Defining and Understanding Mental Toughness within Soccer

This study examined the frequency of observed prosocial and antisocial behaviors in soccer teams, age differences in observed behaviors and motivational variables, and whether motivational variables account for age differences in observed behaviors. Participants were 313 adolescent soccer players, recruited from three age groups: under 13, under 15, and under 17. Each age group was represented by eight teams. Players were filmed during a game and completed questionnaires after the game. Videotaped games were analyzed by two observers, who recorded behaviors for each team rather than each individual player; therefore, all data were analyzed only at the group level. Observed antisocial behaviors were more frequent than prosocial ones. Significant differences were also identified among the three age groups with the oldest group displaying more frequent antisocial and less frequent prosocial behaviors and perceiving a stronger performance climate and a weaker mastery climate in their team compared to the two younger groups. A series of ANCOVAs using motivational variables as covariates indicated that mastery climate followed by performance climate accounted for the largest decrease in the variance of both prosocial and antisocial behaviors attributed to the age group factor. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for promoting fair play in sport.     

The Value of Social Validation in Single-Case Methods in Sport and Exercise Psychology

Social validation is used to determine satisfaction with an intervention and has been utilized in many single-case studies within sport and exercise psychology research and consultancy. This article reviews current social validation procedures and makes recommendations of how a more thorough consideration of the technique could add greater value to the understanding of single-case protocols within research and applied practice. Recommendations include using semi-structured interviews for data collection, using content analysis to analyze these data, reporting social validation results in a thorough manner, collecting social validation information from significant others, and collecting social validation data as frequently as possible.     

Some Costs of American Corporate Capitalism: A Psychological Exploration of Value and Goal Conflicts

Evolutionary psychology has been proposed as a metatheoretical framework for psychology. We argue that evolutionary psychology should be expanded if it is to offer new insights regarding the major issues in psychology. Evolutionary developmental biology can provide valuable new insights into issues such as the domain-specificity of the human mind, the nature–nurture debate, stages in development, and the origin of individual differences. Evolutionary developmental biology provides evidence for the hypotheses that domain-general and domain-specific abilities co-occur, that nature and nurture interact in a dynamic and nonadditive way, that stages occur in development, and that individual differences are the result of pleiotropic effects during development.     

“What Do These Analysts Want?” A Response to Levine and Wilson on Desire and Influence

The target paper had the purpose of drawing attention to something “beyond countertransference”—the impact of the therapist’s psychology on the treatment, not in reaction to the patient, but as desires and defenses that operate throughout. The illustrative issue was a speculation that my development and analytic engagement carried elements that led me to interact with women patients in a way that increased the likelihood of their conceiving. The respondents reacted differently to the provocative aspect of this idea, but have in common a recognition of the analyst’s desire as an important part of the relationship. A further case vignette is introduced in this reply to examine some of the points raised by the respondents, in particular how the analyst’s desire may be expressed in a form that is modulated by the analytic role and at the same time has an impact on the patient’s life decisions. In sum, we are players in the drama of analytic work, and the more we think about what and how we are ourselves in treatments, the more informed our inevitable impact will be.     

Assessing At‐Risk Youth Using the Reynolds Adolescent Adjustment Screening Inventory With a Latino Population

Factor analyses were conducted on scores from the Reynolds Adolescent Adjustment Screening Inventory (RAASI; Reynolds, 2001 ) representing at‐risk Latino youth. The 4‐factor model of the RAASI did not exhibit a good fit. However, evidence of generalizability for Latino youth was noted.     

Tarski ‐ a dilemma

Tarski's correspondence theory of truth (which he spells out in his semantic conception of truth) is open to two interpretations. This ambiguity in the theory has led philosophers to find support in it for metaphysical reali sm. In fact, Tarski's theory turns out to support a form of ontological relativism. In different passages Tarski himself gives support to each of these interpretations. The first interpretation leads to ontological relativism, while the second sacrifices the connection between language and the world. I clarify the dilemma that I see in having to choose between these two interpretations, explain how these interpretations have their source in different problems which occupied Tarski, and consider a possible solution to the dilemma. Finally, finding good reasons to claim that Tarski's theory is indeed a correspondence theory of truth, I argue in favour of the first interpretation with its relativistic implications.     

AIDS Group Psychotherapy

Abstract

Clinical data are presented from a day spent at a New Jersey high school severely impacted by the World Trade Center disaster. Dissociation, a sense of numbness, anger, and guilt about feelings induced by the tragedy are all common dynamics in adolescents responding to trauma. The developmental issues that adolescents are confronting are described and discussed in terms of the challenges they present to the healing process. An argument is made that using groups to aid in the long recovery process with our young people should be a top public health priority.     

The Effect of Group Psychotherapy in Reducing Resistance to Individual Psychotherapy: A Case Study

Abstract

Cohesion in group treatment of spouse abusers plays an important and often overlooked role. Involuntary abuser groups can benefit from cohesion, but due to their unique structure, cohesion may develop differently than in voluntary psychotherapy groups. Initially, abuser groups may develop premature levels of cohesion that can make group members unwilling to express conflict, develop intimacy, and take responsibility for their actions. Understanding the abuser personality and the unique characteristics of involuntary abuser groups can shed light on why cohesion develops the way it does and the importance it plays in abuser groups. Developing effective interventions that target premature cohesion can help the group members express conflict, develop intimacy, and take responsibility for their actions, thus bringing about therapeutic levels of cohesion.