Only my group will do: Evidence that social support protects athletes from burnout when they identify with those who provide it

Perceived availability of social support can reduce symptoms of burnout in athletes. As such, it is important to understand the circumstances under which perceived social support is most effective. Social influences such as strength of social identification with a particular group or identity are believed to play an important role in the provision and effectiveness of social support. Across two studies, we investigate whether social identification in a sport can strengthen the protective association between perceived social support and burnout. In Study 1, athletes completed questionnaires assessing perceptions of social support availability, social identification, and burnout. In Study 2, participants completed the same measures at systematic time points across a six-month timespan. In both studies, participants’ levels of social identification moderated the association between perceived social support and burnout, whereby there was a stronger negative relationship between social support and burnout when participants reported higher levels of social identification in their sport. These results indicate that social identity may play an integral role in improving the efficacy of social support on burnout.     

States of identity: a perspective drawing upon Fordham's model and infant studies

This paper examines the Jungian concept of identity and distinguishes it from projective identification and participation mystique which also refer to non-differentiation between self and object but involve projective mechanisms. Clinical work by Fordham and a psychoanalytic infant observation are used to illustrate early perceptual operations defined by experimental researches. These operations are understood to be expressions of the primary self which manifest themselves before the structuring necessary for normal projective identification. This paper attempts to describe an intersubjective experience between mother and baby that allows for their separate ways of relating, but does not depend on projective mechanisms that can exist only after there has been adequate development.     

Differential ordering of objects and attributes

By reference to nominated attributes, a genus, being a population of objects of one specified kind, may be partitioned into species, being subpopulations of different kinds. A prototype is an object representative of its species within the genus. Using this framework, the paper describes how objects can be relatively differentiated with respect to attributes, and how attributes can be relatively differentiating with respect to objects. Methods and rationale for such differential ordering of objects and attributes are presented by example, formal development, and application.For a genus comprisingn species of object there is a subsetP ofn distinct prototypes. With respect tom nominated attributes, each object in has anm-element characterization. Together these determine ann ×m objects × attributes matrix, the rows of which are the characterizations of the prototypical objects. Over then species in , an associated relative frequency vector gives the distribution of objects (and of their characterizations). The matrix and vector associate the objects in with points in a metric space (P, ); and it is with respect to various sums of distances in this attribute space that one can differentially order objects and attributes.The definition of the distance function is generalized across kinds of difference, types of characterization, scale-types of measurement, Minkowskiindex 1, and any form of distribution of objects over species. Explanatory and taxonomic applications in psychology and other fields are discussed, with focus on classification, identification, recognition, and search. The Braille code and the identification of its characters provide illustration.An anticipation and some preliminary indications were given in Sutcliffe and Bristow (1966), Sutcliffe (1972, 1973), and Nowakowska (1975). Subsequently the ideas have been extended and their applications realized in a computer program which, in its development, has so far gone through many minor and three major revisions to its present form in Sutcliffe (1985). The foregoing provided the foundation for the empirical applications and for the presentation in this paper of the ideas in their general form. the research has been supported by funds from the University of Sydney Research Grant and from the Australian Research Grants Scheme. In the working out and exposition of the ideas I have very much benefited from constructive critical comment given by C. R. Latimer, J. B. Michell, G. Oliphant, and E. Seneta, and from the professional programming skills of Michael Wilson and David Shillito. I am grateful for the invitation and the facilities for writing extended during 1983 by Georges Noizet, Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale, Université René Descartes, Paris V, and by Samuel Messick, Vice President for Research, E.T.S. Princeton, N.J. Finally, I acknowledge the improvements in presentation of this paper which have arisen from the editor's and reviewers' comments.     

A note on the identification of restricted factor loading matrices

It is shown that problems of rotational equivalence of restricted factor loading matrices in orthogonal factor analysis are equivalent to problems of identification in simultaneous equations systems with covariance restrictions. A necessary (under a regularity assumption) and sufficient condition for local uniqueness is given and a counterexample is provided to a theorem by J. Algina concerning necessary and sufficient conditions for global uniqueness.     

Psychological talent predictors in early adolescence and their empirical relationship with current and future performance in soccer

ObjectivesThis study examined the relationship of talented soccer players' psychological characteristics with current and future performance.DesignBoth a cross-sectional and a prospective design were used.MethodThe sample consisted of 2677 U12 players in the German talent development program. Self-report questionnaires captured psychological dispositions and skills that were assigned to the areas of motivation, volition, self-referential cognition, and emotion. Current performance was operationalized by a motor score representing speed abilities and technical skills as well as by coaches' subjective ratings (A = highly promotion-worthy, B = promotion-worthy, C = partly promotion-worthy). The level of future performance was assessed by examining whether individuals were selected for professional clubs' youth academies in U16.ResultsThis study revealed that only self-referential cognitions had a significant and relevant association with the motor score (0.10 ≤ r ≤ 0.37). The players in the subjectively rated categories significantly differed in 10 of 17 psychological scales (0.01 ≤ η² ≤ 0.03). In most of the scales, A-players showed more positively connoted values compared to B- and C-players. Logistic regressions demonstrated that 10 of 17 characteristics explained a significant proportion of players' future success. Players with high dispositions in these characteristics had a greater chance of achieving a higher performance level compared to players with low dispositions (1.61 ≤ OR ≤ 2.65).ConclusionsExpanding on previous research, this study enabled comparisons between a wide range of psychological characteristics with regard to their relevance for soccer performance, leading to conclusions for talent identification and development.     

ROC analyses in eyewitness identification research

There has been a recent surge of interest in analyzing the results of eyewitness identification experiments using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves. Proponents of this approach have argued not only that ROC analyses are useful but that more traditional approaches are deficient and should not be used. Three arguments might be made for why researchers would prefer ROC approaches over other techniques. The first is that ROC analyses can provide an index of underlying memory discriminability. The second is that ROC analyses provide useful information about the practical utility of identification procedures. The third is that ROC analyses are useful for testing theory. In this article, I critically examine each of these arguments and conclude that recent claims that ROC methods provide the only justifiable method of comparing identification procedures are overstated.     

Ultrafast scene detection and recognition with limited visual information

Humans can detect target colour pictures of scenes depicting concepts like picnic or harbour in sequences of six or 12 pictures presented as briefly as 13?ms, even when the target is named after the sequence. Such rapid detection suggests that feedforward processing alone enabled detection without recurrent cortical feedback. There is debate about whether coarse, global, low spatial frequencies (LSFs) provide predictive information to high cortical levels through the rapid magnocellular (M) projection of the visual path, enabling top-down prediction of possible object identities. To test the “Fast M” hypothesis, we compared detection of a named target across five stimulus conditions: unaltered colour, blurred colour, greyscale, thresholded monochrome, and LSF pictures. The pictures were presented for 13–80?ms in six-picture rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) sequences. Blurred, monochrome, and LSF pictures were detected less accurately than normal colour or greyscale pictures. When the target was named before the sequence, all picture types except LSF resulted in above-chance detection at all durations. Crucially, when the name was given only after the sequence, performance dropped and the monochrome and LSF pictures (but not the blurred pictures) were at or near chance. Thus, without advance information, monochrome and LSF pictures were rarely understood. The results offer only limited support for the Fast M hypothesis, suggesting instead that feedforward processing is able to activate conceptual representations without complementary reentrant processing.     

Uncovering the diverse cultural bases of social identity: Ingroup ties predict self‐stereotyping among individualists but not among collectivists

On what basis do people form their social identities? To investigate this issue, the present research investigates cross‐cultural differences in self‐stereotyping, a key outcome of social identification. In particular, the research tests the hypothesis that ingroup ties are a stronger predictor of self‐stereotyping among people from individualist cultures than among people from collectivist cultures. In Study 1, university students (N = 117) completed measures of ingroup ties and self‐stereotyping with respect to an intimacy group (family and friends). Consistent with predictions, ingroup ties significantly predicted self‐stereotyping among individualists but not among collectivists. Study 2 (N = 104) found a similar pattern of results among members of the global internet community who considered either an intimacy group (their friends), a task group (their work group) or a social category (their gender). These results indicate that people in individualist cultures are more likely than those in collectivist cultures to base their social identities on ingroup ties. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to self‐categorization theory's depersonalization account of social identification.