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The psychometric properties of the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), the Sport Confidence Inventory (SCI), and the Carolina SCI (CSCI) were examined in a study involving 260 athletes. The study aimed to test the dimensional structure, convergent and divergent validity, and invariance over competition level of scores generated by these instruments. Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) supported the measurement models for the SCI and CSCI but favoured a two-dimensional model for the LOT-R. ESEM analyses of the total pool of 33 items indicated satisfactory divergent validity among these optimism and sport confidence measures with the only overlap occurring between the LOT-R and CSCI measures of optimism. The SCI discriminated among athletes participating at different competitive levels and emerged as the most suitable instrument for measuring individual differences in sport confidence. The CSCI emerged as a better measure of optimism in a sporting context than the more general LOT-R.

Mental health screens are designed to detect individuals at risk of psychological disorders. In the military setting of this study, these disorders were post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use. This study extends the literature on deployment-related mental health screening by including measures of sleep difficulties and anger as predictors of postdeployment PTSD and alcohol abuse. Evidence that measures of anger and sleep difficulties contribute incremental validity to the prediction of postdeployment mental health problems, including substance abuse, would be helpful in designing interventions to assist the rehabilitation of returning personnel.A test battery containing the PTSD Checklist-Civilian (PCL-C) to screen for PTSD, the Kessler 10 to screen for psychological distress, a Sleep Difficulties scale, an exposure to trauma scale, and an anger scale was administered to 212 personnel nearing completion of a deployment to the Middle East. A second battery containing the PCL-C, the Kessler 10, and a measure of alcohol consumption (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test [AUDIT]) was administered to the same personnel 3 to 6 months after return to Australia. Hierarchical regression analyses assessed the predictive validity of measures of psychological distress (anxiety and depression), PTSD symptomatology, sleep disturbance, and anger in relation to postdeployment measures of PTSD symptomatology and alcohol use.Time 1 measures predicted 24.4% of the variance in postdeployment PCL-C scores and 13.1% of the variance in AUDIT scores, with the Sleep Difficulties scale contributing to the prediction of the PCL-C score and the anger scale helping to predict AUDIT scores.On the basis of these findings, we recommend the inclusion of improved measures of both anger and sleep difficulties in end-of-deployment mental health screens. A less behaviorally specific and more wide-ranging anger scale is recommended for future studies that aim to evaluate the role of anger in screening batteries. Our findings suggest that the Sleep Difficulties scale used in this study would be a worthwhile addition to mental health screening because it is moderately correlated with both Time 1 and Time 2 measures of PTSD symptomatology and psychological distress. Furthermore, there is minimal stigma associated with the experience of sleep difficulties.

The purpose of this study was to track changes in athletic identity and life satisfaction of elite athletes over time as a function of retirement status and the voluntariness of retirement decisions. Sixty-two elite Australian athletes from 3 different phases of their athletic careers were surveyed 5 years apart. Athletic identity was shown to decrease as athletes approached retirement. Athletes who retired voluntarily reported an increase in life satisfaction post-retirement. These findings support the need for athlete career education programs that emphasize autonomy and career planning.

This paper examines relationships between the Big Five personality factors, time management, and grade-point-average in 556 community colleges students. A path model controlling for vocabulary, gender, and demographic covariates demonstrated that time management mediates the relationship between conscientiousness and students' academic achievement at community college. Separate modeling for part-time (n = 147) and full-time students (n = 409) showed that this mediation was moderated by enrollment status. Thus, time management was a significant mediator for part-time students but not for full-time students. The greater importance of time management for part- versus full-time students suggests that noncognitive constructs such as time management may be more critical for non-traditional students. These findings gather fresh currency as ever increasing numbers of students are enrolling part-time in post-secondary education across the globe.

Research examining the relationships between performance measures of emotional intelligence (EI), coping styles, and academic achievement is sparse. Two studies were designed to redress this imbalance. In each of these studies, both EI and coping styles were significantly related to academic achievement. In Study 1, 159 community college students completed the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) and problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidant coping scales. Collectively, the coping variables significantly mediated the relationship between EI and grade point average (GPA) for Emotion Perception, Emotion Facilitation of Thought and Emotion Management (but not for Emotional Understanding). Problem-focused coping was the only single significant mediator, mediating the relationship between emotion management and GPA (but not other branches and GPA). In Study 2, 293 middle school students completed the Situational Test of Emotion Management for Youths (STEM-Y) and scales measuring the same three coping strategies. In this study, the coping variables again significantly mediated the relationship between emotion management and GPA. Once again, problem-focused coping was a significant mediator. Collectively, these results suggest that better educational outcomes might be achieved by targeting skills relating to emotion management and problem-focused coping.

Adult adoptees (n equals 100) and non-adoptees (n equals 100) were compared with regard to selfesteem, identity processing style, and parental bonding. While some differences were found with regard to self-esteem, maternal care, and maternal overprotection, these differences were qualified by reunion status such that only reunited adoptees differed significantly from nonadoptees. Moreover, hierarchical regression analyses indicated that parental bonding and identity processing style were more important than adoptive status per se in predicting self esteem. Implications for practitioners who work with adoptees are discussed.

[Abstract]: When people are asked to make judgments about their own performance, either retrospectively or prospectively, they typically overestimate their level of performance, leading some researchers to claim that overconfidence is a pervasive metacognitive bias. Evidence for such a trait in sport has implications for the way we assess confidence and for our understanding of athletes' perceptions of their own abilities and their reactions to performance feedback. To gain a better understanding of this issue, we used the calibration paradigm to measure metacognitive bias in a sample of 54 male golfers varying widely in age (13 to 75 years) and ability level (1 to 27 handicap). Golfers were required to complete a putting task and a chipping task (20 trials each) after first estimating how well they would perform on each of the tasks. The exercise was repeated once. Results indicated that golfers tended to be reasonably well-calibrated on the putting tasks but slightly overconfident on the chipping tasks used in this study. They were also overconfident on a test of knowledge of golf rules. There was no effect for level of expertise. Golfers differed in their ability to use feedback on the first set of trials to achieve better calibration on a second set of trials. Discussion centres on the potential benefits of using the calibration paradigm in a range of sports as an adjunct to assessments and interventions by sports psychologists.

A number of factors influence the outcomes of computer skills training and the likelihood of successful transfer. The first empirical test of a conceptual model of training transfer sought to explain how trainees' perceptions of various in-training transfer-enhancing activities such as overlearning, fidelity, stimulus variability, principles-meaningfulness, self-management activities, relapse prevention, and goal setting would predict the self-efficacy and implementation intentions (rather than actual transfer outcomes) of computer skills trainees. As expected, posttraining self-efficacy and transfer enhancing activities both predicted transfer implementation intentions. Pretraining self-efficacy also significantly predicted posttraining self-efficacy, trainees' level of learning during training and transfer enhancing activities, providing support for the conceptual model of training transfer.

The present study developed and provided initial validation statistics for the Stellenbosch Mood Scale (STEMS), a dual‐language (Afrikaans and English) version of the Profile of Mood States‐Adolescents (POMS‐A: Terry, Lane, Lane, & Keohane, 1999). Following translation of the POMS‐A into Afrikaans using the translation‐back translation method, the STEMS was administered to 463 South African athletes (224 males, 239 females; age range = 18–36 yr. M = 20.3 yr., SD = 1.8 yr.) Confirmatory factor analysis provided support for a 24‐item, six‐factor measurement model using both independent and multi‐sample analyses. The measurement model remained invariant across language groups. Gender differences in mood responses were found. Females reported higher tension and fatigue and lower anger than males. The STEMS showed promising psychometric properties and may have several applications among both Afrikaans‐ and English‐speaking groups in South Africa.

The assessment of emotional disorders such as anger, depression and stress among people with an intellectual disability has traditionally used one of three methodologies: ratings by a significant other, a clinical interview or self-report. Despite the widespread use of all three methodologies, there is little research into their equivalence. This paper assesses the convergence among these three approaches for 147 people with a mild or moderate intellectual disability across the affective domains of anger, depression and stress. The results showed the overlap among the three methods to be consistently low, although limited convergence was found between self-report and clinical interview. Ratings by work supervisors discriminated least clearly between anger, depression and stress while self-report was the most discriminating between these three overlapping but conceptually distinct states. Suggestions are made for ongoing research into the methodologies of assessing affective states among people with an intellectual disability.

Fogarty and White (1994) found that Australian Aboriginal university students tend to be more collectively minded than their non-Aboriginal counterparts. Using the Values Survey developed by Schwartz (1992), the present study set out to replicate this finding and to determine whether observed value differences can help to explain the low achievement levels of Aboriginal students in a university setting. The differences noted by Fogarty and White (1994) were replicated in the present study where data gathered from a sample of Aboriginal students ( N = 202) over a six-year period indicated that they score more highly on the collectivist scales of Conformity, Tradition, and Security than a non-Aboriginal student cohort ( N = 194). Across the combined samples, however, scores on values were not strong predictors of academic success, with only Tradition ( r = −.28, p < .01) and Conformity ( r = −.28, p < .01) showing appreciable relations with a measure of academic performance. When Race was partialled out of these correlations, Achievement ( r = .16, p < .01) and Conformity ( r = −.15, p < .01) were the only variables to demonstrate any relationship with performance. These findings suggest that there are factors other than value systems that have a much greater impact on the problems experienced by Australian Aborigines in higher educational settings.

Four studies employed path analysis to examine how measures of occupational stressors, coping resources, and negative affectivity (NA) and positive affectivity (PA) interact to predict occupational strain. The Occupational Stress Inventory (Osipow & Spokane, 1987) was used to measure stress, strain, and coping. The Positive and Negative Affectivity Schedule (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) was used for the affectivity variables. The hypothesized model showed NA and PA as background dispositional variables that influenced relations among stress, strain, and coping while still allowing stress and coping to have a direct influence on strain. Goodness of fit indices were acceptable with the model predicting 15% of the variance in stress, 24% of coping, and 70% of strain. Study 2 replicated these findings. Study 3 added a positive outcome variable, job satisfaction (JSI: Brayfield & Rothe, 1951), to the model. The expanded model again fit the data well. A fourth study added a global measure of personality (NEO–FFI: Costa & McCrae, 1991) to the model tested in Study 3. Results indicated that personality measures did not add anything to the prediction of job satisfaction and strain in a model that already included measures of stressors, coping resources, NA, and PA. The series of four studies yielded a reliable structural model that highlights the influence of organizational and dispositional variables on occupational strain and job satisfaction.

Background: Parents consult with schools on how to help their children succeed, but schools rarely consult with parents, even though most parents have considerable expertise concerning their children's thoughts, feelings, and abilities. Aims: This study compares the prediction of academic achievement from self- and parent-ratings of feelings towards school (both positive and negative), life satisfaction, and the conscientiousness facet of industriousness for 357 adolescents. Sample: The student sample consisted of 383 participants (194 boys) mostly aged between 12 and 14. The parent sample consisted of 374 participants, 83% of whom were mothers. Method: Self-report and other-report scales measuring the above-mentioned constructs were administered to students and parents. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test hypotheses concerning the incremental validity of parent-ratings. Results: Self-ratings explained 28.6% of the variance in grade point average (GPA) with parent-ratings explaining an additional 12.1%. The incremental effect was strongest for industriousness. Conclusion: These results suggest that parent-reports are often more accurate than adolescent self-reports, but that both methods of assessment make unique contributions to the explanation of variance in school grades. Parental understanding constitutes a relatively untapped reservoir of knowledge available to teachers, school counsellors and administrators, education policy makers, and beyond. It makes sense to ask parents about their children when assessing those individual differences that contribute to better educational outcomes.

Selection of students for entry to tertiary music training programmes is a difficult task traditionally undertaken by painstaking individual auditions, perhaps under highly variable local conditions as the selection team moves from region to region. A number of musical aptitude batteries have been developed but do not appear to have been widely embraced largely because of poor predictive validity. In the present study, a battery of tests designed to assess aural skills, an important component of musical training, was developed by a team of psychologists and musicians at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). The battery consisted mostly of tests of pitch discrimination and intonation. All students (N = 91) currently enrolled in the Music Programme at USQ completed the musical tests. A regression model was then constructed using test scores as independent variables and students' end of semester aural training performance scores as the dependent variable. The resulting model accounted for 36% of the variance in scores on final exam results, a result well beyond chance expectations. Further testing with a revised version of the battery is under way.

[Abstract]: Of all the areas of Psychology, intelligence is probably the most controversial. At the same time, it is also one of the oldest areas of the discipline, dating back to the 1880's with the work of Francis Galton on individual differences in sensory functioning. It is impossible to capture in a single chapter the immense body of theorising and research that has been devoted to the topic of intelligence. The aims of this chapter are considerably more modest: a) to give a brief historical overview of the area; b) to show how developments in the field are tied to the methodologies used to study intelligence; c) to describe current approaches to intelligence; and d) to introduce the reader to some of the main controversies in the area. This chapter will trace the developments of the construct, from Spearman's (1904) early conceptions of intelligence as mental energy to the much broader conceptions of modern day theorists. The chapter will also deal with the wider social context and the implications of our understanding of intelligence for society in general. As will be seen, it is not an easy construct to understand but it cannot be ignored because, along with personality, it is one of the most fundamental aspects of the human psyche.

The aim of this study was to develop a discomfort questionnaire to elicit the feelings and thoughts of people engaged in running activities. Ten runners who completed a particularly demanding 9-km run were asked to express their feelings and thoughts during the run they had just completed. These responses were recorded and later used as the first pool of items (k = 36). The questionnaire was then given to 171 runners in different distance races throughout the 1995 competitive season. These responses were analysed using exploratory factor analytic techniques and Rasch probabilistic analysis, as well as traditional reliability and validity procedures. The final version of the questionnaire consisted of 32 items divided into eight correlated subscales: proprioceptive symptoms, leg symptoms, respiratory difficulties, disorientation, dryness and heat, task completion thoughts, mental toughness, and head or stomach symptoms. These eight categories can be collapsed into three global categories suggested by researchers of pain: sensory-discriminative, motivational-affective and cognitive-evaluative. Rasch analysis suggested that the motivational-affective and cognitive-evaluative dimensions (i.e. the psychological) are the most experienced (i.e. rated highest). The eight subscales have ecological validity and were found to alter with the demands of different running distances.

Introduction: Interest in the holistic development of athletes emerged from studies indicating that athletes experience many difficulties with development of life skills, career planning, decision-making, identity foreclosure, and transition away from sport. The Athlete Career and Education (ACE) program was set up to address these issues by providing an integrated program of support for Australia’s elite athletes. Based on the Victorian Institute of Sport ACE program which commenced in 1990, the National ACE program was developed in 1994 and implemented in 1995. Previous evaluations of the program have revealed positive results, with most athletes shown to be aware of the various services offered through the program and to be generally satisfied with the usefulness, delivery, and quality of those services. However, these evaluations have not measured the perceptions of the athletes using these services in relation to the impact that ACE assistance may have had in relation to their sporting performances. The current study aimed to gauge whether the athletes who have used ACE services perceived that the service had contributed to the improvement of their athletic performance in any way. Method: The participants in the study were 286 athletes (171 females) linked with the Australian Institute of Sport who had indicated that they had previously used ACE services. 256 participants were current sporting scholarship holders, while 30 participants had retired from elite sport and were therefore no longer on scholarship. Each athlete was asked to respond to a brief questionnaire designed for the study which asked them to indicate whether (a) they had accessed ACE services in five specific areas, and (b) to what degree they felt that the assistance that was provided to them by ACE contributed to the improvement of their athletic performance. Results/discussion: Of those athletes who indicated that they had accessed one of the five ACE services investigated, at least 78% of athletes in any one instance reported that accessing the service contributed to the improvement of their athletic performance. 91% of those athletes who accessed time management assistance through ACE felt this way. Implications of these and other findings in relation to gender and career status will be discussed.