Mary E. Pritchard

Optimism, Pessimism, and Precompetition Anxiety in College Athletes

This study examined the effect of optimistic and pessimistic cognitive styles on performance and precompetition anxiety. Collegiate athletes (female=39; male=35) completed the Defensive Pessimism Questionnaire and were grouped as optimists, defensive pessimists or real pessimists. Defensive pessimism is a strategy through which individuals set low expectations so as to protect themselves from potential failure, but has no adverse effect on performance. Such a strategy differs from the real pessimist approach, which results in both low performance expectations and achievements. Predicted precompetition anxiety was assessed via the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Yl). Results revealed that females exhibited significantly (P<0.05) higher levels of predicted precompetition anxiety than males. However, when anxiety responses were re-analyzed by cognitive orientation, it was found that regardless of gender, optimists exhibited significantly lower (P<0.01) levels of precompetition anxiety compared to the pessimists groups. While a majority of the sample (59.9%) possessed a pessimistic style, these findings suggest that performance differences between the groups were not significant. Hence, findings from this study indicate that cognitive orientation style and not gender is the best predictor of precompetition anxiety.

Do Coping Styles Change During the First Semester of College

THE TRANSITION TO COLLEGE—Schulenberg and Maggs (2002) expressed concern about the vulnerability of students’ health during that period. Li and Lin (2003) showed that stressful life experiences positively correlated with illness. It is important to examine factors that influence which students successfully adjust to college (Brisette, Scheier, & Carver, 2002), and the ability to cope with this new experience may be an important variable. Because the way in which an individual copes with stress relates to mental and physical well-being (Bonica & Daniel, 2003), the ability to successfully cope in the new college environment is Current Problems and Resolutions

Body satisfaction in adolescent boys and girls: associations with parental behavior.

In a sample of 449 high school students, maternal smoking and maternal and paternal eating habits were significantly related to self-reported Body Satisfaction for girls, as measured by the Body Shape Questionnaire of Cooper, Taylor, Cooper, and Fairburn. However, only paternal eating habits were significantly related to self-reported Body Satisfaction for boys.

The Relationship Between Disordered Eating and Stress, Class Year, and Figure Dissatisfaction Among College Students

PSI CHI JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Summer 2005 Copyright 2005 by Psi Chi, The National Honor Society in Psychology (Vol. 10, No. 2, 60–65 / ISSN 1089-4136). Recent research indicates that the prevalence of both nonclinical and clinical eating disorders is on the rise for women ages 15 to 29 (Holston & Cashwell, 2000). Disordered eating, or eating disorders that do not reach clinical significance, are particularly on the rise (Striegel-Moore, Silberstein, Frensch, & Rodin, 1989). Whereas previously, anorexia (refusal to maintain a body weight of at least 85 percent of normal weight for age and height, an intense fear of gaining weight, amenorrhea for at least three consecutive months, and body weight and shape disturbances, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders IV Text Revision, American Psychiatric Association, 2000) and bulimia (recurrent episodes of binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behaviors to avoid weight gain at least two times a week for three consecutive months; self-evaluation is based on body shape and weight, DSM-IV TR, 2000) were considered the only types of eating pathologies; eating disorders are presently thought to exist on a continuum. This continuum ranges from healthy eating behavior on one end of the spectrum to extreme dieting, or the classification of a severe eating disorder, on the other (Hendley, 2002; Parham, Lennon, & Kolosi, 2001; Zuckerman, Colby, Ware, & Lazerson, 1986). The key symptoms associated with disordered eating are body dissatisfaction and a preoccupation with food, weight and body shape (Polivy & Herman, 2002).