The Influence of Motivational Behaviours and Goal Profiles on Positive Youth Development

Positive Youth Development (PYD) research has started to shift focus onto how different internal factors such as temperament, dispositions, and/or personality characteristics could influence levels of PYD for youth participating is organized sport. The purpose of this study is to examine how different goal profiles, specifically categorized by diverse levels of task and ego orientation, can influence levels of PYD in an organized youth sport setting. One hundred youth sport participants (mean age = 16.8) completed the short form Youth Experiences Survey for Sport (short form YES-S; Sullivan et al., 2013) to measure PYD, as well as the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ; Duba 1989) to assess each athlete’s goal profile. A TwoStep Cluster Analysis was used to classify each individual’s personal goal profile into 3 statistically different cluster groupings. Results indicated significant interaction between the PYD outcome factor of Initiative vs. Clusters [F(2,95)= 10.86, p < 0.001, p2= 0.19] as well as Goal Setting vs. Clusters [F(2,95)= 3.95, p < 0.05, p2= 0.08]. Post-hoc analyses provided results that suggest that those athletes who are more task oriented have fostered more positive outcomes from sport, therefore having more goal setting skills and initiative.

A influência da orientação motivacional durante o treinamento de atletas iniciantes no tênis de campo

The motivation in the sport has been one of the most studied subjects nowadays, as much that some authors say that the motivation is the base for the success of an athlete, that is, the psychological part must also well be stimulated so that if it reaches the maximum level of concentration during a game it will obtains the expected result. Tennis is one of the sports that more grew in recent years, and together with this fast ascension also increased the number of interested in researching in this area of the Psychology of the Sport. The present study has as objective to begin the adaptation and validation of the interest scale and to analyze the influence of the motivational orientation of the athletes in the sportive performance of the Tennis through the application of scale Teosq – Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (DUDA, 1992), translated, adapted and validated by Hirota and De Marco (2006), where we can identify if the individual is guided for a task or an ego’s goal. This research was carried through in a situated academy of Tennis in the City of Cotia – SP – Brazil, counting on the participation of 20 citizens with age between 09 and 18 years of both the practicing sexes of Tennis. The calculation of the Alpha Coefficient of Cronbach was adopted as statistical method, in order to identify the trust worthy and validity of the instrument beyond the average of each orientation, to be able to verify the athlete’s motivational orientation. For the analysis of the results, the Alpha Coefficient was observed high, compared with previous studies, reaching values of orientation for the ego of 0,90, and 0,70 of orientation for task. They had been registered the following averages, 4,20 (+0,93) and 2,42 (+0,85), respectively of orientation for task and ego. With those results we can point that, the scale applied with the proposal to identify the motivational orientation of the athletes of Tennis, revealed efficiency, and trust worthy in its application, and in accordance with the results, the athletes are guided for task, revealing self-determination, selfconfident, more creative and they judge its success for the quality of the carried through work.

Orientação motivacional de metas na modalidade do basquetebol

The present study aims to verify motivation of goals orientation using the scale TEOSQ (TEOSQ) developed by Duda (1992), translated, adapted and validated by Hirota and De Marco (2006), presenting as an experimental research methodology proposed (MARCONI and LAKATOS, 2006), with 37 practitioners basketball aged 11 to 17 (mean age 14.02 +1.42 years) of the City of Sao Caetano South – São Paulo, Brazil. Used for statistical software SPSS, version 15.0 in order to get the Cronbach's Alpha and the mean, standard deviation and median of each orientation – goal of Task and ego goal. Observed with the results that the scale has good values related to the statistic of Alpha showing Task 0.69 to 0.67 Ego. The mean age between 11 and 13 years old related to the orientation task was 4.60(+0.62) and ego orientation to 3.11(+0.84), for ages 14 to 15 years the average task was 4.23(+0.78) and 2.74(+1.02) for the ego and the age of 16 and 17 years the average orientation task was 4.78(+0.1) and ego of 2.66(+0.47). The total result of the group concerning the task was 4.36(+0.75) and ego of 2.83(+0.97). We conclude that the validation process was in line with expectations, showing consistent values of Alpha, which demonstrate that the students while learning basketball are more sure of their actions, but optimistic, persistent in their goals and adopt a position of responsibility the rest of the team

Moral reasoning in sport: validation of the Portuguese version of the RSBH value-judgement inventory in adolescents

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Portuguese version of the Rudd Stoll Beller Hahm Value-judgement Inventory (RSBHVI) in a sample of adolescents. The RSBHVI, which measures moral and social reasoning, was translated using a back translation method. A sample of 238 10th to 12th grade high school students (age mean value 16.93 years, s = 1.34) completed the Portuguese versions of RSBH, and the Task and Ego-orientation Questionnaire. Partial support for the original structure of the moral reasoning scale, but not the social reasoning scale, was found. Females, and non-athletes and individual sport athletes scored significantly higher than males and team sport athletes in moral reasoning, respectively. Moral reasoning was negatively correlated with ego-orientation (r = −30; p <. 001) and uncorrelated with task-orientation (r = .10, p > .05). Participants who were low-ego scored higher in moral reasoning than those who were high-ego. It is suggested that decreasing levels of ego-orientation may be necessary to improve athletes’ moral reasoning.

Antecedents of task-specific goal orientation: An investigation of task practice, personality and global goal orientation

Goal orientation, a mental framework for understanding how individuals approach learning and achievement situations, has emerged as an important topic in organisational psychology. This study investigated the effects of task practice, personality (openness to experience and neuroticism), and global goal orientation (predisposition to adopt a certain response pattern across all domains) on participants’ task-specific goal orientation (response pattern adopted for a specific task). One hundred and three participants performed an air traffic control task and their task-specific goal orientation was measured prior to each of a total of thirty trials. Results revealed an effect of task practice such that individuals’ task-specific learning orientation decreased over time while their task-specific prove orientation increased over time. The results also showed that individuals’ personality can influence their task-specific goal orientation and further, that this relationship can be mediated by global goal orientation. Specifically, the positive relationship between openness to experience and task-specific prove orientation was mediated by global prove orientation. Similarly, the positive relationship between neuroticism and task-specific avoid orientation was mediated by global avoid orientation. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are considered.

Reaction to novelty and spatial orientation in ALPHA1B(-/-) KO mice

Knockout mice lacking alphalb noradrenergic receptors were tested in behavioural experiments to test a possible effect of the absence of this receptor in reaction to novelty and spatial orientation. Reaction to novelty was tested in two experiments. In the first one the mice' latency to exit the first part of a two compartment set-up was measured. The knockout mice were faster to emerge then their littermate controls. Then they were tested in an open-field, in which new objects were added at the second trial. In the open-field without objects (first trial), the knockout mice showed a greater locomotor activity (path length). Then the same mice showed enhanced exploration of the newly introduced objects, relative to the control. The spatial orientation experiments were done on a homing board and in the water maze. The homing board did not yield a significant difference between the knock-out and the control mice. Both groups showed impaired results when the proximal (olfactory) and distal (visual) cues were disrupted by the rotation of the table. In the water maze however, the alphalb(-/-) mice were unable to solve the task (acquisition and retention), whereas the control mice showed a good acquisition and retention behaviour. The knockout mice' incapacity to learn to reach the submerged platform was not due to an incapacity to swim, as they were as good as their control littermates to reach the platform when it was visible.

Personality and goal orientation as predictors of performance in a learning context

The current study aimed to investigate and provide furthering evidence of individual differences as determinants of task performance. This research focused on the effects of the personality traits Openness to Experience and Neuroticism, and two goal orientation traits. Learning Orientation and Avoid Orientation, on task performance. The hypotheses addressed the predictability of the traits, the differential effects of personality and goal orientation traits, and the mediating effects of goal orientation on the relationship between personality and performance. The results were based on questionnaire responses completed by a sample of 103 students. Scores on a computerised Air Traffic Control (ATC) decision-making task were used as a measure of task performance. Learning Orientation was found to be a significant predictor of performance, whilst the effect of Neuroticism was 'approaching' significance. Results indicated strong support for the differential relationship between personality traits and corresponding goal orientation traits. The mediating relationship between Openness to Experience, Learning Orientation and performance was also found to be 'approaching' significance. Results were indicative of the influences of personality and goal orientation on consequent performance outcomes. Implications were discussed, as well as suggestions for possible future directions in research assessing the predictabilit)' of individual differences in learning contexts.

Students’ Self-Report of Motivational Orientation and Teacher Evaluation on Coping and Motivational Orientation Related to Elementary Students’ Mathematical Problem Solving and Reading Comprehension

The present study examined the correlations between motivational orientation and students’ academic performance in mathematical problem solving and reading comprehension. The main purpose is to see if students’ intrinsic motivation is related to their actual performance in different subject areas, math and reading. In addition, two different informants, students and teachers, were adopted to check whether the correlation is different by different informants. Pearson’s correlational analysis was a major method, coupled with regression analysis. The result confirmed the significant positive correlation between students’ academic performance and students’ self-report and teacher evaluation on their motivational orientation respectively. Teacher evaluation turned out with more predictive value for the academic achievement in math and reading. Between the subjects, mathematical problem solving showed higher correlation with most of the motivational subscales than reading comprehension did. The highest correlation was found between teacher evaluation on task orientation and students’ mathematical problem solving. The positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and academic achievement was proved. The disparity between students ’ self-report and teacher evaluation on motivational orientation was also addressed with the need of further examination.

Living Our Lives on the Edge: Power, Space and Sexual Orientation in Cape Town Townships, South Africa

Much of social science literature about South African cities fails to represent its complex spectrum of sexual practices and associated identities. The unintended effects of such representations are that a compulsory heterosexuality is naturalised in, and reiterative with, dominant constructions of blackness in townships. In this paper, we argue that the assertion of discreet lesbian and gay identities in black townships of a South African city such as Cape Town is influenced by the historical racial and socio-economic divides that have marked urban landscape. In their efforts to recoup a positive sense of gendered personhood, residents have constructed a moral economy anchored in reproductive heterosexuality. We draw upon ethnographic data to show how sexual minorities live their lives vicariously in spaces they have prised open within the extant sex/gender binary. They are able to assert the identities of moffie and man-vrou (mannish woman) without threatening the dominant ideology of heterosexuality.

Event-related potentials in the emotional colour naming stroop task and the emotional counting stroop task

This study compared emotional Stroop interference in the emotional colour naming Stroop and the emotional counting Stroop by measuring reaction times and event-related potentials to positive, negative and neutral words. Twenty participants had ERPs recorded at 61 sites while performing both types of emotional Stroop tasks as well as congruent and incongruent conflict conditions. All participants rated stimulus emotionality retrospectively. A robust reaction time Stroop effect was observed in response latency for the traditional ‘‘conflict’’ conditions (congruent vs. incongruent) for the counting Stroop though not the colour naming Stroop task. There was also no evidence of emotional interference for either of the tasks; however, there was trend for positive interference in the colour naming Stroop. The P5 was identified as the event-related potential associated with emotional processing. For the P5 component, significant emotionality effects were evident in the emotional colour naming Stroop for latency (542 ms). There was a significant interaction between valence and hemisphere. The latency of the P5 in the right hemisphere was later for the positive words than negative and neutral. Comparable effects of valence were evident for the emotional counting Stroop for amplitude but not latency.

Assessment of nursing students and nurses' orientation towards patient-centeredness

Background - Being patient centered is a core value for nursing. Patient centered-care has been related to patient and health provider satisfaction, better health outcomes, higher quality of care and more efficient health care delivery. Objectives - The purpose was to assess the orientation adopted by nurses and students in patient care, using The Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale, as well as to compare the results between resident nurses and students from different academic years. Settings - Public School of Nursing and a Central Hospital, in Lisbon (Portugal). Participants - Students in the first, second and fourth year of nursing school and nurses participated in the study. Methods - For data collection, we used The Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (European Portuguese version), an instrument designed to measure individual preferences toward the dimension of caring a sharing in health professional-patient relationship. Students and nurses also filled out two additional questions about their perception of competence in technical and communication skills. Additional demographic information was also collected, including gender, age, academic year and length of professional experience. Results - A total of 525 students (84.7% female) and 108 nurses (77.8% female) participated in this study. In general, caring sub-scores, measuring the preference of about attending to patient emotional aspects, were higher than sharing sub-scores, measuring beliefs about giving information and perceiving patient as a member of the health team. Students were significantly more patient-centered throughout their nursing education (p<0.001). Comparing to students in the second and fourth academic years (p<0.001) nurses' scores were significantly lower both in total PPOS and in caring and sharing subscales. Conclusions - These results reinforce the idea that patient centeredness may be developed in academic context. The scores obtained highlight the importance of studies that aim to identify factors that may explain the decrease of patient centeredness in professional practice.

Behavioural development in a matching-to-sample task and token use by an infant chimpanzee reared by his mother

Animal Cognition, V.6, pp. 259–267