Influence of Instruction on Velocity and Accuracy in Soccer Kicking of Experienced Soccer Players

ABSTRACT. The authors’ aim was to investigate the speed-accuracy tradeoff in soccer kicking with the dominant and nondominant foot by using different types of instructions prioritizing speed or accuracy in experienced soccer players. Ten male soccer players were randomly given 1 of the 4 instructions that differed in aspects of the kick they should emphasize and what the secondary aim would be (speed or accuracy). It was found that ball velocity was affected by instruction in the expected way: emphasis on accuracy and ball velocity reduced for both kicking feet. In addition kicking accuracy increased when emphasizing this, but only with the dominant foot indicating that Fitts’ law only was found in kicks with the dominant foot.     

On Johnson's (2000) Relative Weights Method for Assessing Variable Importance: A Reanalysis

This article provides a reanalysis of J. W. Johnson's (2000) “relative weights” method for assessing variable importance in multiple regression. The primary conclusion of the reanalysis is that the derivation of the method is theoretically flawed and has no more validity than the discredited method of Green, Carroll, and DeSarbo (1978) on which it is based. By means of 2 examples, supplemented by other results from the literature, it is also shown that the method can result in materially distorted inferences when it is compared with another widely used importance metric, namely, general dominance (Azen & Budescu, 2003; Budescu, 1993). Our primary recommendation is that J. W. Johnson's (2000) relative weights method should no longer be used as a variable importance metric for multiple linear regression. In the final section of the article, 2 additional recommendations are made based on our analysis, examples, and discussion.     

Alexithymia and Cardiovascular Risk in Older Adults: Psychosocial,Psychophysiological, and Biomedical Correlates

Psychosocial correlates of alexithymia were examined in 102 healthy, older adults (ages 53-83; 76% male). Alexithymic ( n = 26) and non-alexithymic ( n = 30) groups, defined by top ( S 70) and bottom ( h 54) quartiles of the distribution of Toronto Alexithymia Scale (26-item) scores, were compared with respect to psychosocial, psychophysiological, and biomedical risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Both categorical ratings and continuous scores of alexithymia were associated with significantly greater levels of trait anxiety, anger-in, neuroticism, hostility, perceived stress, depression, and lower levels of social support. Compared to non-alexithymics, alexithymics displayed significantly greater blood pressure responses to anger provocation and tended to have a greater percent body fat. The groups did not differ in resting cardiovascular parameters, heart rate reactivity, fasting glucose and lipoprotein lipids, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, social desirability, or trait anger. These findings suggest several psychosocial and psychophysiological pathways by which alexithymia may confer risk for cardiovascular disease among older adults.     

Appraisal of Emotions in Media Use: Toward a Process Model of Meta-Emotion and Emotion Regulation

Over the past 20 years, research on meta-emotion and related concepts such as meta-mood and need for affect has become fruitful and prominent across a variety of disciplines, including media psychology. This paper reviews the literature on meta-emotion and considers problems regarding the definition and operationalization of this construct. We propose a process model of meta-emotion and emotion regulation to integrate and extend existing work. Drawing on appraisal theories of emotion, we understand meta-emotion as a process that monitors and appraises emotions and recruits affective responses toward them, which results in a motivation to maintain and approach emotions, or to control and avoid them. This meta-emotion process plays an important role in media users' selection or rejection of specific media offerings and their invitation to experience emotion. We discuss how this framework may integrate previously unrelated findings on the role of emotions in guiding selective media use and conclude with directions for further research.     

Aggression,depression, and bullying others

A questionnaire survey of a representative sample of 2083 Norwegian pupils in Grade 8 revealed a positive and significant correlation between depressive symptoms and bullying others and a strong positive correlation between both power‐related (ProPow) and affiliation‐related (ProAff) proactive aggressiveness and bullying others among both boys and girls. We investigated whether the correlation between Depressive Symptoms and Bullying Others was spurious. For boys, a multiple‐regression analysis with Bullying Others as the dependent variable revealed that both ProPow and ProAff had strong separate effects on Bullying Others, whereas the separate effect from Depressive Symptoms was not significant. Interactions between Depressive Symptoms and ProPow and ProAff on Bullying Others were not present. It was concluded that the significant correlation between Depressive Symptoms and Bullying Others was spurious for boys. For girls, ProAff, and ProPow × Depressive Symptoms had significant and rather strong separate impacts on Bullying Others. Implications for intervention and further research were discussed. Aggr. Behav. 28:198–206, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.