Who's to blame? The role of power and attributions in susceptibility to match-fixing

ObjectiveOfficial reports and anecdotal evidence suggest that people with power frequently put pressure on athletes to fix a match. Therefore, it is assumed that athletes may attribute their involvement to this pressure. The present study was designed to investigate the role that power, attributions and moral emotions may play in the decision to fix a match.MethodTeam and individual sport athletes (N = 427) competing in five European countries participated in a quasi-experimental vignette design. Participants completed eight vignettes manipulating power, source of attributions and stability of attributions. Match-fixing susceptibility and five discrete anticipated moral emotions (guilt, shame, pride, indifference, anger) were measured.ResultsThe results of the analyses demonstrated that athletes are perceived to be most susceptible to match-fixing when the reason is related to a stable attribute of the individual (e.g., enjoying gambling, having a betting problem). However, participants reported also being susceptible to match-fixing when power is high. Anticipated emotions negatively predicted match-fixing susceptibility and mediated the effect of attributions and power on match-fixing susceptibility.ConclusionThe findings provide information on the interplay between attributions, power and anticipated emotions in predicting match-fixing susceptibility, and the determinants of match-fixing susceptibility. This will be of benefit to policy makers, sporting organizations and researchers in developing policies and interventions to protect athletes from being vulnerable to match-fixing requests.     

Social power tactics and subordinates’ compliance at work: The role of need for cognitive closure

IntroductionThe present research highlights the importance of subordinates’ motivation for compliance-related phenomena.ObjectivesThe aim of this research was to examine subordinates’ willingness to comply with their supervisors’ harsh and soft power tactics as a function of subordinates’ need for cognitive closure.MethodTwo cross-sectional studies were conducted in five different Italian organizations, namely, a bank, a federation of small businesses, a security company, an oil company, and a hospital.ResultsIt was found that subordinates high (vs. low) on need for closure reported greater willingness to comply with harsh social power tactics, but lower willingness to comply with soft power tactics.ConclusionOur findings nuance prior research by showing that soft (vs. harsh) power tactics are not always the most effective power tactics in organizational setting (e.g., Pierro et al., 2004; Raven et al., 1998).     

Modulation of brain oscillations during fundamental visuo-spatial processing: A comparison between female collegiate badminton players and sedentary controls

ObjectivesThe present study aimed to investigate the difference in fundamental cognitive processing and neural oscillations between badminton players and sedentary controls.DesignA cross-sectional design was adopted to address this issue.MethodsWe compared time-frequency electroencephalographic (EEG) activity from collegiate female badminton players (n = 12, aged 20.58 ± 2.75 years) and age-and gender-matched sedentary non-athletic controls (n = 13, aged 19.08 ± 2.10 years) when they performed a task that involves visuo-spatial attention and working memory.ResultsWe observed that players responded faster than controls on the task without suffering any increase in error responses. Correspondingly, the players, relative to controls, exhibited higher task-related modulations in beta power in the attention condition as well as in theta and beta power in the working memory condition. Notably, the behavior-EEG correlations revealed that better attention performance is associated with lower beta power, while greater working memory is related to higher theta power.ConclusionsOur results shed light on the mechanisms of athletic superiority in fundamental cognitive functioning: the higher theta synchronization points to a greater engagement of attention, whereas the higher beta desynchronization supports the contribution of processing speed (or motor-related processing) to better performance in athletes. This study extends current understanding by suggesting that enhanced neurocognitive function seen in athletes may transfer to fundamental tasks, giving insight into the generalizability of sport experience to neurocognitive functioning.     

How psychological momentum changes in athletes during a sport competition

ObjectivesThe present research sought to examine changes in psychological momentum (PM) during sport competitions through the lens of a dynamical systems approach.DesignMale regional-level cyclists competed in cycling duels on home trainers.MethodImages of moving avatars of the cyclists were projected on a wall, and were manipulated so that one cyclist was exposed to an ascending performance scenario (i.e., positive momentum) and the other to a descending performance scenario (i.e., negative momentum). Every 3 min, the cyclists answered PM items by using a keyboard that was placed on the handlebars of their bicycles. Additionally, exerted power was continuously recorded.ResultsResults revealed an asymmetrical critical boundary pattern for PM perceptions indicating that negative PM was triggered more easily than positive PM. Exerted power was generally higher during the negative momentum scenario than during the positive momentum scenario. In addition, exerted power slowly decreased over both momentum scenarios, and this decrease was faster at the very beginning of the negative momentum scenario.ConclusionResults indicate that PM perceptions possess the dynamical properties of nonlinearity and history-dependence. Moreover, the finding that exerted power was higher in the negative momentum scenario was interpreted as a resistance behavior that occurs while experiencing negative momentum. The anticipated decreases in both exerted power and PM perceptions in the negative momentum scenario converge to support the notion that negative PM is a stronger attractor than positive PM. The present study confirms that PM is a dynamical phenomenon and offers fruitful avenues for future research.     

Power to the Bitch

SUMMARY

An examination of how men exercise power in marriages. The power component of the male role is analyzed as is the way in which that role influences men in relationships. Three case examples are presented.     

Negotiating female judoka identities in Greece: A Foucauldian discourse analysis

ObjectivesThe objectives of this paper are to trace the discourses through which female Greek judokas articulate their sporting experiences and to explore how they construct their identities through the negotiation of sociocultural beliefs and gender stereotypes.DesignThis article is based on interview data from a larger ethnographic research with women judo athletes, grounded in a cultural praxis framework.MethodTen semi-structured interviews were conducted during fieldwork in Greece. Interview data were analyzed drawing on a Foucauldian approach to discourse analysis.ResultsWe identified four concepts—biology, gender, femininity, and judo/sport—that were central to unearthing the discourses in which female Greek judokas constructed their identities. Female athletes (strategically) negotiated multiple identities, each serving different purposes.ConclusionThe gender power dynamics in Greek society at large are reproduced in the sporting experience of Greek female judokas. Although women have agency to negotiate their identity, they tend to accept the “given” subject positions within dominant discourses of gender relations. By doing so, female athletes become agents in the reproduction of patriarchal power.     

Effects of visual-motor illusions with different visual stimuli on the sit-to-stand of people with hemiplegia following stroke: A randomized crossover controlled trial

BackgroundThe objective of this study was to determine the effects of different visual stimuli during visual-motor illusion on sit-to-stand in people with hemiplegia following stroke.MethodsThis was a randomized crossover controlled trial. Twenty people with hemiplegia following stroke were randomly divided into groups. The video images used for visual-motor illusion were ankle dorsiflexion without resistance (standard visual-motor illusion [standard illusion]) and maximum effort dorsiflexion with resistance (power visual-motor illusion [power illusion]). People with hemiplegia following stroke underwent both illusion interventions with a 1-week washout period in between; group A started with the standard illusion intervention and group B started with the power illusion intervention. Outcomes included the sit-to-stand duration, maximum weight-bearing value, trunk movement during sit-to-stand, ankle joint movement during sit-to-stand, and active ankle dorsiflexion movement on the paralyzed side.ResultsThe angular velocity of the trunk and ankle joints increased significantly during sit-to-stand, and sit-to-stand duration decreased significantly in response only to power illusion. In addition, the change in angular velocity of active ankle dorsiflexion was significantly greater in response to power illusion than was the change in response to standard illusion.ConclusionPower illusion induces a greater improvement in paralyzed ankle dorsiflexion function than standard illusion, resulting in shorter sit-to-stand duration.     

Power Differentials in Relationships

Abstract

The issue of sharing power affects many relationships. Many couple theorists and therapists believe that most marital distress is the result of power imbalances between the partners yet the influence of perceived power differentials in relationships is largely ignored in the therapy journals. The focus of this paper is on power differentials in couples. Different types of power are explored and assessment issues are examined. Therapeutic considerations are then presented and illustrated by case material. These issues are explored against a backdrop of gender sensitivity.     

The Use of Social Bases of Power in Retail Sales

Abstract

Social power theory has been used to explain how a sales manager may influence sales personnel in an industrial sales setting. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between retail sales managers' power bases and retail salespeople's job satisfaction, role conflict, role ambiguity, work motivation, organizational commitment, and job performance. Results of the study suggest that noncoercive sources of power have greater influence on these variables than does coercive power.     

A Novel Approach

Abstract

The relationship between empathy and forgiveness is explored through the painful experience of divorce and relationship loss. Authors propose a literary exercise, the Novel Approach, to help clients discover the power of empathy and find resolution to past pains. Included is a case study used to describe the Novel Approach and to highlight its facilitative power for creating a deeper empathic understanding.     

Reproducible research in sport and exercise psychology: The role of sample sizes

ObjectivesWe aim to introduce the discussion on the crisis of confidence to sport and exercise psychology. We focus on an important aspect of this debate, the impact of sample sizes, by assessing sample sizes within sport and exercise psychology. Researchers have argued that publications in psychological research contain numerous false-positive findings and inflated effect sizes due to small sample sizes.MethodWe analyse the four leading journals in sport and exercise psychology regarding sample sizes of all quantitative studies published in these journals between 2009 and 2013. Subsequently, we conduct power analyses.ResultsA substantial proportion of published studies does not have sufficient power to detect effect sizes typical for psychological research. Sample sizes and power vary between research designs. Although many correlational studies have adequate sample sizes, experimental studies are often underpowered to detect small-to-medium effects.ConclusionsAs sample sizes are small, research in sport and exercise psychology may suffer from false-positive results and inflated effect sizes, while at the same time failing to detect meaningful small effects. Larger sample sizes are warranted, particularly in experimental studies.     

An extended energy-loss fine structure study of an icosahedral Al–Mn phase using parallel recording

Abstract

The power of parallel recording is demonstrated by the quality of the data obtained when applied to the study of the difference in fine structure for crystalline Al₆Mn and quasicrystalline i-AlMn.     

Influence of teachers’ political orientation and values on their success prediction toward students from different socioeconomic background

IntroductionTeachers tend to develop negative expectations and behaviours towards students coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to test the influence of teacher political orientation, as well as their attachment to power and universalism values, on their predictions of academic success towards students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.MethodEighty-eight high school teachers (M_age = 38.04 years; 44.3% men) responded to a questionnaire of political ideology and values, as well as to a questionnaire evaluating their prediction of success towards male high school students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.ResultsTeachers predicted a better academic success for students coming from a high socioeconomic background. Despite relatively small effect size, political ideology, as well as attachment to power and universalism values, predicted the bias of judgment.ConclusionTaking into consideration teachers’ ideology and values would deepen understanding of processes underlying expectations development.     

When is a cause the “same”? Incoherent generalization across contexts

A theory or model of cause such as Cheng's power (p) allows people to predict the effectiveness of a cause in a different causal context from the one in which they observed its actions. Liljeholm and Cheng demonstrated that people could detect differences in the effectiveness of the cause when causal power varied across contexts of different outcome base rates, but that they did not detect similar changes when only the cause–outcome contingency, ?p, but not power, varied. However, their procedure allowed participants to simplify the causal scenarios and consider only a subsample of observations with a base rate of zero. This confounds p, ?p, and the probability of an outcome (O) given a cause (C), P(O|C). Furthermore, the contingencies that they used confounded p and P(O|C) in the overall sample. Following the work of Liljeholm and Cheng, we examined whether causal induction in a wider range of situations follows the principles suggested by Cheng. Experiments 1a and 1b compared the procedure used by Liljeholm and Cheng with one that did not allow the sample of observations to be simplified. Experiments 2a and 2b compared the same two procedures using contingencies that controlled for P(O|C). The results indicated that, if the possibility of converting all contexts to a zero base rate situation was avoided, people were sensitive to changes in P(O|C), p, and ?p when each of these was varied. This is inconsistent with Liljeholm and Cheng's conclusion that people detect only changes in p. These results question the idea that people naturally extract the metric or model of cause from their observation of stochastic events and then, reasonably exclusively, use this theory of a causal mechanism, or for that matter any simple normative theory, to generalize their experience to alternative contexts.     

The buffering power of overt socially supportive and unsupportive behaviors from the significant other on posttraumatic stress disorder individuals’ emotional state

Background and objectives: Social support is one of the three strongest predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In the present study, we aimed to assess the buffering power of overt socially supportive and unsupportive behaviors from the significant other, in a group with PTSD and a comparison group. Design and methods: A total of 46 individuals with PTSD and 42 individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or panic disorder (PD) completed diagnostic interviews and an anxiety-oriented social interaction with a significant other. Heart rate of participants was continuously measured during this interaction and overt social behaviors from the significant other were recorded on videotape and coded using a validated system. Results: Changes in heart rate in PTSD participants correlated negatively with changes in overt socially supportive behaviors from their significant other (r from ?.36 to ?.50, p?<?.05), while changes in overt unsupportive social behaviors from their significant other did not yield any significant correlation (r from ?.01 to .05, p?>?.05). No such statistically significant association emerged in the group with OCD or PD (r from .01 to ?.27, p?>?.05). Conclusions: This study sustain the buffering power of overt supportive behaviors from the significant other on heart rate changes in PTSD.     

The contribution of early auditory and visual information to the discrimination of shot power in ball sports

ObjectiveIt is well-established that early visual information has an important role in human ability to play ball sports, as its correct interpretation promotes accurate predictions concerning the ball motion. Other research highlights that auditory information provides relevant cues in various sport situations. The present study combines these two lines of research with the aim to investigate the contribution of early auditory and visual information to the discrimination of shot power in sport-specific situations.DesignTwo experiments were run, one concerning soccer penalty kicks and the other concerning volleyball smashes. In both experiments there were three conditions: Audio, Audiovideo, and Video; a within subjects design was used, with the three conditions carried out in three different days and in a counterbalanced order among participants.MethodParticipants’ task was to discriminate the power of two penalties/smashes presented in rapid sequence, on the basis of a two-alternative forced choice paradigm.ResultsThe results revealed that, for both penalties and smashes, response accuracy was above chance level in all the three conditions; moreover, while for the penalties no difference among the conditions was observed, for the smashes participants were more accurate in the Audio and Audiovideo conditions compared to the Video condition. As concerns the response times, for both penalties and smashes participants were faster in the Audio and Audiovideo conditions compared to the Video condition.ConclusionsTaken together, the results suggest that the discrimination of shot power was more easily performed on the basis of early auditory information than on the basis of the respective visual information.     

God,Sex and Power

Abstract

After twenty years of reform, most church leaders can give an ethical analysis about why clergy sexual abuse is bad. Yet when many churches respond to complaints, committees are frequently inept in holding clergy abusers accountable, and clergy leaders are still likely to abuse their power over others. This article focuses on understanding clergy sexual abuse as a tangle of pathologies of theology, power and sexuality.     

Trust and the Healing Encounter: An Examination of an Unorthodox Healing Performance

Just why a patient should trust a particular healer isa question that has not been adequately explored inthe literature on healing. This ethnographiccase-report examines the healing performance of achiropractor and proposes that it contains fourintrinsic claims to trustworthiness: he claims to bea qualified and sincere healer who is inpossession of knowledge and techniques that derivetheir power from their truth content and whichempower him to make beneficial changes in thepatient. Taking each claim in turn I described thenature of the claim, how it might be adequatelyvalidated, ways in which his healing performance mightvalidate it and how he might be assisted by thepatient, and how their actual validation may bedistorted by the healer and patient. It is suggestedthat while unusual in many regards, this unorthodoxhealing performance may be a foil by which toexamine other more orthodox healing performances.     

The role of emotion in bridging the intention–behaviour gap: The case of sports participation

ProblemPsychological models of sports participation frequently draw on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) in order to predict health-behaviour-related intentions. While these models commonly show high predictive power with respect to intention, they often fall short in the prediction of behaviour (the ‘intention–behaviour gap’). The present study contends that integrating emotional processes into TPB can substantially improve the model's predictive power over and above traditional cognitive predictors.MethodIn a longitudinal study structural equation modelling was employed to test a traditional model (based on TPB) and an extended model including emotion associated with the intention to exercise as a mediator variable. A community sample (N = 237) completed a questionnaire measuring the components of a traditional TPB model. Prior to each of 16 expected exercise sessions (over 8 weeks) intention to exercise and emotion associated with the intention were measured.ResultsResults confirmed a substantial increase of 17% in explained variance of exercise frequency and 20% in exercise duration for the extended model. Emotional appraisal of the intention to exercise thus appears to mediate the traditional intention–behaviour relationship, suggesting that emotionally based interventions aimed at increasing sports participation may be helpful.ConclusionIt is concluded that emotion variables should be added to traditional TPB models in order to predict health behaviour more fully.     

Hope and world survival

Abstract

Gives an overview and analysis of the role of the Pacific region in the world economy stressing the ongoing shift of growth potential and purchasing power. Japan's surplus is discussed as a tool to stimulate economic growth in the world. Trends in Pacific cooperation are given.