Psychology Commons^™

"You're Not Thriving, You're Just Trying To Survive The Environment That You're In:" Mental Performance Consultants' Narratives Of Emotional Abuse In Sport, Victoria Lynn Bradshaw

Doctoral Dissertations

Emotional abuse is defined as “a pattern of deliberate non-contact behaviors by a person with a critical relationship that has the potential to be harmful” (Stirling & Kerr, 2008, p. 178). Specifically, in the context of sport, emotional abuse is one of the more frequently occurring forms of abuse (Kavanagh, Brown & Jones, 2017; Kirby, Greaves & Hankvisky, 2000; Wilson & Kerr, 2021). Years after the termination of those emotionally abusive experiences, athletes are left to try and cope with and manage the short and long-term impacts that tend to develop as a result of repeated exposure to harmful behaviors …

“If I’Ve Got God On My Side, I Can Do It”: A Phenomenological Investigation Of The Lived Experiences Of Spirituality For Lds Ncaa Di Student-Athletes, Matthew J. Moore

Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this study was to explore the lived experiences of spirituality for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (DI) student-athletes who also identified as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). Using an existential phenomenological approach (Thomas & Pollio, 2002), nine interviews were conducted with four self-identified female and five self-identified male members of the LDS Church who were current NCAA DI athletes at the time of the study; they participated in four different DI sports (cross-country/track and field, football, soccer, and volleyball) and attended five different DI institutions. Their mean age was …

United States Elite Youth Tennis Athletes’ Use Of Psychological Strategies In Competition, Emily Earlynn Lauer

Doctoral Dissertations

Young athletes are routinely faced with stressors and competitive structures that collegiate and adult athletes face. Psychological skills training (PST) can provide young athletes with strategies and skills to cope with these stressors and ultimately influence sport performance (Vealey, 2007). To date, the only study exploring in-competition experiences of young athletes was with participants between 16 and 18 years of age (Van Raalte, Brewer, Rivera, & Petitpas, 1994). The current study is the first investigation on the in-competition experiences of children and adolescents in sport. Twelve elite young tennis athletes (M[subscript]age = 11.83) who trained within a Player Development program …

Burnout In Young Adult Performing Artists, Benjamin Hyun Stocking

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the experience of burnout in adolescent/young adult performing arts (i.e. a World-Class junior drum & bugle corps) at the beginning of their competitive training season. Specifically, this study took particular interest in investigating the predictive influence of psychological variables such as performance anxiety, psychological coping skills, and coping functions in predicting who was more prone to burnout as well as who returned or dropped out after the competitive season.

Data were drawn from an archive of 144 drum corps performers, representing one world class drum and bugle corps at the beginning of …

Development Of The Coach Autonomy Support Beliefs Scale, Johannes Jakob Raabe

Doctoral Dissertations

Coaches’ autonomy support is one of the most meaningful influences on the satisfaction of athletes’ basic psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Mageau & Vallerand, 2003). Fostering these needs cultivates self-determined motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000), which has been found to positively affect individuals’ effort, persistence when faced with adversity, performance, performance-related anxiety, and well-being (Gillet, Berjot, & Gobance, 2009; Mack et al., 2011; Podlog & Dionigi, 2010; Vallerand & Losier, 1999). The reasoned action approach (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010) suggests that coaches’ attitude, perceived behavioral control, and perceived norm toward autonomy support influences their use of autonomysupportive behaviors. …

A Multi-University Examination Of College Student-Athlete & Coach Fit, Amanda Celeste Alexander

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between student-athletes’ personality traits and satisfaction with their collegiate coaching experience, as guided by vocational research and theory on job satisfaction and turnover. Specifically, this study was designed to examine both broad and narrow personality traits in relation to student-athletes’ satisfaction across four dimensions of the student-athlete/coach relationship and to explore intent to transfer as a dependent of these variables. This study is an expansion of a previous study investigation of personality and satisfaction with coaching (Levy, Alexander, & Lounsbury, under review). A national sample of NCAA Division I, II, and III collegiate student-athletes was …