Research Reviews

Carol S. Dweck and Ellen L. Leggett The Big Idea This paper is a continuation of the line of research by Carol Dweck and others on behaviours that are characterised as adaptive or maladaptive.  In other words, there are patterns or tendencies in children that are identifiable by way of the choices made with regard to achievement opportunities.  While sport is not mentioned in this paper, it is an easy pivot to see how it is that some players truly thrive on challenges and obstacles;…

Mark Williams and Nicola J. Hodges The Big Idea These authors celebrate growth of sport science over the years.  But their concern is that especially in the sport of soccer “sport science” is construed to mean the physiology of it all and little else.  In this research review light is thrown on the behavioural and social sciences as an example of the contribution to the larger world of the “sciences of sport.” The subject of this study is the incredibly important scientific study of the…

Sarah Ullrich-French, Meghan H. McDonough, and Alan L. Smith The Big Idea We moderns are sometimes seduced into believing that our remarkable, collective technological progress and improvement is equivalent to human progress and improvement.  But this is not necessarily so.  Creating and sustaining positive individual and even national character is one heck of a social problem that befuddles us still, no matter our technical wizardry. The growing interest in creating positive youth development (PYD) programs most certainly is one international effort to help the youngest…

Joseph Baker, Jean Cote, and Bruce Abernathy The Big Idea When asked about his early years, hockey great Wayne Gretzky, said: “I played everything.  I played lacrosse, baseball, hockey, soccer, track and field.  I was a big believer that you played hockey in the winter and when the season was over you hung up your skates and you played something else.” This paper is one of the early research warning signs that Gretzky may have been right about the value of playing multiple sports when…

Jessica L. Fraser-Thomas, Jean Cote, and Janic Deakin The Big Idea Richard Feynman (1918-1988), the celebrated theoretical physicist, once wrote about an experience he had while visiting Hawaii.  It was suggested that he visit a Buddhist monk who lived high up in the mountains.  He did so.  Somewhere in their discussion, the monk told Feynman something he never forgot.  The monk said: “To Man is given the key to the gates of heaven; the same key opens the gates of hell.” When we talk of…

Jean Cote The Big Idea Early in the 21st Century support for children of families with a parent who was deployed in the United States Military was identified with the slogan “We Serve Too.”  The big idea of this research paper on families of elite athletes by Jean Cote could easily be captured by the same slogan—only in this case it is the families of deployed athletes Who Serve Too.  Families are often forgotten as having significant influence on the social context of developing athletes. Cote…

Chelladurai and S. D. Saleh The Big Idea Leadership is a popular topic.  In fact, if one Googles “leadership” you come in with 751,000,000 results.  Not impressed?  Well, think of it this way: “leadership” is only 180,000,000 behind the Google results for “sex.”   So at least by this metric the general topic of this paper is remarkably popular indeed.   Of course, when you gradually narrow down the specific concerns this research study addresses, it does take a bit of a drop—“leadership in sports” comes in…

Carol S. Dweck The Big Idea “I’m quitting,” says one youth sport participant. “I give up,“ says another. What youth sport coach hasn’t faced the frustration of dealing with a child who has difficulty facing failure? Over time, a child who fails either in sports or in other life pursuits can become so affected they suffer from what is called “learned helplessness.” This study confronts this problem, one that can have untold negative impacts on an entire childhood. One approach to dealing with this kind…

Paule Miquelon and Robert J. Vallerand The Big Idea The good news coming out of the general field of psychology since the beginning of the 21st Century is what is called positive psychology. Instead of primary preoccupation with the pathology of mental illness, understanding human well-being and happiness is attracting increasing numbers of scholars and practitioners. In particular, and related directly to this research paper, there is continuing empirical interest in learning more about the relationship between various psychological factors and improvements in physical health. In…

Neils N. Rossing and Lotte S. Skrubbeltrang The Big Idea Just over 50 years ago Marshal McCluhan published a book entitled Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Its shorthand mantra was “the medium is the message.” His message has been interpreted and misinterpreted over the years. But in general McCluhan was just pointing out that with any invention or new idea or cultural artifact, there is the ground and the figure. The ground is what is obvious (the product); the figure is not-so-obvious (the message). In…

Joseph Baker and Sean Horton The Big Idea Whether human development is a product of nature or nurture is one of the longest and most colourful debates in the history of ideas. More common today however is the growing belief that we evolve by way of the intertwining of both our biological and environmental influences.   This review paper explores the impact of these interactions on human performance, and in particular, on acquiring and demonstrating sport expertise. The inherent complexity of interacting influences in the pursuit of sport expertise is…

Aidan Moran The Big Idea When it comes to research in cognitive psychology, until fairly recently there had been little interest in studying sport-related mentality. In its early history, the typical cognitive psychology researcher was quite comfortable interpreting human mental activity as information processing, as something computer-like. By implication, motor behaviour (the body) was considered to be independent of thinking. The consequence was to reduce motor skills such as sports to a rather uninteresting research status. And which in turn helped to trivialise sport actions and…

Kenneth Aggerholm The Big Idea The author of this study on the nature and significance of the aesthetic aspects of soccer sees theatricality as a “dramatic movement phenomenon in soccer.” This means that common to both theatre and sport is human expression, pure and simple. Maybe at first glance the reader may think only of the historical negativity of connecting theatre to sport; namely the unfortunate remembering of athletes playing to the crowd or the referee, or preoccupation with the exaggerations, overdoing for effect, and…

Carsten H. Larsen, Dorthee Alfermann, Kristoffer Henriksen, and Mette K. Christenson The Big Idea One easy way to understand the big idea of this research study into improved talent development in a sport such as soccer is to use an analogy. When the authors speak as they do of a holistic ecological approach to sporting talent development, it is hard not to think of growing a garden. If we want high yield in our garden we begin with the right seeds; we carefully prepare the soil…

Stewart A. Vella, Lindsay G. Oades, and Trevor P. Crowe The Big Idea This study continues the line of research by these authors into the stubborn problem of improving coach education programs. They believe that transformational leadership is a promising partial solution. Historically, transformational leadership and its modern extensions is an approach to create positive change in individuals and social systems. As a leadership concept it has been around since the late 1970s. Over time the approach has been used by government, the military, and…

Stewart A. Vella, Trevor P. Crowe, and Lindsay G. Oades The Big Idea One of the remarkable features of youth sport participation is its voluntary nature; another is how many youngsters actually participate—about two thirds of all youth according to both Australia and USA census records. But why is it then that formal coach education programs are largely unremarkable by comparison? The big idea of this paper is to offer one way to increase the effectiveness of formal and non-formal coach education. In order to help…

Daniel Kirschenbaum, Arnold Ordman, Andrew Ordman, and Robert Holtzbauer The Big Idea This study is not of this decade or even of the 21st Century (1982).  But no matter because it is a classic example of the early days of psychological research into what is called self-regulation theory.  The big idea is to figure out how and in what ways and under what conditions we can guide our own behaviors.   This study concerns self-monitoring, and especially what is called differential self-monitoring.  Its potential lesson is still relevant to modern sports skill acquisition and development….

Stewart Vella, Lindsay Oades, and Trevor Crowe The Big Idea For nearly a century youth organizations having anything to do with sports have claimed various and sundry positive outcomes as a result of such play.  Besides just keeping children occupied and out of the work force, it was generally believed that playing sports were character-building experiences.  The authors of this study are fully aware of this history.  They update the reader on the status of the current research on what is called positive youth development.  It is their view that…