Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Minnesota, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 246-256).

Thesis (M.A.)--Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2006. / Adviser: Lisa Brooten. Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-135)

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-60). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--Hong Kong Baptist University, 2000. / Thesis submitted to the Dept. of Chinese Language and Literature. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 195-200).

The following proposal will suggest a holistic form of treatment in addition to the current standard outpatient rehabilitation process. The supplementary treatment suggested will be aikido, a form of non-combative martial arts. This proposed study will examine the effectiveness of aikido in lowering distress and aggression. According to the self-medication hypothesis of addiction, an individual’s vulnerability to addiction is drug-specific. For example, heroin users are thought to have a preference for heroin because of the drug’s ability to mask one’s internal threats of rage and aggression (Khantzian, 1985). Since the individual is unable to cope with this aggression, heroin serves as a calming source of relief that serves to mitigate his or her resulting distress. Aikido is renowned for its philosophy of harmonizing aggressive tendencies and it is expected to ultimately replace the calming effects of heroin. 120 participants will partake in this proposed study and each will be randomly assigned to one of four groups: control, aikido practice, aikido philosophy class, and spin class. Participants will answer a series of assessments measuring severity of addiction, distress, and aggression both prior to and post-treatment. These scores will be analyzed and results are expected to support the hypothesis that the aikido practice treatment will yield significantly less distress and aggression, regardless of severity of addiction, when compared to the other treatment groups. If results prove to be significant then Khantzian’s theory will be supported and it will be critical that heroin rehabilitation facilities incorporate aggression and distress reduction programs in their treatment.

The effect of exercise programmes on psychosocial characteristics, namely self-esteem, of people with visual impairment (VI) is limited. Martial arts practice has been found to improve global self-esteem among different age groups and among people with different abilities, but not for people with VI. This presents a notable gap in the research literature on people with VI. This thesis conducted three studies with the aim of investigating whether martial arts practice improves self-esteem in people with VI, including martial arts mechanisms and strategies for self-esteem improvement. Study one (n = 5) investigated the effect of a martial arts (karate) 10-week programme on the exercise and self-esteem model components (EXSEM) in young adults with VI (age range 19-40 years) following a non-concurrent multiple baseline approach. Visual inspection and graphical approach analysis showed that four participants improved their global self-esteem. Physical self-worth improved for all five participants. Exercise self-efficacy was improved in three participants whereas the other two had high exercise self-efficacy before participation in the karate programme. Exercise self-efficacy and physical self-worth maintained higher scores than the baseline for all five participants for 3 months upon completing the programme. The 3-month follow up results of global self-esteem were lower than the baseline scores for two participants whereas the other three participants achieved higher global self-esteem scores than the baseline scores. Study 2 (n = 12) aimed to identify the mechanisms for self-esteem improvement from the perspective of martial artists with VI following a narrative approach. Results identified two main factors that contributed in the improvement of self-esteem found in this group. Firstly, social self-esteem impacted global self-esteem as instructors unconditionally accepted the martial artists with VI, motivated them and created relationships based on trust. In addition, participants reported that team work in the dojo, trustful relationships among martial arts peers, and feeling respected impacted their social self-esteem. The resultant was improved global self-esteem of the martial artists with VI. The second factor identified showed that global self-esteem improvement was related to intellectual self-esteem, as the martial artists increased their self-achievement awareness and body and spatial awareness and thus helped martial artists in achieving their maximal potential. Study 3 (n = 6) aimed to provide strategies that martial arts instructors utilize to improve self-esteem of their students with VI using an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA). Participants reported that the first step for global self-esteem improvement of martial artist with VI was social inclusion which needed to be rooted in a personal perception about the abilities of individuals with VI. Most of the strategies that were utilized by the instructors were focused either on social relationships, for example peer tutoring, or martial arts philosophy such as teaching real situations. Furthermore, instructors reported that improvement of the other cognitive and psychological characteristics, namely body awareness and self-confidence improvement, positively affected global self-esteem of individuals with VI. Supporting the multidimensional hierarchical construct of self-esteem, this thesis reports a positive influence of martial arts styles on social self-esteem, physical self-worth, intellectual self-esteem, and consequently global self-esteem in people with VI. Therefore, it is recommended that instructors focus on these three domains to improve global self-esteem of people with VI.

POSSIBILITIES OF LEGAL PROTECTION OF MARTIAL ARTS AND SELF DEFENCE SYSTEMS ABSTRACT This thesis has two, resp. three goals. First of them is attempt to improve knowledge about disciplines of martial systems which I believe could help to prevent many misunderstandings about purposes of those disciplines. For that reason I divided martial systems in three categories (disciplines), which conforms with categorization that slowly rises among professional public. Those categories are: martial arts, fighting sports and self-defence systems. There is also a brief summary and history of two of these disciplines. Second, or second and third goal of my thesis was an exploration and introduction of possibilities of legal protection not only of martial arts but also of self-defence systems. The main emphasis is on copyright of martial arts, which is described in great detail. Legal protection of martial arts in relation to industrial law is also briefly described. Self-defence systems are examined in the same way as martial arts are. This means that first I try to describe copyright protection and than protection in the sense of industrial law.

The core sujbect of thís thesis deals with a theme of Far East martial arts. The thesis is historically oriented and aims to describe the origin, historical development of martial arts and sports in China, Japan, Okinawa and the Korean peninsula. The structure of the thesis consists of the following theoretical themes: general characteristics, definition, terminology, categorization of martial arts, characteristics and development of traditional schools and styles, the influence of religion, description of changes in the context of historical development. The influence of martial arts phenomenon in contemporary society. Particular attention is paid to the development of martial arts, the influence on the formation of individual personalities, as well as cultural aspects in the spirit of traditional arts and changes in the light of globalization.

The construct of mental toughness is in a state of evolution and refinement. The current study proposed to investigate; (1) the importance of mental toughness attributes from a Classical Martial Arts context, (2) the trainability of the mental toughness attributes from a Classical Martial Arts context, (3) and the extent to which classical martial artists perceive that attributes converge under broader, overarching sub-categories. The current study used a two-phase approach to evaluate the perceptions of mental toughness in 174 non-competition based classical martial artists. Phase One used a survey (a) to assess the perceived importance and trainability of mental toughness, (b) to evaluate unique CMA (CMA) mental toughness components, and (c) to determine underlying factors via factor analysis. Phase Two used interviews to enhance study perspectives of 20 randomly selected CMA participants. Phase One survey results support (a) the inclusion of all items as important to the mental toughness construct, (b) the trainability of all but 4 items, and (c) anticipation, learning attitude, and ethics as three unique CMA mental toughness components. The factor analysis supports the use of a six-factor model, which accounts for 60% of the variance, to explain CMA toughness. Phase Two promotes the use of several key themes as important to mental toughness in the CMA¬- conviction, commitment, conditioning, readiness to perform, distraction control, and shifting focus of attention. Phase Two also provides insight into the context specific application of the six-factor model. Previous perspectives on attribute importance, trainability, and general dimensions of mental toughness are supported by the current study. Variations exist between dimensions in the current study and those found previously. However, these differences are noted to exist more in context applications than in the essential meanings. / Ph. D.

This research aims to investigate whether expertise, specifically martial arts expertise, is transferrable across domains, which would indicate spatial skills in one task can also apply to a seemingly unrelated one. In this study, reaction time during a mental rotation task was compared between experts and novices. Participants were shown two images and had to decide if the images were the same or mirror reflections. The images were comprised of Shepard-Metzler blocks, people in martial arts poses, and people in neutral poses. The results suggest expertise is not transferable across domains. While experts outperformed novices with some of the martial arts stimuli, there was not a significant difference with the neutral poses. Novices performed better than experts with the Shepard-Metzler blocks. This suggests experts may have embodied some of the stimuli to facilitate faster reaction times. Further research must be conducted to investigate if any type of expertise is transferable across domains, which could assist in the development of employee training programs, and to validate the human figures used as stimuli.