Emailed - Are Nike's Vaporfly trainers the emperor's new shoes?

We are in a golden age of road running. In the past 6-months, 10 world records have been broken, including the men and women’s marathon. While breaking a world record is an incredible feat of human performance, the media attention of recent world record holders is not directed towards their physical and psychological ability, but of the shoes they wear. The previous 10 world records in road running have been achieved while wearing Nike’s Vaporfly trainers. These trainers have caused controversy, with some stating that such trainers undermine the ethos of sport. Nike have engineered a trainer that includes a carbon fibre plate and energy-returning foam that is purported to decrease the energetic cost of running, which in turn, allows an athlete to run faster for longer. However, although this piece of engineering may be a significant factor into the effectiveness of the trainer, one factor that has gone unnoticed is the athlete’s belief that the trainer improves performance. This is often referred to as the placebo effect. The placebo effect is a desirable outcome resulting from a person’s expected response to an ergogenic aid (e.g. sport supplements, ice baths and sports clothing). In our recent review of the placebo effect on sport performance, we found that an athlete’s belief can significantly improve performance by on average 5.1%. It is therefore likely that athletes’ wearing the Nike Vaporfly are benefitting not just from the engineering of the trainer, but from their belief that it improves performance. A question exists as to how much the placebo effect influences the effectiveness of Nike’s Vaporfly trainers. To help answer this, a need exists for appropriately controlled research. Placebo controlled, double-blind, randomised controlled trials are regarded as the gold standard for ascertaining the effectiveness of ergogenic aids. Currently, no study exists that has used this design to evaluate the effectiveness of Nike’s Vaporfly trainers. While a lack of evidence is different to evidence of lack of effect, caution is needed when making claims that a trainer is the reason for the number of world records being broken when there is a paucity of placebo-controlled evidence. There is a threat that without such evidence, an exaggeration of the effectiveness of the trainer will over emphasise its benefit and result in athletes believing that in order to compete with their competitors, they need to purchase a pair. Like the Emperor’s New Clothes, when the sport science community does not conduct appropriate research into the effectiveness of ergogenic aids, we run the risk of ignoring what exactly underpins the improvements in performance. Without placebo-controlled trials to determine effectiveness, there is a risk that the Emperor is wearing a pair of Nike Vaporfly trainers that are no better than the placebo effect

Psychological mechanisms underlying morality in sport

Sport is believed to promote prosocial values, such as fair play and sportsmanship (Shields & Bredemeier 1995). However, sport can also promote anti-social behaviors, such as cheating and gamesmanship (Kavussanu 2019). Experiences of antisocial behaviors can have negative consequences for participation in sport and limit opportunities of effectively using sport as a vehicle to develop an athlete’s morality. Therefore, understanding the factors that lead athletes to engage in prosocial and antisocial behaviors is important in our efforts to create a psychologically healthy sport environment. In this symposium, we discuss the results of five cross-sectional studies from data collected in France, Italy, Turkey and the United Kingdom, which have relevance to the development of morality in sport. The first paper discusses the relationship between basic psychological needs and prosocial and anti-social behaviors of athletes. The second paper investigates how sport coaches can create motivational climates that engage and disengage prosocial and antisocial behaviors. The third paper presents data relating to collective moral disengagement within team sports and its influence toward promoting anti-social behaviors. The fourth paper examines the role of fear of failure in promoting anti-social behaviors, such as doping. The final paper discusses the implications achievement goals, basic psychological needs and passion have in the development of antisocial behaviors. The symposium will conclude with an evaluation of all five studies and their implications for understanding how psychological mechanisms underlying moral development are manifested in sport

Fear of failure predicts doping likelihood in competitive athletes

Fear of failure is the motive to avoid failure in achievement contexts (Conroy et al., 2002). It has been proposed that athletes who are motivated to avoid failure are more likely to report antisocial behaviors (i.e. aggression and cheating; Sagar et al., 2011). Such behaviours can have negative consequences on achievement, mental health and morality (Kavussanu 2019). The latter has been suggested as a key variable that influences an athlete’s decision to use performance enhancing substances (i.e. doping; Backhouse et al., 2016). However, no study has investigated the relationship between fear of failure and an athlete’s decision to dope. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between fear of failure and doping likelihood. Competitive athletes (N = 201; age = 20.4 ± 3.8years, 73% male) completed measures of fear of failure and doping likelihood. Fear of failure was significantly related to doping likelihood (r = .287, p < .001). These findings provide novel evidence to suggest that athletes who are motivated to avoid failure are more likely to dope. Organizations aiming to prevent doping should aim to challenge athletes’ fear of failure motivations and teach them strategies to deal effectively with their fears of failure. Further research is needed that investigates the relationship between fear of failure and other antisocial behaviors (e.g. aggression and cheating) to provide a better understanding of factors influencing morality in sport

Do Welfare Asset Limits Affect Household Saving? Evidence from Welfare Reform

In this paper, we use household-level data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine the impact of new saving incentives that were implemented as part of the overhaul of U.S. welfare policy during the mid-1990s on the saving of households at risk of entering welfare. The Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program devolved responsibility of program rules to the states, and many states have responded by relaxing liquid asset and vehicle-equity limits that determine program eligibility, and by introducing time limits on benefit receipt. According to the recent theoretical work and statements made by public officials, such policies are predicted to increase total savings for those households who have a large ex-ante probability of welfare receipt such as female-headed households with children. We follow a sample of female heads with children from 1994 to 2001 and find that in both absolute terms, and relative to comparison groups of male heads and female heads without children, there has been no impact of welfare policy changes on the saving of at-risk households.

Questionnaires

The aims of this chapter are to present the potential uses of questionnaires and the principles involved in developing an effective and valid questionnaire. It will consider some of the issues involved with the effective development and use of questionnaires as a research tool, their administration and ethical considerations. The information provided in this chapter is not set out to be definitive, but rather, it is presented as an introduction in the development and use of questionnaires in health and physical activity research. Depending on the intended research methods, the reader may wish to read this chapter alongside those on surveys, focus groups and questionnaires, as much of the information presented in these chapters relates and informs the others to provide a more comprehensive coverage. These chapters have been presented in this way to provide an informative coverage of the topic without excessive duplication and repetition of material

The effects of moral disengagement mechanisms on doping likelihood are mediated by guilt and moderated by moral traits

Objectives We examined the effects of moral disengagement on doping likelihood and guilt, and determined whether the effects of moral disengagement on doping likelihood were mediated by guilt and moderated by moral traits. Design We used an experimental design to compare the effects of moral disengagement mechanisms on doping likelihood and guilt in hypothetical situations. Method Athletes indicated their doping likelihood and anticipated guilt in situations describing one of six moral disengagement mechanisms (moral justification, advantageous comparison, euphemistic labeling, distortion of consequences, displacement of responsibility, diffusion of responsibility) and in neutral (control) situations. They also completed measures of moral agency, identity, perfectionism, and values, to which we refer collectively as moral traits. Results Doping likelihood was higher in all six moral disengagement situations compared to neutral situations. Anticipated guilt was lower in five moral disengagement situations (except euphemistic labeling) compared to neutral situations. Doping likelihood and anticipated guilt differed among the moral disengagement mechanisms. The effect of five moral disengagement mechanisms (except euphemistic labeling) on doping likelihood was mediated by anticipated guilt. The effect of overall moral disengagement on doping likelihood was moderated by moral agency, moral perfectionism and moral values. Conclusions Moral disengagement increased the likelihood of doping and decreased affective self-sanction for doping as predicted by the theory of moral thought and action. The finding that the effects of moral disengagement on doping likelihood were moderated by moral agency, moral perfectionism and moral values highlights the role played by moral traits to restrain dishonest conduct in sport

Tennessee\u27s Administrators\u27 and Supervisors\u27 Level of Concern Toward Mainstreaming the Classes for Severely Mentally Retarded and the Classes for Multi-handicapped into the Regular School

The problem of this study was to determine the level of concern of supervisors and administrators in the state of Tennessee toward mainstreaming classes for the severely mentally retarded and the classes for the multi-handicapped into the regular schools. The Change Facilitators Stages of Concern Questionnaire (CFSoCQ) was the instrument selected as appropriate for the study. Permission was obtained from Dr. Gene Hall at the University of Florida to reproduce and administer the CFSoCQ. A stratified random sample was conducted as representative of the total population of superintendents, special education supervisors, special day school principals, high school principals, middle school principals, and elementary school principals in the state of Tennessee. A demographic data sheet and the CFSoCQ were mailed to 824 selected educators. A 21% return was obtained. The data sheet asked for the sex, current position in education, number of years in education, area of certification, last degree received, whether their system had a special day school, and whether their school had a class for either severely mentally retarded or multi-handicapped students. If they did have either a class for severely mentally retarded or a class for multi-handicapped, they were asked to also answer 15 additional questions concerning the class and its students. Twenty null hypotheses and 22 research questions were tested at the.05 level of significance, using a two-tailed test. The t test for independent samples was used to test for significance among the groups. The analysis of variance was used to test for significant differences between groups. The Newman-Keuls Procedure was selected to show where the significant difference existed. Two hypotheses were rejected. Major findings revealed that special education supervisors are aware of the need to mainstream classes for the severely mentally retarded and classes for the multi-handicapped into the regular schools