Activist Theatre: The Effects of Community Performance on System Justification and Willingness to Engage in Activism

System justification is a motivation to legitimize the status quo that disables individuals from changing oppressive social systems. Community performance has long been used as a tool to illuminate and challenge such systems of power. The goal of the present study was to provide an empirical test of the effectiveness of community performance in the context of gender‐based oppression. Specifically, the present study tested whether a community performance could decrease audience members' system justification and increase intentions to engage in collective and virtual action to correct these oppressive systems. The performance consisted of 18 community‐created pieces performed by 11 actresses before an audience of 165 members of the college and local communities across three days. A total of 153 audience members participated in the study. Results indicated that a 50‐min performance reduced system justification while increasing willingness to take collective and virtual‐based action. Limitations and implications are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Individual arousal-related performance zones effect on temporal and behavioral patterns in golf routines

AimConsistency, both in duration and behavior, of pre-performance routines has been closely related to overall performance quality. However, recent findings highlight that psychological and physiological states may have important implications for routine consistency. To further clarify this relationship, the present study sought to examine changes in routine consistency with respect to optimal and non-optimal arousal states.MethodThe present case study observed the performance routines of three high-skilled golfers during three rounds of competitive golf. Measures of arousal (heart rate) and outcome performance were used to determine each golfer’s Individual Arousal-related Performance Zones (IAPZs) (Kamata, Hanin, & Tenenbaum, 2002). Subsequently, temporal and behavioral patterns (consistency and number of rehearsal swings and glances toward the target) for both the full swing and golf putt were assessed across poor, moderate, and optimal levels of the golfer’s IAPZ.ResultsIdiosyncratic differences in routine patterns, both behaviorally and temporally were evident. More importantly, the consistency of the routines for each golfer varied under different arousal-related performance zones. That is, the temporal and behavioral patterns of the golfers varied in idiosyncratic ways across the IAPZ levels.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that factors that influence a performer’s arousal level can lead to idiosyncratic variations in a performer’s routine. Observation of these routine changes can provide insight into the negative tendencies that an athlete can have when performing outside their optimal zone. With this knowledge, practitioners can be more effective in helping athletes monitor and regulate arousal, which will ultimately lead to enhanced performance.     

Job security and work performance in Chinese employees: The mediating role of organisational identification

This research focuses on investigating whether organisational identification mediates the effects of job security on in‐role behaviour and extra‐role behaviour and how these mediation mechanisms differ according to gender. Through analysing 212 supervisor‐subordinate dyads from a Chinese air transportation group, the research indicated that organisational identification partially mediated the effect of job security on in‐role behaviour and fully mediated the effect of job security on extra‐role behaviour. A multi‐group analysis also showed that there were significant differences between male and female employees in these relationships. In addition, moderated mediation analyses showed that gender moderated the indirect effects of job security on in‐role behaviour and extra‐role behaviour through organisational identification. Limitations and implications of these findings are discussed.     

Making Teamwork Work: Team Knowledge for Team Effectiveness

This study examined the impact of two types of team knowledge on team effectiveness. The study assessed the impact of taskwork knowledge and teamwork knowledge on team satisfaction and performance. A longitudinal study was conducted with 27 service-management teams involving 178 students in a real-life restaurant setting. Teamwork knowledge was found to impact both team outcomes. Furthermore, team learning behavior was found to mediate the relationships between teamwork knowledge and team outcomes. Educators and managers should therefore ensure these types of knowledge are developed in teams along with learning behavior for maximum effectiveness.     

Enhanced visual performance in obsessive compulsive personality disorder

Visual performance is considered as commanding modality in human perception. We tested whether Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) people do differently in visual performance tasks than people without OCPD. One hundred ten students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and non‐student participants were tested by Structured Clinical Interview for DSM‐IV Axis II Personality Disorders (SCID‐II), among whom 18 (mean age = 29.55; SD = 5.26; 84% female) met the criteria for OCPD classification; controls were 20 persons (mean age = 27.85; SD = 5.26; female = 84%), who did not met the OCPD criteria. Both groups were tested on a modified Flicker task for two dimensions of visual performance (i.e., visual acuity: detecting the location of change, complexity, and size; and visual contrast sensitivity). The OCPD group had responded more accurately on pairs related to size, complexity, and contrast, but spent more time to detect a change on pairs related to complexity and contrast. The OCPD individuals seem to have more accurate visual performance than non‐OCPD controls. The findings support the relationship between personality characteristics and visual performance within the framework of top‐down processing model.     

System‐justifying behaviors: When feeling dependent on a system triggers gender stereotype‐consistent academic performance

Based on system‐justification theory, we hypothesized that men and women would perform in accordance with gender stereotypes mainly when justification of the system is necessary. In this research, system‐justification motivation was triggered using a system‐dependency manipulation. Study 1 shows that when feeling highly (vs. less) dependent on the system, people endorsed system‐justifying beliefs more. In Study 2, men performed better in math than in verbal domains, while women showed the reverse pattern, but only when they felt highly dependent on the system. Similar results were obtained on performance self‐evaluation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive behaviours of attacking futsal teams to opposition defensive formations

This study evaluated tendencies towards flexibility/stability of coordinated behaviours in international futsal teams, considered as complex collective systems, according to changes in opposition defensive formations. Six games of two international futsal teams (Spain and Portugal) were selected for Social Network Analysis to capture the coordination tendencies that emerge in the tactical behaviours of players when performing against different defensive formations. Ball trajectories in each offensive pattern of play were notated in an adjacency matrix where each entry accounted for the linkages between 12 spatial field areas. Each offensive play was coded according to the defensive formation of an opposing team (i.e. conservative or risky formation). Results revealed similar network properties between teams when competing against more risky defensive formations, while notable differences were observed against conservative defences. Effect of defensive formation of opponents on macro network properties was observed in both the Portuguese and Spanish teams. At a meso-level, only the Spanish national team exhibited notable changes, suggesting a greater level of adaptability to unfolding performance events. The observed flexibility in tactical behaviours of the Spanish team appeared to express their greater expertise levels.     

Perceptual-motor learning benefits from increased stress and anxiety

The purpose of this study was to manipulate psychological stress and anxiety to investigate effects on ensuing perceptual-motor learning. Thirty-six participants attended two experimental sessions separated by 24 h. In the first session, participants were randomized to either a mental arithmetic task known to increase stress and anxiety levels or a control condition and subsequently completed training on a speeded precision pinch task. Learning of the pinch task was assessed at the second session. Those exposed to the high stress-anxiety mental arithmetic task prior to training reported elevated levels of both stress and anxiety and demonstrated shorter movement times and improved retention of movement accuracy and movement variability. Response execution processes appear to benefit from elevated states of stress and anxiety immediately prior to training even when elicited by an unrelated task.