• Confirmatory factor analysis of the thought occurrence questionnaire for sport (TOQS) among adolescent athletes

      Lane, Andrew M.; Harwood, Chris; Nevill, Alan M. (Routledge, 2005)
      There is an inherent link between theory and measurement suggesting that validation of measures should be the first stage of theory testing. The aim of the present study was to cross-validate the factorial validity of the Thought Occurrence Questionnaire for Sport for use among adolescent athletes. National standard young athletes (Individual N_/204; Team N_/360) completed the TOQS questionnaire. Single-sample and multisample confirmatory factor analysis provided support for the psychometric integrity of the hypothesized three-factor correlated model. Multisample results demonstrated invariance for factor loadings and correlations between individual and team athletes. Internal consistency coefficients were over the .70 criterion for acceptability. Findings lend support to previous validation studies conducted on samples of adult athletes and suggest that the TOQS provides an equally valid measure for use among adolescent athletes. It is suggested that the TOQS can be used to investigate theoretical issues related to cognitive interference during competition.
    • Construct Validity of the Profile of Mood States

      Lane, Andrew M.; Terry, Peter C.; Fogarty, Gerard (Elsevier, 2007)
      Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to extend the validation of the Profile of Mood States-Adolescents (POMS-A: Terry, P. C., Lane, A. M., Lane, H. J., & Keohane, L. (1999). Development and validation of a mood measure for adolescents. Journal of Sports Sciences, 17, 861-872) from adolescent to adult populations. Design: A strategy of assessing the invariance of the POMS-A factor structure among disparate samples and of testing relationships with concurrent measures was used. Methods: The POMS-A was administered to 2,549 participants from four samples: Adult athletes prior to competition (n = 621), adult student athletes in a classroom (n = 656), adolescent athletes prior to competition (n = 676), and adolescent students in a classroom (n = 596). A subset of 382 adult student athletes was used to test the criterion validity of the POMS-A. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis provided support for the factorial validity of a 24-item, six-factor model using both independent and multi-sample analyses. Relationships between POMS-A scores and previously validated measures, that were consistent with theoretical predictions, supported criterion validity. Conclusion: Supporting evidence was found that the psychometric integrity of the POMS-A extended from adolescent to adult populations.
    • Development and initial validation of the Music Mood-Regulation Scale.

      Hewston, Ruth M.; Lane, Andrew M.; Karag, Costas I. (Melbourne, Australia: Swinburne University, 2008)
      This study designed a measure to assess the perceived effectiveness of music as a strategy to regulate mood among a sport and exercise population. A strategy of assessing and comparing the integrity of competing hypotheses to explain the underlying factor structure of the scale was used. A 21-item Music Mood-Regulation Scale (MMRS) was developed to assess the extent to which participants used music to alter the mood states of anger, calmness, depression, fatigue, happiness, tension, and vigor. Volunteer sport and exercise participants (N = 1,279) rated the perceived effectiveness of music to regulate each MMRS item on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the integrity of four competing models, and results lend support to a correlated 7-factor structure for the MMRS (RCFI = .94; RMSEA = .06). Cronbach alpha coefficients were in the range of 0.74 – 0.88 thus demonstrating the internal reliability of scales. It is suggested that the MMRS shows promising degrees of validity. Future research should assess the extent to which individuals can develop the ability to use music as a strategy to regulate mood in situations in which disturbed mood might be detrimental to performance.
    • Examining relationships between emotional intelligence and coaching efficacy.

      Thelwell, Richard C.; Lane, Andrew M.; Weston, Neil J. V.; Greenlees, Iain A. (International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP), 2008)
      The study examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and coaching efficacy. Ninety-nine coaches completed the Emotional Intelligence Scale and the Coaching Efficacy Scale with the results of the canonical correlation suggesting significant relationships between the two sets of variables. Regression analyses suggested motivation efficacy to be significantly associated with the regulation of emotions, and social skills, whereas character-building efficacy was associated with optimism. Teaching technique efficacy was significantly associated with appraisal of own emotions with no significant predictors for game strategy efficacy. When viewed collectively, results provide an insight to how emotional intelligence relates to coaching efficacy and gives an indication to where applied work with coaches may be directed. Future research suggestions are also provided in reference to coach-related psychology.
    • “I try to catch them right on the tip of his nose, because I try to punch the bone into the brain”: Ethical issues working in professional boxing.

      Lane, Andrew M. (Athletic Insight, Inc., 2008)
      Boxing can be a brutal sport. At face value, the intention is to win contests by injuring your opponent. The intent of boxers coupled with the serious medical effects of participation suggest it contravenes a number of ethical guidelines for an applied psychologist, including social responsibility, respect of the welfare of people’s right and dignity and avoiding harm (American Psychological Association, 2002, see http://www.apa.org/ethics/code2002.html#3_04). With this in mind, applied practitioners mish wish to avoid opportunities to work in professional boxing based on it being ethically unsound. This article explores some of these issues, drawing on experiences as a consultant working with professional boxers. Case study data is presented on the psychological preparation of boxers.
    • Influence of crowd noise on soccer refereeing consistency in soccer

      Balmer, Nigel J.; Nevill, Alan M.; Lane, Andrew M.; Ward, Paul; Williams, A. Mark; Fairclough, Stephen (University of South Alabama, 2007)
      Recent experimental evidence suggests that the noise of a partisan home crowd may influence soccer officials to make an imbalance of decisions in favor of the home side (Nevill, Balmer, & Williams, 2002). The purpose of the present study was to test the notion that biased decisions in favor of the home team are associated with increased anxiety and arousal due to increased difficulty of making accurate decisions when refereeing in the presence of crowd noise. Using the same video footage used by Nevill et al. (2002), 26 participants recorded decisions when fouls occurred. Participants completed the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 immediately after performing the refereeing task. Degree of mental effort was recorded using self-report and physiological measures. Logistic regression indicated that participants were biased in favor of the home team in their evaluation of fouls carried out by one visiting and one home team. Significant relationships were found between decision bias and increases in cognitive anxiety and mental effort with crowd noise. Hierarchical regression indicated that mental effort and cognitive anxiety combined to account for 36% of the variance in decision bias. Results suggest that crowd noise is associated with increased anxiety and mental effort, and that referees attempt to cope with this increased anxiety and effort by giving a more popular decision in favor of the home team.
    • Mood and Human Performance: Conceptual, Measurement, and Applied Issues.

      Lane, Andrew M. (Nova Publishers, 2006)
      Situations that are perceived to be personally important typically evoke intense mood states and emotions; individuals will try to control mood states and emotions, and mood and emotions influence our thoughts and behaviours. Providing the sound knowledge base is a driving factor behind a great deal of the ensuing research and forms the content of many of the chapters of this book. The book covers many aspects of mood in performance settings. Chapters focus on the nature of mood, the validity of mood measures and applied research. Theoretical issues on the nature of mood and a conceptual model of mood-performance relationships in sport is reviewed. Chapters include research on relationships between mood and performance, motivation, coping strategies, personality, eating attitudes, humour, and emotional intelligence. Mood responses to intense exercise, extreme environments, aqua-massage, and interventions to enhance mood are also covered. Each chapter provides recommendations for future research.
    • Mood changes following modern-dance classes

      Lane, Andrew M.; Hewston, Ruth M.; Redding, Emma; Whyte, Gregory P. (Scientific Journal Publishers, 2003-01-01)
      Full-time dancers typically spend a large proportion of time participating in dance classes. The present study examined mood state changes following two contrasting modern-dance styles on a sample of full-time dancers. Twenty-three dancers completed the Brunel University Mood Scale (Terry, Lane, Lane, & Keohane, 1999) to assess anger, confusion, depression, fatigue, tension, and vigor before and after two different dance classes. One class taught was the Jose Limon technique style, characterized by light flowing movement, and the other class taught was the Martha Graham technique style, characterized by bound movements. Results showed that participants reported a positive mood profile before and after both dance classes. Repeated Measures Multivariate Analysis of Variance results indicated a significant interaction effect (Pillai's Trace 6, 15 = .32, p < .01), whereby Vigor increased following the Limon class but remained stable after the Graham class. Future research is also needed to investigate mood changes over a sustained period to evaluate more fully mood states responses to the demands of dance classes.
    • Self-efficacy and statistics performance among Sport Studies students

      Lane, Andrew M.; Hall, Ross; Lane, John (Routledge (Taylor & Francis), 2004)
      The present study explored predictive paths between performance accomplishments, self-efficacy, and performance among Sport Studies students taking a Level 1 statistics module. Fifty-eight Level 1 Sport Studies undergraduate degree students completed a 44-item self-efficacy measure and an assessment of perceived academic success at the start of the module. Self-assessed worksheets taken in weeks 4 and 5 were used as a second performance measure. Self-efficacy was re-assessed in week 7 and students handed the assignment for the module in week 8. Path analysis results using structural equation modeling indicated that perceived academic success was associated with the first self-efficacy measure, which in turn predicted worksheet success, and the two self-efficacy measures correlated. The second self-efficacy measure predicted module performance, and importantly showed the strongest relationship of all predictor variables. We suggest that future research should investigate the effectiveness of strategies designed to enhance self-efficacy.
    • Sport and Exercise Psychology: Topics in Applied Psychology.

      Lane, Andrew M. (Hodder Arnold, 2008)
      Sport and Exercise Psychology provides comprehensive coverage of key topics in sport and exercise psychology including the effectiveness of psychological skills training interventions, models for delivery and the development of research approaches studying the impact of psychological skills on performance. A number of specific chapters focus on key issues such as, mood, emotion, emotion regulation, coping, self-confidence, anxiety, imagery, performance profiling and leadership development in players and coaches. Exercise is typically linked to positive psychological states and three chapters review this effect. A chapter focuses on the influence of exercise on self-esteem while the next chapter looks at the use of music and a further chapter looks at dysfunctional effects including addictive states. A final chapter focuses on placebo effects addressing key issues in designing psychological interventions. The integrated and interactive approach, combined with the comprehensive coverage, make this book the ideal companion for courses in applied clinical psychology.
    • Stability of psychometric questionnaires

      Nevill, Alan M.; Lane, Andrew M.; Kilgour, Lindsey J.; Bowes, Neal; Whyte, Gregory P. (Routledge, 2001)
      In 1999, Wilson and Batterham proposed a new approach to assessing the test-retest stability of psychometric questionnaires. They recommended assessing the proportion of agreement - that is, the proportion of participants that record the same response to an item - using a test-retest design. They went on to use a bootstrapping technique to estimate the uncertainty of the proportion of agreement. The aims of this short communication are (1) to demonstrate that the sampling distribution of the proportion of agreement is well known (the binomial distribution), making the technique of 'bootstrapping' redundant, and (2) to suggest a much simpler, more sensitive method of assessing the stability of a psychometric questionnaire, based on the test-retest differences (within-individuals) for each item. Adopting methods similar to Wilson and Batterham, 97 sport students completed the Social Physique Anxiety Scale on two occasions. Test-retest differences were calculated for each item. Our results show that the proportion of agreement ignores the nature of disagreement. Items 4 and 11 showed similar agreement (44.3% and 43.3% respectively), but 89 of the participants (91.8%) differed by just ±1 point when responding to item 4, indicating a relatively stable item. In contrast, only 78 of the participants (80.4%) recorded a difference within ±1 point when responding to item 11, suggesting quite contrasting stability for the two items. We recommend that, when assessing the stability of self-report questionnaires using a 5-point scale, most participants (90%) should record test-retest differences within a reference value of ±1.
    • Studying anxiety interpretations is useful for sport and exercise psychologists (debate).

      Mellalieu, Stephen D.; Lane, Andrew M. (The British Psychological Society, 2009)
      This is a transcript of an e-mail conversation between Steve Mellalieu and Andy Lane. Each e-mail contribution had a maximum word limit of 500 words and following each contribution the respondent had a maximum of two weeks to respond. It was first published in The Sport and Exercise Psychology Review, and the editor (referee) was Dr Marc Jones who was copied into all contributions.
    • Test-retest stability of the Task and Ego Orientation Questionnaire.

      Lane, Andrew M.; Nevill, Alan M.; Bowes, Neal.; Fox, Kenneth R. (Reston, VA: AAHPERD (American Alliance for Health Physical Education, Recreation & Dance), 2005)
      Establishing stability, defined as observing minimal measurement error in a test-retest assessment, is vital to validating psychometric tools. Correlational methods, such as Pearson product-moment, intraclass, and kappa are tests of association or consistency, whereas stability or reproducibility (regarded here as synonymous) assesses the agreement between test-retest scores. Indexes of reproducibility using the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ; Duda & Nicholls, 1992) were investigated using correlational (Pearson product-moment, intraclass, and kappa) methods, repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance, and calculating the proportion of agreement within a referent value of +/-1 as suggested by Nevill, Lane, Kilgour, Bowes, and Whyte (2001). Two hundred thirteen soccer players completed the TEOSQ on two occasions, 1 week apart. Correlation analyses indicated a stronger test-retest correlation for the Ego subscale than the Task subscale. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated stability for ego items but with significant increases in four task items. The proportion of test-retest agreement scores indicated that all ego items reported relatively poor stability statistics with test-retest scores within a range of +/-1, ranging from 82.7-86.9%. By contrast, all task items showed test-retest difference scores ranging from 92.5-99%, although further analysis indicated that four task subscale items increased significantly. Findings illustrated that correlational methods (Pearson product-moment, intraclass, and kappa) are influenced by the range in scores, and calculating the proportion of agreement of test-retest differences with a referent value of +/-1 could provide additional insight into the stability of the questionnaire. It is suggested that the item-by-item proportion of agreement method proposed by Nevill et al. (2001) should be used to supplement existing methods and could be especially helpful in identifying rogue items in the initial stages of psychometric questionnaire validation.
    • The effects of interval feedback on the self-efficacy of netball umpires

      Mahoney, Alison J.; Devonport, Tracey J.; Lane, Andrew M. (Asist Group, 2008)
      The present study used quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the relationship between interval feedback and selfefficacy toward umpiring netball games. Grade “A” level umpires (n = 7) provided feedback to umpires (n = 40) under two conditions; 1) interval feedback given at the end of one tournament game (after 14 minutes) and again at the end of a second consecutive game (after 28 minutes), and 2) feedback at the end of the game (after 28 minutes). Umpires in both conditions completed an Umpiring Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (USEQ) which was a 14-item measure designed to assess factors relevant to netball umpire performance. Participants completed the USEQ immediately before game one, during the interval, and after a second game. Umpires also completed a feedback questionnaire which enabled them to reflect on the feedback received. A repeated measures factorial (time x feedback condition) ANOVA indicated no significant interaction effect (F = 0.05, p > .05), and no main effect for condition (F = 0.06, p > .05) or time (F = 1.61, p > .05) for changes in self-efficacy. Although there were no significant effects, qualitative data alluded to aspects of feedback perceived to enhance umpire selfefficacy, thus identifying ways in which feedback might have a more consistent effect. Practical implications of the study in relation to verbal interval feedback are discussed.
    • The influence of crowd noise and experience upon refereeing decisions in football

      Nevill, Alan M.; Balmer, Nigel J.; Williams, A. Mark (Elsevier, 2002)
      The existence of the home advantage in sport is well known. There is growing evidence that crowd noise plays a crucial part in this phenomenon. Consequently, a quantitative study was undertaken to examine influence of crowd noise upon refereeing decisions in association football (soccer). The association between years of experience and any imbalance in refereeing decisions was also addressed. To investigate whether the presence or absence of crowd noise might influence qualified referees when assessing various tackles/challenges recorded on videotape. Binary logistic regression was used to assess the effect of crowd noise and years of experience on referees' decisions. The presence of crowd noise had a dramatic effect on the decisions made by referees. Those viewing the challenges with background crowd noise were more uncertain in their decision-making and awarded significantly fewer fouls (15.5 %) against the home team, compared with those watching in silence. The noise of the crowd influenced referees' decisions to favour the home team. It is suggested that referees' decisions are influenced by the salient nature of crowd noise, the potential use of heuristic strategies, and the need to avoid potential crowd displeasure by making a decision in favour of the home team.