Latent state–trait theory: An application in sport psychology

ObjectiveQuestionnaires are often applied in sports psychology to measure a person's trait or state. However, the extent to which the questionnaire captures differences because of trait or state influences is often unclear. The latent state–trait (LST) theory offers the opportunity to separate both variance sources. This separation allows estimating specific reliability coefficients.DesignThe present paper gives a theoretical introduction to LST and its basic ideas. Using a real data set with N = 156 athletes we exemplify the steps necessary to derive the LST coefficients. All athletes filled out a comprehensive inventory assessing competitive anxiety on two occasions.MethodThe data are analysed with structural equation models based on LST principles.ResultsThe results confirm the questionnaire's trait saturation.ConclusionFinally, results are discussed in light of practical and theoretical implications.     

Modeling Health Behavior Change: How to Predict and Modify the Adoption and Maintenance of Health Behaviors

Health‐compromising behaviors such as physical inactivity and poor dietary habits are difficult to change. Most social‐cognitive theories assume that an individual's intention to change is the best direct predictor of actual change. But people often do not behave in accordance with their intentions. This discrepancy between intention and behavior is due to several reasons. For example, unforeseen barriers could emerge, or people might give in to temptations. Therefore, intention needs to be supplemented by other, more proximal factors that might compromise or facilitate the translation of intentions into action. Some of these postintentional factors have been identified, such as perceived self‐efficacy and strategic planning. They help to bridge the intention–behavior gap. The Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) suggests a distinction between (a) preintentional motivation processes that lead to a behavioral intention, and (b) postintentional volition processes that lead to the actual health behavior. In this article, seven studies are reported that examine the role of volitional mediators in the initiation and adherence to five health behaviors: physical exercise, breast self‐examination, seat belt use, dietary behaviors, and dental flossing. The general aim is to examine the applicability of the HAPA and its universality by replicating it across different health behaviors, based on various measures, time spans, and samples from different countries. Les comportements nuisibles à la santé tels que le manque d’exercice physique et les mauvaises habitudes alimentaires sont difficiles à modifier. La plupart des théories socio‐cognitives admettent que le meilleur prédicteur d’un réel changement est l’intention que la personne a de changer. Mais la conduite est souvent en contradiction avec les intentions. La divergence entre intention et comportement est due à plusieurs raisons. Par exemple, des obstacles imprévus peuvent apparaître, ou encore les intéressés peuvent succomber à la tentation. L’intention doit donc être associée à d’autres facteurs plus immédiats susceptibles de compromettre ou de faciliter le passage de l’intention à l’action. Certains de ces facteurs ont été identifiés, à savoir la planification stratégique et la perception de l’efficacité personnelle. Ils aident à combler le fossé entre l’intention et le comportement. L’Approche des Processus d’Action en faveur de la Santé (HAPA) établit une distinction entre les processus motivationnels préalables à l’intention qui conduisent à une intention comportementale et les processus volontaires secondaires à l’intention qui débouchent sur un comportement effectivement favorable à la santé. On expose dans cet article sept recherches qui examinent le rôle médiateur de la volition dans l’adoption de et la persévérance dans cinq comportements utiles à la santé: l’exercice physique, l’inspection personnelle de ses seins, l’usage de la ceinture de sécurité, un bon régime alimentaire et l’utilisation du fil dentaire. Il s’agit de mettre à l’épreuve le caractère opérationnel de l’HAPA et son universalité en l’appliquant à différents comportements liés à la santéà partir de mesures et de périodes diversifiées sur des échantillons provenant de différents pays.     

Tracking the mind during reading: the influence of past, present, and future words on fixation durations

Reading requires the orchestration of visual, attentional, language-related, and oculomotor processing constraints. This study replicates previous effects of frequency, predictability, and length of fixated words on fixation durations in natural reading and demonstrates new effects of these variables related to 144 sentences. Such evidence for distributed processing of words across fixation durations challenges psycholinguistic immediacy-of-processing and eye-mind assumptions. Most of the time the mind processes several words in parallel at different perceptual and cognitive levels. Eye movements can help to unravel these processes.     

Length,frequency, and predictability effects of words on eye movements in reading

We tested the effects of word length, frequency, and predictability on inspection durations (first fixation, single fixation, gaze duration, and reading time) and inspection probabilities during first‐pass reading (skipped, once, twice) for a corpus of 144 German sentences (1138 words) and a subset of 144 target words uncorrelated in length and frequency, read by 33 young and 32 older adults. For corpus words, length and frequency were reliably related to inspection durations and probabilities, predictability only to inspection probabilities. For first‐pass reading of target words all three effects were reliable for inspection durations and probabilities. Low predictability was strongly related to second‐pass reading. Older adults read slower than young adults and had a higher frequency of regressive movements. The data are to serve as a benchmark for computational models of eye movement control in reading.     

Big brains are not enough: performance of three parrot species in the trap-tube paradigm

The trap-tube task has become a benchmark test for investigating physical causality in vertebrates. In this task, subjects have to retrieve food out of a horizontal tube using a tool and avoiding a trap hole in the tube. Great apes and corvids succeeded in this task. Parrots with relative brain volumes comparable to those of corvids and primates also demonstrate high cognitive abilities. We therefore tested macaws, a cockatoo, and keas on the trap-tube paradigm. All nine parrots failed to solve the task. In a simplified task, trap tubes with a slot inserted along the top were offered. The slot allowed the birds to move the reward directly with their bills. All but one individual solved this task by lifting the food over the trap. However, the parrots failed again when they were prevented from lifting the reward, although they anticipated that food will be lost when moved into the trap. We do not think that the demanding use of an external object is the main reason for the parrots’ failure. Moreover, we suppose these parrots fail to consider the trap’s position in the beginning of a trial and were not able to stop their behaviour and move the reward in the trap’s opposite direction.     

Emotional intelligence, personality, and task-induced stress

Emotional intelligence (EI) may predict stress responses and coping strategies in a variety of applied settings. This study compares EI and the personality factors of the Five Factor Model (FFM) as predictors of task-induced stress responses. Participants (N = 200) were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 task conditions, 3 of which were designed to be stressful. Results confirmed that low EI was related to worry states and avoidance coping, even with the FFM statistically controlled. However, EI was not specifically related to task-induced changes in stress state. Results also confirmed that Neuroticism related to distress, worry, and emotion-focused coping, and Conscientiousness predicted use of task-focused coping. The applied utility of EI and personality measures is discussed.     

Anxiety,aspirations, and self-concept in the achievement process: A longitudinal model with latent variables

Recent research suggests that anxiety is not a single, unified reaction to perceived threat, but rather a cluster of interrelated factors whose relationships to performance change as the individual progresses from one test event to another. This study investigated the presumed linkages between traitlike predispositions to perceive threat and achievement performance, as mediated by statelike anxiety arousal on a longitudinal basis (Perceived Threat Anxiety Arousal Impaired Performance). College students were administered self-report questionnaire measures during a preenrollment period, after the first two midterms, and following the last two midterms in a general psychology course. Four performance measures and 26 motivational indicators were fitted to a 10-factor latent model using LISREL model-fitting techniques. Path-analytic interpretations of this structural model provided little evidence for the commonly held view that traitlike threat perceptions mediate performance via statelike anxiety reactions. Far more promising, theoretically, are those influences on test performance stemming from the self-attributional, cognitive domain. Overall, the findings support a recent reinterpretation of achievement anxiety as stemming from the disruptive effects of diminished ability perceptions (and hence, impaired personal worth), rather than from the interfering influence of diffused emotional arousalper se.     

Does age make a difference? Predicting physical activity of South Koreans

Social cognition models of health behavior are commonly understood as being universal, which implies that they are applicable to groups varying in age or cultural background, for example. Cultural uniqueness and characteristics of life-span development, however, necessitate the study of differential effects. Accordingly, the health action process approach (HAPA) was examined in younger and middle-aged/older adults from South Korea (N = 697) who participated in a longitudinal health screening study with a 6-month time lag. The HAPA model had a good fit within the middle-aged/older adult sample. Physical activity was predicted by planning, coping self-efficacy, and intention, which were, in turn, predicted by action self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, and risk perceptions. Conversely, the results indicated a poor model fit in the younger adult sample. The results suggest a different motivation for the involvement in physical activity as a function of age.     

Person-organization fit: Testing socialization and attraction-selection-attrition hypotheses

Using the socialization and attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) frameworks, this study examined the relation between employees’ work values and their organization’s values (person-organization fit). With a two year time interval, 140 respondents participated in a longitudinal study. After entry, socialization served to enhance homogeneity. The work values underwent small changes and the perception of fit with the organization grew. Despite high retention rates results confirmed the attrition effect. Results indicated that the lower the perceived match between own and organizational values at entry, the more likely it was that someone left the organization over time. We concluded that socialization as well as attrition mechanisms were present at the same time.