Diss. Helsingin yliopisto, 2006. / Myös verkkojulkaisuna.

Submitted by LEONARDO CASARIN KAMINSKI null (00539617067) on 2017-05-26T06:21:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 KAMINSKI Leonardo C - 2017 - TESE.pdf: 4549779 bytes, checksum: b111796649ce466bd2fb49cee39ec537 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luiz Galeffi (luizgaleffi@gmail.com) on 2017-05-30T16:33:05Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 kaminski_lc_dr_ia.pdf: 4549779 bytes, checksum: b111796649ce466bd2fb49cee39ec537 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-30T16:33:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 kaminski_lc_dr_ia.pdf: 4549779 bytes, checksum: b111796649ce466bd2fb49cee39ec537 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O presente trabalho trata da preparação, realização e avaliação da performance em música de câmara, mais precisamente, sobre os níveis e presença do estresse da ansiedade envolvidos nessa prática. Partiu-se da premissa de que seja possível desenvolver estratégias para otimizar o controle dos níveis de ansiedade e do estresse na performance de músicos cameristas, visando a excelência na performance nesse processo. A ocorrência e sintomas psicopatológicos diferem- se em atividades individuais e coletivas, motivando o autor a realizar a pesquisa com grupos de câmara. A metodologia empregada mesclou pesquisa bibliográfica (onde foi realizada uma revisão da literatura concentrada em publicações dos principais congressos brasileiros ocorridos nos últimos anos e em publicações de autores de referência na área de cognição musical) e pesquisa de campo (na qual foram aplicados dois inventários, o K-MPAI e o ISSL, respectivamente, sobre ansiedade na performance musical e estresse, além de um Questionário adicional sobre hábitos cotidianos do músico). O trabalho está organizado em quatro capítulos: 1) Revisão da literatura; 2) Metodologia e estratégia de ação, 3). Discussão dos resultados da consulta e revisão e 4) Sugestões de estratégias para o enfrentamento do estresse e da ansiedade na performance camerística. As discussões cruzando revisão de literatura e pesquisa de campo permitiram identificar possíveis geradores de estresse e ansiedade na performance musical bem como elaborar algumas sugestões de procedimentos que podem ser adotados na preparação e realização da performance musical de grupos de câmara. / The present work deals with the preparation for performance, the performance itself and its evaluation in chamber music, more precisely what concerns to control of levels and presence of anxiety stress involved in this practice. The argument was based on strategies that would be developed to optimize levels of anxiety and stress of musicians to achieve the excellence in performance in these processes. The occurrence and psychopathological symptoms could be distinct in individual and collective activities, motivating the author to carry out the current research with chamber music groups. The methodology used merged bibliographical research (review of the literature with publications from main Brazilian congresses, occurred in the last years and assigned publications in area of musical cognition) and field research (in which two inventories were applied, K-MPAI and ISSL, respectively, on anxiety in musical performance and stress, as well as an additional questionnaire on daily habits of the musician). The work is divided in four chapters: 1) Literature review; 2) Methodology and strategy of action, 3). Discussion of the results with consultation and review; and 4) Suggestions of procedures in the preparation and realization of the musical performance in chamber groups. Discussions across literature review and field research have identified feasible generators of stress and anxiety in musical performance as well as suggest of procedures that can be adopted in the preparation and realization of the musical performance of chamber groups.

The increasing evidence of the organizational demands encountered by sports performers provides a fertile ground for research. There is now a requirement to move beyond describing the organizational stressors that performers encounter in order to understand the complex appraisal and coping processes that athletes engage in when experiencing organizational stress. This thesis aimed to conduct a detailed examination of these processes in high-level sport performers. Chapter 2 describes a narrative review of the extant appraisal literature that has examined the roles of situational and personal influences on appraising. In order to generate a detailed understanding of this literature, the review includes findings from the general, occupational, organizational, and sport psychology literatures. This review was instrumental in determining the direction of the research described in later chapters. Chapter 3 aimed to narrow the focus of the thesis to organizational stress transactions in sport performers and therefore, describes a diary study that explored swimmers appraisals of organizational stressors. The findings of this study provided insight into the complex process of appraisal and suggested that appraisals are related to the situational property of the stressor encountered. In addition, the results pointed to the importance of exploring the coping strategies that athletes use to manage organizational stressors in future research. Chapter 4 describes a narrative review of the literature that has examined athletes ways of coping with organizational stressors. Due to the limited sport psychology research in this area and in order to extend current knowledge in sport, prominent findings from the organizational and occupational psychology domains were considered. Chapter 5 was designed to extend the findings of Chapter 3 and the existing literature by examining the coping strategies that swimmers use in response to organizational stressors. This chapter highlighted the complexity of coping and suggested that appraisal mechanisms are linked to the coping family employed. Chapter 6 aimed to take a more complete approach to examining organizational stress transactions by exploring various components of stress transactions. The study presented in this chapter suggested that the appraisal an athlete makes is influential in determining the performance outcome that they will experience. Collectively, the chapters described above highlighted appraising as the pivotal element in stress transactions and established a rationale for the cognitive-behavioral based intervention that is described in Chapter 7. The study presented in Chapter 7 aimed to alleviate some of the negative outcomes of organizational stress by optimizing sport performers appraisals. The findings suggested that cognitive restructuring was a useful technique for achieving this aim. The program of research presented in this thesis suggests that appraising is the pivotal element of organizational stress transactions in sport and that appraising can be optimized in order to alleviate the negative emotional and performance outcomes of maladaptive appraisals. In addition, the research highlights the importance of considering the situational properties of stressors, the complexity of coping, and the relationships between components of stress transactions in future research. Further, the findings presented within this thesis suggest that future research should aim to make methodological and measurement advances and examine, in detail, performers appraisal and coping processes.

Mental toughness is accepted to be an important component of sporting performance, especially so in the domain of cricket. It has been called many names, such as Big Match Temperament, bottle, and mettle and it is widely believed that it plays a role in how successful a cricketer may be, although very difficult to define and explain. James Loehr described it as one’s ability to consistently perform to the upper limit of your talent and skill and numerous researchers have since tried to define the construct based on more empirical research. This research project consists of three articles on mental toughness. The first focuses on the consideration of extra-personal influences on the development and implementation of mental toughness programmes. The second focuses on examining the psychometric properties of the paper-and-pencil versions of the Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire (SMTQ) and the Psychological Performance Inventory-Alternative (PPI-A). The third examines the differences in the demographic characteristics of a sample of cricketers on the online versions of the SMTQ and the PPI-A. The results suggest that extra-personal influences are exceptionally important in the development and implementation of mental toughness programmes for school level cricketers, especially motivational climate and social support. While the PPI-A and the SMTQ displayed some promising psychometric properties in the current study, researchers should apply these mental toughness inventories with circumspection, taking into account questions regarding dimensionality, item formulation and variation in sample characteristics (e.g., age and sporting code), until more research can be conducted using these inventories with larger and more varied samples and the understanding of the mental toughness construct improves. The examination of the demographic differences on scores of the SMTQ and PPI-A revealed inconclusive results on age, sex, and ethnicity, while competitive level was the only distinguishing characteristic in which respondents at high levels produced higher mental toughness scores. The three studies comprising this “by articles” format PHD dissertation will be referred to as Article 1, Article 2, and Article 3 and can be found in Chapters, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. / Psychology / D.Phil. (Psychology)