In recent years the NCAA has had problems with the delinquent behavior of collegiate athletes on and off the field. The ability to know what causes athletes to act out will help athletic programs and reputations. Psychological behaviors have been related to sports performance and behavior in prior studies In this study, we hypothesized that higher Emotional Intelligence in collegiate athletes, the ability to perceive, understand and manage one's emotions, will be related to lower acts of delinquent behavior on and off the field, as well as better performance during games. Study participants were Virginia Tech Soccer, Basketball, and Football male student athletes. We assessed emotional intelligence using the MSCEIT v.2.0 and also measured self report delinquent behavior and game statistics. None of our hypotheses were supported. A major reason for the lack of evidence to support our hypotheses may have been low statistical power and possible sampling biases. / Master of Science

M.A. / None

M.Phil. / Previously, not much attention was given to vision and visual skills in the everyday sport setting. The attention that it did get was not from optometry and ophthalmology, these two were late comers on this subject, but more and more athletes and coaches are realizing the importance of vision in their sport performance, although vision training were done inadvertently in the past. Sport performance involves motor and vision aspects. If the motor section does not work efficiently, the vision section will be hampered; in return, if the vision section does not work efficiently, the motor section will also be hampered. For this reason, vision was investigated. In this study an investigation was done on 17-year old (n = 35) and 15-year old (n = 28) rugby players. The aim of this study was to determine whether the visual skills of the 17-year-old boys would be better than that of the 15-year-old boys. Both groups were subjected to a battery of eleven rugby related visual tests. The results obtained, show that in some of the software skills such as eye-hand coordination, eye-body coordination and visual reaction time the 17-year-old group performed statistically better (p<0.05) than the 15-year-old group. The latter group only performed statistically better (p<0.05) in skills classified as hardware skills such as static visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and stereopsis. The results showed a general lack of visual skills. Sport specific visual training programmes will be needed to motor performance training if these athletes are going to develop in elite performers. / Professor Jannie Ferreira

M.Phil. / This study consists of three separate publications. The first article attempts to evaluate the difference in the visual skill level of professional versus non-professional rugby players. The software visual skills, involving skills such as eye-hand coordination, eye-body coordination, central-peripheral awareness, and reaction time, were examined. The results indicate that the professional players did out perform the non-professional players on all these skills except for visual concentration. Not all the results were however statistically significant. The importance of the above skills in the game of rugby is discussed and recommendations as to the implementation of vision enhancement programmes are made. The second study explores the importance of the ‘hardware’ factors of the visual system in the game of rugby. A group of professional and club rugby players were tested and the results compared. The results were also compared with the established norms for elite athletes. The findings indicate no significant difference in hardware skills between professional and club players. Compared with the norms for elite athletes, performance of most of the rugby players were average or even worse. This suggests that in the game of rugby the hardware skills may be of lesser importance and that visual enhancement programmes should focus more on improving the players’ software skills. The hardware visual skills should not be neglected though because these provide a base from where the software skills can develop. Thirdly we wanted to determine whether there are a statistically significantly difference between the visual skill levels of forward and back line players in rugby and whether they performed visually according to the norms established for elite athletes. The results indicates that there is much room for improvement for both forward and back line players in eye-hand coordination, visual concentration and central-peripheral awareness because these skills, play an important role in a sport like rugby and because the players under performed according to the established norms. Thus attention should be given to develop the hardware visual skills like accommodation and fusion to an average level of performance, to eliminate any potential limits on the software visual skills. Consistent, position specific visual training should be incorporated in the daily training routine of these players to develop the software visual skills to their full potential. / Prof. Jannie Ferreira

No description available.

A Psicologia do Esporte é uma especialidade da Psicologia. A prática tem sido produzida junto aos técnicos, atletas e demais membros da equipe de esporte e tem conquistado uma constante valorização do conhecimento produzido, mas o reconhecimento pleno ainda está distante de ser alcançado. Os estudos da liderança do técnico são uma das vertentes das pesquisas atuais por ser uma variável de grande influência sobre o desempenho dos atletas e no clima motivacional dos treinamentos e das competições em si. A presente Dissertação teve como objetivo verificar os estilos de liderança e a flexibilidade de estilos em técnicos esportivos de modalidades coletivas, utilizando-se o Teste de Liderança Situacional (TLS) desenvolvido por Agostinho Minicucci com base na teoria 3D de Reddin. Foram comparados os resultados obtidos entre uma amostra de 23 técnicos de categorias de base (formação) e uma amostra de 12 técnicos de equipes adultas (alto nível). Para as análises estatísticas, a diferença entre as médias foi realizada através do teste t de Student (grupos independentes), adotando-se um nível de significância de 5%. Os resultados mostraram que a maioria dos técnicos (56% formação e 75% alto nível) utilizam como estilo de liderança dominante o estilo integrado, que é quando o comportamento orientado para a tarefa e o comportamento orientado para as relações são utilizados em grande quantidade. Observou-se também que o estilo de sustentação adotado por ambos os grupos é o estilo relacionado, sendo que o estilo separado é o estilo menos valorizado, também por ambos os grupos. Embora os resultados indiquem uma concordância dos grupos em relação aos estilos dominante, de sustentação e sobre-rechaçado, verificou-se que os técnicos de alto nível, em suas respostas, utilizam com maior intensidade o estilo integrado (p<0,05) e dedicado (p<0,10). Quanto à flexibilidade com que os grupos apresentam os variados estilos de liderança, observou-se que os técnicos de alto nível possuem uma tendência a serem mais rígidos em seu estilo dominante em relação aos técnicos das equipes de formação. Os estilos de liderança, assim identificados, podem ser ferramentas estratégicas do psicólogo do esporte para que este possa auxiliar de modo eficaz uma melhor condução da relação técnico-atleta como integrantes de um par educativo. / Sports Psychology is a Psychology specialty that has been developed in conjunction with coaches, athletes and other members of the sports team. The resulting knowledge has been gaining increasing acceptance, but is still far from being fully recognized. Studies in coaching leadership constitute one of the branches of current research, given that this variable has an enormous influence on athletic performance and the motivational climate of training sessions and actual competitions. The objective of this paper is to identify leadership styles and their flexibility in coaches of team sports using the Situational Leadership Test (SLT), developed by Agostinho Minicucci based on Reddins 3-D theory. The results from a sample of 23 coaches of base categories (development) and 12 coaches of adult teams (high level) were compared. In the statistical analysis, the difference between the groups was calculated through Pearson\'s chi-square test and the quantitative variables were compared through Student\'s t test (independent groups), with a significance level of 5%. The results show that the dominant leadership style of most coaches (56% in the development category and 75% in the high-level category) is the integrated style, i.e. when both task-oriented and relationship-oriented behaviors are largely used. We also observed that the sustainment style of both groups is the related style, with the separate style being less valued for both groups. Although the results indicate an agreement in the behavior of the groups in relation to dominant, sustainment and most rejected styles, the high-level coaches ave higher grades to the integrated style (p<0.05) and the dedicated style (p<0.10) than those of development coaches. In terms of the flexibility with which the groups present the various leadership styles,it was observed that high-level coaches tend to be stricter in their dominant style than coaches of development teams. Leadership styles, duly identified, may constitute strategic tools for sports psychologists, enabling them to effectively improve coachathlete interaction by treating them as members of an educational pair.

The current study was conducted to examine whether priming for a need for assimilation or the need for differentiation influences an individual’s identification with a particular team. Team Identification is defined as “the level of psychological attachment felt by a sports fan toward his or her favorite team” (Kim & Kim, 2009; Wann, Melnick, Russell, & Pease, 2001). Participants for the current study included 80 undergraduate psychology students, recruited through Study Board at Western Kentucky University. Participants completed the Sport Fandom Questionnaire (SFQ) and were randomly assigned one of two scenarios where they were asked to transcribe two memories based upon their scenario. Then participants filled out the Need for Affiliation Scale (nAff) to assess whether the scenarios elicited a need for affiliation. Following the nAff, participants filled out the Fan Scale (FS) for both teams based on which team they were going to cheer for to win a fictional football game. The participants finished by filling out two Sport Spectator Identification Scales (SSIS), one for the underdog football team and one for the favored football team, to measure how identified they were with each team. Results indicated that the hypotheses were not supported. There were no significant differences between condition for the Fan Scale or the Sport Spectator Identification Scale. However, it was found that, regardless of condition, participants were more likely to cheer for the underdog football team than they were the favored football team. There were no significant differences between the need for affiliation and the need for differentiation and their influences on team identification. The finding that participants were more likely to cheer for the underdog football team than they were the favored team has added another stepping stone for examining motives for team identification.

The major theme of the current thesis was the definition, measurement, and development of perfectionism in elite junior sport. The first purpose was to examine the psychometric properties associated with Hewitt and Flett’s (1991) Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS-HF) when complete by a sample of elite junior athletes. In study one, a confirmatory factor analysis failed to support the original structure of 45-item MPS-HF. Subsequent exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a more parsimonious 15-item factor structure representing self-oriented (SOP), socially prescribed (SPP), and other-oriented perfectionism (OOP). Having established a reconstituted version of the MPS-HF, a second purpose of the research programme was to consider the origins of perfectionism in elite junior athletes using a cross-sectional design. Initially, in study two a social learning model was supported, with 18%-26% of variance in athletes’ perfectionism predicted by parents’ perfectionism. Building upon this finding in study three, a structural equation model revealed that parenting styles, including empathy and psychological control, mediated the parent-athletic child SPP relationship. In study four, a significant pathway emerged between parents’ achievement goals and athletes’ dispositional perfectionism, offering support for a social expectations model of perfectionism development. Specifically, parents’ task and ego orientations were positively associated with athletes’ SOP. In contrast, athletes’ SPP was predicted by parents’ ego orientation. Study four also demonstrated the nature and form of motivational regulation associated with athletes’ SOP and SPP. That is, a pathway emerged between athletes’ SPP and controlled forms of regulation, while athletes’ SOP was correlated with self-determined and controlled motivation. Finally, in study five, the coach-created motivational climate accounted for approximately 19% of variance in athletes’ perfectionistic cognitions, highlighting the role of additional social agents in the development of athletes’ perfectionism. The results of this research programme contribute to existing knowledge of perfectionism by forwarding reliable measures of SOP and SPP for employment in sport, and revealing a complex array of pathways that underpin the development of perfectionism in elite junior athletes. Ultimately, by preventing the occurrence of such pathways, athletic children may be protected from the perils of perfectionism.

Orientador: Roberta Gurgel Azzi / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação Fisica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T05:53:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigues_MariaCarolinaP_D.pdf: 1050812 bytes, checksum: c22ffc54c82846c175c0b6661e61ac68 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: O presente estudo discute a Psicologia do Esporte no cenário brasileiro problematizando as condições de formação oferecidas atualmente. Para dar conta desse objetivo, foram selecionadas como fontes de dados, os capítulos de livros, da literatura nacional, que discorriam sobre os temas formação e fazer profissional do psicólogo esportivo e, entrevistas realizadas com profissionais que atuam e/ou contribuem com a Psicologia do Esporte brasileira. A técnica escolhida para análise dos dados foi a Análise de Conteúdo. Através da criação de categorias de análise foi possível extrair elementos importantes a respeito da formação e do fazer profissional do psicólogo esportivo, entre eles: qual tem sido o papel assumido pela Psicologia dentro da formação do psicólogo esportivo, quais são as competências necessárias ao psicólogo do esporte para que o mesmo realize suas funções de forma adequada ao contexto esportivo e, as facilidades e/ou dificuldades apontadas pelos profissionais entrevistados durante sua trajetória como psicólogos esportivos e que, ainda hoje, são encontradas pelos profissionais que se interessam ou trabalham com Psicologia do Esporte. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que: há uma discussão em torno do momento em que deve se dar a formação do psicólogo esportivo, se em nível de graduação ou pós-graduação (lato e stricto-sensu); há uma preocupação se os cursos de especialização em Psicologia do Esporte têm conseguido preencher as lacunas apontadas em relação ao conteúdo específico, necessários à atuação do psicólogo; a maioria dos entrevistados (11) se interessaram pela Psicologia do Esporte através de experiências vivenciadas ou como atletas e/ou como técnicos; apenas quatro profissionais concluíram, em primeiro lugar, a graduação em Psicologia, o restante fez o curso como segunda ou terceira formação e, dos 12 entrevistados, 10 realizam funções acadêmicas e de intervenção no campo da Psicologia do Esporte. A partir desses resultados, foi possível discutir questões relacionadas à formação do psicólogo esportivo no Brasil, que possibilitaram a desmistificação de algumas crenças em relação a sua formação: a primeira, é de que a formação desse profissional não tem, necessariamente, que se dar em nível de graduação, já que não há provas concretas de que a disciplina Psicologia do Esporte supriria o conhecimento exigido pela mesma; segundo, o fato de existir apenas um curso de especialização que fornece o título de especialista em Psicologia do Esporte, não invalida a formação de profissionais que decidiram fazer outros cursos de especialização. Nas considerações finais, foram apontadas algumas necessidades que devem ser preenchidas para possibilitar novos rumos em direção à formação e ao fazer profissional do psicólogo esportivo, entre elas: o desenvolvimento de um corpo específico de conhecimento que possa dar conta de desenvolver as competências exigidas nesse fazer profissional; delimitação de quem é, tecnicamente, capacitado ou qualificado para exercer a função de psicólogo esportivo; aumento na troca de informações entre os profissionais que atuam e/ou contribuem para a Psicologia do Esporte; aumento na demanda de cursos de especialização em Psicologia do Esporte credenciados pelo CFP e ABEP e a realização de trabalhos mais aprofundados sobre formação e fazer profissional do psicólogo esportivo no Brasil / Abstract: The present study argues Sports Psychology within Brazilian scenario discussing actual offered formation conditions. In order to reach this goal chapters from national literature books that approached on professional formation themes and sport psychologist professional performance, and interviews conducted with professionals that perform and/or contribute to the Brazilian Sports Psychology were selected as data sources. Technique chose for data analyzes was Content Analyzes. Throughout creation of categories of analyzes, it was possible to extract important elements regarded sports psychologist professional formation and performance, per example: which one has been the role assumed by the Psychology on the sports psychologist formation; which ones are the necessary competences to the sports psychologists for putting themselves into their functions in an adequate way at the sportive context; and easiness and/or difficulties pointed out by the professionals interviewed during their journeys as sports psychologists that are also being found by the professionals nowadays who are interested or are working with Sports Psychology. Results obtained showed that: there is a discussion about the moment that the sports psychologist formation should be done, if it should happen during undergraduate studies or during graduate studies (lato and stricto-sensu); there is a concern about continuing education courses, if they are reaching the goals of filling the gaps pointed out about specific contents necessary to the psychologist to perform in sports fields; the majority of the ones interviewed (11) were interested about Sports Psychology throughout self-experiences as athletes and/or as coaches, only four professionals first concluded Psychology major, the rest of them had the Psychology major as second or third option, and, from the twelve interviewed, 10 are actually working at academic and intervention functions into the field of Sports Psychology. From these results, it was possible to discuss questions related to sports psychologists formation in Brazil that made possible to overcome the myth of some believes related to their formation: first, formation of this professionals does not necessarily need to be done during undergraduation studies, as there are no concrete evidence that the Sports Psychology discipline would fulfill by itself the knowledge needed; second, the fact that there is just one continuing education course that provides the title of Sports Psychology Specialist does not invalidate the formation of professionals that decided to take other continuing education courses. In the last considerations, some actual needs that have to be addressed to make possible new paths towards to sports psychologist professional formation and performance were discussed. Among them: development of a specific body of knowledge that can answer the needs of developing competences asked for good professional performance; to mark out who is technically able or qualified to exercise the sports psychologist function; a raise between information shared among professionals that perform and/or contribute for Sports Psychology; a raise on the demand of continuing education courses in Sports Psychology authorized by CFP and ABEP and more extensive research works about sports psychologists' professional formation and performance in Brazil / Doutorado / Doutor em Educação Física

A Psicologia do Esporte é uma especialidade da Psicologia. A prática tem sido produzida junto aos técnicos, atletas e demais membros da equipe de esporte e tem conquistado uma constante valorização do conhecimento produzido, mas o reconhecimento pleno ainda está distante de ser alcançado. Os estudos da liderança do técnico são uma das vertentes das pesquisas atuais por ser uma variável de grande influência sobre o desempenho dos atletas e no clima motivacional dos treinamentos e das competições em si. A presente Dissertação teve como objetivo verificar os estilos de liderança e a flexibilidade de estilos em técnicos esportivos de modalidades coletivas, utilizando-se o Teste de Liderança Situacional (TLS) desenvolvido por Agostinho Minicucci com base na teoria 3D de Reddin. Foram comparados os resultados obtidos entre uma amostra de 23 técnicos de categorias de base (formação) e uma amostra de 12 técnicos de equipes adultas (alto nível). Para as análises estatísticas, a diferença entre as médias foi realizada através do teste t de Student (grupos independentes), adotando-se um nível de significância de 5%. Os resultados mostraram que a maioria dos técnicos (56% formação e 75% alto nível) utilizam como estilo de liderança dominante o estilo integrado, que é quando o comportamento orientado para a tarefa e o comportamento orientado para as relações são utilizados em grande quantidade. Observou-se também que o estilo de sustentação adotado por ambos os grupos é o estilo relacionado, sendo que o estilo separado é o estilo menos valorizado, também por ambos os grupos. Embora os resultados indiquem uma concordância dos grupos em relação aos estilos dominante, de sustentação e sobre-rechaçado, verificou-se que os técnicos de alto nível, em suas respostas, utilizam com maior intensidade o estilo integrado (p<0,05) e dedicado (p<0,10). Quanto à flexibilidade com que os grupos apresentam os variados estilos de liderança, observou-se que os técnicos de alto nível possuem uma tendência a serem mais rígidos em seu estilo dominante em relação aos técnicos das equipes de formação. Os estilos de liderança, assim identificados, podem ser ferramentas estratégicas do psicólogo do esporte para que este possa auxiliar de modo eficaz uma melhor condução da relação técnico-atleta como integrantes de um par educativo. / Sports Psychology is a Psychology specialty that has been developed in conjunction with coaches, athletes and other members of the sports team. The resulting knowledge has been gaining increasing acceptance, but is still far from being fully recognized. Studies in coaching leadership constitute one of the branches of current research, given that this variable has an enormous influence on athletic performance and the motivational climate of training sessions and actual competitions. The objective of this paper is to identify leadership styles and their flexibility in coaches of team sports using the Situational Leadership Test (SLT), developed by Agostinho Minicucci based on Reddins 3-D theory. The results from a sample of 23 coaches of base categories (development) and 12 coaches of adult teams (high level) were compared. In the statistical analysis, the difference between the groups was calculated through Pearson\'s chi-square test and the quantitative variables were compared through Student\'s t test (independent groups), with a significance level of 5%. The results show that the dominant leadership style of most coaches (56% in the development category and 75% in the high-level category) is the integrated style, i.e. when both task-oriented and relationship-oriented behaviors are largely used. We also observed that the sustainment style of both groups is the related style, with the separate style being less valued for both groups. Although the results indicate an agreement in the behavior of the groups in relation to dominant, sustainment and most rejected styles, the high-level coaches ave higher grades to the integrated style (p<0.05) and the dedicated style (p<0.10) than those of development coaches. In terms of the flexibility with which the groups present the various leadership styles,it was observed that high-level coaches tend to be stricter in their dominant style than coaches of development teams. Leadership styles, duly identified, may constitute strategic tools for sports psychologists, enabling them to effectively improve coachathlete interaction by treating them as members of an educational pair.