No relevant spectator impact on home advantage in male and female professional volleyball – A longitudinal multilevel logistic model analysis over 25 years

Home advantage (HA) regularly occurs in volleyball (Pollard et al., 2017: men: 56.62%, women: 55.26%). Research to date has investigated primarily small samples of mostly female matches and not looked into the potential impact of spectators on HA. This archival analysis uses multilevel modelling to examine HA in professional German volleyball (men & women) over 25 seasons in all regular and play-off matches (N = 6,833). We analyze how spectators drive HA and whether this projects to the COVID-19 season 2020/21.When intercepts varied between teams (2-level model, ICC = 27%), the winning probability increased when playing at home (men: 57.01%, OR_men = 2.39, d = 0.48; women: 55.39%, OR_women = 2.19, d = 0.43), while controlling for team strength, interaction with gender, and travelling distance. More spectators had a negligible effect on the men’s and women’s chances (|d| < 0.07). Similar trends were observed for the probability of winning sets. Contrary to other team sports (e.g., soccer), there is no HA-development over the last decades.     

When hockey parents are motivationally imbalanced: Passion,need satisfaction,and verbal aggression toward officials

Spectators can engage in high levels of verbal aggression toward youth hockey officials. Often, the perpetrators of this aggression are the parents. Our aim was to test the motivational factors involved in explaining why hockey parents sometimes take things too far and engage in verbally aggressive behavior toward officials. We reasoned that verbal aggression toward officials would be a function of two forms of motivational imbalance. First, in line with the dualistic model of passion, we hypothesized that verbal aggression would be positively associated with hockey parents’ obsessive passion, an imbalanced form of passion. Also, based on the compensatory model of passion, we predicted that obsessive passion would be associated with imbalanced psychological need satisfaction involving high need satisfaction from being a hockey parent, but low global need satisfaction. We administered online surveys to Canadian hockey parents (N = 992) assessing their verbal aggression toward officials, passion for being a hockey parent, and psychological need satisfaction from being a hockey parent and in general. Using structural equation modeling, we found support for a model in which high need satisfaction from being a hockey parent and low need satisfaction in general were associated with obsessive passion. Obsessive passion, in turn, was associated with greater verbal aggression toward referees. These findings help reveal why some hockey parents insult, threaten, and engage in other forms of verbal aggression toward officials. They also highlight the importance of maintaining motivational balance among sport parents.     

Caregiver perspectives of risk and protective factors influencing early childhood development in low-income,urban settings: A social ecological perspective

This qualitative study explored caregivers' perceptions of factors influencing early childhood development in low-income, urban South African settings, from a social ecological perspective. Individual interviews were conducted with 15 caregivers of 3–5-year-old children; a reflexive thematic analysis approach was adopted. In the family and home context, caregivers spoke about their role in developing, nurturing, providing, protecting and disciplining their children. Risks included low socioeconomic status, dysfunctional relationships and caregiver mental health; resources related to early learning and social support. In the preschool/school context, caregivers discussed the value of early learning, and priorities for selecting early childhood care and education settings. Community risks included violence and crime; resources mentioned were social support, community programmes and infrastructure. The social ecological model provides a holistic and contextually relevant perspective for understanding multiple factors (risks and protective factors) influencing early childhood development in low-income South African settings.     

Language and persuasion: A discursive psychological approach

Across the social sciences, there is a wealth of research on the role of language in persuasion in interpersonal communication. Most of these studies have been conducted in laboratories using experimental methods, have taken a social cognitive perspective, and have focused on the effects of particular linguistic practices on how persuasive messages are understood, processed, and ultimately complied with. By contrast, less attention has been paid to how language can be used to create sequential, interactional, and social obligations, in everyday interactions, like sales encounters or business negotiations, where persuasion occurs naturally and is built into the fabric of the conversation. In reviewing the former approach to studying language and persuasion, in this paper, I highlight several critical shortcomings. Then, I argue that, when studying naturally occurring persuasion-in-interaction, a discursive psychological approach is better suited for investigating and theorising the interactional structures underpinning persuasion and the role of language therein.     

A sequential exploratory diagnostic model using a Pólya-gamma data augmentation strategy

Cognitive diagnostic models provide a framework for classifying individuals into latent proficiency classes, also known as attribute profiles. Recent research has examined the implementation of a Pólya-gamma data augmentation strategy binary response model using logistic item response functions within a Bayesian Gibbs sampling procedure. In this paper, we propose a sequential exploratory diagnostic model for ordinal response data using a logit-link parameterization at the category level and extend the Pólya-gamma data augmentation strategy to ordinal response processes. A Gibbs sampling procedure is presented for efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation methods. We provide results from a Monte Carlo study for model performance and present an application of the model.     

A plausible role of imagination in pretend play,counterfactual reasoning,and executive functions

A notable observation is the similarities in the cognitive processes of pretend play (PP) and counterfactual reasoning (CFR) as both involve thinking about alternatives to reality. It is argued by Weisberg and Gopnik (Cogn. Sci., 37, 2013, 1368) that alternative thinking in PP and CFR is underpinned by an imaginary representational capacity but few studies have empirically investigated this link. We use a variable latent modelling approach to test a hypothetical model of the structural relationship of PP and CFR predicting that if PP and CFR are cognitively similar; they should have similar patterns of associations with Executive Functions (EFs). Data were collected on PP, CFR, EFs and Language from 189 children (M = 4.8 years, males = 101, females = 88). Confirmatory factor analyses showed that measures of PP and CFR loaded onto single latent constructs and were significantly correlated (r = .51, p = .001) with each other. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that EF accounted for unique significant variance in both PP (β = 21) and CFR (β = 22). The results of the structural equation modelling revealed that the data were a good fit for the hypothetical model. We discuss the plausible role of a general underlying imaginative representational capacity to explain similarities in the cognitive mechanisms of different states of alternative thinking like PP and CFR.     

Effects of quantity and quality of home proximal processes on Dutch,Surinamese–Dutch and Turkish–Dutch pre‐schoolers’ cognitive development

This study examines the effects of mother–child literacy and problem solving interactions on 3–4‐year‐old children's cognitive development in a sample of Dutch middle‐class, Dutch lower‐class, Surinamese and Turkish immigrant families (n=130). Following the bioecological model of Bronfenbrenner and Ceci, mother–child book reading and problem solving interactions are viewed as proximal processes actualizing genetic cognitive potential. Interactions are studied from a quantitative perspective, based on questionnaire data, concerning frequency of exposure to these interactions, and a qualitative perspective, based on observational data, concerning affective quality and cognitive content. The study was designed as a 1 year longitudinal study. It was found that effects of mother–child interactions on cognitive development differed across the groups, controlling for earlier cognitive competence and family's SES. The findings are interpreted within the frame of the bioecological model and the behavioral genetic research paradigm. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social representation of aggression as an explanation of gender differences: A preliminary study

Academic theories of aggression can be dichotomized as expressive (in which aggression results from a failure of self control) or instrumental (in which aggression represents the exercise of control over others). We propose that the two sexes hold a parallel distinction in their social representations of aggression; women subscribe to an expressive model, men to an instrumental model. A 20-item questionnaire was generated by systematic comparison of the two theories with respect to their differential predictions concerning perceived social value, proximate causes, relevant emotions and congnitions, form, aim, social facilitators, and reputational aspects of aggression. Factor analysis indicated a first factor of expressive-instrumental aggression on which all items had significant loadings. A significant correlation (.46) was found between gender and questionnaire score confirming the hypothesis. The notion of gender-specific social representations is discussed in terms of its ability to coherently interpret patterns of differences in aggression found in experimental and observational studies.     

西方心育教学模式评介

本文探讨了心育与心育教学模式的意义 ;着重介绍了西方几种有代表性的心育教学模式 ,即布鲁纳的发现教学法、威廉姆斯的创造与情意教学模式、开放教室的教学模式与勒温的敏感性训练等 ;并与传统教学模式相比较 ,分析了西方心育教学模式的主要特征     

The study of early emotion processing in the frontal area using a two-dipole source model

The present study explored early emotion processing in the frontal area using the two-dipole source model. The 21-channel recordings of event-related potentials (ERPs) produced by a pure tone were analyzed in order to assess information processing. In the test conditions, the pure tone followed the presentation of one of two unpleasant sounds to enhance anxiety. In the control condition, only the pure tone was presented. There were two groups of eight subjects, one with low scores for trait anxiety and one with high scores. The ERPs were separately averaged for the groups, as well as for the high- and low-anxiety sound and control session. A negative peak around 120 ms (C2) and a positive peak around 280 ms (C5) after stimulus onset were identified in all the sessions. The two-dipole source model was applied to these two components. In the C2 component, dipole sources were located in the left frontal area in the control sessions, and in the right frontal area in the high-anxiety sessions. This activation pattern was clearer in the group with low trait anxiety. In contrast, with the C5 component, lateralization of the dipole source in the frontal area was not seen. These findings suggest that the frontal area is involved in early emotion processing. A dual-stage model of emotion processing is therefore proposed.