The aim of this paper is to present a critical reflection on mental toughness using a creative analytic practice. In particular, we move from intrapersonal technical reflections to an altogether more interpersonal cultural analysis that (re)considers some of the assumptions that can underpin sport psychology practice. Specifically, in the ripples that extend from these initial technical reflections, we argue that it is important to understand vulnerability, and consider (a) wounded healers, (b) the ideology of individualism, and (c) the survivor bias to help make sense of current thinking and applied practice. Emerging from these ripples are a number of implications (naming elephants, tellability, neoliberalism) from which sport psychologists may reflect upon to enhance their own practice. In making visible the invisible, we conclude that vulnerability can no longer be ignored in sport psychology discourse, research, and practice. Should this story of vulnerability resonate, we encourage you, where appropriate to share this story.
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Vulnerability: Ripples From Reflections on Mental Toughness
Mark A. Uphill and Brian Hemmings
Cognitive Vulnerability to Mood Deterioration in an Exercise Cessation Paradigm
Maggie Evans, Kelly J. Rohan, Jonah Meyerhoff, Richard J. Norton, and Jeremy S. Sibold
would aid clinicians in recognizing which patients are vulnerable to mood worsening when they stop exercising for various medical (e.g., injury-related restrictions, acute illness, chronic or acute medical contraindication, interfering pain, hospitalization) and other (e.g., negative life events
Psychological Vulnerability Associated With Stress Coping Strategies in Japanese University Athletes
Shinji Yamaguchi, Yujiro Kawata, Yuka Murofushi, Nobuto Shibata, and Tsuneyoshi Ota
). Such events may be traumatic for some athletes, resulting in impaired mental health or depressive mood. Furthermore, people with a negative predisposition (e.g., those with a higher level of vulnerability) are more likely to display maladaptation when faced with a stressful event than those with a more
Vulnerability to Fraud in Community Sport Organizations: A Multicountry Study on the Role of Organizational Capacity
Pamela Wicker, Katie E. Misener, Lisa A. Kihl, and Graham Cuskelly
and sometimes complicated process that requires an understanding of both the reasons behind its occurrence and identifying strategies that mitigate causes ( Vousinas, 2019 ). The CSOs may be particularly vulnerable to fraud because many of them are characterized by insufficient organizational capacity
Object Control Skills Mediate the Relationship Between Neighborhood Vulnerability and Participation in Physical Activities
Viviene A. Temple, Dawn L. Lefebvre, Stephanie C. Field, Jeff R. Crane, Beverly Smith, and Patti-Jean Naylor
al., 2015 ) with the central portion of Stodden and colleagues’ conceptual model. Specifically, this study examined whether physical health and well-being vulnerability (a measure representing disadvantage) predicted participation in recreational activities among children in kindergarten (average age was 5
A Test of Perfectionistic Vulnerability Following Competitive Failure Among College Athletes
Thomas Curran and Andrew P. Hill
Whether it’s losing to a close rival, making a critical mistake, or experiencing an injury, stressful events are common in sport. Research shows these events can contribute to several psychological difficulties for athletes, depending on how vulnerable they are to stress (e.g., Crocker & Graham
Adherence, Adhesion, and Dropout Reasons of a Physical Activity Program in a High Social Vulnerability Context
André Luiz Galvim, Isabela Martins Oliveira, Tatiane Vieira Martins, Leonardo Moreira Vieira, Natália Caroline Cerri, Natália Oiring de Castro Cezar, Renata Valle Pedroso, and Grace Angélica de Oliveira Gomes
that aim to promote health through PA is essential to changing the lifestyle of a society in different cultural, geographic, social, and economic contexts, mainly in cases in which access to this type of activity is limited. 5 , 6 In situations of high social vulnerability, district dwellers deserve
Dancing Like a Girl: Physical Competence and Emotional Vulnerability in Professional Contemporary Dance
Aimie C.E. Purser
The analysis presented here is based on a phenomenological interview study conducted with sixteen professional contemporary dancers, and focuses on the differences between the accounts of male and female dancers with regard to notions of openness in dance and to associated feelings of emotional vulnerability and metaphorical nakedness or exposure. In a way that is reminiscent of Young’s (1980) description of “throwing like a girl,” such feelings of vulnerability and accompanying self-consciousness were considerably more noticeable in the accounts of the female dancers, tending to emerge when dancers were asked to express something of a personal or private nature through dance in the presence of others. This paper explores potential resonances between feminine throwing experience as conceptualized by Young (1980) and female dancing experience for my interviewees. Significantly, however, it moves beyond a direct parallel with Young’s (1980) work to explore this sense of vulnerability in a context where female dancers did not display the reduced physical competencies typical of “throwing like a girl.” The article further suggests that the dualist concepts of transcendence and immanence may not be appropriate for understanding the experience of dance, including its gendered dimensions, and that we should instead look to theorizing dancing body-subjectivity in ways that attend to the blurring of the boundaries of such binaries.
Inequity and Vulnerability to Dropout Symptoms: An Exploratory Causal Analysis among Highly Skilled Youth Soccer Players
Nico W. VanYperen
This study investigated whether the perception of disadvantageous inequity makes athletes more vulnerable to dropping out. Sixty-five talented youth male soccer players (mean age = 16.6 years), attending a prestigious soccer school, completed a questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of the season. The results show that, especially at the end of the season, players who felt underbenefited scored higher on energy depletion and expressed a greater intention to quit. Cross-lagged regression analyses revealed no evidence that the perception of inequity is either a cause or a consequence of dropout symptoms.
Rejuvenating, Reconstituting, and Transforming Physical Education to Meet the Needs of Vulnerable Children, Youth, and Families
Hal A. Lawson
The U.S. has a children’s crisis. A crisis also looms for physical education. Physical education is becoming a plowed out, decimated, and disappearing field because of its design flaws, selectivity, and silences. The children’s crisis provides opportunities for physical education to rejuvenate, reconstitute, and transform itself. New visions, missions, and conceptions of competent practice can be developed in response to the multiple, interdependent needs of poor and vulnerable children, youth, families, and their local neighborhood communities. Opportunities are emerging to develop new change theories and design models in conjunction with emergent complex change initiatives in school communities. Different kinds of change theories are identified. Possibilities for new design models are sketched. Together, these change theories and design models provide new directions for research and practice. They signal a change in paradigms.
