Using Ethnography in Applied Sport Psychology

The acceptance of qualitative research in applied sport psychology is growing steadily, yet there are continued calls for greater methodological diversity in this research. To this end, we offer ethnography to extend and enhance our understanding of applied sport psychology. Ethnography is aimed toward understanding the culture of a particular group from the perspective of the group members. The group culture, then, will lend insight into the behaviors, values, emotions, and mental states of group members. Ethnographers employ multiple methods to gain a comprehensive understanding of the social environment and perceptions of the members of the social group. In this paper, we discuss the epistemological and methodological foundations of ethnography. Then, using research examples related to applied sport psychology, we describe processes involved ethnographic research. Finally, we explore the issues of representation and legitimacy in ethnography.     

Taking Stock of Organizational Psychology in Sport

Welcome to this special issue of Journal of Applied Sport Psychology dedicated to organizational sport psychology. In this introduction, my goal is to provide some background to organizational sport psychology to “take stock” of the emergence and key lines of inquiry of this domain, before outlining the contributions contained within the issue. Further, this special issue concludes with an editorial epilogue in which I offer a commentary on these articles and some general reflections on organizational sport psychology.     

Rediscovering the Positive Psychology of Sport Participation: Happiness in a Ski Resort Context

Interrelated functions of the three orientations to happiness were examined by a cross-sectional survey, in the context of a ski resort experience. Accordingly, a conceptual framework of pleasure, flow, and involvement influencing satisfaction was established. Utilizing structural equation modeling, the conceptual framework was tested by analyzing data collected from 279 participants who enjoyed skiing and/or snowboarding. Results from bootstrap test indicated that direct and total effects from flow had the highest predictive power on satisfaction. In contrast, pleasure showed higher explanatory power on subjective experiences of flow and meaning, and influenced satisfaction only by indirect effects through those elements. Together, these findings support the research model synthesizing the behavioral constructs of sport participation with subjective well-being perspectives. Moreover, the expanded model in a sporting context further evidences the functional roles of the orientations to happiness by results consistent with extant literature of positive psychology. Roles of embodiments of orientations to happiness in an action-based exercise and its implications are further discussed.     

A Commentary and Reflections on the Field of Organizational Sport Psychology

In this epilogue to the special issue of Journal of Applied Sport Psychology on organizational sport psychology, I provide a brief commentary on each of the articles contained within the issue and offer some reflections on the field. In drawing together my reflections on the current state of the field of organizational sport psychology, I offer three pressing observations relating to the need for intervention work, the need for greater duty of care, and the need for practitioner action.     

Sport Psychology Consulting Effectiveness: The Sport Psychology Consultant's Perspective

The aim of this study was to examine sport psychology consultants’ (SPCs) perceptions of the influence of SPC characteristics on consultant effectiveness, while determining the conditions necessary for establishing an effective consulting relationship. Thirteen accredited SPCs participated in semi-structured interviews. Thematic content analysis identified three characteristics of SPC effectiveness: (a) build a connection with the athlete to create positive change, (b) build a professional consulting relationship with athlete, and (c) consulting relationship meets athletes’ needs. Two aspects emerged as essential for an effective consulting relationship: (a) athlete is an active participant, and (b) SPC awareness of client boundaries of confidentiality.     

家庭中心积极心理学应用

家庭中心积极心理学以积极心理学为基础,以社会生态学理论和家庭中心服务为思想来源,采用以家庭、学校、咨询者三位一体的联合行为咨询的干预策略,以实现家庭中儿童的发展性需要为最终目标。本文主要介绍了家庭中心积极心理学的内涵、理论来源、基本原则、实施方法—联合行为咨询。     

Ethnography in Community Psychology: Promises and Tensions

Community psychology recognizes the need for research methods that illuminate context, culture, diversity, and process. One such method, ethnography, has crossed into multiple disciplines from anthropology, and indeed, community psychologists are becoming community ethnographers. Ethnographic work stands at the intersection of bridging universal questions with the particularities of people and groups bounded in time, geographic location, and social location. Ethnography is thus historical and deeply contextual, enabling a rich, in-depth understanding of communities that is aligned with the values and goals of community psychology. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the potential of ethnography for community psychology and to encourage its use within the field as a method to capture culture and context, to document process, and to reveal how social change and action occur within and through communities. We discuss the method of ethnography, draw connections to community psychology values and goals, and identify tensions from our experiences doing ethnography. Overall, we assert that ethnography is a method that resonates with community psychology and present this paper as a resource for those interested in using this method in their research or community activism.     

积极心理学：一种新的研究方向

积极心理学目前在西方心理学界引起了普遍的兴趣和关注。积极心理学关注于力量和美德等人性中的积极方面,致力于使生活更加富有意义。西方关于积极心理学的研究,当前主要集中在研究积极的情绪和体验、积极的个性特征、积极的心理过程对于生理健康的影响以及培养天才等方向。该介绍了积极心理学的这些研究领域,并追溯了积极心理学兴起的历史渊源,从总体上介绍了积极心理学的研究现状与进展,旨在为我国的相关研究提供参考。     

Amazon Mechanical Turk in Organizational Psychology: An Evaluation and Practical Recommendations

Purpose

Amazon Mechanical Turk is an increasingly popular data source in the organizational psychology research community. This paper presents an evaluation of MTurk and provides a set of practical recommendations for researchers using MTurk.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We present an evaluation of methodological concerns related to the use of MTurk and potential threats to validity inferences. Based on our evaluation, we also provide a set of recommendations to strengthen validity inferences using MTurk samples.

Findings

Although MTurk samples can overcome some important validity concerns, there are other limitations researchers must consider in light of their research objectives. Researchers should carefully evaluate the appropriateness and quality of MTurk samples based on the different issues we discuss in our evaluation.

Implications

There is not a one-size-fits-all answer to whether MTurk is appropriate for a research study. The answer depends on the research questions and the data collection and analytic procedures adopted. The quality of the data is not defined by the data source per se, but rather the decisions researchers make during the stages of study design, data collection, and data analysis.

Originality/Value

The current paper extends the literature by evaluating MTurk in a more comprehensive manner than in prior reviews. Past review papers focused primarily on internal and external validity, with less attention paid to statistical conclusion and construct validity—which are equally important in making accurate inferences about research findings. This paper also provides a set of practical recommendations in addressing validity concerns when using MTurk.

     

Toward a Positive Military Psychology

The present study used an informant method of psychiatric assessment to evaluate Saddam Hussein, and these results were compared to a posthumous assessment of Adolf Hitler. Eleven Iraqi adults who lived under Hussein's influence for a median of 24 years completed the Coolidge Axis II Inventory, a measure of 14 personality disorders. The mean consensus among the 11 raters was r = .57. It revealed that Hussein probably reached diagnostic threshold for the sadistic (T score M = 81.0), paranoid (T score M = 79.3), antisocial (T score M = 77.4), and narcissistic (T score M = 74.2) personality disorders. The correlation between the consensus profile for Hussein and a consensus profile of 5 Hitler experts was r = .79, indicating a very strong similarity between the two profiles. It was concluded that Saddam Hussein had many of the same personality disorders or their features as Adolf Hitler, although sadistic features were stronger in Hussein than Hitler. It appeared that a “Big Four” personality disorders constellation emerged for these two dictators, and they were sadistic, antisocial, paranoid, and narcissistic. It was also found that Hussein might have had some traits or features of paranoid schizophrenia. Implications for diplomacy and negotiations with persons with similar personality profiles are proffered.     

积极组织学术研究--当代组织管理学中的新运动

积极组织学术研究是管理学中的一项新运动,由密歇根大学商学院倡导建立的积极组织学术研究小组发起。主张发展积极的人类优势,复苏、振兴和激发组织活力,使组织兴旺发达,使其员工迈向成功。研究者将研究重点集中于在组织环境中培养积极的要素,并在研究中构建严谨、系统的理论基础,以期实现组织、员工及研究者的共同发展。     

The Psychology of Self-Esteem: A Potential Common Ground for Humanistic Positive Psychology and Positivistic Positive Psychology

Today there are 2 positive psychologies: 1 that is humanistic and 1 that is not. Both focus on researching, understanding, and fostering well-being, optimal functioning, and healthy social institutions. However, in addition to emerging at different times, the 2 psychologies are characterized by major philosophical and methodological differences that help determine what is seen and not seen from each point of view. One area where these distinctions show up most strikingly is in the psychology of self-esteem. Although humanistic positive psychology understands self-esteem as playing a key role in human behavior, the more positivistic positive psychology seems to have largely missed such an important factor. This article examines how the psychology of self-esteem could be a meeting ground between these 2 approaches.     

组织心理学的新进展

本文在大量的国内外文献的基础上 ,从六个方面系统地介绍了近十年来组织管理心理学的新进展 :激励问题研究、团队研究研究、领导行为研究、管理决策研究、组织文化研究、管理的跨文化研究。从中我们可以看到以下几个特点 :1从个体理论向整体组织理论扩展。 2在理论发展上 ,重视吸收认知心理学的研究成果。3在学科体系方面 ,更强调组织的动力学和人力资源的系统开发。4在研究领域方面 ,组织心理学也突破了传统的框架。工作业绩评估、管理决策、组织气氛和组织文化以及跨文化的比较研究 ,已成为组织心理学中的热门领域 ,共获得了有价值的研究成果。     

Positive Psychology and Attachment: Positive Affect as a Mediator of Developmental Outcomes

Fredrickson’s (1998) broaden-and-build model and Bowlby’s (1969) attachment theory provide alternate explanations for positive cognitive, social, physical, and psychological outcomes, positive affect and secure attachments, respectively. This study examined whether affect mediates the relationship between attachment and positive outcomes. The sample consisted of 99 undergraduate students from a small, public liberal arts college in the mid-Atlantic region. For people high in attachment anxiety, but not those high in attachment avoidance, affect partially mediated social and psychological outcomes and fully mediated health outcomes. People who scored high in attachment anxiety reported less positive affect and more negative affect, which results in poorer social, physical, and psychological outcomes than those with lower levels of attachment anxiety. Perhaps children with caregivers who are more responsive to their needs experience more positive affect; and, it is the experience of positive affect that yields developmental advantages.     

Group Well-Being: Morale from a Positive Psychology Perspective

What makes life most worth living? The simplest summary of findings from the new field of positive psychology is that other people matter. It is within groups that we live, work, love, and play, and groups should therefore be a primary focus of researchers interested in health and well-being. In the present article, we propose morale as an important indicator of group well-being. We survey what is known about overall morale across a variety of groups: its meaning, measurement, enabling factors, and putative consequences. We sketch a future research agenda that would examine morale in multidimensional terms at both the individual and group levels and would pay particular attention to the positive outcomes associated with morale.
Qu'est-ce qui fait que la vie vaut le plus la peine d'être vécue? Réduire à leur plus simple expression les résultats de ce nouveau domaine qu'est la psychologie positive revient à mentionner l'importance d'autrui. C'est dans des groupes que nous vivons, travaillons, aimons et jouons, et les groupes devraient donc être une préoccupation première pour les chercheurs concernés par la santé et le bien-être. Dans cet article, on avance l'idée que le moral est un indicateur majeur du bien-être des groupes. On recense ce qui est connu sur le moral en général dans divers types de groupes: sa signification, sa mesure, ses antécédents et ses conséquences supposées. On esquisse un futur programme de recherche qui appréhenderait le moral de façon multidimensionnelle aux niveaux à la fois individuel et groupal et accorderait une attention particulière aux retombées positives relevant du moral.     

An Introduction to Sports Concussion for the Sport Psychology Consultant

This paper was designed to introduce the sport psychology consultant (SPC) to the relevant practical and theoretical information pertaining to sports concussion. The paper discusses four key areas related to sports concussion: 1) recognition, 2) management, 3) psychological issues following a concussion, and 4) prevention and education. Throughout the paper, the authors emphasize the role of the SPC in each of these four areas. An integrated review of the sport concussion literature and current research and guidelines regarding the definition, pathophysiology, symptoms, neuropsychological testing, and risk factors for concussion is presented. The SPC's roles in educating and helping athletes deal with post-concussion issues such as the pressure to return to play and fear of reinjury are examined. The authors highlight the need for baseline neuropsychological testing of athletes; and advocate a multidimensional team approach to sport concussion, involving the SPC as a key member of that team.