Psychology Commons^™

The Effect Of Mindfulness Training On Muscular Endurance Exercise Performance, Mindfulness, And Mental Toughness, Donte Mcgee

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

INTRODUCTION: Mindfulness training is a method of mental training becoming increasingly popular and has been positively associated with mental toughness, which may be valuable in highly fatiguing and stressful activities, like endurance exercise. Mindfulness training has resulted in increased endurance performance, but limited literature exists on a similar modality, muscular endurance exercise. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of an acute bout of mindfulness meditation on muscular endurance performance, mindfulness, and mental toughness. METHODS: Participants (n=24) completed two sessions, a week apart, of three planks until fatigue, with one-minute rest intervals. Immediately following each plank, RPE …

Psychology Of Athletes: Impact Of Injuries On Mental Health, Caitlin Rainey

Whittier Scholars Program

This article aims to contextualize the importance of understanding injuries in athletics and how those injuries impact mental health. With such a high prevalence of injuries in athletics, most studies analyze the physical implications on the athlete. It is vital that mental well being is studied as much as physical health throughout the injury and rehabilitation process. This study reviewed previous literature on the social impacts of team sports, psychological and social implications of injury, the impact of residual pain, and finally the process of retirement. A survey was also conducted at a small liberal arts college in Southern California …

A Study Of Mental Health Conditions Among Elite Level Athletes, Sawyer Magnett

Senior Honors Theses

This paper examines the effects of stigmatization on elite level athletes’ mental health and overall wellbeing. Within this study, elite level athletes will be defined as those that participate in collegiate programs and the levels beyond that. Stigma is generally defined as negative beliefs towards a particular group of people or a state of being. When stigma is prevalent within athletic settings, many athletes tend to be silent about the struggles they face daily. Stigma is manifested either publicly or personally in the arena of elite level athletics due to preconceived notions within this demographic. Through close examination of current …

The Tactical Versus Technical Paradigm: Scholarship On Teaching Games With A ‘Catch-22’, Adrian P. Turner

School of Human Movement, Sport, and Leisure Studies Faculty Publications

This chapter examines specific game-based and technique approaches that constituted the foci for experimental research attempting to test hypotheses concerning cause-and-effect relationships. Games teaching approaches, e.g., Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) and technique instruction, were manipulated and measured on criteria that included skill assessments, declarative and procedural knowledge, and game performance components. Research also contrasted off-the-ball offensive and defensive player movements. This method of experimental inquiry necessitated a meticulous approach; it required investigators to restrict threats to the internal validity of the research while simultaneously trying to protect the ecological validity. This scenario represented a “Catch-22” for sport pedagogy scholars …

The Dunning-Kruger Effect On Free Throw Shooting, Abigail Schescke, Nicolas Veldhorst, Makayla De Young

Student Work

This study examines the Dunning-Kruger effect in regards to physical activity. Seventy-four participants with various levels of basketball experience were recruited from an undergraduate university. Participants were assigned to make predictions regarding the number of free throw shots they would make out of ten before or after warming up. Out of factors which affected participant predictions (gender, previous experience, warm up group), gender was found to have a significant relationship with predictive error score. Additionally, underconfidence from top-performing participants and overconfidence from bottom-performing participants indicates the presence of the Dunning-Kruger effect in physical tasks.

Playing Down To The Competition? Making Sense Of A Golfer's Frequently Used Excuse, Alejandro J. Regalado

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Golf is a sport that continues to develop throughout the years. The development of the sport exceeds the fascinating technological advances of the clubs, balls and gadgets and has taken a new sector of people by storm. Every year golf seems to capture a new audience and more over a new generation of women have taken a liking to the sport. With all these great advances there still seems to be a question out there on why performance fluctuates so much?

This fluctuation can be seen by the avid sports observer on any weekend of a PGA tour event, yearly …

The Effect Of Race On The Evaluation Of Quarterbacks, Kian R. Sohrabi

Psychology Honors Projects

Black quarterbacks have faced stereotypes and biases about their performance for decades. While Black quarterbacks are more common in the NFL nowadays, it is not clear whether their performance is being evaluated without bias. Black quarterbacks are often discussed in ways that emphasize their physical abilities but criticize their mental attributes. This current study sought to investigate the effect of race on quarterback evaluation. Study 1 examined the effect of race on fans’ evaluations of quarterbacks; Study 2 looked at the effect of race on evaluations by high school football coaches. Participants completed an online experiment in which they were …

Psychological Factors Of Athletes And Preference For Competition Against Opponents Who Differ In Relative Standing, Emily Lorry

Psychology Honors Papers

Sports and competition are a large part of most cultures across the globe and their popularity only appears to be increasing. Athletic competition is increasingly becoming more about winning, results, and performance and much less about having fun. Professional athletes are no longer the only competitors facing extreme pressure to perform. Collegiate athletes and youth athletes are expected to perform at their best to earn titles for their program or scholarships to universities. Although it is becoming more common for athletes to speak about their personal struggles regarding mental health and performance anxiety, there is little to no change in …

Mindfulness In The Sport Academy Classroom: Exploring Benefits And Barriers Of A Low-Dose Intervention, Andrew Augustus, Sam Zizzi

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This study evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of a low-dose mindfulness program with student–athletes (SA) at a
sport academy in the USA. First, SAs were introduced to mindfulness in their health class with conceptual lessons and guided
meditations from the Headspace ‘Guide to Meditation’ series. Following each episode, SAs reflected on their experience
via guided prompts led by their teacher. The second phase shifted towards applying mindfulness within their sport through
app-based guided meditations and sport-based reflections led by teachers in their mental skills classes. Student–athlete
perceptions of these experiences were captured through the reflection exercises and a post-program evaluation …

Characteristics Of Patient Encounters For Athletic Training Students During Clinical Education: A Report From The Aate Research Network, Cailee E. Welch Bacon, Julie M. Cavallario, Stacy E. Walker, R.Curtis Bay, Bonnie L. Van Lunen

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

Context: To enhance the quality of patient care, athletic training students (ATSs) should experience a wide variety of clinical practice settings, interact with diverse patient populations, and engage with patients that have a wide variety of conditions. It is unclear in what ways, if any, ATSs have diverse opportunities during clinical experiences.

Objective: To describe the characteristics of patient encounters (PEs) ATSs engage in during clinical experiences. Design: Multi-site, panel design.

Setting: 12 professional athletic training programs (ATPs; 5 Bachelor, 7 Master's).

Patients or Other Participants: 363 ATSs from the ATPs that used E*Value software to document PEs during clinical …

Calibration Of The Severity Of Rule Violations And Punishments In Team Disciplinary Decisions, Grant Boyd Mowrer

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In this study I investigated perceptions of the severity of rule violations and punishments to calibrate these events for use in research on sport team disciplinary decisions. Data were collected from 62 athletes and 12 coaches who rated the severity of violations and punishments. Comparisons were made between the athlete and coach ratings for both violations and punishments. The results showed that there is a high degree of agreement between the coaches and athletes in their rating the severity of violations and punishments. Ratings in this study were compared with the results of a previous study conducted almost two decades …

Serve-Specific Core Self-Evaluations: A Predictive Validation Study, Brandi Renee Forgione

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Core Self-Evaluations (CSE) is a broad personality trait used by industrial organizational psychologists to predict important organizational outcomes such as job performance and employee satisfaction. CSE comprises four elements: generalized self-efficacy, self-esteem, locus of control, and neuroticism. Task-specific versions of CSE have been proposed to better predict task-specific performance than general CSE. Accordingly, Serve-Specific Core Self- Evaluations (SS-CSE) was adapted specifically to predict serve performance of intercollegiate volleyball players. In this study, I explored the predictive validity of SS-CSE for serve performance by expanding a previous study that used a concurrent validation approach. Results indicated that SS-CSE scores collected pre-season …

Academic Stress, Physical Activity, Sleep, And Mental Health Among Chinese Adolescents, Xihe Zhu, Justin A. Haegele, Huarong Liu, Fangliang Yu

Human Movement Sciences & Special Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the impacts of academic stress on physical activity and sleep, and subsequently their impacts on anxiety and depression. Methods: This cross-sectional study collected data from a convenience sample of 1533 adolescents in an eastern province in China. Surveys were used to collect data on academic stress, anxiety, depression, sleep, physical activity, and demographics. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and path analysis were used to analyze data. Results: The participants reported about 6.77 ± 0.89 h of sleep per day and 1.62 ± 1.79 days of 60 min of physical activity each week. Academic …

An Examination Into The Factors Of Stigma Toward Help Seeking Attitudes In College Student Athletes, Amanda Chapin, Kelly Mcclure Ph.D.

Undergraduate Research

Meeting the demands of a rigorous schedule for a student athlete can be challenging. The appearance of perceived public stigma and self-stigma may interfere with the student athlete’s attitudes toward help seeking, creating a negative relationship between attitudes toward seeking help and the action of seeking help. This study examined college student athlete attitudes toward seeking mental health help in association to perceived public stigma, self-stigma and athletic identity. The sample consisted of 39 college student athletes who participate in a team sport within the Atlantic 10 conference in Division 1 of the NCAA. The cross sectional approach used the …

Distality Of Attentional Focus And Its Role In Postural Balance Control, Christian Kupper, Karen Roemer, Elizabeth Jusko, Karen Zentgraf

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Education and Professional Studies

The role of attentional focusing in motor tasks has been highlighted frequently. The “internal–external” dimension has emerged, but also the spatial distance between body and attended location. In two experiments, an extended attentional focus paradigm was introduced to investigate distality effects of attentional foci on balance performance. First, the distality of the coordinates of the point of focus was varied between a proximal and distal position on an artificial tool attached to the body. Second, the distance of the displayed effect on the wall was varied between a 2.5 and 5 m condition. Subjects were instructed to focus on controlling …

Adding Insult To Rivalry: Exploring The Discord Communicated Between Rivals, Jennifer L. Harker, Jonathan A. Jensen

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to extend current knowledge regarding rivalry communication among sport consumers to better understand how rivals behave with one another when they communicate.

Design/methodology/approach – This national survey of US sport consumers used a novel approach to explore whether and with whom rivals discuss National Football League (NFL) game outcomes. The survey captured both uniplex and multiplex data by asking respondents to name rival discussants with whom they had recently interacted, and the fan behaviors they exchanged with those named rival discussants.

Findings – Through use of this novel data collection approach, new …

An Analysis Of Performance-Based Perception In Competitive Baseball Players, Grant Schlimgen, Michael Dodd

Honors Theses

Abstract: The correlation between performance hitting a baseball and perceived ball size has been described in previous work (Witt & Proffitt, 2005). The article in question used recreational softball players to demonstrate that greater performance led to a perceived change in softball size, but discussed a desire to replicate their experiment with competitive professionals. Using athletes from a semi-collegiate baseball team during their summer season, we were able to find a correlation that although weaker, continues to propagate the relationship found in previous studies. The finding of a weaker relationship also sheds new insight into why elite athletes may fare …

The Greatest Basketball Player Of All Time: Lebron Vs. Jordan, Austin Jacobson

Senior Honors Theses

LeBron James is one of the greatest athletes of this generation. I am seeking to determine what he needs to do to surpass Michael Jordan as the greatest of all time. Considering individual statistics, team success, and personal achievements as well as factors such as political and racial activism and involvement, media coverage (including social media), and generational difference, I am hoping to show what is left to accomplish for LeBron to reach and surpass Jordan.

Reframing Sports Psychology: A Phenomenological Perspective On Mental Imagery, Motivation, Emotions And Teamwork, Daniel Mcloughlin, Rachel Sowinski

Psychology Department Student Scholarship

The majority of research in the field of sports psychology focuses on quantifiable, evidence-based, universally applicable theory. Current evidence-based programs of intervention are heavily based on symptomatology and often ignore the lived experiences of athletes; an unspoken assumption seems to exist that events, dialogue, and emotions will elicit identical responses from all athletes. Many clinicians find a large portion of their work focused on the subfields of mental imagery, motivation, emotions, and teamwork. Each topic has a dominating theory, which is typically derived from the concepts of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. While CBT certainly has its benefits, its shortcomings are evident in …

Parenting And Motocross: The Whoops And Downs, Marissa E. Holst

Psychology Publications

Many studies address the influences of parenting and contextual factors on child development (Belsky, 1984). Although long-term contextual factors such as poverty and abuse have been shown to be associated with both parent and child behaviors (La Placa & Corlyon, 2016; Salzinger et al, 2002), little research exists on the degree to which short-term situational contexts may affect child behavior. The goal of this study is to identify the influence of parenting behavior on child response after a competitive motocross race. Survey data was collected from 33 parents at several child/adolescent competitions held at a motocross track. First, results indicated …

Psychological Determinants Of Physical Activity Across The Life Course: A "Determinants Of Diet And Physical Activity" (Dedipac) Umbrella Systematic Literature Review, Cristina Cortis, Anna Puggina, Caterina Pesce, Katina Aleksovska, Christoph Buck, Con Burns, Greet Cardon, Angela Carlin, Chantal Simon, Donatella Ciarapica, Giancarlo Condello, Tara Coppinger, Sara D’Haese, Marieke De Craemer, Andrea Di Blasio, Sylvia Hansen, Licia Iacoviello, Johann Issartel, Pascal Izzicupo, Lina Jaeschke, Martina Kanning, Aileen Kennedy, Fiona Chun Man Ling, Agnes Luzak, Giorgio Napolitano, Julie Anne Nazare, Grainne O’Donoghue, Camille Perchoux, Tobias Pischon, Angela Polito, Alessandra Sannella, Holger Schulz

Publications

Low levels of physical activity (PA) are reported to contribute to the occurrence of non-communicable diseases over the life course. Although psychological factors have been identified as an important category concerning PA behavior, knowledge on psychological determinants of PA is still inconclusive. Therefore, the aim of this umbrella systematic literature review (SLR) was to summarize and synthesize the scientific evidence on psychological determinants of PA behavior across the life course. A systematic online search was conducted on MEDLINE, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus databases. The search was limited to studies published in English from January 2004 to April …

The Relationship Between Stress And Coping In Table Tennis, Dora Kurimay, Alison Pope-Rhodius, Miran Kondric

Applied Sport and Performance Psychology | Faculty Scholarship

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between cognitive competitive anxiety intensity and coping strategies in table tennis players. One hundred and two (102) US competitive table tennis players of age range from 10 to 60 filled out a Revised Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2R, Cox et al., 2003) at least 30 minutes before the start of their tournament match and a Modified Cope questionnaire (MCOPE; Crocker and Graham,1995) 15 minutes after they finished their match. Our study found significant differences between low and high cognitive competitive anxiety groups with regard to the use of coping strategies. …

Bleeding Keaney Blue: An Analysis Of Sports Fandom And The Supporters Of Uri Basketball, Lia M. Moceri

Senior Honors Projects

In the United States, sports are so prevalent on the national, state, and local level that researchers assert they have become a major component of everyday life. In fact, millions of Americans consider themselves sports fans. Studying sports fandom offers an interesting insight into the human condition.

This paper begins by looking at sports fans on a psychological level by examining socialization, the process of becoming a sports fan. It also examines the reasons people become fans and the degree to which people identify as a fan. An important psychological aspect when studying sports fans is identity and how a …

Type D Personality And Injury Relationship In Collegiate Track Athletes, Annmarie Tuxbury

Honors Projects in Applied Psychology

The purpose of this study was to examine Type D personality as an internal factor for injury risk in collegiate track athletes. A survey was administered to 275 track athletes across each of the three NCAA divisions. The survey included general questions about injury history, which included demographic type questions. A Type D Personality Inventory assessment was administered which measured negative affectivity and social inhibition (Blum, 2009). Additionally, the survey included a version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), measuring an athlete’s evaluation of situations that invokes a stress response (Cohen et al, 1983). Lastly, the survey included the Athletic …

Does Transition Experience Improve Newcomer Performance? Evidence From The National Basketball Association, Joseph R. Radzevick

Management Faculty Publications

A substantial body of research has highlighted the effects of experience on individual performance in groups. However, the challenges individuals confront after moving between groups require the adoption of more finely grained categorizations of experience to understand how they will help or hinder performance in novel group environments. This article develops a distinct form of experience here termed transition experience to deal specifically with insights individuals accumulate as they shift membership between different groups and contrasts its impact with that of the frequently examined component of related task experience. Player movement data from the National Basketball Association is used to …

Rumination And Performance In Dynamic, Team Sport, Michael M. Roy, Daniel Memmert, Anastasia Frees, Joseph R. Radzevick, Jean Pretz, Benjamin Noël

Management Faculty Publications

People high in rumination are good at tasks that require persistence whereas people low in rumination is good at tasks that require flexibility. Here we examine real world implications of these differences in dynamic, team sport. In two studies, we found that professional male football (soccer) players from Germany and female field hockey players on the US national team were lower in rumination than were non-athletes. Further, low levels of rumination were associated with a longer career at a higher level in football players. Results indicate that athletes in dynamic, team sport might benefit from the flexibility associated with being …

A Novel Approach To Investigating Basketball Expert's Perceptions Of The Hot Hand, John Spencer Ingels, Sean Joseph Fitzpatrick, Alison Rhodius

Applied Sport and Performance Psychology | Faculty Scholarship

The hot hand and psychological momentum (PM) are two closely related concepts that propose that previous success increases the chances of future success (Jackson & Mosurski, 1997). Statistical evidence for the existence of the hot hand or PM is mixed (Bar-Eli, Avugos, & Raab, 2006; Bocskocsky, Ezekowitz, & Stein, 2014; Sun, 2004). However players’, coaches ’, and fans ’perspectives show that PM or the hot hand is believed to be an extremely important aspect within sport (Gilovich, Tversky, & Vallone, 1985; Jones & Harwood, 2008). A key component of this phenomenon is the ability to predict future performance based on …

Motivational Differences In Why Sports Fans Attend Minor League Baseball And Roller Derby Events, Anissa S. Pugh

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The aim of the current study was to examine the differences in sport fan motivation factors between mainstream (Minor League baseball) and atypical (roller derby) fans. Eighty-one fans (40 Minor League baseball and 41 roller derby) completed an 8 question demographic survey, a 26-item Sport Fan Motivation Scale, a 7-item Sport Spectator Identification Scale, and a 10-item Sport Fan Exploratory Curiosity Scale. It was believed that fans of Minor League baseball would be more motivated by the entertainment factor than roller derby fans. While roller derby fans would be more motivated by eustress, group affiliation and family factors at the …

The Ultimate Love-Hate Relationship: Examining Sport Commitment In Collegiate Track & Field Athletes, Kara Walsh

Honors Projects in Applied Psychology

The purpose of this study was to examine sport commitment among collegiate track and field athletes in order to determine what factors influence continued participation throughout an entire college career. A survey was administered to 431 track and field athletes across each of the three NCAA divisions. The survey included a modified version of the Athletes’ Opinion Survey based on the Sport Commitment Model (Scanlan et al., 1993), which measures the relationship between sport commitment, sport enjoyment, personal investments, social constraints, social support, involvement alternatives and involvement opportunities. Additionally, the survey included a modified version of the Exercise Commitment Scale …

Correlating The Purdue Spatial Visualization Test With The Wonderlic Personnel Test For American Football Players, Karthik Sukumar

Department of Computer Graphics Technology Degree Theses

This research study aims to find the relationship between the scores for the Purdue Spatial Visualization test (PSVT) and the Wonderlic Personnel test (WPT) for American collegiate football players. Fifty-five collegiate football players took part in the study by attempting the PSVT and the WPT. The scores on these tests were compared to find if there existed a correlation between the scores on both these tests. The results showed that the scores on both these tests had a significant correlation with respect to each other. But, the group that took the WPT before the PSVT showed a lower correlation between …