Re-examining the home disadvantage in professional ice hockey

Occurrence of the home disadvantage in professional ice hockey was examined by analyzing shootout data from 2005 through 2008. Results indicated that teams involved in shootouts playing at their home arenas did not lose significantly more games at home than on the road. Results did not support the hypotheses that emphasize the roles of physical contact and diffusion of responsibility in accounting for past failures to find the home disadvantage in professional ice hockey.     

Anxiety and burnout in female collegiate ice hockey and soccer athletes

The purpose of this study was to assess whether athletes who perceived their scores on trait anxiety to be debilitative to performance also experienced higher burnout scores. 84 NCAA Division I female ice hockey and soccer athletes, ages 18 to 23 years, volunteered. Participants were given a trait version of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 with an added direction scale to collect general perceptions of anxiety. They also completed the Burnout Inventory for Athletes. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance for group anxiety yielded an overall significant effect, with the Facilitative group (n = 40) reporting a lower mean burnout score. Mean intensity of cognitive anxiety was significantly higher for the Debilitative group (n = 44), while mean self-confidence intensity was significantly higher for the Facilitative group.     

Increasing task complexity and ice hockey skills of youth athletes

The objective of this pilot study was to investigate the effects on cognitive performance of progressively adding tasks specific to ice hockey (skating, stick handling, and obstacle avoidance) during a visual interference task (Stroop Color Word Test-interference condition). In addition, the effects on locomotor performance of progressively adding tasks of stickhandling, visual interference, and obstacle avoidance related to maximal skating speed and minimal obstacle clearance were investigated in eight male athletes ages 10 to 12 years. Results revealed decreased performance on both cognitive and physical measures with increased task complexity, suggesting that adding complexity to an environment influences hockey skill performance.     

Gaze characteristics of elite and near-elite athletes in ice hockey defensive tactics

Traditional visual search experiments, where the researcher pre-selects video-based scenes for the participant to respond to, shows that elite players make more efficient decisions than non-elites, but disagree on how they temporally regulate their gaze. Using the vision-in-action [J.N. Vickers, J. Exp. Psychol.: Human Percept. Perform. 22 (1996) 342] approach, we tested whether the significant gaze that differentiates elite and non-elite athletes occurred either: early in the task and was of more rapid duration [A.M. Williams et al., Res. Quart. Exer. Sport 65 (1994) 127; A.M. Williams and K. Davids, Res. Quart. Exer. Sport 69 (1998) 111], or late in the task and was of longer duration [W. Helsen, J.M. Pauwels, A cognitive approach to visual search in sport, in: D. Brogan, K. Carr (Eds.), Visual Search, vol. II, Taylor and Francis, London, 1992], or whether a more complex gaze control strategy was used that consisted of both early and rapid fixations followed by a late fixation of long duration prior to the final execution. We tested this using a live defensive zone task in ice hockey. Results indicated that athletes temporally regulated their gaze using two different gaze control strategies. First, fixation/tracking (F/T) gaze early in the trial were significantly shorter than the final F/T and confirmed that the elite group fixated the tactical locations more rapidly than the non-elite on successful plays. And secondly, the final F/T prior to critical movement initiation (i.e. F/T-1) was significantly longer for both groups, averaging 30% of the final part of the phase and occurred as the athletes isolated a single object or location to end the play. The results imply that expertise in defensive tactics is defined by a cascade of F/T, which began with the athletes fixating or tracking specific locations for short durations at the beginning of the play, and concluded with a final gaze of long duration to a relatively stable target at the end. The results are discussed within the context of gaze research in open and closed skills, as well as theoretical models of long-term memory and decision making in sport.     

Goal orientations of young male ice hockey players and their parents

In this study, the researchers investigated the relationship between parent and player dispositional goal orientations associated with playing youth hockey. The authors used the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (J. L. Duda & J. Whitehead, 1998) to measure task and ego orientation in 123 boys (10-13 years old) and 1 of their parents. Sons rated their own goal orientations for hockey and their perceptions of their parent's goal orientations. Parents rated their goal orientations for their son and their perceptions of their son's goal orientations. Mothers and fathers did not differ in their goal orientations for their son. Travel-team and nontravel-team players did not differ. For ego orientation, the son's self-ratings correlated significantly with the parent's goals for the son, but not for task orientation. Sons reported being significantly more ego-oriented than their parents desired. Sons perceived that their parents had goal orientations similar to their own. The data from this study are congruent with the assertion that parents socialize their children's goal orientations and that ego orientation may be more salient and easily communicated than task orientation.     

Anger,aggression, and humor in newfoundland floor hockey: An evolutionary analysis

This paper examines patterns of anger, aggression, and humor during 95 floor hockey games in a small fishing village in Newfoundland. The observed behaviors meet the prediction, based on evolutionary theory, that anger and aggression will be more frequent among males at the age when mate competition is most intense. Aggression was also found to be combined with humor most frequently in interactions among players attempting to form social relationships. This last finding is consistent with the hypothesis that combining humor (smiling and laughing) with what would otherwise be interpreted as aggressive behavior is a means of establishing trusting relationships between individuals. The potential contribution of an evolutionary approach to studies of anger and aggression is discussed. ©1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Gaze behaviors and decision making accuracy of higher- and lower-level ice hockey referees

BackgroundGaze behaviors are often studied in athletes, but infrequently for sport officials. There is a need to better understand gaze behavior in refereeing in order to improve training and education related to visual search patterns, which have been argued to be related to decision making (Abernethy & Russell, 1987a).ObjectiveTo examine gaze behaviors, decision accuracy, and decision sensitivity (using signal detection analysis) of ice hockey referees of varying skill levels in a laboratory setting.DesignUsing an experimental design, we conducted multiple t-tests.MethodHigher-level (N = 15) and lower-level ice hockey referees (N = 15) wore a head-mounted eye movement recorder and made penalty/no penalty decisions related to ice hockey video clips on a computer screen. We recorded gaze behaviors, decision accuracy, and decision sensitivity for each participant.ResultsResults of the t-tests indicated no group differences in gaze behaviors; however, higher-level referees made significantly more accurate decisions (both accuracy and sensitivity) than lower-level referees.ConclusionHigher-level ice hockey referees are superior to lower-level referees on decision making, but referees do not differ on gaze behaviors. Possibly, higher-level referees process relevant decision making information more effectively.     

Female relative age effects and the second-quartile phenomenon in young female ice hockey players

ObjectivesRelative age effects exist across sports and cultures (Cobley, Baker, Wattie, & McKenna, 2009), though a recent, unusual trend is females born in the second quartile of the selection year are most over-represented on elite teams. The first purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the second-quartile phenomenon was the result of first-quartile female athletes registering to play male sport. Due to the nature of the collected data, a secondary purpose was to examine relative age effects across female age divisions.DesignCross-sectional, with multiple chi-square analyses.MethodPlayers included 29,924 female ice hockey players (ages 7–17 years) from the Ontario Hockey Federation. Birthdates were converted into quartiles following the Hockey Canada selection year.ResultsRelative age effects (with the second quartile most over-represented) existed for the entire sample (χ² [3, 29923] = 401.95, p < 0.001), those registered for female ice hockey (χ² [3, 24984] = 369.90, p < 0.001) and those registered for male ice hockey (χ² [3, 4938] = 37.88, p < 0.001). The strength of the effect lessened as athletes aged.ConclusionIt appears the second-quartile phenomenon cannot be explained by athletes’ choice to play male sport. Further, female relative age effects appear strongest at younger ages. The discussion includes integration of results with previous literature, along with plausible explanations.     

Body weight, not facial width-to-height ratio, predicts aggression in pro hockey players

Studies indicate that facial characteristics may predict behavior, but it is unclear if this will hold within highly selective populations. One relevant characteristic is the face’s width-to-height ratio (FWHR), a sexually dimorphic trait that has been shown to predict aggression. That FWHR may predict aggression within highly selective populations was suggested by Carré and McCormick’s (2008) finding that professional hockey players with greater FWHRs accrued more penalties. We attempted to replicate this result using all NHL players. We also explored fighting penalties as another aggression measure and height and weight as additional aggression predictors. We found that body weight predicted substantial variance in aggression but FWHR did not. Thus, in highly selective populations, inferences based on faces may be inaccurate.     

Staying alive: evolution, culture, and women's intrasexual aggression

Females' tendency to place a high value on protecting their own lives enhanced their reproductive success in the environment of evolutionary adaptation because infant survival depended more upon maternal than on paternal care and defence. The evolved mechanism by which the costs of aggression (and other forms of risk taking) are weighted more heavily for females may be a lower threshold for fear in situations which pose a direct threat of bodily injury. Females' concern with personal survival also has implications for sex differences in dominance hierarchies because the risks associated with hierarchy formation in nonbonded exogamous females are not offset by increased reproductive success. Hence among females, disputes do not carry implications for status with them as they do among males, but are chiefly connected with the acquisition and defence of scarce resources. Consequently, female competition is more likely to take the form of indirect aggression or low-level direct combat than among males. Under patriarchy, men have held the power to propagate images and attributions which are favourable to the continuance of their control. Women's aggression has been viewed as a gender-incongruent aberration or dismissed as evidence of irrationality. These cultural interpretations have "enhanced" evolutionarily based sex differences by a process of imposition which stigmatises the expression of aggression by females and causes women to offer exculpatory (rather than justificatory) accounts of their own aggression.     

Reactive aggression tracks within‐participant changes in women's salivary testosterone

The relation between testosterone and aggression has been relatively well documented in men, but it is less well understood in women. Here we assessed the relationship between salivary testosterone and reactive aggression (i.e., rejection rate for unfair offers) in the Ultimatum Game. Forty naturally cycling women were tested twice, once in the late follicular phase (around ovulation) and once during the luteal phase. Ovulation was determined using urine test strips measuring luteinizing hormone levels. Salivary samples were assayed for testosterone, estradiol, progesterone, and cortisol at both test sessions. There was no association with the cycle, but multilevel modeling revealed a significant within‐participant association between testosterone and rejection rate for extremely unfair offers (i.e., high reactive aggression), indicating that women showed greater reactive aggression when their testosterone levels were higher. Additionally, we found that women with relatively high individual concentrations of testosterone were more likely to reject extremely unfair offers than women with relatively low concentrations of testosterone. This study is the first to demonstrate that women react more aggressively in response to provocation when their testosterone level is high than when their testosterone is low, suggesting that testosterone plays an important role in the regulation of women's aggressive behavior following social provocation.

     

Relationship between emotional state and performance during international field hockey matches

The present study examined the relationship between the emotions experienced by 15 international hockey players, both immediately before and during competition, and their performance levels. Data were collected on the players' emotional states using a revised version of the Feelings Scale of Butler, which was completed retrospectively after the match was played. Players reported more annoyance and less tension during the match than before. A logistic regression correctly classified 70.2% of players from the emotional ratings immediately before the match and 85.1% of the players from the ratings during the match as either a good or poor performer. Those individuals who performed well retrospectively reported feeling Nervous and 'Quick/Alert/Active' before the game and Confident and Relaxed during the game. The results indicate that emotions fluctuate over the competition period, and in long duration sports assessment of emotion during competition predicts variation in performance better than assessment prior to competition.     

Relationship of pain tolerance with human aggression

In research with animals as well as samples of chronic pain patients and elderly persons, pain has been positively correlated with measures of irritability, hostility, and aggression. The present investigation examined the relationship of pain tolerance with aggression. 72 men participated in the Response Choice Aggression Paradigm, described previously by Zeichner and colleagues, in which aggressive response to provocation was possible but not required of participants. Subjective pain tolerance, defined as maximal electrical shock willingly tolerated by participants, was assessed. Significant but small Pearson product-moment correlations between pain tolerance and aggression ranged between .21 and .32, with the largest accounting for 9% of variance.     

Relationship between mousekilling and conspecific aggression in the male rat

In order to investigate the relationships between mousekilling and conspecific aggression, behavioral variables of killer and nonkiller rats were compared in a “resident-intruder” paradigm, in resident as well as in intruder animals. The occurrence of offensive items (offensive sideways, attack) was significantly higher in killer rats when they were residents; their corresponding opponents displayed more defensive behaviors. No significant difference in aggressive behaviors was noted when the comparison was done in the intruders. These results and those of previous studies suggest that there is a correlation between mousekilling and intraspecific offensive behaviors. Some similarities in the situations where both behaviors are elicited–eg, introduction of an unfamiliar intruder into a familiar environment–may contribute to the existence of such a correlation and the possibility of common mechanisms underlying both behaviors is discussed.     

Relationship between maternal aggression and maternal care in the rat

Aggression among female rats is almost entirely confined to the period of late pregnancy and lactation. Behaviorally it is similar to the aggression of males including piloerection and lateral attacks, but it differs in its function. Unlike male aggression which serves to establish a social hierarchy and a territory, i. e., is competitive, maternal aggression is protective, i. e., it serves to prevent predation of the mother's offspring. In this respect it is closely related temporally and causally to maternal care; if the offspring are removed maternal aggression wanes almost immediately–its function no longer exists! Studies on aggression by mothers, among rats, from the author's laboratory are reviewed and comparisons made with maternal care. As noted, maternal aggression and maternal care are closely related during the cycle of maternal behavior and they share a similar hormonal basis and possibly the effect of uterine stimulation, but maternal care requires prolactin and the decline of progesterone while maternal aggression appears independent of pituitary hormones and does not require a decline in progesterone. Maternal aggression like maternal care appears to be organized into a hormonal phase, during pregnancy, parturition, and for about a week postpartum and a nonhormonal phase thereafter. Bilateral radiofrequency lesions of the lateral midbrain peripeduncular nucleus (PPN) produce deficits in maternal aggression if made on lactation day 7 (L7), but not earlier, without producing significant deficits in maternal behavior. Experiments showed that the PPN does not mediate hormonally stimulated maternal aggression; it appears to mediate only nonhormonally stimulated maternal aggression. Studies on the role of pregnancy hormones on long-term retention of maternal aggression and the role of olfaction in maternal aggression are also reviewed. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Relationship between emotional intelligence and aggression: A systematic review

Emotional intelligence (EI), defined as a set of abilities for perceiving, using, understanding, and managing emotions, has been associated with a better psychosocial adjustment. Empirical studies have found a positive relationship of EI with social function and a negative one with conflicts in social relationships. The purpose of this study was to systematically review available evidence on the relationship between EI and aggression. PubMed, PsycINFO and Scopus were searched for relevant articles in English and Spanish, and 19 eligible studies were identified. Together, these studies provide strong evidence that emotional abilities and aggressive behavior are negatively related: people with higher EI show less aggression. This relationship appears to be consistent across ages (from childhood to adulthood), cultures, types of aggression, and EI measures. Few studies have assessed EI using ability tests, and none of the eligible studies was longitudinal or experimental. These findings are discussed in relation to future research on aggression and strategies to prevent and manage it based on EI.     

Relationship between team identification and trait aggression: a replication

Research yielded no significant relationship between sport fandom and trait aggression. The current study replicated previous efforts using the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, an updated version of the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory. In contrast to past work, the current study did yield a significant relationship between fandom and aggression for men.     

Relationship between shock-induced aggression and other laboratory tests of agonistic behavior in rats

The utility of the shock-induced aggression paradigm has been questioned in recent years. Studies were reviewed that demonstrated similar effects of independent variables on shock-induced, resident-intruder, and home-cage aggressive behavior. Correlations between naturally occurring aggression and shock-induced aggression, studies showing the influence of naturally occurring agonistic experience on shock-induced aggression, and the effects of shock-induced aggressive experience on resident-intruder behavior were also reviewed. It was argued that continued research into shock-induced aggression and its relationship to other laboratory paradigms would be useful, and that abandonment of the paradigm at this time would be premature.     

Relationship aggression,violence and self‐regulation in Australian newlywed couples

Research in the United States shows that relationship violence occurs in a substantial minority of newlywed couples, and is associated with a range of risk factors such as family‐of‐origin violence. Few of the associated risk factors, however, are potentially modifiable through early intervention to prevent violence. In the current study self‐reported aggression and violence were assessed in 379 Australian newlywed couples. Consistent with US‐based research, >20% of newlywed Australian couples reported at least one incident of relationship violence in the past year. A range of correlates of relationship violence and aggression was assessed, including the construct of relationship self‐regulation, which is the extent that partners report being able to enhance their relationship with their partner. Low relationship self‐regulation was correlated with relationship aggression and violence. It was concluded that the aggression and violence are common problems in Australian newlywed couples, and that enhancing relationship self‐regulation might help reduce the prevalence of aggression.     

Generalization effects of coping-skills training: influence of self-defense training on women's efficacy beliefs, assertiveness, and aggression

Concern for personal safety is a pervasive stressor for many women. Developing competencies in physical self-defense may empower women to engage more freely in daily activities with less fear. This study assessed the effects of physical self-defense training on multiple aspects of women's perceived self-efficacy and other self-reported personality characteristics. Training powerfully increased task-specific (self-defense) efficacy beliefs as well as physical and global efficacy beliefs. Training increased self-reported assertiveness, and posttraining decreases in hostility and aggression were found on several of the subscales of The Aggression Questionnaire (A. H. Buss & M. Perry, 1992), indicating that training did not have an aggression-disinhibiting effect. In the experimental condition, most of the effects were maintained (and some delayed effects appeared at follow-up.