Terror management and the vicissitudes of sports fan affiliation: the effects of mortality salience on optimism and fan identification

The present research examined the hypothesis derived from terror management theory that identifications with sports teams shield against the potential consequences of awareness of death. Experiment 1 demonstrated that Dutch participants who were reminded of their death expressed greater optimism about the results of the national soccer team compared to a control condition. Experiment 2 conceptually replicated this finding with American participants and college sports teams. In addition, Experiment 2 tested the hypothesis that success of a team is a prerequisite for sports fan affiliation to function as a buffer against death concerns. Before the college football season began, participants who were reminded about death expressed greater relative preference for a more salient, but less successful college football team over a national college champion basketball team compared to control participants. However, after the football team lost its first game of the season, participants who were reminded about death indicated greater relative preference for the successful basketball team. Results are discussed with regard to the psychological function of social identifications. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Reciprocity of the relationship between role ambiguity and group cohesion in youth interdependent sport

Objectives

Based on the role episode model (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, & Rosenthal, 1964), the purpose of this study was to examine the reciprocal relationship between role ambiguity (Beauchamp, Bray, Eys, & Carron, 2002) and group cohesion (Eys, Loughead, Bray, & Carron, 2009) in youth interdependent sport teams.

Design

Longitudinal research with self-reported questionnaires.

Methods

Participants (N = 162; 12-18 years of age; M = 15.00 years) took part in two testing sessions (midseason vs. late-season) designed to gather information on individual perceptions of role ambiguity and group cohesion.

Results

After statistically controlling for status, gender, and team membership, results demonstrated that perceptions of social cohesion at midseason positively predicted variations in perceptions of scope of responsibilities and role behaviors in defense between mid- and end of season.

Conclusions

The need to belong (fundamental human motivation) and the unbalanced gender composition of the sample could explain the salience of social cohesion in the cohesion-role ambiguity relationship within youth interdependent sport teams. Results underlined that a part of role construction within youth teams is based on the peer social relationships developed between teammates. Implications are identified for youth practice. Limitations and future directions are addressed.     

Family systems consultation with an athletic team: A case study of themes

Abstract

Utilizing family therapy theory and techniques to consult with businesses and other organizations has grown in popularity. In recent years, systems consultation has also been utilized with athletic teams (Schindler-Zimmerman, Washle, & Rotinsky, 1990; Zimmerman & DeVoe, 1993; Zimmennan & Protinsky, 1993; Zimmennan, 1991, 1993). The literature on systems consultation and athletic teams has primarily focused on interventions, guidelines for consulting with athletic teams, common concerns of athletes and specific theories utilized. This article presents themes which emerged from a consultation case study with a university women's athletic team. The themes emerged from videotape analysis using qualitative methodology. This presentation of themes will give the reader a flavor of systemic consultation with athletic teams including typical issues, team structure, and the similarities between families and sports teams.     

Does decision making transfer across similar and dissimilar sports?

ObjectivesThe ability to make decisions under time pressure is crucial to performance in sport. However, there remains a paucity of research that examines whether the skills underpinning decision-making transfer across similar or dissimilar sports. We examine whether decision making transfers from soccer to other sports that may be deemed to be either similar (basketball) or dissimilar (tennis) based on sports taxonomy.MethodsSkilled soccer players (N = 20) completed a video-based temporal occlusion test designed to measure decision-making involving offensive sequences of play from soccer, basketball, and tennis. Participants were required to decide on an appropriate action to execute for each situation presented.ResultsResponse accuracy was higher in the soccer decision-making task compared to the basketball and tennis tasks. Furthermore, accuracy scores were higher on the basketball compared to the tennis task.ConclusionsThere appears to be some positive transfer of decision-making between sports that share similar elements, supporting the importance both of specificity and generality in expert performance.     

Achievement Motivation among High School Basketball and Cross-Country Athletes: A Personal Investment Perspective

Abstract

Goal perspective research in the sport setting has primarily focused on task and ego goal orientations, while failing to address the influence of social goals (e.g., Urdan & Maehr, 1995). Maehr and Braskamp's (1986) personal investment theory allows researchers to examine achievement motivation from a multidimensional perspective that incorporates social factors of motivation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the personal incentives, sense of self, and perceived options (Maehr & Braskamp, 1986) of basketball and cross-country athletes via semi-structured interviews. Results from content analyses revealed that athletes defined positive and negative experiences through task-, ego-, and socially-oriented personal incentives as well as sense of self and perceived options components. Socially-oriented personal incentives and sense of self components were more prevalent for the basketball athletes than for the cross-country athletes. Notable sport group differences suggest the need to further examine social factors of motivation with a broader representation of individual and team sport athletes.     

Predicting Athletic Performance with Self- Confidence and Somatic and Cognitive Anxiety as a Function of Motor and Physiological Requirements in Six Sports

The purpose of the present study is to examine the ability of certain psychological attributes to predict performance in six National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I collegiate sports. Eighty-four athletes from the varsity sports teams of cross country running, alpine and nordic skiing, tennis, basketball, and track and field at the University of Colorado completed a questionnaire adapted from Martens (1977; Martens et al., 1983) that measured their trait levels of self-confidence (Bandura, 1977), somatic anxiety, and cognitive anxiety (Martens, 1977; Martens et al., 1983). In addition, at three to six competitions during the season, the members of the cross country running and tennis teams filled out a state measure (Martens et al., 1983) of the three attributes from one to two hours prior to the competition. Following each competition, subjective and objective ratings of performance were obtained, and, for all sports, coaches' ratings of performance and an overall seasonal team ranking were determined as seasonal performance measures. The sports were dichotomized along motor and physiological dimensions. Results indicate that all three psychological attributes were significant predictors of performance in both fine motor, anaerobic sports and gross motor, aerobic sports. Further, clear differences in these relationships emerged as a function of the dichotomization. In addition, unexpected sex differences emerged. The findings are discussed relative to prior research and their implications for future research.     

Hidden patterns of play interaction in soccer using SOF-CODER

Traditional methods for quantifying sport performances are limited in their capacity to describe the complex interactions of events that occur within a performance over time. The following article outlines a new approach to the study of actions between players in team sports—mainly, soccer. Since the observational design is nomothetic, point, and multidimensional, an observational and data-collecting instrument has been developed. The instrument is mixed and combines a field format with a category system for game events, as well as an ad hoc instrument that considers the game actions of one or both teams, each recorded according to the same criteria. The article also outlines a new approach to the analysis of time-based event records—in this case, sports performance—known as T-pattern detection. The relevant elements of the T-pattern detection process are explained, and exemplar data from analyses of soccer matches are presented to highlight the potential of this form of data analysis. The results suggest that it is possible to identify new kinds of profiles for both individuals and teams on the basis of observational criteria and a further analysis of temporal behavioral patterns detected within the performances.     

Key players in sport teams. An exploratory study on the effects of attachment styles on intra-team relational networks

Relationship issues in sport are considered vital for the overall wellbeing of athletes (Jowett, 2005). The way athletes interact, create and maintain relationships is thought to be powerfully influenced by the athletes' attachment states of mind (Thomson & Jaque, 2018). To our knowledge, no study so far has investigated the impact players' attachment styles, as personality dispositions, have on overall intra-team relationship dynamics. This paper examines intra-team social relational networks from the perspective of adult attachment theory. Cross-sectional data were collected from 10 sport teams (158 players) from different sports. Self-report data were collected to assess attachment style and social relationships with teammates. Social network analyses (SNA) were used to calculate players' centrality scores based on incoming and outgoing relational nominations. Multilevel linear analysis was further performed to check inferential relationships between the study variables. Data showed that attachment styles of players, as personality dispositions, affected partly centrality degree positions within the various team social relational networks. The study offers an innovative perspective on the interactional and dynamic world of social relationships in sports teams and confirms that attachment style differences among players predispose them to particular positions within the team social relational networks. Although the current research has an exploratory character, it shows a new direction in the study of groups and sport team dynamics.     

Transformational leadership and team performance in sports teams: A conditional indirect model

This study tests how transformational leadership fosters team performance through team cohesion and how that relationship is moderated by previous team performance and leadership consensus. We computed a moderated-mediation model based on a sample of 690 professional players in 59 top professional teams in interactive team sports leagues (basketball, handball, roller hockey, and indoor football/soccer) in Spain. Our findings suggest that transformational leadership indirectly influences objective team performance through the mediation role of team cohesion and that this indirect effect is more prominent when the level of previous performance is higher. We also found that the indirect effect of transformational leadership on team performance via cohesion is stronger in teams with higher consensus regarding their coaches' leadership. Overall, our results demonstrate the importance of integrating dispersion and contextual variables into research models, in particular, previous performance and leadership consensus.     

Early sport involvement in young Portuguese basketball players

The purpose of this study was to examine the quantity and type of sporting activities undertaken by young Portuguese basketball players in early stages of athletic development. 750 basketball players aged between 12 and 16 years served as participants, grouped by sex and competitive level. The Skilled group comprised players representing the 9 highly ranked regional teams (n=378) while the Less-skilled group comprised the players representing the remaining 9 regional teams (n=372). All the participants filled out a previously validated questionnaire based on retrospective information linked to the training activities experienced throughout their involvement in sport. Results suggest that the majority of the players started practicing sports preferentially between 6 and 10 years. However, a significant number of players reported a later start, between 11 and 14 years of age. The pattern of sport involvement confirmed important divergences in the path reported by the players by the team's competitive level. The major findings of this study confirmed that players representing the highly ranked teams demonstrated a tendency to extend their training activities during longer periods during the week and throughout each season.     

Empathie organisationnelle,soutien organisationnel perçu et efficacité des équipes de travail dans l’industrie nucléaire

This research studies social climate's role in the efficacy of work teams. The referential work frame is based on the concept of organizational empathy (Guédon & Bernaud, 2008), which is specifically operationalized on a tri-dimensional model basis and the perceived organizational support from Eisenberger's model (Rhoades & Eisenberger, 2002). A total of 274 employees, belonging to 3 professional groups, who worked in a nuclear power house participated in this research. Linear regression analysis’ results show a major effect of organizational empathy on the efficacy of work teams, nevertheless predictors’ hierarchy varies upon occupied professional function.     

Psychological need-satisfaction,and basketball performance

ObjectivesWe applied self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) to examine whether pre-game psychological need-satisfaction predicts the quality of sports performance, and whether performance, in turn, predicts post-game need-satisfaction.Design/methodUndergraduate participants competing in a recreational league basketball season completed autonomy, competence, and relatedness need-satisfaction measures before and after games (N = 150 person-games). For each game, data were collected on the number of one, two, and three point shots taken, as well as shooting percentages for each type of shot.ResultsParticipants with greater pre-game autonomy performed best overall during games, although this pattern did not emerge within-subjects. Good game performance predicted enhanced post-game relatedness and competence, both between- and within-subjects.ConclusionImplications for optimal sports performance are considered.     

Matches and mismatches between telic dominance and type of sport: Changes in emotions and stress pre- to post-performance

This study was intended to test the proposition that telic dominant individuals have a greater affinity and preference for endurance sports compared to paratelic dominant individuals who prefer explosive sports. The Telic Dominance Scale (TDS) was used to divide 66 university students into telic (high) and paratelic (low) dominance groups (n = 33 in each group). The state version of the Tension and Effort Stress Inventory (TESI) was completed before and after participation in an endurance sport (long distance running) and an explosive sport (basketball). It was predicted that participation in a preferred sport would produce a higher level of positive response for each group. This prediction was not supported. Irrespective of the type of sport, participation consistently produced positive changes in emotional tone with significant increases in excitement and decreases in anxiety, boredom, sullenness, modesty, resentment, and guilt. Some differences were found between groups and between sports. The telic group had higher levels of pride, gratitude, and virtue. Placidity, somatic tension stress and effort stress were higher for running than basketball. The findings are discussed within reversal theory’s motivational constructs and the broader context of sport and exercise adherence in health care.     

Paying the Way: The Ticket to Gender Equality in Sports

Past research shows that consumers tend to equate higher prices with higher value. However, it remains unclear whether consumers of athletic events follow the predictions of equity theory when attributing value to particular teams. We conducted 3 studies to investigate the existence and consequences of a disparity between men's and women's college basketball ticket prices. In Study 1, a survey of 303 NCAA Division I programs demonstrated that the gender of a basketball team is a primary indicator of the price of a ticket, such that women's tickets are significantly less expensive than men's tickets nationwide, even after controlling for a number of contextual factors (e.g., win–loss records, size of the schools). Consistent with equity theory, Studies 2 and 3 revealed that such a price disparity can result in lower evaluation of women's teams than men's. These findings indicate a need to consider the costs and benefits of maintaining differences in ticket prices within a context of gender inequity.     

Athlete leadership dispersion and satisfaction in interactive sport teams

ObjectiveAthlete leadership on sport teams can be represented by an individual occupying a formal or informal leadership role within a team who influences a group of team members to achieve a common goal [Loughead, Hardy, & Eys, (2006). The nature of athlete leadership. Journal of Sport Behavior, 29, 142–158]. Previous research has suggested that individuals involved in sport view the presence of athlete leaders as a crucial component to the effective functioning of the team [Glenn & Horn, (1993) Psychological and personal predictors of leadership behavior in female soccer athletes. Journal Applied of Sport psychology, 5, 17–34]. The purpose of the present study was to examine, at both the beginning and end of a competitive season, the relationship between individual perceptions of athlete leader dispersion across three types of leadership functions (i.e., task, social, external) and satisfaction.MethodParticipants included 218 intercollegiate athletes from a variety of interactive team sports. At the beginning and end of their competitive seasons, athletes indicated who the task, social, and external leaders were on their respective teams and responded to four dimensions of the Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire [Riemer & Chelladurai, (1998) Development of the Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ). Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 20, 127–156].ResultsThose who perceived all three leadership functions to be represented to the same degree (i.e., higher number of leaders for all three functions, an average number of leaders for all three functions, or a lower number of leaders for all three functions) were more satisfied with their team's performance and degree to which the team was integrated than those individuals who perceived an imbalance in the number of athletes engaging in those functions.ConclusionThe relative number of leaders within sport groups is related to individual perceptions of satisfaction.     

Defining and characterizing team resilience in elite sport

ObjectivesThe objectives of this study were to develop a definition of team resilience and to identify the resilient characteristics of elite sport teams.Design and methodFocus groups consisting of a total of 31 participants were conducted with five elite teams from a range of sports. An interpretive thematic analysis using inductive and deductive reasoning was employed to analyze the data.Results and conclusionsTeam resilience was defined as a dynamic, psychosocial process which protects a group of individuals from the potential negative effect of the stressors they collectively encounter. It comprises of processes whereby team members use their individual and combined resources to positively adapt when experiencing adversity. Findings revealed four main resilient characteristics of elite sport teams: group structure, mastery approaches, social capital, and collective efficacy. This study extends resilience research in sport psychology by providing greater conceptual clarity of resilience at a team level. The implications of the findings for those conducting research in this area and for those consulting with elite sport teams are discussed.     

The Home Field Advantage in Athletics: A Meta‐Analysis

This meta‐analysis examined the home‐field advantage in athletics, with an emphasis on potential moderators. The goal of this research was to quantify the probability of a home victory, thus only studies that included win–loss data were included in the meta‐analysis. A significant advantage for home teams was observed across all conditions (M_π= .604); and time era, season length, game type, and sport moderated the effect. Furthermore, it was found that season length mediated the effect of sport such that differences between sports could be attributed to some sports having longer seasons than other sports. This research has implications for athletes, fans, and the media alike.     

The home disadvantage in championship competitions: team sports

ObjectivesThe possibility that home teams might choke in decisive games of championship series was first proposed by Baumeister and Steinhilber in 1984. Their hypothesis was that when the home team was on the verge of winning a championship, it tended to choke. As a result, the home advantage would be smaller in last games than in early games of the same series. The present paper updates the original data for baseball and basketball to 2012 and adds a parallel study of ice hockey.Design/MethodThe analysis compares home win percentage early in a championship series with home advantage in the regular season. Its main focus, however, is on the games in a championship series between the early and late games.ResultsThe first of two main results is that in all three sports the percentage of home wins in Game 1 of a championship series is substantially higher than home advantage in the same sport in the regular season. The second result is that, while the tendency for percent home wins to decrease regularly over the course of a best-of-seven series is confirmed in all three sports, this decrease is complete or almost complete by Game 4, well before the home choke, according to Baumeister and Steinhilber, is supposed to occur.ConclusionThe home-choke hypothesis as originally advanced in 1984 is not supported by subsequent results and analysis.     

Upsetting the apple cart: Within-team profiles of intragroup conflict and their associations with narcissism

Different types of intragroup conflict (i.e., relationship, task, and process conflict) co-exist in team environments yet how this co-existence is expressed is poorly understood, particularly in sports teams. Further, there is a lack of knowledge surrounding the antecedents of intragroup conflict. Here, we examined the nature of conflict profiles in sports teams and investigated narcissism as an antecedent to the conflict profiles. In a large, multi-group sample (n = 1107 athletes from 109 teams), participants completed measures of intragroup conflict and narcissism. Team-level latent profile analysis of intragroup conflict variables indicated five distinct within-team conflict profiles which varied in patterns of relationship, task, and process conflict. Moreover, teams high in narcissism (both in terms of team mean and team maximum scores) were more likely to occupy dysfunctional conflict profiles, that is profiles high in all conflict types. These findings underscore the importance of considering conflict profiles within teams and provide the first evidence for narcissism as a contributing factor in the development of conflict profiles in groups.     

Anger and perceived legitimacy of aggression in male Hong Kong Chinese athletes: Effects of type of sport and level of competition

ProblemThe vast majority of research examining the interplay between aggressive emotions, beliefs, behaviors, cognitions, and situational contingencies in competitive athletes has focused on Western populations and only select sports (e.g., ice hockey). Research involving Eastern, particularly Chinese, athletes is surprisingly sparse given the sheer size of these populations. Thus, this study examines the aggressive emotions, beliefs, behaviors, and cognitions, of competitive Chinese athletes.MethodSeveral measures related to aggression were distributed to a large sample (N = 471) of male athletes, representing four sports (basketball, rugby union, association football/soccer, and squash).ResultsHigher levels of anger and aggression tended to be associated with higher levels of play for rugby and low levels of play for contact (e.g., football, basketball) and individual sports (e.g., squash).ConclusionsThe results suggest that the experience of angry emotions and aggressive behaviors of Chinese athletes are similar to Western populations, but that sport psychology practitioners should be aware of some potentially important differences, such as the general tendency of Chinese athletes to disapprove of aggressive behavior.