Morality in Sport: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective

This study used a sample of 314 British athletes (170 male, 144 female) to examine whether social-contextual and personal motivation variables proposed by self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2002 Deci, E. L. and Ryan, R. M. 2002. Handbook of self-determination research, Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.  [Google Scholar]) can predict reported levels of sportspersonship and antisocial moral attitudes in sport. Structural equation modeling analysis showed that perceptions of coach autonomy support were positive predictors of athletes’ satisfaction of their psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy. In turn, the three needs were positive predictors of autonomous motivation. Autonomous motivation positively predicted sportspersonship and negatively predicted antisocial moral attitudes in sport. The opposite pattern of results was observed between controlled motivation and the sportspersonship and antisocial moral attitudes variables. The findings emphasize the importance of autonomy supportive environments, psychological need satisfaction, and autonomous motivation for fostering sportspersonship in sport.     

Certification in neurodevelopmental disabilities: the development of a new subspecialty and results of the initial examinations

The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, in collaboration with the American Board of Pediatrics, administered the first Subspecialty Certification Examination in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities to 190 candidates on April 3, 2001, and the second to 80 candidates on April 9, 2002. This report describes the history of the certifying examination including the process of its development and the results of the first and second examination administrations. The purpose of the Certification Examination in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities is to assess knowledge of qualified candidates in the subspecialty. A committee comprised of child neurologists and pediatricians developed this examination. Of the 190 pediatricians (n = 169) and child neurologists (n = 21) who completed the examination in 2001, 157 (83%) passed the examination. The second group of examinees included 68 pediatricians and 12 child neurologists, and the pass rate was 70%. The 213 candidates certified to date have received ten-year time-limited certificates that may be renewed by recertification process beginning in 2010. After the "grandfathering period," candidates for the examination must complete ACGME-approved training programs in the subspecialty.     

The Church in the Market Place: Advertising and Religion in a Secular Age

This paper explores the limits of Peter Berger's secularization thesis through an examination of religious advertising. If churches are part of a market situation, as Berger affirms, what can be said of their advertising in a secular age? Different types of religious advertising and their effectiveness are discussed in relation to more widely disseminated religious imagery in secular advertising. The conclusion suggests that certain religious themes, ideas and images still continue to enjoy prominence in public consciousness. This has a double implication: for churches as they market themselves in a plural world, and for sociologists who construct theories of secularization.     

Deliberative Democracy and Emotional Intelligence: An Internal Mechanism to Regulate the Emotions

Deliberative democracy, it is claimed, is essential for the legitimisation of public policy and law. It is built upon an assumption that citizens will be capable of constructing and defending reasons for their moral and political beliefs. However, critics of deliberative democracy suggest that citizens?? emotions are not properly considered in this process and, if left unconsidered, present a serious problem for this political framework. In response to this, deliberative theorists have increasingly begun to incorporate the emotions into their accounts. However, these accounts have tended to focus only upon the inclusion of emotions in the external-collective exchange of reason between citizens. Little work has been done on how the individual will actually cope with emotions internally within their own minds. There has been no consideration of the capacities that citizens will need to perceive, understand and regulate emotions as they formulate reasons both by themselves and with others. Moreover, there has been little consideration of how these capacities might be educated in children so that emotionally competent deliberative citizens can be created. In this paper, emotional intelligence is presented as an essential capacity that can fulfil this role for the deliberative citizen and deliberative democracy more generally. The ??deliberative school?? is suggested as a potential site for this transformation that can progress from generation to generation, cultivating citizens that are increasingly better equipped to handle emotionally-laden deliberative engagement.     

Participation restrictions at work indicate participation restrictions in other domains of life

Health problems are often associated with activity limitations and participation restrictions, as defined in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). This often affects the workplace in the form of sick leave or a reduction in productivity. The question is, "to what extent are participation restrictions at work related to participation restrictions in other domains of life?" A total of 382 primary health care patients (aged 18-65) were asked to provide information on their employment status, perceived health-related workplace problems and sick leave status. Health-dependent participation restrictions across different domains of life were assessed using the Index for Measuring Participation Restrictions (IMET) self rating questionnaire. Currently unemployed patients reported significantly higher degrees of participation restrictions across all domains of life than the employed participants. Employed patients with workplace problems scored higher than patients without workplace problems. The domain of work encompassed the highest level of impairment, while the lowest was observed in personal relationships. Workplace problems occur frequently for primary health care patients. They coincide with participation restrictions in other domains of life. For patients who complain about their capacity to work, diagnosis and treatment must not only focus on the work domain, but also enquire into and consider participation restrictions in other domains of life.     

Adjective–noun order as representational structure: Native-language grammar influences perception of similarity and recognition memory

This article describes two experiments linking native-language grammar rules with implications for perception of similarity and recognition memory. In prenominal languages (e.g., English), adjectives usually precede nouns, whereas in postnominal languages (e.g., Portuguese), nouns usually precede adjectives. We explored the influence of such rules upon similarity judgments about, and recognition of, objects with multiple category attributes (one nominal attribute and one adjectival attribute). The results supported the hypothesized primacy effect of native-language word order such that nouns generally carried more weight for Portuguese speakers than for English speakers. This pattern was observed for judgments of similarity (i.e., Portuguese speakers tended to judge objects that shared a noun-designated attribute as more similar than did English speakers), as well as for false alarms in recognition memory (i.e., Portuguese speakers tended to falsely recognize more objects if they possessed a familiar noun attribute, relative to English speakers). The implications of such linguistic effects for the cognition of similarity and memory are discussed.