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Validity of the Shuttle MVP™ on Improving Vertical Jump Compared to Depth Jump Training in Experienced Collegeaged Jumpers
No full textThe Shuttle MVP™ is a plyometric training device that utilizes resistance bands and a horizontal gliding technique to train muscles of the lower body to increase dynamic jumping power. This training method may be beneficial for many athletes since its design allows for reduced impact on joints, especially in athletes who use jumping on a regular basis such as volleyball and basketball players. Previous research has suggested that 4 weeks of training with the Shuttle MVP™ may increase vertical jump in novice jumpers; however, this device has not been tested on experienced jumpers nor has it been compared to an alternate training technique. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of jump training using the Shuttle MVP™ to the more conventional depth jump method on improvements in vertical jump in experienced college-aged jumpers over a 4-week training period. Twenty Hope College students were matched according to gender, initial vertical jump height, and jumping experience before being assigned to one of three groups; control, depth jump training, and Shuttle MVP™ training. The control group maintained habitual activity throughout the study period, while the two experimental groups trained 3 times per week for 4 weeks. Each training session included a 5 minute warm up followed by a predetermined number of sets and reps of the designated exercise. Repetitions and sets were increased each week along with the height of the depth jump or resistance level on the Shuttle MVP™. It was hypothesized that the Shuttle MVP™ would show significantly more improvements in maximal vertical jump height compared to the other two groups over the 4-week training period
Os Trigonum: A Detailed Case Study
No full textOs Trigonum, a small boney growth on the posterior aspect of the talus, is a syndrome that affects 10% of the general population. Although often asymptomatic, the active population may experience pain, such as athletes participating in soccer, football, and wrestling. Individuals with a rigid mid-foot or repetitive plantar flexion movement are predisposed to this syndrome. Categorized four ways for identification and treatment, Os Trigonum forms through chronic over-use injuries, traumatic acute injury, or through secondary processes. These categories include a normal presentation, elongated posterior talar process, presence of an accessory bone, and a fused Os Trigonum bone. Symptoms of Os Trigonum include stiffness, weakness, swelling, decreased plantar flexion, posterior deformity, and pain with general ankle movement. The gold standard used is MRI imaging and a full symptoms assessment. Differential diagnoses include Flexor hallicus longus tendinitis, lateral ankle sprain, tarsal tunnel syndrome, subtalar pathology, peroneal tendinopathy, Achilles tendon bursitis, or Osteochondritis dissecans of the talus. The detailed review of a specific case provides a further explanation of this orthopedic complication
The Meaning of Hope: Faith and Flourishing
No full textThe spiritual dimension of hope has been less emphasized in previous investigations. This study built upon empirical work on prayer (Sandage et al., 2011) and hope as important variables connecting faith to mental health (Chang et al., 2013). College students (175 F, 80 M) completed a survey containing state and trait measures of hope and hopelessness, as well as two newly developed scales of hopeful spiritual beliefs, one addressing hope which transcends death, and one which measures hopeful prayer. We also used measures of meaning in life, religiosity/spirituality, religious commitment, attitudes toward God, religious coping, and flourishing. First, we tested hope-related measures in relation to meaning, spiritual, and religious variables. Correlational analyses found that hope-related measures had statistically significant positive correlations with each meaning, spiritual, and religious variable. Hopelessness had inverse and significant correlations with these variables. Second, we conducted multiple regression analyses to determine whether trait hope-related measures accounted for significant variance in scores on faith measures. Trait hope-related measures accounted for more than half of the variance in religious commitment scores, positive attitudes towards God scores, and positive religious coping scores. Of all hope-related measures, hopelessness was the best predictor of meaning in life. Hopeful spiritual beliefs best predicted positive religious coping, positive attitudes toward God, and religious commitment. Lastly, we aimed to determine if hopeful prayer mediated the relationship between religious coping with a past difficult event and current levels of flourishing. The mediation model showed that hopeful prayer mediated the relationship between religious coping (with a past difficult event) and current flourishing. These findings substantially contribute to a multidimensional understanding of hope as strongly connected with spirituality and religiosity in a flourishing life. This research suggests that individuals who have experienced a past difficult event can still flourish through hopeful prayer
The Role of Meaning in Attitudes toward Evolution
No full textHumans seek to have meaning in their lives. Worldviews, such as science and religion, help structure one’s world and provide meaning. Both the Meaning Maintenance Model (Heine, Proulx, & Vohs, 2006) and Terror Management Theory, suggest the importance of meaning (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986). Threats to one’s meaning create existential anxiety, which causes one to reject competing worldviews (Greenberg et al., 1990). Worldviews manage existential anxiety by providing order and security (Rosenblatt et al., 1989). This existential anxiety and the need to validate our meaning may cause tension between competing worldviews—particularly between science and religion. Data were collected from a sample of 197 community members and Hope College students combined. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: meaning affirmation, meaning challenge, or control. Participants completed questionnaires regarding their views towards religion, science, and meaning in life. Next, participants read a fabricated essay, supposedly written by a Harvard scholar. Depending on condition, the essay addressed life’s importance (affirmation), life’s meaninglessness (challenge), or computers (control). Participants then completed measures of biased thinking. Next, participants read a mixed-evidence essay on evolution, rated the essay, and completed questionnaires regarding their attitude toward evolution. Participants also completed measures regarding their attitudes toward science, religion, and evolution again. Participants were then debriefed. Our hypotheses were supported and the results revealed that threats to meaning enhance biases. We also found that participants who hold religious beliefs centered on God’s protection and promises of specialness perceived the mixed-evidence essay to be significantly more critical of evolution when their meaning was threatened. This supports our hypothesis that meaning threats elicit worldview-consistent information processing, resulting in more negative attitudes towards evolution. This study shows that when our life’s meaning is challenged, we rely so much on our own worldviews that we dismiss divergent worldviews
Problem Drinking and Self-Forgiveness in College Students
No full textResearch in the field of forgiveness has been growing over the past two decades or so, with research on self-forgiveness comprising a fraction of this work (Enright, 1996; Hall & Fincham, 2005; Wohl, Deshea, & Wahkinney, 2008). While the research on self-forgiveness itself is somewhat minimal, there are even fewer studies examining the benefits of self-forgiveness for specific transgressions, particularly regarding addictive behaviors, such as problem drinking. This study aimed to assess the link between forgiving the self for a transgression committed after consuming alcohol and the decision to drink again. Using an online survey methodology, we assessed personality factors such as shame- and guiltproneness, impulsivity, and typical drinking behaviors. We then asked participants to write about a time when their drinking had a negative effect on their relationships with others. Participants were then randomly assigned to either go through a self-forgiveness reflection or a neutral reflection about their transgression. They then were assessed on a variety of self-forgiveness scales, as well as their propensity to drink in the future. Results indicated that although there were no main effects, further analyses revealed several moderators of the relationship between self-forgiveness and problem drinking—specifically the extent to which participants thought the transgression was caused by their drinking, as well as participants’ propensity to drink to intoxication. These results suggest that the relationship between self-forgiveness and problem drinking is complex and depends on several specific behavioral and cognitive factors. Future research should explore these factors in more detail to give a more detailed account of how we respond after committing a transgression mitigated by alcohol
Flipping for Technology? Student Attitudes toward the Flipped Classroom
No full textTheoretically, the flipped classroom allows students to work at their own paces, lets instructors use class time more engagingly and efficiently, and increases instructor-student interactions (Herreid & Schiller, 2013). However, research regarding flipped classroom advantages is inconclusive; in some studies, students have found the classroom activities and pre-recorded lectures to be extremely worthwhile and engaging (Critz & Knight, 2013) while other studies have found no difference in student evaluations between the flipped and traditional classrooms (Davies, Dean & Ball, 2013). Furthermore, most of the research has studied the flipped classroom in STEM courses. The purpose of our study was to examine student attitudes towards the flipped classroom in Introduction to Psychology. We also sought to identify factors that predicted student preferences regarding the flipped classroom. In a repeated measures design, attitudes towards the flipped classroom were assessed from a sample of 131 (68.9% female) Introductory Psychology students. Four different modules (research methods, sensation and perception, learning, and personality) were flipped over the course of the semester. We found that more than half of students believed that the flipped classroom was more interesting (57.0%) than lecture. However, a slight majority of students preferred the lecture style classroom (56.2%) and about half reported that the lecture was more effective in helping them learn the material. Despite this, the majority of students recommended using the flipped classroom teaching method (93.2%) to some degree. The largest percentage of students recommended keeping the current ratio of flipped classes and lectures. In examining factors that predicted attitudes, students with lower GPAs tended to prefer the flipped classroom format more than the lecture. Similarly, students with lower exam scores preferred the flipped format to the lecture format. Finally, extroverted students preferred the flipped classroom more than introverted students
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Get PDFThe Interactive Effects Of Mortality Salience And Political Orientation On Moral Judgments
No full textIn two studies, the authors examined how threat induced by reminders of mortality would moderate the effect of political orientation on moral judgments. In Study 1, university students (n=113) categorized their political orientation, were randomly assigned to complete a fear of death or public speaking scale, and then completed a moral foundations questionnaire. In Study 2, university students (n=123) rated their political orientations, were randomly assigned to write about their own death or dental pain, and then completed a moral foundations questionnaire. In both studies, mortality salience intensified the moral differences between liberals and conservatives. These findings were primarily the result of the reactions of liberals, who responded to mortality salience with increased ratings of the fairness/cheating virtue in Study 1 and the care/harm virtue in Study 2
Does Public Transit Spread Crime? Evidence From Temporary Rail Station Closures
No full textWe test whether public transit access affects crime using a novel identification strategy based on temporary, maintenance-related closures of stations in the Washington, DC rail transit system. The closures generate plausibly exogenous variation in transit access across space and time, allowing us to test the popular notion that crime can be facilitated by public transit. Closing one station reduces crime by 5% in the vicinity of stations on the same train line. Most of this effect remains after controlling for decreased ridership, indicating that a decrease in the availability of victims does not drive most of our results. We find suggestive evidence that crime falls more at stations that tend to import crime, i.e. stations where perpetrators are less likely to live. We also see larger decreases at stations on the same line when the transit authority closes stations that tend to export crime. These heterogeneous effects suggest that the response of perpetrators to increased transportation costs contributes to the decrease in crime. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Cyclic Voltammetric, Chronocoulometric, and Spectroelectrochemical Studies of Electropolymerized Films Based on (3,4-Ethylenedioxythiophene)-Substituted 3,6-Dithiophen-2-yl-2,5-dihydropyrrole[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione
No full textA new compound with the core luminescent dye unit diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP), namely 3,6-dithiophen-2-yl-2,5-dihydropyrrole[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione (DTDPP), attached to 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) was synthesized. From this monomer, polymer films were prepared on glassy carbon and indium tin oxide surfaces using cyclic voltammetry. The films were characterized using cyclic voltammetry, chronocoulometry, and atomic force microscopy. The electropolymerization of the monomer exhibits reversible electrochemistry that transitions to quasireversible electrochemistry. During electropolymerization, the overpotential for the reduction process exceeds the overpotential for the oxidation process and cyclic voltammetric characterization of the films demonstrates that oxidation is more favored than reduction. Spectroelectrochemical measurements confirm that the polymer films demonstrate electrochromic behavior that correlates to the electrochemical observations during characterization of the films. (C) The Electrochemical Society of Japan, All rights reserved