The Controlling Interpersonal Style in a Coaching Context: Development and Initial Validation of a Psychometric Scale

This article outlines the development and initial validation of the Controlling Coach Behaviors Scale (CCBS), a multidimensional self-report measure designed to assess sports coaches’ controlling interpersonal style from the perspective of self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2002). Study 1 generated a pool of items, based on past literature and feedback from coaches, athletes, and academic experts. The factorial structure of the questionnaire was tested using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses across Studies 2 and 3. The final CCBS model in Study 3 comprised 4 factors (controlling use of rewards,conditional regard,intimidation, and excessive personal control) and was cross-validated using a third independent sample in Study 4. The scale demonstrated good content and factorial validity, as well as internal consistency and invariance across gender and sport type. Suggestions for its use in research pertaining to the darker side of coaching and sport participation are discussed

Coaching Style Preferences of Division I College and Professional Softball Players

The purpose of this study was to describe the coaching style and leader behavior preferences of softball players. The Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS; Chelladurai & Saleh, 1980) was administered to Division I college softball players and professional softball players from the National Professional Fastpitch league (NPF). Sixty-four softball players completed the Leadership Scale for Sport questionnaire (preference version), 52 Division I college softball players and 12 professional softball players from the NPF. Descriptive statistics revealed that softball players prefer Training and Instruction, Democratic Behavior, and Positive Feedback; players did not prefer Autocratic Behavior or Social Support. Follow-up univariate ANOVAs indicated that Autocratic Behavior was significantly different for Division I college softball players and professional softball players. Pairwise comparisons showed professional softball players significantly preferred Autocratic Behavior to Division I softball players; however, no statistical significance was found when examining coaching style preferences with relation to age and years of experience. Two one-way ANOVAs followed the trend that professional softball players preferred autocratic coaching behavior while Division I college softball players preferred democratic coaching behavior. Thus, female softball players, overall, prefer a democratic coaching style, training and instruction, and positive feedback; however, professional softball athletes significantly prefer autocratic coaching behaviors while Division I college players do not prefer autocratic coaching styles. Age and years of experience were not statistically significant when determining coaching preference, however, a power analysis is needed to reveal the optimal sample size to establish significance

Customer value co-creation behavior : scale development and validation

This investigation reports a series of four studies leading to the development and validation of a customer value co-creation behavior scale. The scale comprises two dimensions: customer participation behavior and customer citizenship behavior, with each dimension having four components. The elements of customer participation behavior include information seeking, information sharing, responsible behavior, and personal interaction, whereas the aspects of customer citizenship behavior are feedback, advocacy, helping, and tolerance. The scale is multidimensional and hierarchical, and it exhibits internal consistency reliability, construct validity, and nomological validity. This study also shows that customer participation behavior and customer citizenship behavior exhibit different patterns of antecedents and consequences

Toward simple control for complex, autonomous robotic applications: combining discrete and rhythmic motor primitives

Vertebrates are able to quickly adapt to new environments in a very robust, seemingly effortless way. To explain both this adaptivity and robustness, a very promising perspective in neurosciences is the modular approach to movement generation: Movements results from combinations of a finite set of stable motor primitives organized at the spinal level. In this article we apply this concept of modular generation of movements to the control of robots with a high number of degrees of freedom, an issue that is challenging notably because planning complex, multidimensional trajectories in time-varying environments is a laborious and costly process. We thus propose to decrease the complexity of the planning phase through the use of a combination of discrete and rhythmic motor primitives, leading to the decoupling of the planning phase (i.e. the choice of behavior) and the actual trajectory generation. Such implementation eases the control of, and the switch between, different behaviors by reducing the dimensionality of the high-level commands. Moreover, since the motor primitives are generated by dynamical systems, the trajectories can be smoothly modulated, either by high-level commands to change the current behavior or by sensory feedback information to adapt to environmental constraints. In order to show the generality of our approach, we apply the framework to interactive drumming and infant crawling in a humanoid robot. These experiments illustrate the simplicity of the control architecture in terms of planning, the integration of different types of feedback (vision and contact) and the capacity of autonomously switching between different behaviors (crawling and simple reaching

The effect of an intervention to improve newly qualified teachers’ interpersonal style, students motivation and psychological need satisfaction in sport-based physical education

Recent developments in self-determination theory research in the educational setting (e.g., Reeve, Deci, & Ryan, 2004), suggest that teachers’ interpersonal style should be considered as consisting of three dimensions: autonomy-support, structure and interpersonal involvement. Based on this theoretical proposition, the purpose of the present study was to test the effects of a training program for three physical education newly qualified teachers on the aforementioned teachers’ overt behaviors and students’ psychological needs satisfaction, self-determined motivation and engagement in sport-based physical education. After a baseline period of four lessons, the teachers attended an informational session on adaptive student motivation and how to support it. The training program also included individualized guidance during the last four lessons of the cycle. Results revealed that from pre- to post-intervention: (1) teachers managed to improve their teaching style in terms of all three dimensions, and (2) students were receptive to these changes, as shown by increases in their reported need satisfaction, self-determined motivation and engagement in the class

Applying a Multidimensional Strategy to Mitigate Lateral Violence in a Small Rural Community Hospital in Western New York

Providing registered nurses with education and strategies to mitigate lateral violence is an evidenced-based method for creating a culture of civility. A descriptive pilot study with registered nurses was conducted on two medical/surgical units at a small rural community hospital. Strategies included a review of organizational policies, a one-day educational retreat for unit managers and registered nurse champions, and an online educational toolkit on lateral violence for the staff nurses on the pilot units

Synchronization in an array of linearly stochastically coupled networks with time delays

This is the post print version of the article. The official published version can be obtained from the link - Copyright 2007 Elsevier LtdIn this paper, the complete synchronization problem is investigated in an array of linearly stochastically coupled identical networks with time delays. The stochastic coupling term, which can reflect a more realistic dynamical behavior of coupled systems in practice, is introduced to model a coupled system, and the influence from the stochastic noises on the array of coupled delayed neural networks is studied thoroughly. Based on a simple adaptive feedback control scheme and some stochastic analysis techniques, several sufficient conditions are developed to guarantee the synchronization in an array of linearly stochastically coupled neural networks with time delays. Finally, an illustrate example with numerical simulations is exploited to show the effectiveness of the theoretical results.This work was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 60574043, the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China under Grant BK2006093, and International Joint Project funded by NSFC and the Royal Society of the United Kingdom

The Role-Based Performance Scale: Validity Analysis of a Theory-Based Measure

This study introduces a theory-based measure of employee performance (Role Based Performance Scale, RBPS) that is supported with results from a validation study using 10 data sets from six companies. In contrast to traditional, job-related measures of employee performance, we propose an alternative measure of performance based on role theory and identity theory. Because our results support the validity of the scale, we think that the instrument can be used for future research that requires a generalizable measure of performance. The scale demonstrates diagnostic properties that make it useful for practitioners as well as researchers

Perfectionism and performance in a new basketball training task: Does striving for perfection enhance or undermine performance?

Objectives: In the psychology of sport and exercise, the question of how perfectionism affects performance is highly debated. While some researchers have identified perfectionism as a hallmark quality of elite athletes, others see perfectionism as a maladaptive characteristic that undermines, rather than helps, athletic performance. Against this background, the purpose of the present study was to investigate how different aspects of perfectionism predict performance and performance increments. Method: A study was conducted with 122 undergraduate athletes to investigate how perfectionism during training affects performance and performance increments in a series of trials with a new basketball training task. Two aspects of perfectionism were examined: striving for perfection and negative reactions to imperfection. Design: The design was a correlational prospective design. Results: Results showed that striving for perfection during training predicted higher performance in the new task. In contrast, negative reactions to imperfection predicted lower performance when athletes attempted the task for the first time, once the positive influence of striving for perfection on task performance was partialled out. However, negative reactions to imperfection did not undermine performance in the consecutive trials. On the contrary, athletes with both high levels of striving for perfection and high levels of negative reactions to imperfection showed the greatest performance increments over the series of trials. Conclusion: The findings suggest that perfectionism is not necessarily a maladaptive characteristic that generally undermines sport performance. Instead, when learning a new training task, perfectionism may enhance performance and lead to performance increments over repeated trials

A Behavioral Approach to the Control of Discrete Linear Repetitive Processes

This paper formulates the theory of linear discrete time repetitive processes in the setting of behavioral systems theory. A behavioral, latent variable model for repetitive processes is developed and for the physically defined inputs and outputs as manifest variables, a kernel representation of their behavior is determined. Conditions for external stability and controllability of the behavior are then obtained. A sufficient condition for stabilizability is also developed for the behavior and it is shown under a mild restriction that, whenever the repetitive system is stabilizable, a regular constant output feedback stabilizing controller exists. Next a notion of eigenvalues is defined for the repetitive process under an action of a closed loop controller. It is then shown how under controllability of the original repetitive process, an arbitrary assignment of eigenvalues for the closed loop response can be achieved by a constant gain output feedback controller under the above restriction. These results on the existence of constant gain output feedback controllers are among the most striking properties enjoyed by repetitive systems, discovered in this paper. Results of this paper utilize the behavioral model of the repetitive process which is an analogue of the 1D equivalent model of the dynamics studied in earlier work on repetitive processes