The effect of performance setting and individual differences on the anxiety-performance relationship for elite cyclists

Fifty-three national level cyclists completed competitive rides under both laboratory and field conditions to investigate the relationship between pre-competition anxiety and performance. A total of 39 males and 14 females participated in the study, ranging in age from 19 to 26. The objectives of the study were to, (a) measure the relationship between state anxiety and performance, (b) investigate differences in the anxiety-performance relationship under laboratory versus field conditions, and (c) examine the effect of trait anxiety on the state anxiety-performance relationship. State anxiety was measured using the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2; Martens, Vealey, & Burton, 1990), and trait anxiety with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970). Results indicated that anxiety was strongly correlated with performance on the field test, but that the anxiety-performance relationship was weaker under laboratory conditions. Results also showed that trait anxiety interacted with the relationship, as low and high trait-anxious subjects had differential response patterns to pre-competition anxiety. The findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for both practitioners and researchers.     

Psychotherapy and (or) Medications for Depression in Youth? An Evidence-Based Review with Recommendations for Treatment

This article reviews existing research pertaining to antidepressant medications, psychotherapy, and their combined efficacy in the treatment of clinical depression in youth. Based on this review, we recommend that youth depression and its treatment can be readily understood from a social-psycho-bio model. We maintain that this model presents an alternative conceptualization to the dominant biopsychosocial model, which implies the primacy of biological contributors. Further, our review indicates that psychotherapy should be the frontline treatment for youth with depression and that little scientific evidence suggests that combined psychotherapy and medication treatment is more effective than psychotherapy alone. Due primarily to safety issues, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors should be initiated only in conjunction with psychotherapy and/or supportive monitoring.     

A Preventive Coping Perspective of Individual Response to Terrorism in Canada

A plethora of studies on terrorism underscores the challenges of managing the psychological and behavioural impacts of terrorist events. This literature also emphasizes the idea that the global pending threat of terrorism, prior to the occurrence of any event, may also give rise to significant reactions among members of the public. Drawing from the literature on proactive coping, the current study presents the results of factor analyses performed on sections of a national survey that assessed appraisals of as well as actual responses to the threat of terrorism in Canada (N = 1,502). Findings revealed that items assessing individual response to terrorism were represented by three factors in this context: Individual Preparedness, Information Seeking, and Avoidance Behaviour. Further analyses demonstrated a tendency for actual preparedness behaviours to be associated with decreased psychological stress, and actual avoidance behaviours to be associated with heightened psychological stress. Furthermore, the divergent patterns of relationships of terrorism response appraisals and corresponding actual responses with psychological stress emphasized the need to distinguish different stages in the process of preventive coping with terrorism. Theoretical and practical implications of findings for individual preparedness in Canada are discussed.

A Regression Framework for Causal Mediation Analysis with Applications to Behavioral Science

We introduce and extend the classical regression framework for conducting mediation analysis from the fit of only one model. Using the essential mediation components (EMCs) allows us to estimate causal mediation effects and their analytical variance. This single-equation approach reduces computation time and permits the use of a rich suite of regression tools that are not easily implemented on a system of three equations. Additionally, we extend this framework to non-nested mediation systems, provide a joint measure of mediation for complex mediation hypotheses, propose new visualizations for mediation effects, and explain why estimates of the total effect may differ depending on the approach used. Using data from social science studies, we also provide extensive illustrations of the usefulness of this framework and its advantages over traditional approaches to mediation analysis. The example data are freely available for download online and we include the R code necessary to reproduce our results.     

Moving Ahead on Southgate’s Compound Only-Way Evolutionary Theodicy

Southgate offers a remarkable evolutionary theodicy that includes six affirmations and arguments; together they form a unique and very persuasive proposal which he terms a “compound only-way evolutionary theodicy.” Here I summarize the arguments and offer critical reflections on them for further development, with an emphasis on the ambiguity in the goodness of creation; the role of thermodynamics in evolutionary biology; the challenge of horrendous evil in nature; and the theological response to theodicy in terms of eschatology, with its own severe challenge from cosmology. Using a text box, I suggest how the 6 arguments create a unique synthetic whole, and how the removal of any one of them would diminish the argument as a whole. I then suggest how Southgate’s treatment of the key question, “Why not just heaven?” adds a crucial seventh argument to produce an even more splendid and promising whole.     

利他动机对中小学教师知识共享的影响——组织认同和组织支持感的调节作用

为探讨利他动机、组织认同和组织支持感对知识共享的影响,选取北京市不同学区的20所中小学校的教师进行问卷调查,使用利他行为问卷、组织认同问卷、组织支持感问卷和知识共享问卷获得有效数据1342份。结果发现：（1）中小学教师的利他动机对其知识共享具有显著的正向预测作用;（2）组织认同在中小学教师利他动机与知识共享之间起到调节作用;（3）组织支持感对中小学教师利他动机与组织认同对知识共享的交互效应具有高阶调节作用。本研究检验了个体因素（利他动机）与组织因素（组织认同、组织支持感）变量对知识共享的共同作用,对提升中小学教师知识共享具有一定的指导作用。     

儿童青少年正念量表(CAMM)在中国青少年群体中的信效度检验

目的:检验儿童青少年正念量表(CAMM)在中国青少年群体中应用的信效度,为青少年正念研究提供科学工具。方法:选取310名中学生(样本1)进行条目分析和探索性因素分析,再选取309名中学生(样本2)进行验证性因素分析、效标效度、增量效度和信度分析。结果:中文版CAMM抽取2个因素最为合适,并具有良好的结构效度、效标效度、增量效度及较高的信度。结论:中文版CAMM具有良好的心理测量学指标,可以在中国青少年群体中使用。     

Changes in students’ goal pursuits and motivational regulations toward healthy behaviors during the pandemic: A Self-Determination Theory perspective

ObjectivesIn this study, we examined how students’ perceptions of teachers and parents’ need-supportive and need-thwarting behaviors, related to their intrinsic and extrinsic goal pursuits, and in turn their motivational regulations toward physical activity in virtual physical education lessons over a semester during the Sars-COV2 pandemic.DesignShort-term longitudinal study.MethodsStudents (M_age = 14.43, SD = 0.99) completed the targeted questionnaires at the beginning (T1, N = 295) and the end (T2, N = 194) of a virtual semester.ResultsThe results of the autoregressive model indicated that all measures were relatively stable from T1 to T2. Neither teachers nor parents’ need-supportive and need-thwarting behaviors at T1 predicted students’ intrinsic goal pursuits at T2, except for teachers’ need-supportive behaviors at T1 negatively marginally predicted students’ extrinsic goal pursuits at T2. The results also showed that intrinsic goal pursuits at T2 positively and negatively related to autonomous motivation and amotivation at T2, respectively. Extrinsic goal at T2 positively related to controlled motivation and amotivation at T2.ConclusionsFindings suggested that teachers need-supportive behaviors are important for decreasing students’ extrinsic goal pursuits, while parents’ need-thwarting behaviors relate to students’ amotivation over time during the lockdown periods. Also, students’ intrinsic goal pursuits would contribute positively to autonomous motivation and negatively to amotivation over time.     

Affective atmospheres of weapons technologies: The case of battle drones,combat fighters and bodies in contemporary German geopolitics

Using the example of the defense and security sector at the Innovation and Leadership in Aerospace aviation fair in Berlin, this paper interrogates how the presentation of weapons technologies at German security and aviation fairs produces a/effects that influence the body and serve to legitimize political decisions. It examines to what extent the body becomes the site of geopolitical negotiation via affective atmospheres and how different scales interact within this process. First, I argue that affective connections between weapons technologies and spectators are essential for legitimizing warfare technologies. Second, I argue that affects of weapons technologies are subject to ambivalence and ambiguity, and that they are to be understood as entangled with other affects in the same body. Third, I argue that affects become effective across material and spatial scales. Drawing on geographic work on affective atmospheres, debates in intimate geopolitics and feminist science and technology studies, the paper contributes to critical geopolitics by unpacking the role of affective dimensions in naturalizing the development and acquisition of weapons technologies. In doing so, it also contributes to debates on the methodological operationalization of theories of affect and to emotional geographies of (in)security.     

老年人生命教育发展研究

老年人生命教育既包括生死教育,也包括生命健康教育。老龄社会为老年人生命教育发展提供难得的机遇,如老年人生命问题为其发展提出了现实要求,“以健康为中心”理念为其提供了理念基础,各种政策为其发展提供了依据。但是,由于我国社会传统中的重“生”观念、以“治疗为中心”的理念、教育体系不完备以及生命教育内容融入问题等,严重制约老年人生命教育开展。为此,应当以生活方式医学重构老年人的生命健康理念,并在个人、社会及政府三个层面探索相关措施以推进老年人生命教育。