<p> This dissertation employs a hermeneutic methodology and a Jungian lens to examine the idea of golf as occupying liminal space. In anthropology, liminality is the transformative space in rites of initiation. In depth psychology psychic transformation occurs in liminal space. This study extends the concept to five loci of liminality: geography, history, the evolution of consciousness, body consciousness, and the creation of knowledge in the hermeneutic circle. The research explores various texts addressing the evolution of individual and collective consciousness, Jungian and somatic psychology, play, numinosity, and writings about golf, applying their perspectives to the author&rsquo;s personal experiences playing the game as well as to the origin of the game itself. In addition, four of the author&rsquo;s dreams with a golf motif are analyzed. Because golf follows a directional path and possesses teleological momentum, it is seen as a symbol of the psychological development process that C. G. Jung called individuation, both individually and in the collective. The experience of the numinous &ldquo;perfect swing&rdquo; is described and distinguished from flow, peak experience, and peak performance&mdash; primarily because of its generation by connection to unconscious archetypal energy. The work considers golf symbolically, and adds to the relatively sparse literature applying depth psychology to sports. The examination of the metaphorical character of play adds to the understanding of that topic in depth psychology as opposed to the objectified, scientific treatment more commonly applied to that subject in the academy.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, Dept. of Recreation of Park Administration, 2006. / Adviser: Alan W. Ewert.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, Dept. of Recreation of Park Administration, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1530. Adviser: Alan W. Ewert. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 19, 2007)."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-05, Section: A, page: 2168. Adviser: Ruth V. Russell. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 12, 2008)."

<p> This investigation attempts to determine the value of outdoor adventure education for educational leaders based upon leadership qualities identified in both the Educational Leadership and Outdoor Adventure Education (OAE) literature. Theoretical underpinnings of outdoor adventure education and claimed leadership outcomes resulting from OAE participation are identified and investigated. Three leadership skills identified as both OAE outcomes and constructs valuable to educational leaders (Self-efficacy, Collaboration, and Trust) are the focus of this mixed methodology study.</p><p> Research questions are proposed and addressed using mixed methodology. The anonymous online Outdoor Adventure Education Survey was developed based on previous research (Gareis &amp; Tschannen-Moran, 2004; Rhodes &amp; Martin, 2013; Tschannen-Moran &amp; Barr, 2004; Tschannen-Moran &amp; Gareis, 2004) and with input from educational leadership and OAE experts. Qualitative measures, including participant focus groups and key informant interviews, were developed with the advice of OAE and educational leadership experts before implementation.</p><p> Volunteers at a one-day OAE ropes challenge course participated in the anonymous online Outdoor Adventure Education Survey one week after course implementation of a one-day ropes challenge course and focus group discussions occurred within one month in order to allow for reflection, a major component of Experiential Learning Theory. Facilitators and group leaders participated in individual key informant interviews at irregular intervals after implementation. </p><p> Analysis revealed that OAE impacted self-efficacy in ways that are valuable to leadership, increased participants&rsquo; collaboration, and generally increased trust among members of each group. Results varied based on the obstacles encountered and by the group participating, but were positive overall. Additional outcomes included participants&rsquo; increased awareness of the importance of open communication, including active listening, and shared decision-making while solving problems collaboratively.</p><p>

The intent of this research project was to achieve greater understanding of the developmental and psychological processes of tennis champions. Phenomenological research design, employing the qualitative in-depth interview was used. Constant comparative analysis, as applied to grounded theory, was used to guide data collection and analysis. Champions were asked to describe their processes toward championship achievement, and what facilitated their athletic and psychological development. Of particular interest was how they traced their development, which included the following themes: The roles of parents, teachers, coaches and mentors, conceptualizations of mental toughness, process versus outcome orientations to competition, the zone, triumphing when not in the zone, sportsmanship, regulation of emotion, self-talk, self-knowledge, self-complexity, motivation, confidence, dreams and childhood imaging, goal setting, acting skills when competing, humor, independent thinking, discipline, the history of their personal competitiveness, and their achievement of successfully contending with the psychological pressures of competition. Common to nearly all the participants was an enduring love of the game of tennis, the joy of competing, and a strong desire to do supremely well and work hard in whatever endeavor the champions pursued. Correlations with existent literature and previous research were present in the domains of family and social factors, most of the experiential characteristics of peak performance, and the importance attributed to having a coach or mentor who had the ability to relate well personally and professionally. In contrast to some previous research about champions and high achievers, most of these champions had not met an abundance of pain and trauma in their personal lives. How champions define champion was an area of this research new to the literature. Emergent from the interviews were three styles of definition: External, reflecting accomplishment; External--Internal, meaning accomplishment and exemplary self-conduct; and Internal, reflecting both model self-conduct--and the value that a champion is one who fully actualizes innate potential. Potential seeking is how most of the champions described their drive for championship development and their orientation to life.

<p> The purpose of this exploratory qualitative research study was to identify the elements of adventure travel experiences that contribute to the process of transformational learning in adults. A qualitative research design was employed for this study. The sources of data were twelve pre-existing and de-identified interview transcriptions. A textual analysis was performed on the data, using an <i>a priori</i> approach to coding and analysis. An analysis of the data identified seven key themes that were critical for transformational learning in adults: (a) A Call to Adventure; (b) Being Open to Experience; (c) Entering a Zone Unknown; (d) Extra-Ordinary &amp; Challenging Experiences; (e) Meaningful Interactions with Others (f) Re-Connecting to Self; and (g) Taking Action. These themes suggested a process for transformational learning in adults. In addition, (a) the authentic nature of the experience and (b) trip length, were also found to be important factors in transformational learning for these interviewees. These findings also suggest that intentionally designing adventure travel programs around these themes and the emergent transformational learning process has the potential to increase the likelihood of participants experiencing transformational learning through adventure travel.</p>

Thèses (M.Sc.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 2007. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 1 février 2007). In ProQuest dissertations and theses. Publié aussi en version papier.

In this project, I used an object relations model to examine the benefits of the relationship between athletes and influential coaches. To accomplish this task, I examined the formative experiences of five men who were varsity athletes in college and focused on two questions: (1) In what ways can an athlete's relationship with his coach compensate for deficits resulting from parental inadequacies or empathic failures? (2) In what ways can an athlete's emotional bond with his coach enhance his self-esteem and facilitate his transition from adolescence to adulthood? In addition to interviewing these athletes, I interviewed the coach designated by each athlete as the most influential in his personal development. Subjects participated in a semi-structured interview, and the data from these interviews were qualitatively analyzed. Seven themes emerged from the stories told by these five athletes and their coaches: (1) the coach/player relationship as a "good fit" for the athlete, given his circumstances and psychological needs; (2) the coach/player relationship as reparative of the player's early childhood deficits; (3) the coach/player relationship as an opportunity to help the player to modulate his aggression; (4) the coach/player relationship as a facilitation of the player's experience of separation-individuation; (5) the coach/player relationship as a medium for identification with an important adult male role model; (6) the coach/player relationship as a means to enhance the player's achievement; and (7) the coach/player relationship as a context in which limits are set on the player's behavior. From these ten interviews, a template emerges in which the coach/player relationship can be seen as a therapeutic construct in which caring and strong role models can have lasting effects on the lives, values, and successes of young men.

This thesis attempted to develop a clearer understanding of the pre-competition achievement goal perspectives that are held by young performers. The programme of research moves through three transitional stages incorporating three different methodologies. Specifically, the first two investigations which comprised Study 1 adopted a quantitative research methodology; Study 2 incorporated qualitative techniques; and the final investigation addressed the research question on an idiographic basis via a single subject design study. Firstly, an attempt is made to identify the major antecedents or precursors to states of goal involvement prior to a specific competitive situation. The first study examined the antecedents of pre-competition state goals within adolescent swimmers from an interactionist perspective. Results showed how levels of task and ego involvement prior to a specific race were related to both dispositional tendencies and situational factors within the race context. However, task orientation appeared to play a more powerful role than ego orientation in predicting their respective goal states. Furthermore, ego involvement was more strongly predicted by situational factors. The second investigation extended this question by investigating a sample of elite junior tennis players prior to a competitive match at the National Championships. In this way, the nature of the competitive context, with respect to goal or reward structure, changed from being more task-involving (individualistic-focused) to being more ego-involving (competitive-focused). Results showed how the players' goal states were related much more to perceptions of the context than to their reported goal orientation. Furthermore, task orientation did not emerge as a significant predictor of goal involvement. With these results in mind, the second stage of the thesis involved investigating, to a much greater depth, the motivational criteria which appeared to contribute to the development of goal orientation and the activation of goal involvement in the context of competition. For this purpose, qualitative interview techniques and an inductive content analysis were applied to a sample of seventeen elite junior tennis players. The findings suggested that the development of goal orientation and activation of pre-competition goal involvement rested on a complex interaction of internal and environmental factors. Specific general dimensions of influence included cognitive-developmental skills and experience, the motivational climate conveyed by significant others, the social and structural nature of tennis, and the match context. The information gathered from this study provided the impetus, rationale and theoretical foundation for the final study in this thesis. Employing a single subject multiple baseline across subjects design, the study investigated the effects of a structured environmental and task-based intervention programme which sought to influence precompetition goal involvement and related competitive cognitions within a small sample of adolescent national standard tennis players. Following a three month intervention period, the three targeted players reported pre-competition goal states which showed increased activation of the self-referent conception of achievement. Furthermore, each player fostered an attitude which valued the challenge of winning matches for internal reasons, as opposed to reasons associated with favourable social approval. These findings reinforced the practicability of educationlaction-based interventions designed to develop more adaptive motivational responses to competitive situations. The programme of research conducted in this thesis, therefore, highlights how precompetition achievement goal perspectives within young performers may be influenced, provided that one has a detailed understanding of the antecedents of this process. In so doing, this thesis alerts future research to the importance of working within an interactionist paradigm and with a measurement technology which can accurately assess goal states in a diverse number of sporting situations. In this way, our understanding of goal involvement, as an important achievement-related attentional state, may be greatly facilitated.