No abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess whether a guided alpine skiing intervention lasting 12 weeks has an impact on psycho-social dimensions, measured by subjective assessments, of individuals who are 60+ years of age. A number of well-established questionnaires were used to measure well-being, life satisfaction, self-concept, health status, depression and self-efficacy. The physical self-concept in the domain "strength" increased significantly in the intervention group from pre- to post-test and remained stable through the retention test, whereas the control group demonstrated nearly no alteration. A similar effect was obtained in life satisfaction for the dimension "friends and relatives." On the contrary, psycho-social aspects of the elderly were not negatively influenced. The subjects of this study had very high pre-test scores that might reflect a ceiling effect which, in turn, can explain the marginal positive impact of the intervention. The findings of this study argue for recommending a guided alpine skiing intervention for individuals who are 60 years of age and older with high values in psycho-social variables.

This research project was undertaken in response to Kluger and DeNisi’s (1996 ) call for more primary studies to investigate specific propositions of the feedback intervention theory (FIT). To study the assumptions of FIT on the level of task-motivation processes, we analyzed the impact of combined positive and negative feedback. Participants (N = 413) performed a series of tasks in which they were to indicate the number of athletes appearing in short video sequences of different sports. After each task performance the participants received manipulated feedback and were to choose between predetermined options (e.g., raise the level of difficulty, maintain the level of difficulty). We found that the participants most frequently raised the difficulty level after receiving positive feedback and maintained the level after receiving negative feedback. There were no significant differences in the performance of participants who raised and those who maintained the difficulty level after receiving positive or negative feedback. However, the performance of participants who raised the difficulty level after receiving positive feedback increased more than that of those who maintained the difficulty level after receiving negative feedback. In addition, we observed an increase in participants’ avoidance behavior in response to repeated negative feedback. The results partially confirmed the assumptions of the FIT.

This investigation examined the relations between physical self-concept and physical fitness (endurance, balance, muscle strength, muscle power) for gaining knowledge about the interrelationship between subjective ratings and objective fitness scores in the elderly in three steps: (1) detecting correlations and changes in time, (2) clarifying the influence of gender, and (3) of a skiing intervention lasting 12 weeks. Physical self-concept was assessed using a modified version of the Physical Self-Concepts (PSK) scales (Stiller et al., 2004) reflecting three first-order factors (endurance, strength, general sportiness) and one second-order factor (global fitness). Objective fitness scores were obtained by VO(2 max), counter movement jump, concentric muscle strength, and static balance. The results reveal that elderly individuals' global physical self and general sportiness are mainly linked to VO(2 max) and concentric muscle strength. Global physical self is predicted by VO(2 max) in females and by physical strength (concentric muscle strength) in males, indicating gender differences. Over time, correlations between subjective ratings and objective fitness scores become stronger in the sense of convergent validity in the skiing intervention group, whereas convergent and divergent validity cannot be supported by data of the control group. In sum, physical self-concept is an important factor in the context of physical intervention programs in the elderly.

Zusammenfassung: Obwohl im deutschen Sprachraum verschiedene Messinstrumente zum physischen Selbstkonzept existieren, stehen kaum Verfahren für sportpsychologische Fragestellungen zur Verfügung, die einen theoretischen Bezug aufweisen. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurden Skalen entwickelt, die sich an die theoretischen Überlegungen von Shavelson, Hubner und Stanton (1976) anlehnen. Als Grundlage zur Skalenkonstruktion diente der Physical Self Description Questionnaire (PSDQ; Marsh & Redmayne, 1994 ), der Fragebogen zum Körperselbstbild (KSB; Alfermann & Stoll, 2000 ), sowie selbstkonstruierte Items. Zur Überprüfung wurden sechs unabhängige Stichproben herangezogen, die sich aus insgesamt n = 1453 Personen im Kindes-, Jugend- bzw. jungen Erwachsenenalter zwischen acht und 28 Jahren zusammensetzten. Zur Abschätzung der Testgüte wurden neben Itemanalysen verschiedene Formen der Validierung (faktoriell, differenziell, Konstruktvalidität) herangezogen. Sowohl Reliabilitätsanalysen, Hauptkomponentenanalysen als auch die Prüfung der differenziellen Validität zeigen zufrieden stellende bis sehr gute Ergebnisse. Die Physischen Selbstkonzept-Skalen (PSK-Skalen) bestehen aus insgesamt sieben Subskalen, die inhaltlich die körperlichen Fähigkeiten (Kraft, Ausdauer, Schnelligkeit, Beweglichkeit, Koordination und allgemeine Sportlichkeit) sowie die physische Attraktivität messen.