Dangerous sports and recreational drug‐use: rationalizing and contextualizing risk

This article reports upon the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of a small number of semi‐structured interviews, conducted with persons engaging in either recreational drug‐use (primarily identified here as Ecstasy‐users) or dangerous sports (primarily identified here as bungee‐jumpers). Our analysis focuses upon the manner in which these participants make sense of their initiation and maintenance experiences, and the means by which they understand and make sense of risk. In particular, we draw attention to the distinctions between our participants' rational and contextual reconstructions of risky decisions. These distinctions indicate that our participants are able to draw upon a complex cultural and relational understanding of risk and pleasure, and are thus able to deal quite effectively with the contradictory experience of taking ‘non‐volitional’ action. This exploration of persons' strategies for displacing agency in relation to potentially negative outcomes may have implications for research and practice in related areas. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Élargissement et renouvellement des questions traitées par l’ergonomie dans le domaine du développement durable : retour sur 12 ans de travaux sur les activités domestiques et la maîtrise des consommations énergétiques

This paper aims to trace how the integration of a societal issue such as “sustainable development” influenced our work in ergonomics in terms of activity analysis and contributions to the design during the last 12 years. We redefined the issue of energy consumption management and of behavioral modification. If we first developed household activities analyses for the design of smart home services, the introduction of sustainable issues leaded us to build the concept of “sustainable situation”: a new form of interaction between the actors and their environment. Sustainable situations allow energy consumption reduction as well as human well-being and development. We thus added sustainability as a new design criteria to preexisting ones such as utility, usability and appropriability. This new design perspective leaded us to enlarge our analysis of the lived experience at home to the longitudinal analysis of processes (appropriation, reflexivity, development and commitment) for the design of resources for the human development and activities.     

Understanding injuries in sports: Self-reported injury and perceived risk of injury among adolescents

IntroductionAlthough exposure and perceived risk of injury in sports among adolescents is a well-known phenomenon today, their understanding remains poorly explored.ObjectiveThis study examines the relationships between demographics, sport motives, and sport-related characteristics in a sample of French adolescents involved in sports.MethodsThe sample included 394 adolescents involved in sports, between 13 and 19 years old. The adolescents filled out a questionnaire requesting information about their age, sex, sport motives, sport-related characteristics, the number of injuries, and perceived risk of injury in their preferred sport.ResultsThe findings showed that the number of injuries was related to age, sex, type of sport and the participant's motives. The will to play to the limit increased with the exposure to injury. Participation in risky sports and the will to play to the limit were predictors of the adolescents’ risk of exposure to sports injuries. Time devoted to sports appears to be a confounding factor. Moreover, boys exhibited higher number of injuries than girls, and they perceived their preferred sport as riskier.ConclusionExposure to the risk of injury in sports and the exacerbated perception of that risk may provide a means of enhancing one's self-image, procuring an emotional experience, and constructing one's masculinity.     

Playing counter-strike versus running: The impact of leisure time activities and cortisol on intermediate-term memory in male students

The everyday life of students is characterized by hours of learning in order to pass exams. After learning they tend to opt for an occupation that provides them with a great deal of entertainment. It is obvious that it would be advantageous if the chosen activity had a positive impact on memory consolidation. Due to the circumstance that such activities can lead to stress and that memory is affected by stress we wanted to look at these coherences. We examined the effect of two different common leisure time activities on cortisol and memory to be able to formulate recommendations for society. For this purpose, a group was tested before and after playing a violent computer game while the second group was tested before and after running. In addition, a control group was set up. Salivary cortisol was measured at the beginning, during, and at the end of the experiment.Our data demonstrates that running increases cortisol levels and, performed immediately after a learning period, facilitates memorization of neutral information. In contrast, playing a violent computer game tends to impair memorization.The results of the present study have practical implications for the choice of recreational activities in the context of learning.     

Self-Report Versus Performance-Based Activities of Daily Living Capacity Among Heart Transplant Candidates and Their Caregivers

Transplant candidates completed the Every Day Problems test (EPT), a performance-based measure of instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), and the Katz self-report scale of IADL functioning. Caregivers estimated the candidate's IADL capacity using the Katz scale. A healthy community group and patients with cardiac disease not undergoing transplant evaluation and their caregivers served as controls. Discrepancies between the EPT and Katz scales were generated. Results showed that the total number of discrepancies was significantly higher among the two patient groups as compared to controls. Three or more discrepancies (a total of 7 IADL domains were assessed) occurred in 40–52% of the participants and their caregivers in the two patient groups. Similarly, the total number of discrepancies between the Katz scale of the participant and their caregiver was significantly higher among the two patient groups as compared to controls, with only 33–44% showing perfect agreement in the patient groups as compared to 97% among controls. Despite a high prevalence of discrepancies in both patient groups, results did not support the hypothesis that transplant candidates tend systematically to overestimate their ability level on self-report IADL measures.     

Number Use at Home by Children and Their Parents and Its Relationship to Early Mathematical Performance

The purpose of this research was to measure the frequency and variety of number activities occurring in the homes of pre-school and kindergarten children and to determine if there was a relationship between those activities and the children's mathematical performance. In two studies, parents were interviewed over the telephone and asked how often their child or they and their child had engaged in each of 33 number-related activities over the last week. Both studies found considerable variability in the frequency and type of number activities that children participated in at home. There was a positive correlation between the frequency of number activities that parents reported for their children and parental participation in the same activities. In addition, in study 2, parental reports of children's number activities at home were predictive of children's performance on a standardized test of early mathematical ability.     

When in doubt,it’s not out: Match format is associated with differences in elite-level cricket umpires’ leg-before-wicket decisions

ObjectivesContextual factors can influence the way sports officials apply unambiguous rules. The aim of this study was to better understand the leg-before-wicket (LBW) decision-making behaviour of elite cricket umpires and determine whether their behaviour changes according to the format of the game in which they are adjudicating.MethodsLBW decisions (n = 5578) from actual elite level cricket matches in Australia between 2009 and 2016 were analysed using a signal detection paradigm. Umpire sensitivity (A) and response bias (B) were compared to chance performance in three formats of the game: Four-day, One-day, and T20. Mixed effects models assessed sensitivity and response bias differences between match types.ResultsUmpires were able to differentiate between “out” and “not out” appeals to a high standard but were conservative and had a bias to respond “not out” in all formats of the game. Umpires were less accurate in the shorter formats of the game, particularly T20 cricket and were also significantly more conservative in T20 compared to Four-day Matches.ConclusionsCricket umpires are conservative and are highly accurate LBW decision makers. However, differences in their judgments were associated with different match formats. The unique task goals and contextual pressures afforded by the shorter formats of the game, particularly T20, may account for the observed performance differences we see here.