Intelligence,Practice and Virtue: A Critical Review of the Educational Benefits of Expertise in Physical Education and Sport

The paper calls for a re-evaluation of physical education’s cognitive value claims, as this issue is fundamental to many of the conceptual difficulties the subject faces. Current epistemological challenges are reviewed before analysing the structural connections between intelligent practice and intelligent virtues, and the possibilities for physical education to better articulate its’ intrinsic and instrumental values claims. The paper evaluates arguments made on this basis and reviews revised curriculum planning and pedagogical practices, which could support an enhanced focus on learners’ wider aspirations and achievements; factors crucial for a virtuous life. While applauding enquiry into the possibilities for considering physical education as a moral endeavor, the paper raises concerns about conceptual clarity in intellectual and empirical accounts of virtue. The paper concludes by advocating further research on the interrelationship between intellectual and empirical accounts of skill, evaluation of learners’ decision-making and the aims of physical education and school sport programmes.     

Personality, Meta-Mood Experience, Life Satisfaction, and Anxiety in Australian versus Singaporean Students

This study explores two issues concerning the relationships between personality, meta-mood experience, life satisfaction, and anxiety. First, it explored the incremental value of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience in predicting the three components of meta-mood experience (that is, attention to feelings, emotional clarity, clarity of feelings and mood repair), after controlling for demographic variables across Australia and Singapore. Second, it explored the incremental value of the three meta-mood experience components in predicting life satisfaction and anxiety, after controlling for demographic variables and personality variables across the two countries. One hundred and eighty nine tertiary students from Australia and 243 tertiary students from Singapore participated in this study. First, hierarchical regression analyses for both samples suggested that Agreeableness and Neuroticism are the two most important personality predictors of meta-mood experience, emotional attention, and emotional repair. Second, hierarchical regression analyses for both samples suggested that emotional repair was a significant predictor for life satisfaction and anxiety, even after controlling for demographic variables and personality variables. These results have implications for therapeutic interventions with life satisfaction versus anxiety. Funding for this research is facilitated partially by a research grant from the National Institute of Education.     

Personality,Meta-Mood Experience,Life Satisfaction,and Anxiety in Australian versus Singaporean Students

This study explores two issues concerning the relationships between personality, meta-mood experience, life satisfaction, and anxiety. First, it explored the incremental value of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience in predicting the three components of meta-mood experience (that is, attention to feelings, emotional clarity, clarity of feelings and mood repair), after controlling for demographic variables across Australia and Singapore. Second, it explored the incremental value of the three meta-mood experience components in predicting life satisfaction and anxiety, after controlling for demographic variables and personality variables across the two countries. One hundred and eighty nine tertiary students from Australia and 243 tertiary students from Singapore participated in this study. First, hierarchical regression analyses for both samples suggested that Agreeableness and Neuroticism are the two most important personality predictors of meta-mood experience, emotional attention, and emotional repair. Second, hierarchical regression analyses for both samples suggested that emotional repair was a significant predictor for life satisfaction and anxiety, even after controlling for demographic variables and personality variables. These results have implications for therapeutic interventions with life satisfaction versus anxiety. Funding for this research is facilitated partially by a research grant from the National Institute of Education.     

Self-concept clarity and religious orientations: prediction of purpose in life and self-esteem

The present study concerns the relationship between self-concept clarity, religiosity, and well-being, as well as the mediating influence of religiosity on the relationship between self-concept clarity and sense of meaning in life and self-esteem. Self-concept clarity was found to be a significant predictor of sense of meaning in life and self-esteem; intrinsic religious orientation was found to be a predictor of sense of meaning in life, while the quest religious orientation was a predictor for self-esteem. The cross-products of self-concept clarity and intrinsic religious orientation were found to be related to the sense of purpose in life, which would point to religiosity being a mediator of the relationship between self-concept clarity and sense of purpose in life. The cross-products of self-concept clarity and quest religious orientation were found to be a predictor of self-esteem, which indicates a mediating effect of this religious orientation in the relationship of self-concept clarity and self-esteem.     

年轻男同性恋者自我概念清晰性与生命意义感的关系及作用机制

通过网络抽样法对405名年轻男同性恋者进行问卷调查,考察年轻男同性恋者自我概念清晰性与生命意义感的关系,并探讨内化同性恋嫌恶和应对自我效能感在其间的作用机制。结果表明：（1）年轻男同性恋者自我概念清晰性与生命意义感呈显著正相关。（2）内化同性恋嫌恶、应对自我效能感在自我概念清晰性与生命意义感间起链式中介作用。（3）应对自我效能感在自我概念清晰性与生命意义感间起中介作用。     

Addressing “The criterion problem” in the assessment of aggressive behavior: Development of a new taxonomic system

Aggressive behavior is a highly complex construct that is very challenging to measure. While advancements in the assessment of aggression have been made, some fundamental problems persist. First, the operational definition of aggressive behavior and its various subtypes are frequently misinterpreted and lack sufficient conceptual clarity. Second, due to these definitional problems, assessment instruments frequently correspond to different conceptualizations of aggression. In the present review, we attempt to resolve these limitations by proposing a new taxonomic system of aggressive acts that (a) corresponds to a hybrid definition of aggressive behavior, and (b) increases conceptual clarity between subtypes of aggressive behavior. It is argued that this classification system will permit greater precision in the assessment of aggression and lead to the improvement of theories, diagnostic systems, and clinical interventions.     

Developmental psychopathology. Current research, issues, and directions

Developmental psychopathology refers to the study of clinical dysfunction in the context of maturational and developmental processes. Although the field encompasses the entire life span, the present focus is on childhood. Special characteristics make the study of childhood dysfunction somewhat unique, including the emergence, evolution, and attenuation of seemingly problematic behaviors over the course of development; the manner in which children are referred for clinical evaluation; and complexities in identifying the appropriate foci for clinical intervention. Notwithstanding these obstacles, recent work has advanced considerably in diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of childhood disorders. The present article highlights recent advances in these areas and promising extensions in current research. Many advances have relied heavily on the extension of paradigms developed in research with adults. Additional research is needed that draws on and integrates conceptual and empirical work from developmental psychology.     

Life stress, the "kindling" hypothesis, and the recurrence of depression: considerations from a life stress perspective

Major depression is frequently characterized by recurrent episodes over the life course. First lifetime episodes of depression, however, are typically more strongly associated with major life stress than are successive recurrences. A key theoretical issue involves how the role of major life stress changes from an initial episode over subsequent recurrences. The primary conceptual framework for research on life stress and recurrence of depression is the "kindling" hypothesis (R. M. Post, 1992). Despite the strengths of the kindling hypothesis, a review of the research literature reveals inconsistencies and confusion about life stress and its implications for the recurrence of depression. Adopting a life stress perspective, the authors introduce 3 major themes that resolve the inconsistencies in the current literature. They integrate these themes and extrapolate the ideas with available data to develop a preliminary framework for evaluating competing explanatory models and to guide research on life stress and the recurrence of depression.     

A classification scheme for discipline: type, mode of administration, context

This paper reviews research related to parental disciplinary practices and presents a classification scheme discipline that separates discipline into the type and the mode of administration used. Previous research has not kept important constructs related to discipline distinct and has ignored some types of discipline, as well as the mode of administration. The classification scheme presented is meant to try to foster conceptual clarity, to advocate for attention to important aspects of disciplinary practices in future research, and to lay the groundwork for development of additional measurement tools — particularly for survey design research.     

Factors that enhance academic learning and study behaviours: A qualitative study

This exploratory study examined students’ conceptions of factors that enhance the use and application of academic learning and study strategies (LSS). A qualitative approach was used to explore the conceptions of 23 first-year university students (female = 14; age range = 18–24 years). Data were collected using unstructured interviews and narrative sketches. Thematic analysis revealed three themes; namely clarity, emotional intelligence, and life circumstances. LSS clarity showed that knowledge of the self as a learner and well-defined educational goals can enhance engagement in the academic study process. Emotional intelligence as LSS referred to the importance of self-management and emotional regulation; while life circumstances in LSS emphasised the impact of real world challenges that affect the learning process. Student development counselling for LSS should consider the extent to which students have a sense of clarity, emotional intelligence, and life orientation important for their education success.     

Superstitious,magical, and paranormal beliefs: An integrative model

Lack of conceptual clarity has hampered theory formation and research on superstitious, magical, and paranormal beliefs. This study offers a conceptual framework where these concepts are differentiated from other unfounded beliefs and defined identically as a confusion of core knowledge about physical, psychological, and biological phenomena. When testing this definition with questionnaire items (N = 239), the results showed that superstitious individuals accepted more violations of core ontological distinctions than skeptics did and that ontological confusions discriminated believers from skeptics better than intuitive thinking, analytical thinking, or emotional instability. The findings justify the present conceptualization of superstitious, magical, and paranormal beliefs, and offer new theoretical propositions for the familiar everyday beliefs that are yet scientifically so poorly understood.     

Modeling general and specific variance in multifaceted constructs: a comparison of the bifactor model to other approaches

This article recommends an alternative method for testing multifaceted constructs. Researchers often have to choose between two problematic approaches for analyzing multifaceted constructs: the total score approach and the individual score approach. Both approaches can result in conceptual ambiguity. The proposed bifactor model assesses simultaneously the general construct shared by the facets and the specific facets, over and above the general construct. We illustrate the bifactor model by examining the construct of Extraversion as measured by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO‐PI‐R; Costa & McCrae, 1992), with two college samples (N = 383 and 378). The analysis reveals that the facets of the NEO‐PI‐R Extraversion correlate with criteria in opposite directions after partialling out the general construct. The direction of gender differences also varies by facets. Bifactor models combine the advantages but avoid the drawbacks of the 2 existing methods and can lead to greater conceptual clarity.     

Sex characteristics,task clarity,and authority

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of sexual stereotyping on the exercise of authority. The hypotheses were that the sexual composition of the group affects the authority behavior of group leaders when the task has low clarity but that sex characteristics have no effect on authority behavior when the task has high clarity. These predictions were expected to hold both in situations where there is a direct association between sex and the task ability and in situations where no such connection is established. As predicted, no significant difference was found in the number of high control acts made by male and female leaders in the high task clarity conditions, even when sex was directly related to the task ability. Also as hypothesized, sex effects did operate strongly in the low task clarity conditions. Male leaders made significantly more high control acts than female leaders, even in conditions where no prior relation was established between sex and the task ability. Thus, these results indicate that the effect of sex characteristics on the exercise of authority is enhanced in low task clarity situations and is neutralized in high task clarity situations.A preliminary version of this paaper was presented at the West Coast Conference for Small Group Research, San Francisco, California, April 24, 1974. We would like to acknowledge the comments made by Anne McMahon and Mary Walshok and the research assistance provided by Sue Aldrich, Patti Baird, Jim Hart, Debbie Jones, Glenn Kassel, Jane Morrison, Karen Scheblein, and Kay Smith.     

Coping, stress, and social resources among adults with unipolar depression

We used a stress and coping paradigm to guide the development of indices of coping responses and to explore the roles of stress, social resources, and coping among 424 men and women entering treatment for depression. We also used an expanded concept of multiple domains of life stress to develop several indices of ongoing life strains. Although most prior studies have focused on acute life events, we found that chronic strains were somewhat more strongly and consistently related to the severity of dysfunction. The coping indices generally showed acceptable conceptual and psychometric characteristics and only moderate relationships to respondents' sociodemographic characteristics or to the severity of the stressful event for which coping was sampled. Coping responses directed toward problem solving and affective regulation were associated with less severe dysfunction, whereas emotional-discharge responses, more frequently used by women, were linked to greater dysfunction. Stressors, social resources, and coping were additively predictive of patient's functioning, but coping and social resources did not have stress-attenuation or buffering effects.     

Properties of Goal Systems: Consistency, Conflict, and Coherence

The paper provides a formal representation of goal systems. The focus is on three properties: consistency, conflict, and coherence. An aim is to attain conceptual clarity of these properties. It is argued that consistency is adequately regarded as a property relative to the decision situation or, more specifically, the set of alternatives that the agent faces. Moreover, as a condition of rationality, consistency is stronger than some writers have claimed. Conflict is adequately regarded as a relation over subsets of a given goal system and should likewise be regarded as relative to the set of alternatives that the agent faces. Coherence is given a probabilistic interpretation, based on a support relation over subsets of goal systems. Presented by Heinrich Wansing     

模糊对象和模糊性的逻辑

本文最初写于2001年,旨在探究语言上的、概念上的与本体论中的模糊性问题。文章始于这样一个问题,即模糊性仅仅是一个词的特征,抑或它也是我们的概念的特征,甚或是实在的特征？其中主要的关注点在于模糊对象的问题和相关的模糊同一性的问题。本文首先论证,即便模糊概念总可以得到进一步澄清,每个概念工具也必定是模糊的。其次,本文认为,如果不仅仅是词语,而且这些词语所表达的概念也是模糊的,那么可以论证,对象也必定是模糊的。第三,那种认为模糊对象必定具有模糊的同一性的思路是一种误解。最后一点尤为重要,因为对于模糊对象的抵制部分就来自于下述观念,即这种对象是不可能的,因为它们不遵守逻辑的同一律。本文也论述了,通过放弃二值原则以使得模糊陈述具有真和假之间的某个值或根本就没有真值的办法,也无助于解决模糊性问题,而且恰恰会造成相反的情况,即妨碍我们找到问题的解决之道。本文表明,在为真和既不真又不假之间,难以清晰地划分界限,正如在模糊的情形下要在真和假之间划界一样困难。本文的方法是利用量化模态逻辑的框架和语义学来处理这些问题。基于哥德尔模式的模态逻辑系统T,本文提出了一种关于清晰性和模糊性的量化逻辑,其中利用清晰性算子来代替必然性算子。文章还进一步讨论了模糊性和概念工具的发展之间的关联。     

Unexplained chest pain: a review of psychological conceptualizations and treatment efficacy

This review critically considers psychological theories and models used to understand unexplained chest pain, and efficacy of treatment strategies. It discusses the strengths and limitations of current perspectives, and highlights implications for future research and interventions. A comprehensive range of literature examining unexplained chest pain, and published over the last three decades, was thus reviewed finding that, although unexplained chest pain has been examined as a psychological phenomenon for over 100 years, explanatory models have emerged only in the last two decades. Neither psychophysiological nor psychodynamic models have been significantly advanced. Only cognitive-behavioural models have been explicitly derived to explain and manage the condition, and require further refinement to address conceptual and methodological limitations. Studies assessing treatment efficacy suggest cognitive-behavioural therapy as a first-line therapy, but have failed to establish whether the approach is acceptable and effective in routine care. Comprehensive psychological understanding of unexplained chest pain, and its management, is therefore developing but is far from complete. Cognitive-behavioural interventions show promise but are likely to be enhanced by greater theoretical clarity and understanding of resistance to their implementation.     

Academic self‐handicapping: Relationships with learning specific and general self‐perceptions and academic performance over time

Background. Academic self‐handicapping (ASH) tendencies, strategies students employ that increase their chances of failure on assessments while protecting self‐esteem, are correlated with classroom goal structures and to learners' general self‐perceptions and learning strategies. In particular, greater ASH is related to poorer academic performance but has yet to be examined with respect to learners' performance across a series of tests. Aims. This research was designed to examine the relationship between students' ASH tendencies and their self‐concept clarity, learning strategies, and performance on a series of tests in a university course. Sample. A total of 209 (153 female; 56 male) Canadian university psychology students participated in this study. Methods. Participants' ASH tendencies, self‐concept clarity, approaches to learning, and self‐regulatory learning strategies were assessed along with expected grades and hours of study in the course from which they were recruited. Finally, students' grades were obtained for the three tests for the course from which they were recruited. Results. Students reporting greater self‐handicapping tendencies reported lower self‐concept clarity, lower academic self‐efficacy, greater test anxiety, more superficial learning strategies, and scored lower on all tests in the course. The relationships of ASH scores and learner variables with performance varied across the three performance indices. In particular, ASH scores were more strongly related to second and third tests, and prior performances were accounted for. ASH scores accounted for a relatively small but significant proportion of variance for all three tests. Conclusions. These results showed that ASH is a unique contributing factor in student performance outcomes, and may be particularly important after students complete the initial assessment in a course.     

Be water: Direct and indirect relations between perceived emotional intelligence and subjective well‐being

Trait emotional intelligence (TEI) has been shown to have predictive capacity for certain dimensions of adaptation, such as life satisfaction and affectivity. The Trait Meta Mood Scale (TMMS), based on the EI ability model, has been shown to have predictive capacity for subjective well‐being through its three factors (attention, clarity, and emotional repair), but little is known about the mediating role played by these dimensions, both among themselves and in relation to other variables. The aim of the present study was to analyse the direct and indirect relationships between the TMMS factors and subjective well‐being dimensions, using structural equation modelling, also including self‐efficacy in the model as a mediator of these relationships. Attention was found to have a negative effect on subjective well‐being, which was inhibited when clarity and repair were included as mediators. Self‐efficacy played a major role since it increased the positive effect of clarity and repair on subjective well‐being. This study provides evidence of the advantage of using the TMMS factors separately and of studying their mediational role in order to better understand the processes underlying the manner in which TEI influences subjective well‐being.     

Regression and psychoanalytic technique: the concretization of a concept

An exploration of the regression concept historically and conceptually reveals that its familiarity and frequent use have resulted in decreasing conceptual clarity and precision. Rooted in an outmoded fixation-regression model of development and psychopathology, the concept has become concretized. This paper is a beginning exploration of problematic aspects of the concept of regression, with emphasis on potentially detrimental consequences for psychoanalytic technique that derive from its unexamined use. Some of the salient issues are illustrated with clinical examples.