Life Sciences Commons^™

Vocal Expression Of Emotions In Mammals: Mechanisms Of Production And Evidence, Elodie Briefer

Communication Skills Collection

Emotions play a crucial role in an animal’s life because they facilitate responses to external or internal events of significance for the organism. In social species, one of the main functions of emotional expression is to regulate social interactions. There has recently been a surge of interest in animal emotions in several disciplines, ranging from neuroscience to evolutionary zoology. Because measurements of subjective emotional experiences are not possible in animals, researchers use neurophysiological, behavioural and cognitive indicators. However, good indicators, particularly of positive emotions, are still lacking. Vocalizations are linked to the inner state of the caller. The emotional state …

Adrenal Steroids Uniquely Influence Sexual Motivation Behavior In Male Rats, George Taylor, Joshua Dearborn, Susan Maloney

Psychology Faculty Works

The androgenic adrenal steroids dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and 4α-androstenedione (4-A) have significant biological activity, but it is unclear if the behavioral effects are unique or only reflections of the effects of testosterone (TS). Gonadally intact male Long-Evans rats were assigned to groups to receive supplements of DHEA, 4-A, TS, corticosteroid (CORT), all at 400 µg steroid/kg of body weight, or vehicle only for 5 weeks. All males were tested in a paradigm for sexual motivation that measures time and urinary marks near an inaccessible receptive female. It was found that DHEA and 4-A supplements failed to influence time near the estrous …

Examining The Relationships Between Imagery, Sport Motivation, And Athletic Identity In Curling, Nicole Westlund

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Imagery use, motivation, and athletic identity all have been investigated in sport; however, a study examining the relationships among these three constructs has yet to be conducted. The participants (N = 213) were club and competitive curlers (M_age = 49.0; SD = 15.39). Results showed that athletic identity was significantly correlated with all five imagery functions and six behavioural regulations (p < .01) except for external regulation and amotivation. Multiple regression analyses predicting imagery use from both the behavioural regulations and athletic identity were conducted for each imagery function in club and competitive curlers. Athletic identity, identified regulation, and integrated regulation emerged as significant predictors of imagery use (p < .05). These findings suggest that there is a link between imagery use, motivation, and athletic identity. Researchers and sport psychologists can use these findings to develop more effective psychological skills training programs to improve the performance of curlers.

Motivation, Psychological Distress And Exercise Adherence Following Myocardial Infarction, Angela Ljubic, Frank P. Deane, Robert Zecchin, Richard Denniss

Frank Deane

Fifty patients with myocardial infarction were recruited from a hospital based Cardiac Education and Assessment Program (CEAP) in Sydney, Australia. The Exercise Motivation Inventory-2 (EMI-2) and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) were administered prior to commencement in the program and re-administered by telephone interview at 5-month followup. Four exercise adherence measures were completed: attendance, exercise stress test, self-report ratings and a 7-day activity recall interview. There was a 46% adherence rate for MI patients during the hospital based CEAP. Of those individuals who completed CEAP, 91% obtained functional improvement on the exercise stress test. For the 38 patients …

Motivating Healthy Diet Behaviors: The Self-As-Doer Identity, Amanda Brouwer

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Self-identity predicts healthy eating behaviors and intentions above and beyond Theory of Planned Behavior components (TPB; i.e., attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms), but interventions exploring the relationship between self-identity and motivation are limited. Self-as-doer identity may be an important point of intervention for healthy eating behaviors (Houser-Marko & Sheldon, 2006). Therefore, I investigated whether the experimental manipulation of a self-as-doer identity predicted improved healthy food consumption, intentions, and increased self-identity as a healthy eater compared to women who received nutritional education or no intervention directly following the intervention and one month post-intervention.

Method: Participants were 79 women …

Physician Assessment Of Patient Motivation: Influence On Disposition For Follow-Up Care, R Mcartor, Donald Iverson, D Benken, Valerie Gilchrist, L Dennis, R Broome

Don C. Iverson

This study of 3,318 outpatient visits evaluated the influence of the physician-assessed level of patient motivation on the level of physician involvement in follow-up care. Data collected included patient demographics, health risk factors, physician-assessed level of patient motivation, and the disposition for follow-up care (return office visit or self-care). Physicians more frequently scheduled patients for a return office visit, regardless of assessed level of patient motivation, when they presented with a traditional biomedical problem. Patients with health promotion-disease prevention problems were more frequently relegated to self-care; patients physicians judged to be poorly motivated were four times as likely to be …

Motives For Sport Participation Of Athletes With Intellectual Disability, V. J. Pedrinelli, M.R. F. Brandã, Deborah R. Shapiro

Kinesiology Faculty Publications

The present study aimed at knowing the reasons which led Brazilian athletes with intellectual disability to engage in sports practice and to take part in competitions promoted by the Special Olympics Brazil. A hundred and two athletes, between 21 and 49 years old, were evaluated through the Sport Motivation Questionnaire developed by Shapiro (2003). The data showed that the athletes took part mainly to get ribbons and medals, to play with other people from the team, to go to new and different places and to feel like an important person. The order of importance given to the motives differs when …

A Systematic Review Of Physical Activity Interventions In Hispanic Adults, Melinda J. Ickes, Manoj Sharma

Kinesiology and Health Promotion Faculty Publications

Healthy People 2020 aims to achieve health equity, eliminate disparities, and improve the health of all groups. Regular physical activity (PA) improves overall health and fitness and has the capability to reduce risk for chronic diseases. Identifying barriers which relate to the Hispanic population is important when designing PA interventions. Therefore, the purpose was to review existing PA interventions targeting Hispanic adults published between 1988 and 2011. This paper was limited to interventions which included more than 35% Hispanic adults (n = 20). Most of the interventions were community based (n = 16), although clinical, family-based, and faith-based …