Is There Really No Crying in Baseball? Examining the Acceptance of Crying in Sport

It is not uncommon to see tears shed by players on both the winning and losing teams, particularly after a championship game. However, sport is also seen as an environment where competitors go to “put their game faces on” and keep their emotions in check, such as during the film A League of Their Own, when a manager tells a sobbing player that “there is no crying in baseball!” The current study sought to examine the extent to which individuals agree with this perspective. Specifically, participants rated the acceptability of crying by males and females in both sport and non-sport scenarios. The results revealed different expectations for emotional reactions in sport as individuals were more accepting of crying in non-sport scenarios than in sport scenarios. Additionally persons with higher levels of restrictive emotionality were particularly likely to believe that crying in sport was not appropriate

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Exploring Trauma Informed Care and Employees Well-Being

Exploring Trauma Informed Care and Employees’ Well-being When considering the complexity of trauma, recent research has shifted to examine employees providing services and the structure of the organization (Hales, Kusumaul & Nochajski, 2017). This is known as “trauma informed care” that examines factors such as trust, collaboration, empowerment, physical and emotional safety and choice (Harris & Fallot, 2001). The current study expands on this research by surveying employees from Rape Crisis and Child Advocacy Centers across the state of Kentucky. It was hypothesized that the more trauma informed factors an organization displays the less psychological distress experienced by employees. Fifty five participants completed the online survey, White (89%) and female (94%) with a mean age of 37.94 (SD = 9.91). They reported working in various capacities within their organizations (21 direct services, 16 administration, 4 support staff, and 16 in some other capacity). Results from a Pearson’s R correlation indicated significance between trauma-informed factors in the organization and psychological distress (r = -.37, p =.008). Furthermore, employee diagnosis of a mental illness (r = .39, p =.006), perceived social support (rs = -.43 - .39, ps \u3c .01), and job satisfaction (r = -.28, p = .048) were significantly correlated with psychological distress. Age (r = -.27, p = .057 ) was also correlated to psychological distress and time spent in current position with trauma informed factors (r = -.27, p = .051). The findings have the potential to promote overall well-being in employees providing these services which could increase quality of care to trauma survivors. Keywords: Trust, Collaboration, Empowerment, Choice, Safet

The Role of Emotions: Helping Behavior and Rape Myth Acceptance

This study builds on previous research that found that elevating emotions through observing altruistic stimuli correlated to an increased in volunteer participation (Schnall, Roper & Fessler, 2010). The purpose of the current study was to apply this idea to in order to change people’s perspective on sexual assault victims. In part 1, participants completed an online survey about volunteer experiences, prosocial behaviors, and rape myths. In part 2, participants were randomly assigned to either watch a video of prosocial behavior (“Oprah condition”) or a video of the ocean (control condition). It was hypothesized that individuals who were exposed to emotionally elevating stimuli (Oprah condition) would show a reduction in acceptance of rape myths from part 1 to part 2 while individuals in the control condition would not (Ocean condition). Forty-five participants completed both parts of this study and were included in the current analyses (82% White; 82% female; mean age = 18.73, SD =1.01). Participants in the Oprah condition rated their video as more emotionally engaging compared to the control condition (ps \u3c .001). Results from a mixed model ANOVA showed a significant interaction between experimental condition (Oprah or Ocean) and rape myth acceptance scores, Wilks’ Lambda = .82, F (1, 39) = 8.88, p = .005 partial eta squared = .19. As hypothesized, only participants who watched Oprah evidenced a significant reduction in their acceptance of rape myths. These results suggest that elevating people’s emotions might be helpful when trying to reduce myths associated with sexual assault

Volunteering Rationale and Rape Myth Acceptance

This study builds on previous research about the effects of prosocial behavior on emotional engagement (Schnall, Roper & Fessler, 2010). Findings demonstrated that an individual’s observation of others’ engagement in altruistic behaviors can positively influence their willingness to volunteer (Schnall, et al., 2010). The current study had two parts; this presentation will focus on results from part 1, which investigated participants’ volunteer experiences, reasons for volunteering, and various attitudes and beliefs about sexual violence. It was hypothesized that participants’ level of rape myth acceptance would be associated with their experiences and knowledge of sexual violence as well as their reasons for volunteering. Results from 100 participants from part 1 of the study will be presented (79% White; 86% Female; mean age: 19.74, SD=4.23). Acceptance of rape myth stereotypes was significantly correlated with one of the knowledge questions about sexual violence (r = -.37, p \u3c .001). More specifically, participants with greater acceptance of rape myths were more likely to mistakenly believe that victims tend to lie about their sexual assault experiences. However, there was no difference on knowledge about how common sexual assault is, or whether they or someone they knew had been a victim of sexual assault (ps \u3e .05). There were also no significant associations between participants’ reasons for volunteering and their levels of acceptance of rape myths. These findings suggest that reasons for volunteering (i.e. to give back, requirement) do not affect an individual’s acceptance of rape myth stereotypes, but perhaps the way victims are viewed does

Real Men Don\u27t Cry. Unless They\u27re Playing Sports.

In society men tend to be held to a different standard when it comes to expressing emotions. Research has shown that overall females tend to be judged less harshly when crying (Peter, Vingerhoets & Heck, 2001). There are some instances where it is more acceptable for men to cry than others, though. One of these instances, which is the one this project will focus on, is sport. There are certain implicit norms in sports that are generally accepted by athletes, coaches, fans, and spectators. Some of these norms pertain specifically to gender roles, such as masculinity and how a male should behave while engaging in sports. Previous research has evaluated this idea pertaining to different situations and measuring how acceptable it is to cry in different situations using Levant et al.’s Male Role Norm Inventory. For example, a former running back for the San Francisco 49ers Derek Loville was deemed acceptable and necessary by his teammates to cry before every game (Lutz, 1999). This wasn’t the case for Tim Tebow when he was harshly criticized for openly expressing emotion in an SEC championship (Wong, Stieinfeldt, Lafollette, & Taso, 2011). This project will further the area of research in respect to masculinity and accepted gender roles. Not only will this research assess the attitudes that individuals hold regarding emotion, but it will also assess attitudes toward femininity in men

Is There Really No Crying in Baseball? Examining the Acceptance of Crying in Sport

It is not uncommon to see tears shed by players on both the winning and losing teams, particularly after a championship game. However, sport is also seen as an environment where competitors go to “put their game faces on” and keep their emotions in check, such as during the film A League of Their Own, when a manager tells a sobbing player that “there is no crying in baseball!” The current study sought to examine the extent to which individuals agree with this perspective. Specifically, participants rated the acceptability of crying by males and females in both sport and non-sport scenarios. The results revealed different expectations for emotional reactions in sport as individuals were more accepting of crying in non-sport scenarios than in sport scenarios. Additionally persons with higher levels of restrictive emotionality were particularly likely to believe that crying in sport was not appropriate