Examining links between coaching behaviors and collegiate athletes’ burnout levels using a longitudinal approach

Research on burnout in athletes reveals a range of potential negative effects including decreased performance, compromised physical and psychological well-being, and possible sport withdrawal. The current study was designed to: (a) examine if and how collegiate athletes’ levels of burnout change from the beginning to the end of a competitive season; and (b) determine if there is a predictive link between athletes’ perceptions of their coaches’ interpersonal styles and feedback behavior and changes in athletes’ level of burnout. Self-report measures were completed by 126 collegiate female athletes at two time-points. A repeated measures MANOVA revealed a significant time main effect showing increases over the season in two of the three burnout dimensions (reduced accomplishment and sport devaluation). Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that perceived coaching behaviors did explain a significant amount of the variability between athletes in their end of season burnout scores above and beyond that explained by their early season levels and their perceptions of their performance success. These results add to the growing body of literature on the utility of self-determination theory as a framework for examining psychosocial health and well-being in collegiate athletes. In addition, the longitudinal nature of this study provides information regarding potential changes in the dimensions of burnout as a function of time in the season and in response to perceptions of coaches’ behaviors.     

On the short horizon of spontaneous iterative reasoning in logical puzzles and games

A reasoning strategy is iterative when the initial conclusion suggested by a set of premises is integrated into that set of premises in order to yield additional conclusions. Previous experimental studies on game theory-based strategic games (such as the beauty contest game) observed difficulty in reasoning iteratively, which has been partly attributed to bounded individual rationality. However, this difficulty has also been attributed to problems in adequately representing the beliefs, actions, and goals of other agents involved in the games. In four experiments, we observed similar difficulties in iterative reasoning in a variety of puzzles and games that did not involve social interactions with other agents, where they can only be caused by individual cognitive boundaries. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that an intrinsic difficulty in iterative reasoning originates from a tendency not to revise our initial mental representation of a problem in light of the initial conclusions that it implies.     

A Framework for Sustainability

Sustainability is value laden, and achieving sustainability is constrained by conflict and inefficient problem solving. Sustainability requires minimizing the costs of both constraints. This article outlines a framework for sustainability that recognizes divergent values, improves the productivity of debate, and suggests how to reduce sustainability costs.     

Social Learning Strategies in Networked Groups

When making decisions, humans can observe many kinds of information about others' activities, but their effects on performance are not well understood. We investigated social learning strategies using a simple problem‐solving task in which participants search a complex space, and each can view and imitate others' solutions. Results showed that participants combined multiple sources of information to guide learning, including payoffs of peers' solutions, popularity of solution elements among peers, similarity of peers' solutions to their own, and relative payoffs from individual exploration. Furthermore, performance was positively associated with imitation rates at both the individual and group levels. When peers' payoffs were hidden, popularity and similarity biases reversed, participants searched more broadly and randomly, and both quality and equity of exploration suffered. We conclude that when peers' solutions can be effectively compared, imitation does not simply permit scrounging, but it can also facilitate propagation of good solutions for further cumulative exploration.     

Facilitation and analogical transfer in the THOG task

This study was concerned with Wason's THOG task, a hypothetico-deductive reasoning problem for which performance is typically very poor (<20% correct). Recently, however, Needham and Amado (1995) and Koenig and Griggs (2004) have observed both facilitation and spontaneous analogical transfer effects for the Pythagoras version of this task. Based on their findings, Koenig and Griggs concluded that in addition to the separation of the data (the properties of the designated THOG) from the hypotheses that need to be generated (the possible combinations of properties written down), an explicit request to generate these hypotheses is necessary to obtain significant analogical transfer. In the present study we extended the generalisability of this conclusion in three experiments with 214 undergraduate participants using O'Brien et al.'s (1990) Blackboard version of the task. We discuss the relationship of the results to dual process theories of reasoning and propose that analogical transfer may be a better criterion than task facilitation for judging participants' task understanding.     

Time of day effects on problem solving: When the non-optimal is optimal

In a study examining the effects of time of day on problem solving, participants solved insight and analytic problems at their optimal or non-optimal time of day. Given the presumed differences in the cognitive processes involved in solving these two types of problems, it was expected that the reduced inhibitory control associated with non-optimal times of the day would differentially impact performance on the two types of problems. In accordance with this expectation, results showed consistently greater insight problem solving performance during non-optimal times of day compared to optimal times of day but no consistent time of day effects on analytic problem solving. The findings indicate that tasks involving creativity might benefit from a non-optimal time of day.     

The psychological puzzle of Sudoku

Sudoku puzzles, which are popular worldwide, require individuals to infer the missing digits in a 9 × 9 array according to the general rule that every digit from 1 to 9 must occur once in each row, in each column, and in each of the 3-by-3 boxes in the array. We present a theory of how individuals solve these puzzles. It postulates that they rely solely on pure deductions, and that they spontaneously acquire various deductive tactics, which differ in their difficulty depending on their “relational complexity”, i.e., the number of constraints on which they depend. A major strategic shift is necessary to acquire tactics for more difficult puzzles: solvers have to keep track of possible digits in a cell. We report three experiments corroborating this theory. We also discuss their implications for theories of reasoning that downplay the role of deduction in everyday reasoning.     

Bridging the “Great Divide” in Undergraduate Religion: An Experiment in Faculty/Student Collaboration

Undergraduate students today often enroll in introductory religious studies or theology classes because they want the time and space to reflect on their personal spiritual questions. Such a motivation can clash with the faculty's desire to introduce students to rigorous academic study of their field. Barbara Walvoord has proposed four “voices” that students may develop that will assist both student and faculty to cross this “great divide.” This essay explores the ways in which a course based in engaged pedagogical theory and practice – in this case, problem‐based learning – can provide an effective space for students to “find their voices,” take control of their own learning, and fulfill both their own and their professor's expectations.     

我国运动员主观幸福感内部结构及外部影响因素研究

通过探索我国运动员主观幸福感的内部结构,并对我国运动员主观幸福感的外部影响因素进行分析。研究结果发现,我国运动员主观幸福感由7个二级指标及38个三级指标构成,其中负性情感、生活环境、训练竞赛、人际关系等二级指标对我国运动员主观幸福感有重要影响。竞赛水平的发挥、教练员对运动员的公平性、运动员伤残补偿制度建设、运动队管理方式、运动成绩提升空间等三级指标是影响运动员幸福感的重要外部因素。     

Sport Psychological Characteristics of Talented 13-Year Old Adolescents

The objective of this study was to determine whether the sport psychological profiles of talented 13-year-old sport participants differ from less talented participants. 162 grade 8 learners with a mean age of 13.2 ± 0.33 years voluntarily participated in the study. The participants were subjected to the Australian Talent Search protocol and completed the Athlete Coping Skills Inventory for Sport (ACSI-28). The group was categorize according to the median of all the tests of the talent identification protocol (TID) in a talented (TG) and a less talented group (LTG). The TG obtained higher means in all seven sport psychological characteristics: coping with adversity, peaking under pressure, goal setting, confidence, coachability and the average coping profile, concentration and freedom from worry. The results indicate that talented adolescents exhibit specific sport psychological characteristics compared to less talented adolescents.