An Introduction to Sports Concussion for the Sport Psychology Consultant

This paper was designed to introduce the sport psychology consultant (SPC) to the relevant practical and theoretical information pertaining to sports concussion. The paper discusses four key areas related to sports concussion: 1) recognition, 2) management, 3) psychological issues following a concussion, and 4) prevention and education. Throughout the paper, the authors emphasize the role of the SPC in each of these four areas. An integrated review of the sport concussion literature and current research and guidelines regarding the definition, pathophysiology, symptoms, neuropsychological testing, and risk factors for concussion is presented. The SPC's roles in educating and helping athletes deal with post-concussion issues such as the pressure to return to play and fear of reinjury are examined. The authors highlight the need for baseline neuropsychological testing of athletes; and advocate a multidimensional team approach to sport concussion, involving the SPC as a key member of that team.     

2007 Presidential Address: Singing and Solidarity

As the audience entered the hall, a large screen displayed the title of the talk from an overhead projector. On the dais, about three feet above the floor, was a lectern, and next to it an arrangement of eight chairs facing each other in a square formation, two on each side of the square, the sides at a 45 degree angle from the side of the platform. At the appointed time, SSSR past-president Donald Miller climbed the steps to the lectern to introduce the speaker, Stephen Warner. When he had completed that task, Warner came forward to the lectern and a woman later identified as his wife, Anne Heider, began working the projector. A few minutes into the address, at Warner's cue, she and six others joined him on the dais, taking seats in the arrangement of chairs, from which position, facing each other with Warner standing facing toward them, they sang a song, as described below. When they were finished, they left the dais, and the rest of the address proceeded in a conventional manner. Prior to this singing demonstration, the address itself began as follows.     

Need for Uniqueness,Need for Cognition,and Creativity

This study examined two neglected dispositional contributions to creativity, namely needs for uniqueness and cognition. Multiple measures of creativity were used including an inventory of creative accomplishments, preference for complex visual figures (a measure similar to the Barron‐Welsh Art Scale), unconventional rather than popular word associations, and consensually‐assessed creative products. The latter included creative drawing, creative writing (a TAT story), richness of a photo essay about the self and the vividness of a recent dream. The predictors independently made significant contributions to creativity.     

Transcendence as a Subset of Evolutionary Thinking: A Darwinian View of the Creative Experience

The states of transcendence and affective discontinuities as features of the creative act are posited as analogous to Darwin's theory of evolution. The intellectual essence of Darwin's argument is that randomness processed through a selection system yields purpose. Some recent studies suggest this process holds true for profound acts of creativity. Darwin's two criteria for change, randomness and a system of recognition, are examined in application to the creative act. The argument is made that extraordinary creative people use a specific selection process coupled with the ability to de-structure or randomize their mental environment. Finally, techniques are proposed to structure a creative recognition system and to de-structure the input that is processed to enhance creative results. Considerable research into creativity has been concerned with transcendent thinking, the sudden discontinuous pattern shifts that lead to wonderful new insights. Three schools of thought have attempted to explain and resolve this discontinuity. Overton and Newman (1982) describe two of these. There is the reductionist view taking the position that all creative thinking can be explained by continuous processing. Discontinuity is treated merely as a behavioral or affective phenomenon since by nature pre-conscious algorithms are unavailable for systematic inquiry. The organismic view, on the other hand, takes the lofty position that transcendence is a function of indeterminacy: ideas actually operate in earthly terms but are post-Newtonian in nature. That is, transcendent states are delocalized concepts operating beyond the tangible limitations of space and time. Attempts to measure these phenomena are doomed to the same outcome as the proverbial killing of the goose that laid the golden egg. McCarthy (1993) has recently attempted to reconcile the above positions by arguing that the answer may well be found in the field of quantum physics and elementary particle research. She proposes that nature is a duality. Creative insight and transcendence come about through the superposition of two realities, one which is “boundary-free”; the other a more conscious process which is hierarchal and “boundary-laden.” Presented here is a reductionist point of view asserting that what we consider to be transcendence — the mystical nature of creativity — is not only sequential but a subset of the evolutionary process as set forth by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species (1859). Further, the principles of Darwin's theory may be applied to speed and improve the creative process both for individuals and groups. Other researchers in the field (Campbell, 1960, Finke, Ward, & Smith, 1992, Gruber& Davis, 1988, Kantorovich, 1993; Simonton, 1988), have invoked evolutionary thinking to explain the creative process. However, this argument looks at the two properties of evolution necessary for its function and shows how in highly creative people they may operate differently.     

EVALUATION OF BUSINESS MEMOS: EFFECTS OF WRITER SEX AND ORGANIZATIONAL POSITION, MEMO QUALITY, AND RATER SEX

This study investigated main and interaction effects of memo quality, attributed author sex and organizational position, and rater sex on evaluation of business memos. Alternative questionnaire versions of four memos to be rated anonymously were mailed to about 500 members of a professional personnel association; 48% were returned. A 2×2×2×2 analysis of variance yielded a large main effect for memo quality; an interaction effect of attributed author sex and position and rater sex for two memos; and other interaction effects for single memos. The results are discussed.