Organizational psychology in elite sport: Its emergence,application and future

ObjectivesThe rapid development of elite sport in Europe and across the world has had far-reaching psychosocial ramifications for those operating within its sphere of influence. Whilst sport psychologists in the latter part of the 20th century largely focused on the cognitive determinates of elite performance, the findings of recent research suggest that sport psychologists in the 21st century will need to better understand the organizational influences on world-class athletes. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to discuss the emergence, application and future of organizational psychology knowledge in elite performance sport.MethodNarrative review and commentary.Results and conclusionThe review discusses the findings of six lines of inquiry that point to the salience of organizational issues in elite sport: i) factors affecting Olympic performance; ii) organizational stress in athletes, coaches and parents; iii) perceptions of roles within sports teams; iv) organizational success factors in sport and business; v) performance environments in elite sport; and vi) organizational citizenship behavior in sport. The commentary then focuses on the theoretical underpinnings and practical implementation of organizational service delivery in elite sport, and concludes by reflecting on how developments in this area have the potential to inform future practice and research relating to the psychology of elite sport.     

Evolutionary Ethics: Its Origin and Contemporary Face

The development of modern evolutionary ethics began shortly after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection . Early discussions were plagued by several problems. First, evolutionary ethical explanations were dependent on group-selection accounts of social behavior (especially the explanation of altruism). Second, they seem to violate the philosophical principle that "ought" statements cannot be derived from "is" statements alone (values cannot be derivedfrom facts alone). Third, evolutionary ethics appeared to be biologically deterministic, deemed incompatible with the free will required for ethics to be possible. Fourth, social policies based on evolutionary theory (for example, eugenics in the early part of this century) seemed patently unethical. Sociobiology (which coalesced as a field of study with Edward O. Wilson's Sociobiology: The New Synthesis , 1975) addressed several of these problems and provided a rich framework and a new impetus for evolutionary ethics. The lingering problems were the philosophical is-ought barrier and biological determinism. After tracing the early and more recent development of evolutionary ethics, I argue that the remaining problems can be surmounted and an incipient evolutionary ethics can be defended. Thoroughgoing evolutionaryethics must await theoretical developments in neurobiology and cognitive science.     

Toward a critical theory of happiness: Philosophical background and methodological significance

Happiness is discussed in its development since the pragmatists' interpretation of the concept. From early psychological approaches onwards, the notion of happiness has existed in the tension between the normative “summum bonum” and the empirical — “subjective well-being”. Dialectical philosophy attempted to mediate between these two levels, with Hegel locating happiness in the sphere of reason, and Marx interpreting it as a consequence of social practice. Building upon this materialist notion and upon Freud's analysis of distorting forces, the Critical Theorists of the Frankfurt School warn against taking the subjective experience of well-being at face value. The appropriateness of their caveats is illustrated in the methodological debates over response bias in the social psychology literature. It would appear that it is quite unsatisfactory to define happiness operationally as that which is reflected directly in self-reports.     

Metaphysics and Morality in Neo-Confucianism and Greece: Zhu Xi, Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus

If Zhu Xi had been a western philosopher, we would say he synthesized the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus: that he took from Plato the theory of forms, from Aristotle the connection between form and empirical investigation, and from Plotinus self-differentiating holism. But because a synthesis abstracts from the incompatible elements of its members, it involves rejection as well as inclusion. Thus, Zhu Xi does not accept the dualism by which Plato opposed to the rational forms an irrational material principle, and does not share Aristotle’s irreducible dualism between form and prime matter, or his teleology. Neither does he share Plotinus’ indifference to the empirical world. Understanding how these similarities and differences play out against one another will help us discover what is at stake in their various commitments.     

Contemporary religious thought in South Africa and the emergence of Qur'anic hermeneutical notions

The struggle by non‐clerics for the right to understand the Qur'an within a context of oppression and a liberation struggle and theological developments connected to it are discussed in this article. The theological developments from traditionalism to modernism to resurgent Islam and the role of the Qur'an in this trajectory have their roots in the South African crucible as much as in normative Islam. From this engagement between Islam and oppression/liberation some key hermeneutical notions have emerged. The Qur'an thus becomes a tool and a source of inspiration for liberative praxis in South Africa.     

霍妮的自我理论及其当代响应

霍妮以真实自我的理论预设为起点,通过对真实自我健康成长过程的自我实现模式的分析,完成了真实自我实在性的论证。真实自我有机地连贯了霍妮对自我异化的分析和对自我实现的探讨,构成了霍妮自我理论的核心基础。霍妮的真实自我思想,由于抛弃了传统精神分析的人性观,历史性地获得了当代心理学家的积极响应。     

诠释与转换：积极心理健康及其当代理解

积极心理健康是积极心理学理论系统的一个重要组成部分,也是积极心理学理论本身在心理健康领域的一种应用。积极心理健康以积极为核心观念,以人的积极品质为研究对象,注重人的个体差异的研究思路,引领和推动传统心理健康从关注人的消极品质转向人的积极潜力,从而使心理健康的主题既符合时代潮流又具有深厚的思想底蕴。     

Ontology,matter and emergence

“Ontological emergence” of inherent high-level properties with causal powers is witnessed nowhere. A non-substantialist conception of emergence works much better. It allows downward causation, provided our concept of causality is transformed accordingly.

论新安理学的形成、演变及其阶段性特征

在唐末五代中原儒家文化南移、南宋时期朱熹理学成为官学这样的背景下 ,随着朱熹本人在故乡新安讲学活动的开展以及新安人对朱熹理学崇奉心理的形成 ,古徽州新安地区形成了特色鲜明的理学流派———新安理学。新安理学始于南宋 ,终于清初 ,历经 7个世纪。新安理学的发展演变呈现出明显的阶段性 ,各阶段特色有别 ,而总体上又宗旨一贯。南宋新安理学的基本特征是学宗朱子 ,兼融佛道 ;元代新安理学的学术风格是惟朱是从 ,排斥异说 ;明代新安理学的特色则是一方面惟真是从 ,和会朱陆 ,另一方面又不改宗朱立场。至清代 ,随着理论界整个学风的转变 ,新安理学终于为皖派经学所取代。     

马克思主义国家理论及其当代发展——柯林·海伊教授访谈录

访谈围绕马克思恩格斯的国家理论及其遗产、列宁与葛兰西国家理论的异同及思想史效应、"密里本德-普兰查斯之争"的实质与影响、雅索普的马克思主义国家理论及当代地位这四个重大问题展开,勾勒出了马克思主义国家理论从马克思恩格斯到当代英国的基本发展线索与理论面貌。     

Ontology, reduction, emergence: A general frame

In a scientific context, ontological commitments should be considered as supervenient over accepted scientific theories. This implies that the primarily ontological notions of reduction and emergence of entities of different kinds should be reformulated in terms of relations between existing empirical theories. For this, in turn, it is most convenient to employ a model-theoretic view of scientific theories: the identity criterion of a scientific theory is essentially given by a class of models. Accordingly, reduction and emergence are to be seen as particular kinds of relations between (some) models of different theories that subsume the same (or a similar) “experiential field”. The set-theoretical notion of an echelon-set proves to be crucial for this purpose: The domains in the models of the reduced theory are echelon-sets over the domains of the reducing theory. Finally, it is argued that emergence may plausibly be interpreted as akin to but weaker than reduction.     

Dominance,sex, and leader emergence

A 3×2×2 incomplete factorial design was employed to test the effects of sex, dominance, and their interaction on leader emergence. The factors included dominance distribution (high/high, high/low, middle/middle), sex (male-female), and dyad composition (mixed sex-same sex). The subjects were all Caucasians and were pretested on the California Psychological Inventory Dominance Scale. The data revealed that dominance was a predictor of leader emergence in same-sex conditions where high-dominant individuals assumed the role of leader in much greater proportions than their low-dominant partners. In mixed-sex dyads, sex appeared to be a more potent predictor with males becoming leaders at levels greater than would be suspected given dominance levels.     

Solitude experiences: varieties, settings, and individual differences

Solitude may be positive or negative, depending on situational and personal factors. From prior research, nine types of solitude were identified. Based on data from a questionnaire study of undergraduate participants, factor analysis suggests that these nine types can be reduced to three dimensions, two positive and one negative. These are, respectively, Inner-Directed Solitude (characterized by self-discovery and inner peace), Outer-Directed Solitude (characterized by intimacy and spirituality), and Loneliness. Personality and value correlates, as well as situational correlates, of the various types of solitude also were explored.     

另一种声音：现代新儒学与中国人文主义心理学

与西方心理学以科学主义为主体的“由下至上”的研究思路不同,中国传统心理学探究走的是“由上至下”的研究路线,即从心理及精神层面最高端入手,强调心理的道德与理性层面,故其实质是人文主义的。现代新儒学作为人文主义心理学研究典范,具有心理学研究“另一种声音”的独特价值与意义。现代新儒学研究背景及思路的展开,呈现出以传统心理学思想为深厚根基的中国近代心理学的独特个性与自信。这是现代新儒学对中国心理学的最大贡献     

Turbulence,emergence and multi-scale modelling

The paper begins with a generic discussion of modelling, focusing on some of its practices and problems. I then move on to a philosophical discussion about emergence and multi-scale modelling; more specifically, the reasons why what looks like a promising strategy for dealing with emergence is sometimes incapable of delivering interesting results. This becomes especially evident when we look more closely at turbulence and what I take to be the main ontological feature of emergent behavior—universality. Finally, I conclude by showing why, despite displaying multi-scale behaviour and some of the characteristics we identify with emergence, turbulence fails to fit neatly into the latter category and is not successfully captured using multi-scale modelling. The complex nature of turbulence illustrates the difficulties in characterizing emergence and why specific criteria are needed in order to prevent every complex behaviour we don’t understand being classified as emergent.