A Review of Controlling Motivational Strategies from a Self-Determination Theory Perspective: Implications for Sports Coaches

The aim of this paper is to present a preliminary taxonomy of six controlling strategies, primarily based on the parental and educational literatures, which we believe are employed by coaches in sport contexts. Research in the sport and physical education literature has primarily focused on coaches’ autonomysupportive behaviours. Surprisingly, there has been very little research on the use of controlling strategies. A brief overview of the research which delineates each proposed strategy is presented, as are examples of the potential manifestation of the behaviours associated with each strategy in the context of sports coaching. In line with self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2002), we propose that coach behaviours employed to pressure or control athletes have the potential to thwart athletes’ feelings of autonomy, competence,and relatedness, which, in turn, undermine athletes’ self-determined motivation and contribute to the development of controlled motives. When athletes feel pressured to behave in a certain way, a variety of negative consequences are expected to ensue which are to the detriment of the athletes’ well-being. The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness and interest in the darker side of sport participation and to offer suggestions for future research in this area

Dynamics of Tachyon and Phantom Field beyond the Inverse Square Potentials

We investigate the cosmological evolution of the tachyon and phantom-tachyon scalar field by considering the potential parameter $\Gamma$($=\frac{V V"}{V'^2}$) as a function of another potential parameter $\lambda$($=\frac{V'}{\kappa V^{3/2}}$), which correspondingly extends the analysis of the evolution of our universe from two-dimensional autonomous dynamical system to the three-dimension. It allows us to investigate the more general situation where the potential is not restricted to inverse square potential and .One result is that, apart from the inverse square potential, there are a large number of potentials which can give the scaling and dominant solution when the function $\Gamma(\lambda)$ equals $3/2$ for one or some values of $\lambda_{*}$ as well as the parameter $\lambda_{*}$ satisfies condition Eq.(18) or Eq.(19). We also find that for a class of different potentials the dynamics evolution of the universe are actually the same and therefore undistinguishable.Comment: 8 pages, no figure, accepted by The European Physical Journal C(2010), online first, http://www.springerlink.com/content/323417h708gun5g8/?p=dd373adf23b84743b523a3fa249d51c7&pi=

Late-time cosmology in (phantom) scalar-tensor theory: dark energy and the cosmic speed-up

We consider late-time cosmology in a (phantom) scalar-tensor theory with an exponential potential, as a dark energy model with equation of state parameter close to -1 (a bit above or below this value). Scalar (and also other kinds of) matter can be easily taken into account. An exact spatially-flat FRW cosmology is constructed for such theory, which admits (eternal or transient) acceleration phases for the current universe, in correspondence with observational results. Some remarks on the possible origin of the phantom, starting from a more fundamental theory, are also made. It is shown that quantum gravity effects may prevent (or, at least, delay or soften) the cosmic doomsday catastrophe associated with the phantom, i.e. the otherwise unavoidable finite-time future singularity (Big Rip). A novel dark energy model (higher-derivative scalar-tensor theory) is introduced and it is shown to admit an effective phantom/quintessence description with a transient acceleration phase. In this case, gravity favors that an initially insignificant portion of dark energy becomes dominant over the standard matter/radiation components in the evolution process.Comment: LaTeX file, 48 pages, discussion of Big Rip is enlarged, a reference is adde

OmOm Diagnostic for Dilaton Dark Energy

$Om$ diagnostic can differentiate between different models of dark energy without the accurate current value of matter density. We apply this geometric diagnostic to dilaton dark energy(DDE) model and differentiate DDE model from LCDM. We also investigate the influence of coupled parameter $\alpha$ on the evolutive behavior of $Om$ with respect to redshift $z$. According to the numerical result of $Om$, we get the current value of equation of state $\omega_{\sigma0}$=-0.952 which fits the WMAP5+BAO+SN very well.Comment: 6 pages and 6 figures

The Influence of Free Quintessence on Gravitational Frequency Shift and Deflection of Light with 4D momentum

Based on the 4D momentum, the influence of quintessence on the gravitational frequency shift and the deflection of light are examined in modified Schwarzschild space. We find that the frequency of photon depends on the state parameter of quintessence $w_q$: the frequency increases for $-1<w_q<-1/3$ and decreases for $-1/3<w_q<0$. Meanwhile, we adopt an integral power number $a$ ($a = 3\omega_q + 2$) to solve the orbital equation of photon. The photon's potentials become higher with the decrease of $\omega_q$. The behavior of bending light depends on the state parameter $\omega_q$ sensitively. In particular, for the case of $\omega_q = -1$, there is no influence on the deflection of light by quintessence. Else, according to the H-masers of GP-A redshift experiment and the long-baseline interferometry, the constraints on the quintessence field in Solar system are presented here.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables. European Physical Journal C in pres

Entropy and universality of Cardy-Verlinde formula in dark energy universe

We study the entropy of a FRW universe filled with dark energy (cosmological constant, quintessence or phantom). For general or time-dependent equation of state $p=w\rho$ the entropy is expressed in terms of energy, Casimir energy, and $w$. The correspondent expression reminds one about 2d CFT entropy only for conformal matter. At the same time, the cosmological Cardy-Verlinde formula relating three typical FRW universe entropies remains to be universal for any type of matter. The same conclusions hold in modified gravity which represents gravitational alternative for dark energy and which contains terms growing at low curvature. It is interesting that BHs in modified gravity are more entropic than in Einstein gravity. Finally, some hydrodynamical examples testing new shear viscosity bound, which is expected to be the consequence of the holographic entropy bound, are presented for the early universe in the plasma era and for the Kasner metric. It seems that the Kasner metric provides a counterexample to the new shear viscosity bound.Comment: LaTeX file, 39 pages, references are adde

Cosmology With Non-Minimally Coupled K-Field

We consider non-minimally coupled (with gravity) scalar field with non-canonical kinetic energy. The form of the kinetic term is of Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) form.We study the early evolution of the universe when it is sourced only by the k-field, as well as late time evolution when both the matter and k-field are present. For the k-field, we have considered constant potential as well as potential inspired from Boundary String Field Theory (B-SFT). We show that it is possible to have inflationary solution in early time as well as late time accelerating phase. The solutions also exhibit attractor property in a sense that it does not depend on the initial conditions for a certain values of the parameters.Comment: 10 pages, Revtex style, 14 eps figures, to appear in General Relativity and Gravitatio

Infancy, autism, and the emergence of a socially disordered body

Twenty academic psychologists and neuroscientists, with an interest in autism and based within the United Kingdom, were interviewed between 2012 and 2013 on a variety of topics related to the condition. Within these qualitative interviews researchers often argued that there had been a ‘turn to infancy’ since the beginning of the 21st century with focus moving away from the high functioning adolescent and towards the pre-diagnostic infant deemed to be ‘at risk’ of autism. The archetypal research of this type is the ‘infant sibs’ study whereby infants with an elder sibling already diagnosed with autism are subjected to a range of tests, the results of which are examined only once it becomes apparent whether that infant has autism. It is claimed in this paper that the turn to infancy has been facilitated by two phenomena; the autism epidemic of the 1990s and the emergence of various methodological techniques, largely although not exclusively based within neuroscience, which seek to examine social disorder in the absence of comprehension or engagement on the part of the participant: these are experiments done to participants rather than with them. Interviewees claimed that these novel methods allowed researchers to see a ‘real’ autism that lay ‘behind’ methodology. That claim is disputed here and instead it is argued that these emerging methodologies other various phenomena, reorienting the social abnormality believed typical of autism away from language and meaning and towards the body. The paper concludes by suggesting that an attempt to draw comparisons between the symptoms of autism in infant populations and adults with the condition inevitably leads to a somaticisation of autism

Born-Infeld Type Phantom Model in the ω−ω′\omega-\omega' Plane

In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of Born-Infeld(B-I) phantom model in the $\omega-\omega'$ plane, which is defined by the equation of state parameter for the dark energy and its derivative with respect to $N$(the logarithm of the scale factor $a$). We find the scalar field equation of motion in $\omega-\omega'$ plane, and show mathematically the property of attractor solutions which correspond to $\omega_\phi\sim-1$, $\Omega_\phi=1$, which avoid the "Big rip" problem and meets the current observations well.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, some references adde

Cosmological Dynamics of Phantom Field

We study the general features of the dynamics of the phantom field in the cosmological context. In the case of inverse coshyperbolic potential, we demonstrate that the phantom field can successfully drive the observed current accelerated expansion of the universe with the equation of state parameter $w_{\phi} < -1$. The de-Sitter universe turns out to be the late time attractor of the model. The main features of the dynamics are independent of the initial conditions and the parameters of the model. The model fits the supernova data very well, allowing for $-2.4 < w_{\phi} < -1$ at 95 % confidence level.Comment: Typos corrected. Some clarifications and references added. To appear in Physical Review