task was enhanced. No significant experience effects were evident.