Psychological aspects of scuba diving injuries: Suggestions for short-term treatment from a psychodynamic perspective

Dive medicine is described as an area of practice in which psychologists may choose to expand their clinical service and research activities. The author argues that most research studying risk behavior and sports take into account biological, behavioral or cognitive approaches, while ignoring unconscious conflict in risk-taking and injury management. The present paper uses a psychodynamically-oriented, interview-based approach to studying psychological reactions to decompression sickness in three experienced scuba divers. Brief interventions and their outcomes are described.     

Sports participation at work: An aid to stress management?

This study examined the effects of sport participation on mood, including stress, arousal, and psychological reversals. The subjects (N = 42) of the study were enrolled in an international MBA program which included, in addition to a range of academic courses, a course in physical education for which attendance was voluntary. Subjects, 26 sport participants and 16 nonparticipants, completed mood measures on five occasions throughout a typical working day, including just before and just after a sport session. Significant differences on some mood measure items and a number of pre- to post-sport significant effects (seriousmindedness and stress) were found between the sport and non-sport group, as well as reversals in psychological state. These results suggest that sport may well act as a modulator of mood and/or an inducing agent for reversal and therefore may play an important role in stress management intervention programs at work.     

Modifying food purchases in supermarkets with modeling, feedback, and goal-setting procedures

We compared several procedures designed to modify consumer food purchases with the objectives of reducing fat and increasing carbohydrate content, and reducing dollar expenditures on food. Participants were 126 volunteer community households which, after a 7-week baseline period, were randomly assigned to video-modeling, video-modeling-feedback, video-lecture, video-lecture-feedback, participant-modeling, video-modeling-discussion, and control conditions. The main dependent measure was a weekly record of food purchases, convertible to percentages of nutrients and dollar expenditures. Results indicated that modeling-feedback and participant-modeling procedures were most effective (e.g., 6% reduction of total fat consumption, 19% dollar savings). Strategies to refine and automate modeling and feedback in supermarkets that may benefit consumers, corporations, and government are discussed.     

USING INTERMITTENT REINFORCEMENT TO PROGRAM MAINTENANCE OF VERBAL/NONVERBAL CORRESPONDENCE

We investigated the effects of an intermittent reinforcement procedure on maintenance of verbal/nonverbal correspondence with nutritious snack choices in a day-care setting. Nutritious snack choices were first established using correspondence training procedures in a multiple baseline across three children. Withdrawal of the procedures with one subject led to loss of appropriate responding, suggesting the need for a maintenance strategy. The intermittent reinforcement procedure was implemented in a multiple baseline across subjects. Nutritious snack choices were observed consistently during the intermittent reinforcement condition and the subsequent extinction condition.     

Reductions of intimate partner violence resulting from supplementing children with omega‐3 fatty acids: A randomized,double‐blind,placebo‐controlled,stratified, parallel‐group trial

Omega‐3 supplementation has been found to reduce externalizing behavior in children. Reciprocal models of parent‐child behavior suggest that improving child behavior could lead to improvements in parent behavior, however no study has examined whether omega‐3 supplementation in children could reduce intimate partner violence or child maltreatment by their adult caregivers. In this randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, stratified, parallel group trial, a community sample of children were randomized to receive either a fruit drink containing 1 gm of omega‐3 fats (Smartfish Recharge; Omega‐3 group, n = 100) or the same fruit drink without omega‐3's (Placebo group, n = 100). Child participants, adult caregivers, and research staff were blinded to group assignment. Adult caregivers reported inter‐partner and child‐directed physical assault and psychological aggression at baseline, 6 months (end of treatment) and 12 months (6 months post‐treatment) using the Conflicts Tactics Scale. Caregivers of children in the omega‐3 group reported long‐term reductions in psychological aggression in a group × time interaction. Improvements in adult psychological aggression were correlated with improvements in child externalizing behavior scores. No differences were reported for child maltreatment. This study is the first to show that omega‐3 supplementation in children can reduce inter‐partner psychological aggression among adult caregivers not receiving supplements. Findings suggest that improving child behavior through omega‐3 supplementation could have long‐term benefits to the family system as a whole.

     

Can contesting orientations predict grittier,more self-controlled athletes?

Grit and self-control are highly desired qualities of character in the sport arena. This two-study investigation used a new theoretical approach, contesting theory, to examine whether contesting orientations could predict these characteristics among intercollegiate athletes. Contesting theory identifies two distinct modes of cognitively processing the meaning and purpose of contesting, one rooted in a contest-is-partnership metaphor and the other a contest-is-war metaphor. Study 1 (N = 799) found that contesting orientations added incremental utility beyond demographic and control variables to the prediction of the two dimensions of grit (perseverance and consistency). Specifically, the partnership orientation positively predicted higher grit scores. Study 2 (N = 1179) replicated the findings of Study 1 with only minor variations and also demonstrated that contesting orientations add to the prediction of self-control. Results are discussed in terms of the practical implications for sport practitioners and, more broadly, the value of contesting theory to positive psychology.     

Economic Exploitation in Intercollegiate Athletics

This paper investigates philosophically the question of whether or not college and university athletes in the USA are doing something morally wrong should they terminate their college or university experience prior to graduation and enter the professional athletic ranks. Various moral arguments are brought to bear in order to attempt to shed light on this issue. One reason why such athletes ‘turn professional’ before they graduate is the perceived economic exploitation they experience as essentially underpaid workers earning much revenue for their respective institutions. But who is exploiting whom here? Is it just student athletes who are exploited by the system? I expand the reasoning about the exploitation of intercollegiate athletics to include not just student athletes, but their supporting colleges and universities. In the end, it is proposed that the National Collegiate Athletic Association and similar academically related athletic agencies should permit and encourage each of their constituent institutions as a matter of policy to protect themselves (and their supporting taxpayers, in the cases of public institutions) contractually from economic exploitation by professional sports franchises. Thus the question of student athletes leaving college for professional sports contracts has hidden beneath it questions of private professional sports franchises’ exploitation of the institutions with which such student athletes are affiliated.     

Predicting 2-year weight loss through temporally specific earlier losses,relevant behaviors,and their psychological correlates: Implications for behavioral treatment architectures

Maintaining loss of weight beyond an initial 6–9 months remains problematic, with research indicating little recent progress. A poor understanding of how and when prior weight loss, behavioral changes, and psychosocial predictors are associated with long-term weight changes persists. To better-inform behavioral treatments for long-term success with weight loss, women with obesity (N = 86; M_age = 48.6 years) volunteered for research incorporating community-based weight-management treatments. They were assessed at months 6, 12, and 24 on theory-based psychosocial and behavioral factors, and over 24 months on weight. Considering the included times and temporal ranges, it was found that change in weight from month 6–24 was the strongest predictor of 24-month weight change, and physical activity and fruit/vegetable intake at month 24 best predicted that change in weight. Self-regulation, self-efficacy, and mood at month 24 best predicted both physical activity and fruit/vegetable intake at month 24, with body satisfaction also a significant predictor of physical activity. From these data, mediation analyses found that the predictions of long-term weight loss by scores of self-regulation, self-efficacy, body satisfaction, and mood at month 24 were significantly mediated by fruit/vegetable intake and physical activity in separate equations. Findings indicated both psychosocial and behavioral targets, and timing for those targets, most indicative of long-term success with weight loss.     

When cooler heads prevail: peacemakers in a sports riot.

Male sports fans (N = 74) were asked to estimate the likelihood that they would intervene in a crowd disturbance in an attempt to stop the fighting. They also completed a battery of measures that included their attitude toward law and order, fight history, the false consensus effect, impulsivity, psychopathy, sensation seeking, anger, physical aggression and identification with their favorite team. Law and order, body mass, anger and the false consensus effect were positively related to peacemaking whereas sensation seeking was negatively related. A multiple regression analysis yielded a solution that accounted for 32.3% of the variance with anger and attitude toward law and order emerging as the best predictors.