Soccer referees’ experience of threat and aggression: Effects of age,experience, and life orientation on outcome of coping strategy

The present study examined the circumstances pertaining to threat and aggression during soccer matches as experienced by 107 provincial Soccer Association referees. Three sources of aggression were identified—soccer players, coaches/trainers, and spectators—and the main measures included threat and physical and verbal aggression. Several outcomes, including prematch worry and effects on concentration, performance, and motivation, were affected by the incidence of threat and aggression, and these outcomes were found to be affected by the age, degree of experience, and life orientation of the referees. Younger referees were shown to be the most prone to threat and aggression. Referees with a generally pessimistic orientation experienced less motivation, worse performance, and greater problems coping with aggressive behavior from the spectators compared with referees with a generally optimistic orientation. Aggr. Behav. 28:317–327, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Addressing moral problems through practical reasoning

In this paper, following the work of Hare, we consider moral reasoning not as the application of moral norms and principles, but as reasoning about what ought to be done in a particular situation, with moral norms perhaps emerging from this reasoning. We model this situated reasoning drawing on our previous work on argumentation schemes, here set in the context of Action-Based Alternating Transition Systems. We distinguish what prudentially ought to be done from what morally ought to be done, consider what legislation might be appropriate and characterise the differences between morally correct, morally praiseworthy and morally excusable actions. We also describe an implementation which simulates this reasoning and discuss some issues arising from the simulation.     

Development and examination of the social appearance anxiety scale

The Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (SAAS) was created to measure anxiety about being negatively evaluated by others because of one's overall appearance, including body shape. This study examined the psychometric properties of the SAAS in three large samples of undergraduate students (respective ns = 512, 853, and 541). The SAAS demonstrated a unifactorial structure with high test-retest reliability and internal consistency. The SAAS was positively associated with measures of social anxiety. The SAAS was also related to greater disparity between perceived, actual, and ideal physical attributes, beliefs that one's appearance is inherently flawed and socially unacceptable and that being unattractive is socially deleterious, feelings of unattractiveness, emphasis on appearance and its maintenance, and a preoccupation with being overweight. It was a unique predictor of social anxiety above and beyond negative body image indicators. Findings suggest that the SAAS is a psychometrically valid measure of social anxiety regarding one's overall appearance.     

Community Service Experiences and Commitment to Volunteering1

University students who were involved in a community service field placement completed the Inventory of Service Experience (ISE), a measure that was designed to assess the extent to which they felt supported by family, friends, and the organizations with which they worked; and the extent to which they experienced positive outcomes (e.g., enhanced skills, a feeling of “having made a difference”) in their community service setting. Students who had a more supportive and positive experience, as assessed by the ISE, were more likely to have continued to work as volunteers in the setting 2 months after they had completed their course requirements. The implications of these results for community service programs are discussed.     

The role of functional and perceptual attributes: evidence from picture naming in dementia

We examined the performance of a group of people with moderately severe Alzheimer's type dementia on a naming task. We found that functional information plays an important role in determining naming performance on both living and non-living things. Perceptual information may play some role in naming living things. We also found some evidence that the semantic category to which an item belongs may also have some effect on naming performance. We argue that both the sensory-functional and domain-specific knowledge hypotheses may be correct: the brain is to some organized on taxonomic grounds, while the semantic representations of living and non-living things depend differentially on perceptual and functional information. These representations can be differentially disrupted by damage to modality-specific stores. At a moderate level of severity, dementia causes global damage that has the effect of disrupting both the localized taxonomic and the modality-specific stores. We discuss the nature of functional information.     

Does academic dishonesty relate to unethical behavior in professional practice? An exploratory study

Previous research indicates that students in engineering self-report cheating in college at higher rates than those in most other disciplines. Prior work also suggests that participation in one deviant behavior is a reasonable predictor of future deviant behavior. This combination of factors leads to a situation where engineering students who frequently participate in academic dishonesty are more likely to make unethical decisions in professional practice. To investigate this scenario, we propose the hypotheses that (1) there are similarities in the decision-making processes used by engineering students when considering whether or not to participate in academic and professional dishonesty, and (2) prior academic dishonesty by engineering students is an indicator of future decisions to act dishonestly. Our sample consisted of undergraduate engineering students from two technically-oriented private universities. As a group, the sample reported working full-time an average of six months per year as professionals in addition to attending classes during the remaining six months. This combination of both academic and professional experience provides a sample of students who are experienced in both settings. Responses to open-ended questions on an exploratory survey indicate that students identify common themes in describing both temptations to cheat or to violate workplace policies and factors which caused them to hesitate in acting unethically, thus supporting our first hypothesis and laying the foundation for future surveys having forced-choice responses. As indicated by the responses to forced-choice questions for the engineering students surveyed, there is a relationship between self-reported rates of cheating in high school and decisions to cheat in college and to violate workplace policies; supporting our second hypothesis. Thus, this exploratory study demonstrates connections between decision-making about both academic and professional dishonesty. If better understood, these connections could lead to practical approaches for encouraging ethical behavior in the academic setting, which might then influence future ethical decision-making in workplace settings. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the “Ethics and Social Responsibility in Engineering and Technology” meeting, New Orleans, 2003.     

Limb and gender differences in the development of coordination in early infancy

Young infants produce a variety of spontaneous arm and leg movements in the first few months of life. Coordination of leg joints has been extensively investigated, whereas arm joint coordination has mainly been investigated in the sitting position in the context of early reaching and grasping. The current study investigated arm and leg joint coordination of movements produced in the supine position in 10 fullterm infants aged 6, 12 and 18 weeks. Longitudinal comparisons within limbs (intralimb) as well as between limbs (interlimb, ipsilateral and contralateral) were made as well as an exploration of differences in the development for boys and girls. The relationship between the joint angles was examined by measuring pair-wise cross-correlation functions for the angular displacement curves of the leg (hip, knee and ankle) and arm (shoulder, elbow and wrist) joints of both the right and left side. Both the arms and legs were found to follow a similar pattern of intralimb coordination, although the leg joints were more tightly coupled than the arm joints, particularly the proximal with the middle joint. In support of earlier findings, differences in the development of the right and left side were identified. In addition, gender differences in joint coordination were found for both intralimb and interlimb coordination. This contrasts with the view that gender differences in motor development may be primarily a result of environmental influences.     

Predicting performance in ski and swim championships: effectiveness of mood, perceived exertion, and dispositional optimism

Two studies were performed with young athletes to investigate the utility of three psychological tests regarding the prediction of sport performance: the Profile of Mood States. Ratings of Perceived Exertion, and Dispositional Optimism. In Study 1, young male and female cross-country skiers and ski-marksmen in final preparation for the Junior National Swedish Championships were tested. Measured 5 wk. before both competitions, the higher the optimism (LOT), the better performance. In Study 2, which tested young swimmers in preparation for the Senior National Swedish Championships, competitors who had the highest scores on optimism performed less well during the competitions. The results are interpreted to indicate that optimism presents an important factor for predicting achievement in sports.     

Cortical spreading depression and involvement of the motor cortex,auditory cortex,and cerebellum in eyeblink classical conditioning of the rabbit

The interrelationships of cerebellar and cerebral neural circuits in the eyeblink paradigm were explored with the controlled application of cortical spreading depression (CSD) and lidocaine in the New Zealand albino rabbit. The initial research focus was directed toward the involvement of the motor cortex in the conditioned eyeblink response. However, CSD timing and triangulation results indicate that other areas in the cerebral cortex, particularly the auditory cortex (acoustic conditioned stimulus), appear to be critical for the CSD effect on the eyeblink response. In summary: (1) CSD can be elicited, monitored, and timed and its side effects controlled in 97% of awake rabbits in the right and/or left cerebral hemisphere(s) during eyeblink conditioning. (2) The motor cortex appears to play little or no part in classical conditioning of the eyeblink in the rabbit in the delay paradigm. (3) Inactivating the auditory cortex with CSD or lidocaine temporarily impairs the conditioned response during the first 5 to 15 days of training, but has little effect past that point.     

Agency and the theory of quantum vacuum interaction 1

Laszlo's theory of quantum vacuum interaction describes the evolution of all order in the universe as a result of the interaction between the holofield, a subquantum field of potential energy, and the multi‐level hierarchy of matter and living systems. A review of the scheme reveals two problems which question its application to psycho‐social interaction. One is the use of classical holography (image processing), which is inherently deterministic. The second is Laszlo's view of the brain as a passive processor of information. Both preclude human agency in the generation of psycho‐social organization. An alternative approach is developed here that aims to solve both of these problems. First, I draw on Piaget's work to show how thought and reason, and thus agency, is produced by the logic of cooperative interaction. And second, I use both classical holography and quantum holography (information processing) to develop a nondeterminist account of communication in social collectives. The principles of classical holography are used to describe how purposeful action is imaged and processed; and the principles of quantum holography are used to describe how a stable order of endogenous organization is generated by the processing of information about the interactions among members. By describing how the collective's normative order (the system of shared values, beliefs, and norms) operates to effect the construction and regulation of the collective's communicative structure, I show how indeterminacy is introduced and, hence, the potential for an active human agent in social life.