Books by "John A. Swets"
3 books found
Human Assessment and Cultural Factors
by John W. Berry, S.H. Irvine
2013 · Springer Science & Business Media
Against the background of NATO's Istanbul conference of 1971 (Cronbach and Drenth, 1972), the Kingston conference shows that great progress has been made by the community of cross-cultural psychologists. The progress is as much in the psychology of the investigators as in the investigations being reported. In 1971 the investigators were mostly strangers to each other. Behind their reports lay radically different field experiences, disparate research traditions, and mutually contradictory social ideals. Istanbul was not a Tower of Babel, but participants did speak past each other. Now a community exists, thanks to the meetings of NATO and the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, to flourishing journals, and the Triandis et a1. (1980) Handbook. The members tend to know each other, can anticipate how their formu lations will fallon the ears of others, and accept superficially divergent approaches as making up a collective enterprise. Ten years ago there was open conflict between those who con fronted exotic peoples with traditional tests and applied tradi tional interpretations to the responses, and the relativists who insisted that tasks, test taking, and interpretation cannot be "standardized" in the ways that matter. Today's investigators are conscious of the need to revalidate tasks carried into alien settings; they often prefer to redesign the mode of presentation and to attune the subject to test taking. They face the diffi culties squarely and recognize that even the best means of coping are only partially successful.
First Published in 2004. Why did Michael Jordan quit basketball and take up baseball? Why was Martina Navratilova so successful as a professional tennis player? Why did Diego Maradona take performance enhancing drugs during the 1994 soccer World Cup? Why did ice-skater Tonya Harding involve herself in physical attacks on her Olympic rival Nancy Kerrigan? These and many other questions about aspects of motivation and emotion in sport are addressed in this book. The theoretical background to the book is provided by reversal theory, a general psychological theory which is demonstrating its usefulness and versatility as it is being increasingly applied within sport psychology. Reversal theory's systematic conceptual framework allows a unique perspective for interpreting behaviour in sport contexts. Topics discussed include the motivation behind individual participation in different types of sport and the special attraction of dangerous sports; the psychological processes involved in winning and losing in competitive sport; the enjoyment of being aggressive and violent in team contact sports; the maintenance and enhancement of individual well-being, including stress management and coping through sport and exercise; problems which may arise as result of over-participation; and stress, burnout, and overload in competitive sport. Real-life examples are combined with research findings to provide an understanding of the emotional background and changes which accompany the individual's unique experience in sport. In addition, suggestions as to applications of reversal theory in new areas of sport psychology and the future direction of reversal theory-based sport research are outlined. For those interested in a truly insightful understanding of human behaviour in sport, this book will be required reading.
This second edition of the best selling textbook Cross-Cultural Psychology has been substantially revised to provide the student with the most comprehensive overview of cross-cultural psychology available in one volume. The team of internationally acclaimed authors have included the most up-to-date research in the field and written two new chapters on language and on emotion. Within a universalistic framework the book emphasises not only research on basic processes and theory, but also methodology and applications of cross-cultural psychology with respect to acculturation, organisational processes, communication, health and national development. The new format of the book is designed to make it even more accessible and reader-friendly and includes chapter outlines, chapter summaries, further reading and a glossary of key terms.