Further examining the relationship between mental toughness and dispositional flow in sport: a mediation analysis

The purpose of the study was to further examine the relationship between mental toughness (MT) and dispositional flow in sport. A sample of 256 athletes (M age = 23.65 years, SD = 5.43), competing at international (n = 59), national (n = 77), and club/university (n = 120) levels completed questionnaires assessing MT and dispositional flow. A significant and positive correlation was found between MT and dispositional flow (r = 0.50, p < 0.001). Mediation analysis revealed that MT had a significant direct effect on the flow dimensions of challenge-skills balance, clear goals, unambiguous feedback, sense of control and concentration on the task at hand, and significant indirect effects on concentration on the task at hand, sense of control, loss of self-consciousness, action-awareness merging and autotelic experience. Findings suggest that MT has direct and indirect effects on the characteristics of flow, offering new insights regarding optimal human functioning

The Power of Information and Communities of Color

In this age of the Information Superhighway, access to information has become a human rights issue for communities of color. Access to information is the backbone for economic growth in the world marketplace. Information literacy, the ability to find, evaluate, analyze, and use information effectively is the currency of infinite power and control of one\u27s economic, social, and political destiny. For communities of color to gain access to this phenomenal communications/technological revolution, there is a need to become information literate

Flow states in exercise: A systematic review

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to systematically identify, review, synthesise, and appraise current literature on flow in exercise. By doing so, this study aimed to highlight gaps and future research directions that will help to advance understanding and application of flow states in this setting. Design: A systematic review using PRISMA guidelines. Methods: Eight electronic databases were searched in February 2019. Inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed studies focused on the investigation of flow in exercise. Exclusion criteria were studies that did not exclusively include exercise participants, or that focused on instrument development and/or validation. Data from included studies were extracted and reported in a narrative synthesis. Results: A total of 26 studies that were conducted with 4478 participants met the inclusion criteria. Several issues with the conceptualisation and measurement of flow in exercise were identified, which makes it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions about this literature. Nevertheless, there is tentative evidence that exergame design features, music, and virtual stimuli can affect at least some dimensions of flow. While little attention has been directed towards developing an explanatory theory, initial findings concerning the contexts and process underlying flow occurrence could offer a potential avenue for progress. Conclusions: The review advances knowledge by synthesising quantitative and qualitative evidence on flow states in exercise. By doing so, the review also highlights a range of conceptual and methodological issues in the field. Recommendations to address these issues and suggestions for making meaningful progress to develop understanding of flow states in exercise are advanced

From enrolment to completion: An exploration of psychological wellbeing in doctoral students during the PhD journey

Recent research in Europe (Levecque et al, 2017) and Australia (Barry et al, 2018) has drawn significant attention to the increased prevalence of psychological distress in PhD students. Psychological wellbeing in doctoral students can be adversely affected by a variety of factors, including the supervisory relationship, university processes, role conflict, isolation, feelings of inadequacy, and career uncertainty (e.g., Mackie & Bates, 2018; Waight & Giordano, 2018). Doctoral students who report lower psychological wellbeing are more likely to consider withdrawing from their studies (Hunter & Devine, 2016), thus highlighting the importance of developing understanding of the factors that contribute to psychological wellbeing in this population. The challenges that PhD students face have been captured in a typology, first proposed by Pyhalto et al (2012) and extended by Barry et al. (2018). This typology highlights six problem areas: (1) supervisory problems; (2) resource issues; (3) domain-specific knowledge; (4) general work processes; (5) external or personal challenges; and (6) project-related challenges. Although this work is useful in identifying sources of stress, it tells us little about: when these stressors occur in the PhD journey; how they change over the course of the PhD journey; or how students adapt and cope (or not) with them. This presentation will explore preliminary findings from a retrospective study using a novel combination of semi-structured interviews and an adapted life grid method (LGM). We will outline how psychological wellbeing fluctuates across the timespan of the PhD; the correlates of good and poor psychological wellbeing; key ‘pinch points’; and the self-help strategies that students in our study have used as coping mechanisms. The presentation will conclude with a critical review of the applicability of the above typology to a UK population, our plans for extending the research, and developing a preventative approach to promoting psychological wellbeing in Doctoral students

Promoting psychological wellbeing in doctoral students: A qualitative study adopting a positive psychology perspective

Abstract Purpose: Concerns about psychological wellbeing in doctoral students has grown in recent years. The aim of this study was to explore qualitatively doctoral students’ perceptions of factors that promoted their psychological wellbeing during the doctoral journey. Design: Nine recent doctoral graduates at an English university participated in the study. Participants recalled their experience and psychological wellbeing during the doctoral journey via a life grid and semi-structured interview. The life grids were visually inspected to identify high points in psychological wellbeing, while the interview data were analysed thematically. Findings: Our analysis produced seven themes representing factors that participants described during periods of better psychological wellbeing: accomplishments; intrinsic rewards; self-efficacy; comprehension and understanding; supervisor support; wider support network; and self-care and lifestyle. Originality/value: By adopting a positive psychology approach and exploring qualitatively factors that promoted psychological wellbeing in doctoral students, this article demonstrates the utility of approaching research on doctoral students’ psychological wellbeing from a positive psychology perspective. Findings are discussed in relation to the extant literature, and future directions for research are outlined

Perfectionism and motivation in sport: The mediating role of mental toughness

An extensive body of research has investigated links between perfectionism and 2 motivation, yet the underlying mechanisms linking these psychological characteristics 3 have been underexplored. In this study, we used an integrative modelling approach to 4 examine associations between dimensions of perfectionism (i.e., personal standards 5 [PSP] and concerns over mistakes [CMP]), mental toughness (MT), and motivational 6 orientations (i.e., self- [SDM] and non-self-determined motivation [NSDM]). Based on a 7 sample of 318 male (n = 218) and female (n = 100) tennis players (Mage = 17.61, SD = 8 2.41), fit indices derived from structural equation modelling supported a partially 9 mediated model. Residual PSP associated positively with MT (β = .74) and SDM (β = 10 .40), and negatively with NSDM (β = -.22). Conversely, residual CMP associated 11 negatively with MT (β = .14) and SDM (β = -.19), and positively with NSDM (β = .73). 12 Mental toughness was positively associated with SDM (β = .28), but was unrelated to 13 NSDM (β = .07). The relationship between residual PSP and SDM was partially 14 mediated by MT (standardized indirect effect: 95% CI = .19, .46). The findings of this 15 study support research linking dimensions of perfectionism with motivational 16 orientations and offers preliminary evidence on the mediating role of MT in the 17 association between these psychological constructs. With emerging research 18 supporting the capacity to develop MT through targeted interventions, the findings are 19 discussed alongside salient implications

Earth(l)y pleasures and air-borne bodies: Elemental haptics in women’s cross-country running. International Review for the Sociology of Sport

A rich and multi-stranded sociology of sporting embodiment has begun to emerge in recent years. Calls have been made to analyse more deeply not only the sensory dimensions of lived sporting bodies, but also the values prevailing within particular physical-cultural worlds. This article contributes to a small, developing research corpus by employing theoretical perspectives drawn from phenomenological sociology to explore cross-country runners’ sensory encounters with the elemental, contoured by the values of the running lifeworlds they inhabit. Autoethnographic and autophenomenographic data were collected via three research projects. Senses of touch still remain under-researched within the sporting sensorium, and here we focus on the ‘elemental haptics’ of earth and air on our cross-country training runs. We also explore the rich, complex somatic experiences afforded by various of these elemental combinations. For runners, as for many sports participants, the haptic emerges as a key aspect of our sensuous running lifeworld

‘I like to run to feel’: Embodiment and wearable mobile tracking devices in distance running

Many experienced runners consider the use of wearable devices an important element of the training process. A key techno-utopic promise of wearables lies in the use of proprietary algorithms to identify training load errors in real-time and alert users to risks of running-related injuries. Such real-time ‘knowing’ is claimed to obviate the need for athletes’ subjective judgements by telling runners how they have deviated from a desired or optimal training load or intensity. This realist-contoured perspective is, however, at odds with sociological research indicating that users of wearables engage in active ‘data sense-making’ that is highly contextualised. To investigate how athletes use (or not) algorithmic analysis to understand, make sense of, and improve their performance in real-time, we undertook qualitative interviews with distance runners to explore lived experiences of running with wearables. The runners described how they actively interpreted data from wearables, drawing on their own experience, ‘somatic knowledge’, and embodied ways of knowing. This allowed them to assess the relevance and usefulness of data in relation to their own goals, intentions, and feelings. Our findings challenge the techno-utopic promises of real-time and predictive analytics