What a difference a “Mentally Toughening” year makes: The acculturation of a rookie

ObjectivesThis study investigated how one subculture's norms, traditions, ideals, and imperatives influenced the attitudes, beliefs, emotions, and behaviours of a young athlete (Joe) as he moved from resistance to acculturation.DesignLongitudinal case study of one athlete in one specific sport subculture.MethodJoe took part in five open-ended in-depth interviews over a 14-month period to investigate his experiences as an elite athlete within an Australian football team. Joe's story was analysed through an acculturation-process lens and models on mental toughness, overtraining, and stress-recovery to evaluate the indoctrination of one athlete.FindingsDuring the initial interviews Joe resisted the subculture demands of the football club and tried to find success by maintaining his own beliefs. By the end of the 14-month study Joe had realised that to be successful in the club he needed to embrace the norms, traditions, ideals, and imperatives of the football culture. Joe gained acceptance at the club when he eventually internalised the hypermasculine subculture and ignored injury, played in pain, subjugated his interests for football, and viewed physical abuse as a positive and necessary part of the toughening process.ConclusionJoe's case study demonstrates that the subcultural ideals of mental toughness mean ignoring injury, playing in pain, denying emotion and vulnerability, and sacrificing individuality, which inevitably lead to stress/recovery imbalance and overtraining. In this subculture, demonstrating mental toughness is similar to a hypermasculine environment typified by slogans such as no-pain-no-gain and rest-is-for-the-dead where success is more important than individual wellbeing.     

An Examination of the “Greening of Christianity” Thesis Among Americans, 1993–2010

Some environmental and religious scholars, religious leaders, and media figures have claimed there has been a “greening of Christianity” in the United States since the mid‐1990s. Such a trend would be socially significant, as the integration of Christian values and environmental values may invigorate both domains. Using nationally representative data from the 1993 and 2010 General Social Surveys, we analyze how green self‐identified Christians in the U.S. general public are in their pro‐environmental attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Using structural equation modeling, we find no clear evidence of a greening of Christianity among rank‐and‐file Christians in the general public between 1993 and 2010. Indeed, the patterns of our results are quite similar to those from earlier decades, which documented that self‐identified Christians reported lower levels of environmental concern than did non‐Christians and nonreligious individuals. We did find evidence of some greening among evangelical Protestants, especially relative to mainline Protestants, between 1993 and 2010. We close by suggesting a few fruitful avenues for further research in this area via variable‐oriented, case‐oriented, and experimental studies and discussing some theoretical implications of our findings.     

Differential Effects of Personality Traits and Environmental Predictors on Reproductive and Creative Imagination

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to analyze the effects of both personality and environmental variables on the imagination of video/film major university students; and (2) to test the mediator effect resulting from the variable of social climate. The results of this study supported both indicators of imaginative capabilities and environmental influences. The hypothesis of the study—that the variable of social climate mediates the effects of personality/environmental predictors and both types of imagination—was partially supported. The structural model also showed that most personality traits have direct effects on imagination, whereas most environmental predictors have indirect effects. Practical applications of this study were suggested, future inquiries were discussed, and limitations were acknowledged.     

Who's the Pest? Imagining Human–Insect Futures Beyond Antagonism

Joining the effort to reimagine our relationships with insects, the Wellcome Collection's ‘Who's the Pest?’ programme attempts to challenge the stigma of insects as ill-disposed ‘bugs’. The article reviews two events in the series, the workshop ‘Insects au gratin’ and the debate ‘Insects vs. humans’, and places them in the context of recent engagements with ‘pests’ in the public realm.     

5～7岁自闭症谱系障碍儿童环境文字阅读的特点

以带有不同类型情境线索(包括颜色、图标和字体)的环境文字为材料,采用命名任务考察5～7岁28名自闭症谱系障碍儿童和30名正常儿童阅读环境文字的特点。结果发现:(1)在去掉环境文字中的图标后,自闭症谱系障碍儿童和正常儿童命名文字的得分都显著降低;(2)在消除环境文字的字体线索后,自闭症谱系障碍儿童命名文字的得分显著降低,但正常儿童却较少受影响;(3)在阅读环境文字时,无论是自闭症谱系障碍儿童还是正常儿童,识字量越多,儿童越少依赖图标线索的提示。这些结果表明,自闭症谱系障碍儿童在阅读环境文字时,受图标线索和字体线索的影响较大,为制定促进其阅读学习的早期识字干预方案提供参考。     

童年及当前环境压力对跨期选择的影响:时间感知的中介作用

本文分别以90名和70名大学生为被试,通过问卷调查和实验任务的方式,探究童年环境、当前环境压力、时间感知和跨期选择四者之间的关系。结果表明:(1)童年环境影响时间感知,相比童年社会经济地位高的个体,童年社会经济地位低的个体更倾向于高估时距。(2)在正常环境下,个体时间感知完全中介作用于童年环境和跨期选择之间的关系,童年环境通过影响个体时间感知进而影响个体的跨期选择。(3)在当前环境压力下,时间感知并未起到中介作用。研究表明,时间感知在童年压力与在当前环境压力条件下,对跨期选择的影响作用不同。     

Why people fail to bike the talk: Car dependence as a barrier to cycling

Antecedent conditions of cycling have been extensively studied, yet barriers that prevent individuals from choosing bicycle transportation are less known. The present study, conducted on a sample of individuals who were both cyclists and drivers (N = 280), investigated whether dependence on car transportation significantly reduces cycling frequency. It also assessed the predictive validity of a larger set of cycling determinants that included moral, objective environmental, demographic and car-related variables. Responses were analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach. Results show that moral considerations do little to predict cycling frequency and that car-related factors such as perceived behavioral control to reduce car use (β = 0.28) and car use habits (β = -0.27) have the strongest predictive power. Objective environmental factors such as temperature (β = -0.13) and altitude (β = -0.15) or demographic factors such as gender (β = 0.19) were also significant predictors of cycling frequency. The present study highlights a new perspective of understanding cycling behavior and pleads for the inclusion of car-related factors in its future conceptualizations and interventions to encourage it.     

Enriched housing reverses age-associated impairment of cognitive functions and tPA-dependent maturation of BDNF

Although tissue type plasminogen activator (tPA) and brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) have been extensively described to influence brain outcomes in a number of disorders, their roles during physiological aging are poorly investigated. In the present study, we investigated whether maintenance of mice in different environmental conditions could influence age-associated changes in hippocampal tPA expression and BDNF maturation in relation with modifications of their cognitive performances. Our data indicate that maintenance in enriched housing led to a reversal of age-associated decrease in expression of hippocampal tPA. A subsequent increase in the level of mature BDNF and an improvement in emotional and spatial memories were observed. Taken together, these data suggest that the tPA–BDNF axis could play a critical role in the control of cognitive functions influenced both by the age and housing conditions.