This qualitative study aims to explore attitude formation within a small sample of Tertiary level student-athletes in relation to their antecedent experiences, individual knowledge about psychology and the social factors impacting on their attitude formation. The study is intended to allow for the development of themes related to the participants’ personal responses to the questions posed to them. The participants’ answers from the interviews will allow for an in-depth analysis and interpretation of the constituents influencing attitude formation towards sport psychology consultation. Primarily, the study aims to explore how attitudes towards clinical and sport psychology practitioners are constructed in this sample. Clinical psychology is used as a contrasting reference point to explore attitude formation in sport psychology. The participants’ beliefs, knowledge sources and attitude toward clinical psychology are examined to understand the fundamental constituents of their attitudes and to understand how this might be related to attitude formation towards sport psychology. It is intended that exploration of the participants’ knowledge sources (e.g. parents, peers, media and coaches) and additional influences on attitudes towards clinical psychology are used to provide insight into how they might shape attitude formation toward sport psychology. This is viewed as particularly important as sport psychology is an increasingly important tool in assisting the enhancement of sporting performance output. This qualitative study uses four elite student-athletes from the same sporting discipline and contextual background to allow for close linkages between the participants’ responses about attitude formation to be made. The study further aims to explore and understand how similarities and differences occur between the participants’ responses which will be completed through analysing and drawing parallels within themes relating to the literature or emerging separately. The Literature Review is intended to help guide the research through providing a reference source for contextualizing individual, public and socially generated beliefs and knowledge (literacy) about mental health / psychology, the constituents of attitude formation and the student-athlete’s context. These factors were identified in the literature as crucial components in attitude formation and also assisted in the development of initial themes, thus guiding the research. Unfortunately, there was limited literature pertaining to attitude formation in relation to sport psychology services and thus provide justification for using clinical psychology to explore attitude formation in sport psychology. This initial exploration of attitude formation in clinical psychology was used as a ‘template’ for contrasting attitude formation in the sample student-athletes as an indication of attitude formation in sport psychology. The Literature Review is viewed as an integral and active component of the study that is used as a body of reference guiding the exploration and interpretation of the emergent themes. This is done through the iterative reference to past research relating to attitude formation, health beliefs, and the numerous sources of information influencing attitude formation within clinical psychology and the student-athlete context. Most importantly, the Literature Review provides a significant base of information that guides the Research Question and the particular factors that have been noted as the most significant to the research. The Literature Review is intended to guide the Research Question and highlight the significant components that need to be taken into consideration in exploring attitude formation. This study, having taken the numerous individual, social, contextual and other factors into consideration, seeks to understand how such factors combine to shape attitudes and influence attitude formation. The collection of literature on social, knowledge and antecedent factors are significant in their role of shaping attitude formation and thus have been included within the Research Question. Furthermore, the Research Question and Literature Review had an impact on the Methodology and why Thematic Analysis was selected. Given the similarities in the participants’ sporting and contextual backgrounds (e.g., being in the same crew, university and social context), it was felt that the primary determinants of attitude formation, within antecedent experiences, knowledge and social influences, would emerge in related themes and thus provide greater insight into attitude formation within the student-athlete context. A limiting factor however, does lie in the small number of participants from a limited diversity of backgrounds, experiences or factors that could assist in allowing broader generalisations of the findings. However, this study aims to understand how the particular factors influence or shape attitudes towards sport and other psychology services and aims to understand the more specific or ‘fundamental’ components of attitude formation that are experienced within the student-athlete’s context and environment.

Due to limited research in the field testing of youth sport, specifically with regard to females, this project was delimited to the examination of the responses of youth participants in relation to the nature of the sport, when participating under conditions of competitive stress. It further attempted to elucidate gender related differences within these responses. Forty four male and female subjects aged 15 - 19 years volunteered to participate in this study; all pupils were First team members who competed in a variety of team and individual sports. Subjects participated in a battery of psychological, physiological and performance tests before and after competing in a practice session and during competitive league matches. The data were statistically analyzed for the various parameters under investigation. The results of the Sport Competition Anxiety Test indicated that the females, and the male team players had the highest competitive anxiety traits (CTA). The Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire scores showed that most subjects have a general dominance of task orientation to sport. The results of the Physical Self-Perception Profile revealed that the females' poorer perception of their physical was not as substantial as their difference in CTA compared to males. Team participants, particularly the males, had a poorer self-image than individual sport counterparts. Elevated heart rate responses were observed prior to performing in a competitive ambience, with significant increases in team, rather than individual, players. The Evaluation of Task Demands revealed that team players, especially the females, perceived the match demands as significantly higher than the individual athletes. No significant differences were observed in the players' Evaluation of Perceived Strain. Neither were any significant differences observed in the players' ratings of their performance. In conclusion, although differences appear to exist between male and female responses within a competitive ambience, the magnitude of difference was far more notable between team and individual responses to competitive stress, particularly for competitive matches as opposed to practice sessions.

A number of computerised tests have been especially developed to facilitate the medical management of the sports-related concussion. Probably the most widely used of these programmes is the ImPACT test that was developed in the USA and that is registered with the HPCSA for use in the South African context. A recent Afrikaans version of the test served as the basis of the present study with the following objectives: (i) to collect Afrikaans ImPACT normative data on a cohort of Afrikaans first language adolescent rugby players with Model C education for comparison with existing South African English first language adolescent rugby players with Private/Model C schooling, and (ii) to investigate the pre-versus postseason ImPACT neurocognitive test profiles of this cohort of Afrikaans first language adolescent rugby players versus equivalent noncontact sports controls. The results for Part 1 of the study generally demonstrate poorer performance in respect of the Afrikaans cohort, which is understood to be the result of poorer quality of education. The results for Part 2 demonstrated failure of the rugby group to benefit from practice on the ImPACT Visual Motor Speed composite score to the same extent as the control group. It is argued that this apparent cognitive vulnerability in the rugby group is due to lowered cognitive reserve capacity in association with long term exposure to concussive and sub-concussive injury.

M.A. / The approach of psychology to sport has over the century been ambivalent. The relationship between the field of psychology and matters on the sports field has tended to favour one type of understanding, namely cognitive-behavioural psychology. The theoretical underpinnings of this conception are seen to be directly connected to a set of philosophical, ethical and aesthetic ideas known as Modernism, which have dominated this century. It is suggested herein that with the renewed interest of psychology in matters sporting, some of the current theoretical perspectives in the general field of psychology might be applied to sports. The approach adopted here explores how the narratives of professional golfers, looked at through a social constructionist lens, could assist them in re-evaluating and enriching their experiences. Social constructionism aims to change the traditional agenda of psychological research, which might lead to new ways of talking about ourselves and our surroundings. Social constructionism is situated inside a different set of theoretical premises, which are known as Postmodern, which challenge the Modern way of knowing.

Orientador: Afonso Antonio Machado / Banca: André Luis Aroni / Banca: Ivan Tertuliano Wallan / Resumo: Atualmente a sociedade conta com diversos tipos de tecnologias (redes sociais; televisivas; filmográficas; smartphones, etc.) que fazem parte da realidade cotidiana da sociedade contemporânea. O acesso ou falta de acesso às mesmas pode gerar diversos tipos de influência na subjetividade humana (individual e/ou coletiva). Sendo assim, o objetivo do presente projeto foi investigar a influência da tecnologia sobre a subjetividade humana. Participaram do estudo 22 integrantes de diversos grupos de capoeira, de ambos os sexos, com no mínimo 4 anos de prática, contemplando todas a posições hierárquicas da capoeira. O tipo da pesquisa foi qualitativa, com entrevistas semi-estruturada (presencialmente) e netnográfica (via questionários online do Google Formulários) nos casos de impossibilidade de encontro para a coleta de dados. Os dados foram analisados a luz da pesquisa qualitativa e trabalhados segundo a análise de conteúdo proposta por Bardim (2011) e Richardson (2007). Os resultados mostraram que de fato as Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação interferem na expressão da cultura e na subjetividade dos capoeiristas diariamente. Sendo assim, com as mudanças sociais e de postura dos capoeiristas entre si e também com os não praticantes da arte da capoeiragem, houve uma nova maneira de se entender essa luta. Logo, a capoeira sai da marginalidade e passa ser socialmente e artisticamente aceita, bem como retratada como algo belo, compreendida como um patrimônio cultural brasileiro e... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Nowadays the society has several types of technologies (social networks, television, movies, smartphones, etc.) that are part of daily reality of contemporary society. Access or lack of access to them can generate different types of influence on human subjectivity (individual and / or collective). Thus, the objective of this project was to investigate the influence of technology on human subjectivity. Twenty-two members of various capoeira groups of both sexes participated in the study, with at least 4 years of practice, including all capoeira hierarchical positions. The type of research was qualitative, with semi-structured interviews (in person) and netnographic (via online questionnaires from Google Forms) when there was no chance of a meeting for data collection. The data were analyzed through a content analysis proposed by Bardim (2011) and Richardson (2007). The results shows that in fact the Information and Communication Technologies interferes in the culture expression and in the subjectivity of the capoeiristas daily life. Despite of the social and posture changes of the capoeiristas among themselves and also not practitioners of the art of capoeira, there was another way of understanding this fight. Therefore, capoeira left marginality and became socially and artistically accepted, as well as represented beautifullly, understood as a Brazil's cultural heritage and world heritage. Thus, masters, contramestres, formados professores and alunos take advantage of virtual... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

The present study investigated the effects of different goal and feedback conditions on performance of a basketball field goal shooting task and a more complex one-on-one offensive basketball task. Subjects (N = 100) were matched, based on pre-test performance, into one of five conditions: competitive goal, cooperative goal, mastery goal, "do your best" with feedback, and "do your best" without feedback. Results indicated the competitive group was significantly better than the "do your best" without feedback group in one-on-one performance. No other between group differences were significant, although some consistent group trends were present. Subjects' goal orientations were not related to performance in specific goal conditions, with the exception of mastery oriented subjects in the mastery goal condition.

A study was designed in order to assess the effectiveness of a positive self-modeling strategy in increasing the performance of four University of the Pacific baseball players. A multiple baseline design across participants was used as a means of assessing the effectiveness of the self-modeling technique. Participants viewed edited positive self-modeling videotapes of their own batting performance. Measures were taken on: (a) the number of line drive hits; (b) ground ball hits; (c) the number of times the participant hit a ground ball, but was thrown out; (d) the number of times the participant hit a line drive, but it was caught; (e) swings and misses; (f) not swinging at a strike (called strikes); (g) not swinging at a ball (called balls); (h) the number of foul balls; and (i) the number of pop ups. In addition, batting averages were kept for game performance. It was expected that participants would show an increase in hits, a decrease in hit outs, a decrease in called strikes, an increase in called balls, a decrease in foul balls, and an increase in batting average when each participant began the positive self-modeling. The performance of those participants not yet viewing their positive self-modeling tape was not expected to show such improvement. Improvement was observed in three out of the four participants.

This experimental study was designed to test whether viewing a West Coast Athletic Conference Basketball Game in person had a significantly greater effect on spectators than watching the same event on television or listening to it on the radio. The literature revealed mixed opinions concerning this type of testing.

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