Self-esteem, self-confidence, anxiety and claimed self-handicapping: A mediational analysis

Objectives

The purpose of the present study was to examine the mediational role of self-confidence and anxiety in the relationship between self-esteem and claimed self-handicapping in an achievement context.

Design

To test this mediational role, the three-step procedure advocated by Baron and Kenny (1986) was used.

Method

After hearing and reading about specific conditions of performing that were intended to favor invoking excuses for future poor performance, 68 competitive basketball players completed measures of self-esteem, anxiety (cognitive and somatic), self-confidence, and claimed self-handicapping. Then, they warmed-up and carried out a basketball task.

Results

Self-esteem negatively predicted cognitive anxiety and positively predicted self-confidence. In turn, self-confidence negatively predicted claimed self-handicapping and mediated the relationship between self-esteem and claimed self-handicapping. Cognitive and somatic anxieties did not mediate the relationship between self-esteem and claimed self-handicapping. Together, these results suggest that individuals with low self-esteem use more claimed self-handicaps because they have lower self-confidence.

Conclusion

These findings shed light on the psychological processes that lead people with low self-esteem to use strategies of claimed self-handicaps.     

Born to learn or born to win? Birth order effects on achievement goals

Given the widespread use and well-known consequences of achievement goals in different competence-relevant situations, it is important to gain a thorough understanding of how these differences in goal pursuit are formed. Using different analytic approaches, we show that birth order lies at the heart of people’s goal preferences as we consistently found that firstborns have developed a preference for mastery goals (which are based on self-referenced standards of competence), whereas secondborns have developed a preference for performance goals (which are based on other-referenced standards of competence). These findings may help explain why people differently define, experience, and respond to competence-relevant situations, including the workplace, the classroom, and the ball field.     

Focussing on overexcitabilities: Studies with intellectually gifted and academically talented adults

The concept of “overexcitability” has recently become popular within the field of giftedness and talent research. Some authors argue that overexcitability questionnaires can be used to identify gifted/talented individuals. A sample of intellectually gifted adults (n = 96; mean age: 31.4; SD = 0.3) was compared to a sample of adults of average intelligence (n = 91; mean age: 31.4; SD = 0.4). Additionally, a sample of 123 high achievers (mean age = 30.5; SD = 0.3) was compared to 97 average achievers (mean age: 30.5; SD = 0.3). The “Overexcitability Questionnaire-Two” was used to assess emotional, imaginational, intellectual, psychomotor, and sensual overexcitability. The gifted adults scored statistically significantly higher on “intellectual overexcitability” (d = .42). High and average achievers differed statistically significantly in “intellectual overexcitability” (d = .56) and “sensual overexcitability” (d = .32). For the giftedness sample, the accuracy of group membership prediction (gifted/non-gifted) via discriminant analyses was 60.4%. For the performance sample, the accuracy was 63.4%. The observed differences in the overexcitabilities were small; the risk of misclassification is too big to attempt to identify gifted or high achieving adults solely on the basis of overexcitability scores.     

Contributions of teacher-child relationships to positive school adjustment during elementary school

The current study examined the extent to which teacher-child relationship contributed to school adjustment among 1310 elementary school-aged students and the degree to which this relationship was moderated by significant child characteristics. The results suggest a consistent and comparable effect for children across grades, gender, and types of school outcomes. Children experiencing behavioral or learning problems showed poorer school outcomes and were less able to benefit from a close teacher relationship when compared to peers without such problems. However, a protective effect was noted, such that children with developmental vulnerabilities and a close teacher relationship were significantly advantaged relative to similarly affected peers who lacked such relationships. The results are discussed in light of research and theory, and applications are made to school-based practices.     

Changes over time in the black–white difference on mental tests: Evidence from the children of the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

Data for three Peabody achievement tests and for the Peabody picture vocabulary test administered to children of women in the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth show that the black–white difference did not diminish for this sample of children born from the mid 1970s through the mid 1990s. This finding persists after entering covariates for the child's age and family background variables. It is robust across alternative samples and specifications of the model. The analysis supplements other evidence that shows no narrowing of the black–white difference in academic achievement tests since the late 1980s and is inconsistent with recent evidence that narrowing occurred in IQ standardizations during the same period. A hypothesis for reconciling this inconsistency is proposed.     

学习因素诊断测验在苏南地区的试用报告

本研究引进日本学习因素诊断测验(Diagnostic Test of Achievement Factor,简称DTAF),分别对苏南地区中小学学生进行抽样测验,以验证该测量工具在中国大陆的适用情况。研究结果表明：DTAF具有良好的信度、效度。以各分量表为单位的项目分析结果表明,DTAF的绝大多数题目之间结构紧密,具有很高的鉴别力。学习动机、学习计划、学习技能、学习环境对学生学习结果具有重要影响,本文对此展开了讨论。     

Perceived inclusion in youth soccer teams: The role of societal status and perceived motivational goal climate

ObjectivesOur aim was to investigate the link between youth soccer players' perceptions of the coach-initiated motivational goal climate within their team and their perceptions of inclusion as a function of societal status. Societal status refers to one's national background which numerically forms the majority or a minority in a particular society.Design and methodsSurvey data was collected among 245 male youth soccer players (M = 12.9 years, SD = 1.60), who all played in culturally diverse teams in the Netherlands. The societal status of 94 players (38.4%) was majority, and 151 players (61.6%) were classified as minority. To test our main hypothesis, perceived inclusion as the dependent variable was hierarchically regressed on coach-initiated mastery goal climate perceptions, performance goal climate perceptions, societal status, and their interactions.ResultsOverall, mastery goal perceptions and performance goal perceptions of intra-team competition were positively and negatively related, respectively, to perceived team inclusion. As hypothesized, only among players with a societal minority status, perceptions of inclusion were higher when mastery goal climate perceptions were higher and performance goal climate perceptions were lower.Discussion and conclusionOur findings suggest that a coach-initiated mastery-oriented team climate may enhance an inclusive soccer environment in culturally and nationally diverse teams. For societal minority players, intra-team competition should be de-emphasized by the coach in order to strengthen the experience of inclusion.     

Feeling the structures of Québec's 2012 student strike at Concordia University: The place of emotions,emotional styles,and emotional reflexivity

Based on experiences of geography students at Concordia University in Montreal, Québec, who participated in the provincial unlimited general student strike in 2012, this article explores how the physical and symbolic spaces of the university were key in determining these strike participants' emotional experiences, particularly confusing for being wrapped up in the collegial context. The relevance of emotions and affect in social movements has gained attention in the past decades in the geography literature, yet the latter has tended to focus on autonomous politics or on the streets where these strike participants or other protestors gathered. Complementing such scholarship, I highlight how a specific place -the site of the university, the geography department, and the student association structures housed within them- affected these strike participants' emotional experiences and styles via the materialities and emotional expectations of, as well as feelings of belonging to, that place. By focusing on the emotional geography of an academic department and institution during this tumultuous time, this article seeks to widen our understanding of emotional dynamics, emotional styles, and emotional reflexivity for diverse activist positionalities in a setting akin to a more traditional ‘workplace’: the place of study where this strike emerged, the educational institution.     

Associations between the perceived quality of the coach–athlete relationship and athlete burnout: An examination of the mediating role of achievement goals

ObjectivesThe aim of the current study was to examine (1) associations between the quality of the coach–athlete relationship as perceived by athletes and athlete burnout and, (2) the role of achievement goals in mediating the association between the coach–athlete relationship and burnout.DesignCross-sectional.Method359 athletes completed measures of the perceived quality of the coach–athlete relationship (the 3Cs model), achievement goals (the 2 × 2 model) and burnout (the athlete burnout model).ResultsStructural equation modeling revealed negative relationships between the perceived quality of the coach–athlete relationship and the three dimensions of athlete burnout (df = 118, χ² = 215.37, RMSEA = .05 [.04; .06], TLI = .97, CFI = .97). Moreover, results suggested that mastery-approach goals partially mediated the relationship between the coach–athlete relationship and two dimensions of athlete burnout: sport devaluation (i.e., indirect and direct effects: p < .001) and reduced accomplishment (i.e., indirect and direct effects: p < .01).ConclusionThe current study confirms and broadens previous knowledge on the socio-cognitive correlates of athlete burnout by demonstrating that the level of athlete burnout is associated with the perceived quality of the relationship with the coach. Results also highlight that achievement goals partially mediate these relationships.     

Places of Information Generation: Bridging Pannenberg’s Logos and Deacon’s Emerging Semiosis

Bridging Wolfhart Pannenberg’s comprehensive twentieth-century systematic theology of Creation and Terrence Deacon’s very thorough scientific account of material and biological development and evolution results in an integrative view of Creation from Trinitarian relationality to biomolecular processes. Pannenberg’s understanding of Logos guides the investigation of the progressive unfolding of forms toward the key construct of information generation which Deacon’s theory of emergence explains as selection dynamics. Modeling both space and form as a place where activity generates information synthesizes Pannenberg’s complementary activities of Logos and Spirit with Deacon’s emergent dynamics and semiosis to develop generative distinctions among a field of systems as a key component of a scientifically plausible theological anthropology.