Measuring psychological need states in sport: Theoretical considerations and a new measure

ObjectivesResearch guided by Self-determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2017) has repeatedly demonstrated the importance of focusing on both the bright (satisfaction) and dark (frustration) sides of the three basic psychological needs. Recently, researchers have also argued for the utility of assessing a third need state, that of “unfulfillment”. In this paper, we outline an effort to develop and provide initial validity evidence for scores of a new multidimensional and sport-specific measure, the Psychological Need States in Sport-Scale (PNSS-S), to assess the satisfaction, frustration, and unfulfillment of all three needs.MethodIn Study 1, we developed 46 candidate items, and tested evidence for the factorial structure of the responses to the newly developed items, internal consistency and discriminant validity of the subscale scores. Following refinement, the replication of the favored model was tested using an independent sample of athletes in Study 2. Evidence for the nomological network of the subscales of the new measure was also demonstrated in Study 2.ResultsFactor models incorporating all three need states showed poor fit with the data. However, following post-hoc modifications, a six-factor model assessing the need states of satisfaction and frustration, separately for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, was found to have good fit to the data. After refinement, the 29-item six-factor model was found to demonstrate good fit, good standardized factor loadings, factor correlations in the expected directions, and acceptable estimates of internal consistency in Study 2. Tests of nomological networks showed that the six need states were significantly predicted by contextual autonomy, competence, and relatedness support/thwarts as expected. Autonomy and competence need satisfaction were significantly associated with engagement; and competence and relatedness need satisfaction were significantly associated with positive affect. In addition, autonomy and competence need frustration were significantly associated with exhaustion and all three need frustration states significantly predicted negative affect.ConclusionsA tripartite conceptualization of the need states was not empirically supported. Nevertheless, the PNSS-S makes a unique contribution to the sport literature, as it represents the first sport-specific measure of six distinct, yet, correlated states of the satisfaction and frustration of autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs.     

婴儿的痛觉

婴儿痛觉对婴儿的生长发育有重要意义, 已经日益引发研究者的兴趣。痛觉本质上是一种不愉悦的感官和情绪体验, 是通过早年与伤害有关的经历习得的。在心理学角度, 在介绍婴儿痛觉概念、神经生理机制、评估工具的基础上, 系统梳理痛觉对婴儿生长发育的影响及其影响因素十分必要。后续研究需继续完善婴儿痛觉的测量方法, 考察疼痛反应在不同文化和不同群体间的差异。     

语义认知的习得、发展和老化及其神经机制

作为语言系统的重要组成部分, 探究语义认知发展机制及其神经机理对揭示人类语言发展、认知机制有着重要意义。以语义认知能力的习得、发展、老化认知机制为主线, 在系统阐释词汇-语义系统的习得、语义认知能力和策略发展的基础上, 进一步探讨了语义认知老化的认知机制及其神经机理。最后, 围绕儿童和成人的语义认知差异、句法和语义认知老化的差异、语义认知老化的影响因素等问题上进行了思考和展望。     

Knowing what a novel word is not: Two-year-olds 'listen through' ambiguous adjectives in fluent speech

Three studies investigated how 24-month-olds and adults resolve temporary ambiguity in fluent speech when encountering prenominal adjectives potentially interpretable as nouns. Children were tested in a looking-while-listening procedure to monitor the time course of speech processing. In Experiment 1, the familiar and unfamiliar adjectives preceding familiar target nouns were accented or deaccented. Target word recognition was disrupted only when lexically ambiguous adjectives were accented like nouns. Experiment 2 measured the extent of interference experienced by children when interpreting prenominal words as nouns. In Experiment 3, adults used prosodic cues to identify the form class of adjective/noun homophones in string-identical sentences before the ambiguous words were fully spoken. Results show that children and adults use prosody in conjunction with lexical and distributional cues to ‘listen through’ prenominal adjectives, avoiding costly misinterpretation.