1,721,026 research outputs found
Nature-Based Interventions in Elite Sport
No full textNature has long been associated with positive health outcomes, including mental health. Spending time in nature has been linked to reduced perceived stress, enhanced attention, and psychophysiological benefits. Recent research has focused upon what are termed nature-based interventions. These are defined as planned, intentional activities to promote individuals’ optimal functioning, health, and well-being or to enable restoration and recovery through exposure to, or interaction with, either authentic or technological nature. In this chapter, we review the evidence to support their use for elite athletes and other stakeholders. Moreover, we augment this literature by including technological nature (e.g., accessing nature through virtual computer-generated nature settings) and by encompassing the nature-based therapy approach. Some of the hypothesised outcomes are based on the traditional paradigms (stress reduction and attention restoration) and others are novel, emerging from organisational psychology. Psychological recovery is posited to trigger psychological detachment (mental disengagement from sport) and the potential application among athletic samples is articulated. Psychological recovery may have a role in enhancing psychological resources which promote resilience and are also predicted to promote empathy. In the sport setting, distinctive roles for a range of NBI's are proposed, recommendations for future research and practice, and a call to action are outlined
Evaluation and Adaption of the Trier Inventory for Chronic Stress (TICS) for Assessment in Competitive Sports
No full textThe demands of a career in competitive sports can lead to chronic stress perception among athletes if there is a non-conformity of requirements and available coping resources. The Trier Inventory for Chronic Stress (TICS) (Schulz et al., 2004) is said to be thoroughly validated. Nevertheless, it has not yet been subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis. The present study aims (1) to evaluate the factorial validity of the TICS within the context of competitive sports and (2) to adapt a short version (TICS-36). The total sample consisted of 564 athletes (age in years: M = 19.1, SD = 3.70). The factor structure of the original TICS did not adequately fit the present data, whereas the short version presented a satisfactory fit. The results indicate that the TICS-36 is an economical instrument for gathering interpretable information about chronic stress. For assessment in competitive sports with TICS-36, we generated overall and gender-specific norm values
Attentional focus during endurance activity
No full textAttention involves not only a focus on objects or locations, but also on various thoughts or activities. During endurance activity, attention allocation has traditionally been viewed as a focus either on sensory information and task performance (i.e., association), or on distracting stimuli and away from feelings of exertion (i.e., dissociation). Accordingly, the primary aim of this thesis was to examine the dynamic interrelationships between attentional focus and endurance activity. Chapter two specifically aimed to review how association and dissociation have been conceptualised, and to introduce frameworks to guide future research on attentional focus in endurance activity. In an attempt to resolve some conceptual issues, a new model of attentional focus during endurance activity was developed based on an extension of previous models. Chapter three built upon this work and sought to apply a metacognitive perspective to better understand the influences on, and dynamics of attentional focus and cognitive control during endurance activity. The findings of ten semi-structured interviews revealed that metacognitive skills (e.g., planning and reviewing), and metacognitive experiences were fundamental to cognitive strategy use in elite endurance runners. The findings allowed for the development of a metacognitive framework of attentional focus and cognitive control during endurance activity. Applying this framework, the study presented in chapter four was the first to investigate the effects of manipulating perceptions of pace control and pace regulation on attentional focus, physiological, and psychological processes during running. The outcomes revealed that altering pace control and pace regulation impacted on attentional focus and subsequent endurance performance. Collectively, the findings of this thesis attempt to provide a more nuanced understanding, and advance the conceptualisation and practical application of attentional focus during endurance activity. We provide a metacognitive framework to guide work within this domain and highlight the importance of attentional focus to effective self-regulation during endurance performance
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Coach education, coaching behaviours and the implications for athlete and coach development
No full textThe research investigates coach education, how this education and learning is applied in practice and athlete perception of coaching behaviours. A mixed methods approach was used throughout the research which initially examined coaches\u27 academic and coach education backgrounds through an online survey followed by a semi-structured interview. The next phase of this research examined how high performance coaches applied their learning through observation of the coach in both training and competition over the course of one season. Coaching behaviour was both quantitatively and qualitatively analysed to examine the total number and rate of instructions per minute and questioning by the coach. Furthermore, data were also collected to analyse the athletes’ perceptions of the coaching behaviour at three different time-points over the course of the same season. The results showed coaches preferred an informal rather than formal coach learning situation and that the current coach education system does not meet the demands of all coaching levels. These findings have enhanced the understanding of coach education and preferred learning environments and may contribute to future coach education courses. Furthermore, the findings revealed significant changes in athletes’ perceptions of coaching behaviour at different time-points providing evidence of coaches adapting their methods to address the different contexts and challenges faced over the course of the season. Taken together the implications for this research indicate that additional content on how to coach should be included in the coach education process. Such a focus should enable a shift away from what to coach towards a more coach and athlete centred environment that will enhance both coach and athlete development
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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