Using qualitative methodology to better understand why females experience barriers to regular participation in adventure sport in Scotland

Since the emergence of the ‘experience economy’, the adventure sport industry in Scotland has enjoyed significant economic growth. Participant increase has been predominately male, and although female participant numbers have increased also, there is little to indicate narrowing of inequality. The established debate about strength, risk perception, and family choices for females is ongoing. However, studies specifically focusing on deeper, lived experiences of female participants are in the emergent phases, with little documented on how these unexplored factors might inform the debate. Taking a qualitative approach, this study explores motivations and barriers for female participants, identifies issues, and offers suggestions that could address these. An auto-ethnographic methodology was implemented using the researchers own experiences of participating with male and female participants, and interviews were conducted with female participants. Five key themes were identified: i) participation cost; ii) lack of reliable information; iii) support of others; iv) general perception that adventure sport is largely unachievable; and, v) the importance of being part of the adventure sport community. Overlap between themes was observed and note

Grit

Many of our most important goals require months or even years of effort to achieve, and some never get achieved at all. As social psychologists have lately emphasized, success in pursuing such goals requires the capacity for perseverance, or "grit." Philosophers have had little to say about grit, however, insofar as it differs from more familiar notions of willpower or continence. This leaves us ill-equipped to assess the social and moral implications of promoting grit. We propose that grit has an important epistemic component, in that failures of perseverance are often caused by a significant loss of confidence that one will succeed if one continues to try. Correspondingly, successful exercises of grit often involve a kind of epistemic resilience in the face of failure, injury, rejection, and other setbacks that constitute genuine evidence that success is not forthcoming. Given this, we discuss whether and to what extent displays of grit can be epistemically as well as practically rational. We conclude that they can be (although many are not), and that the rationality of grit will depend partly on features of the context the agent normally finds herself in. In particular, grit-friendly norms of deliberation might be irrational to use in contexts of severe material scarcity or oppression

Believing in Others

Suppose some person 'A' sets out to accomplish a difficult, long-term goal such as writing a passable Ph.D. thesis. What should you believe about whether A will succeed? The default answer is that you should believe whatever the total accessible evidence concerning A's abilities, circumstances, capacity for self-discipline, and so forth supports. But could it be that what you should believe depends in part on the relationship you have with A? We argue that it does, in the case where A is yourself. The capacity for "grit" involves a kind of epistemic resilience in the face of evidence suggesting that one might fail, and this makes it rational to respond to the relevant evidence differently when you are the agent in question. We then explore whether similar arguments extend to the case of "believing in" our significant others -- our friends, lovers, family members, colleagues, patients, and students

A ‘contributions’ approach to impact: The influential role of research users in facilitating wider outcomes.

Research users are not passive recipients of knowledge, but engage with research from their own perspectives. Sarah Morton has been working in knowledge exchange since 2001 and has recently published a framework for assessing research impact based on contribution analysis. Here she talks about how her approach not only provides impact analysis, but helps improve knowledge exchange with a focus on making a difference for people and communities

Evidence-based service delivery and development requires full range of interactions and connections with research.

To help expand understanding of how research makes an impact Sarah Morton draws from her extensive research into how different types of evidence are used to develop and improve key services. Research might raise awareness of an issue, change people’s knowledge or understanding of an issue, challenge attitudes, perceptions or ideas. Research use doesn’t just mean an instrumental application of research to policy or practice. It means a whole range of interactions and connections between researchers, and those interested in research from policy, practice or members of the public

Assessing research impact – a tale of 7 impact studies

How to assess research impact? Sarah Morton draws on her own experience of assessing impact arguing that despite diverse topics, settings and countries, there are patterns of successful impact that can help move our learning forward. She outlines her five top lessons for designing and evaluating impact in a research project

Effect of circadian regulation and sleep disruption on metabolic homeostasis, The

2022 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Sleep and circadian disruption are ubiquitous in modern society. While the National Sleep Foundation recommends adults sleep 7-9 hours per night, the average sleep duration of American adults has decreased from ~8.8 hours to ~6.8 hours over the last century, with 1 in 3 people report sleeping fewer than 6.5 hours per night during the work week. People who sleep fewer than 6 hours per night have a three-fold risk of impaired fasting glucose than those sleeping at least 8 hours per night. Laboratory studies report that as little as one night of insufficient sleep impairs insulin sensitivity, which is a common risk factor for obesity and diabetes. Circadian misalignment is common in people who work non-standard hours, including evening, night, or rotating shifts, and is associated with increased fasting glucose and insulin concentrations, as well as impaired insulin sensitivity. Moreover, circadian misalignment can also occur as a consequence of insufficient sleep. With more than 35% of adults reporting insufficient amounts of sleep, chronic and acute circadian misalignment are likely even more prevalent than commonly recognized. Sleep and circadian disruption are associated with increased mortality rates and health problems, including obesity and diabetes. However, the molecular mechanisms by which these impairments occur are not known. Thus, the overall goal of this dissertation was to determine the circadian rhythms of substrate oxidation and hormonal regulators of energy balance as well as to identify molecular alterations associated with insufficient sleep, including skeletal muscle lipid accumulation and altered gene expression, and their relation with insulin sensitivity. The primary findings are that in healthy, young, lean participants 1) carbohydrate and lipid oxidation as well as ghrelin and peptide YY have circadian rhythms as identified by a constant routine protocol and 2) insufficient sleep induces skeletal muscle lipid accumulation and altered gene expression as well as impaired insulin sensitivity. Together, these studies indicate that sleep and circadian disruption may impair insulin sensitivity via dysregulated lipid metabolism

Female gender themes in women\u27s magazines: A content analysis testing and extending themes uncovered by Erving Goffman

This study is based on the ideas and studies of Erving Goffman (1922-1982), an influential sociologist and communications scholar (Manning, 1992). Most prior scholars, such as McLaughlin (1999) and Reichert (2003), have chosen to simply repeat and reaffirm Goffman\u27s themes, while largely ignoring that both times and society have changed. Thus, this study proposes not only to repeat Goffman\u27s methods, but also to extend and retest his findings in the modern day. A quantitative content analysis will be employed, using the following women\u27s magazines: Cosmopolitan, In Style, Allure, Glamour, and Marie Claire. The replication of this study is imperative in order to better understand modern advertising themes and to help future scholars understand and study advertisements. Although the study serves as a simple replication of a previous study conducted in the late 1970s, the findings will provide a new basis for understanding advertisements in modern times