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Gratitude Enhances Change in Athletes’ Self-Esteem: The Moderating Role of Trust in Coach

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Self-esteem is a positive evaluation of oneself that can facilitate optimal functioning. However, little research has focused on its antecedents in sport. Accordingly, we adopted an interactionism perspective and proposed that gratitude, a dispositional factor, will enhance an athlete's self-esteem and affective trust in coach, a situational factor, will strengthen such a positive effect. Athletes completed measures of gratitude, affective trust in coach, and self-esteem at Time 1 and self-esteem at Time 2 after 6 months. Results showed that athletes with higher levels of gratitude increased their self-esteem over time when they had higher affective trust in their coaches.
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Gratitude Enhances Change in Athletes’
Self-Esteem: The Moderating Role of
Trust in Coach
Lung Hung Chena & Chia-Huei Wub
a National Taiwan Sport University
b London School of Economics and Political Science
Accepted author version posted online: 15 Apr 2014.Published
online: 08 May 2014.
To cite this article: Lung Hung Chen & Chia-Huei Wu (2014) Gratitude Enhances Change in Athletes’
Self-Esteem: The Moderating Role of Trust in Coach, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 26:3,
349-362, DOI: 10.1080/10413200.2014.889255
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2014.889255
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JOURNAL OF APPLIED SPORT PSYCHOLOGY, 26: 349–362, 2014
Copyright C
Association for Applied Sport Psychology
ISSN: 1041-3200 print / 1533-1571 online
DOI: 10.1080/10413200.2014.889255
Gratitude Enhances Change in Athletes’ Self-Esteem:
The Moderating Role of Trust in Coach
LUNG HUNG CHEN
National Taiwan Sport University
CHIA-HUEI WU
London School of Economics and Political Science
Self-esteem is a positive evaluation of oneself that can facilitate optimal functioning. However,
little research has focused on its antecedents in sport. Accordingly, we adopted an interactionism
perspective and proposed that gratitude, a dispositional factor, will enhance an athlete’s self-
esteem and affective trust in coach, a situational factor, will strengthen such a positive effect.
Athletes completed measures of gratitude, affective trust in coach, and self-esteem at Time 1
and self-esteem at Time 2 after 6 months. Results showed that athletes with higher levels of
gratitude increased their self-esteem over time when they had higher affective trust in their
coaches.
Self-esteem, defined as a positive evaluation toward oneself (Rosenberg, 1965), has been
widely regarded as a positive characteristic that can facilitate optimal psychological and phys-
ical functioning (Leary & Baumeister, 2000; Rosenberg, 1965) in various aspects, such as
relationships (Erol & Orth, 2013), subjective well-being (Walker & Schimmack, 2008), and
academic grades (Schmidt & Padilla, 2003). In sport psychology, many studies have found
that high self-esteem has several benefits for athletes as they develop. For example, high
self-esteem contributed to preventing athletes from having eating disorders and experiencing
burnout (Engel et al., 2003; Gustafsson, Kentt¨
a, Hassm´
en, Lundqvist, & Durand-Bush, 2007),
depressive symptoms (Armstrong & Oomen-Early, 2009), and cognitive anxiety while increas-
ing self-confidence (Coudevylle, Gernigon, & Ginis, 2011). Although self-esteem is widely
regarded as a personality trait, it is malleable and can be shaped by life experiences; thus, it
is a developmental outcome that represents a person’s global evaluation of his or her overall
worthiness in general and his or her abilities, skills, and social relationships in particular
(Harter, 1999). As such, promoting an athlete’s self-esteem is possible and has become a crit-
ical issue in sport psychology (Beachamp, Jackson, & Morton, 2012; Coatsworth & Conroy,
2006; Sanna, 2012; Stenseng & Dalskau, 2010).
Previous research has discussed the impact of either dispositional factors (Koivula, Hass-
men, & Fallby, 2002; Podlog, Lochbaum, & Stevens, 2010) or situational factors (Coatsworth &
Received 27 August 2013; accepted 27 January 2014.
Address correspondence to Lung Hung Chen, Department of Recreation and Leisure Industry Man-
agement, National Taiwan Sport University, No. 250, Wen Hua 1st Road, Kueishan, Taoyuan County,
Taiwan. E-mail: fjudragon@gmail.com
349
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350 L. H. CHEN AND C.-H. WU
Conroy, 2006; Smith, Cumming, & Smoll, 2008) in shaping an athlete’s self-esteem. However,
as human beings’ thoughts and actions are largely determined by their individual characteristics
and environment (Andersen & Thorpe, 2009; Griffo & Randall, 2009), we suggest that exam-
ining both dispositional and situational factors to understand how they jointly shape athletes’
self-esteem is even more crucial. Following previous work in sport psychology highlighting
the importance of this interactionism perspective (Coatsworth & Conroy, 2009; Sheldon &
Watson, 2011; Smith & Smoll, 1990), we aim to identify dispositional and situational factors
that can jointly enhance athletes’ self-esteem.
In this study, we suggest that dispositional gratitude and affective trust in one’s coach are
important dispositional and situational factors that can jointly shape one’s self-esteem over
time. Specifically, “dispositional gratitude is a generalized tendency to recognize and respond
with grateful emotion to the roles of other people’s benevolence in the positive experiences and
outcomes that one obtains” (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002, p. 112). Affective trust
in a coach is a “psychological state that refers to an emotional bond between athlete and coach
emphasizing empathy, affiliation, and rapport on the basis of shared regard for one another”
(Schaubroeck, Lam, & Peng, 2011, p. 864).
As we briefly elaborate, we suggest that dispositional gratitude directs an athlete’s attention
to perceive and appreciate care and support provided by others, and affective trust in one’s
coach denotes a supportive and positive relationship between athletes and coaches. We propose
that these two factors can promote an athlete’s self-esteem over time in a broaden-and-build
mechanism (Fredrickson, 1998, 2001) such that when grateful athletes have higher affective
trust in their coaches, they are more likely to perceive and obtain more resources from coaches
in a supportive relationship (a broadening process) and then utilize such resources to achieve
personal goals (a building process), which helps to increase their self-esteem. Overall, we
propose the congruency between dispositional gratitude and affective trust in one’s coach
produces positive changes in athletes’ self-esteem.
In this study, we focused on adolescent athletes because they are in a critical stage of life
in terms of their overall development (Arnett, 1999). Adolescents have a higher tendency to
have conflicts with their parents, experience mood disruptions, and exhibit risky behavior in
this stage, which is well known as adolescent storm and stress (Steinberg & Morris, 2001).
Athletes in this stage might be relatively unstable both psychologically and physically, and we
believe that cultivating self-esteem might prevent athletes from misbehaving and indirectly
contribute to their improved well-being.
Our study contributes to the literature in several ways. First, we highlight the importance
of dispositional gratitude in shaping athletes’ lives, which has rarely been discussed in sport
psychology (except for Chen & Kee, 2008). Second, rather than focusing on a dispositional
factor (Koivula et al., 2002; Podlog et al., 2010) or a situational factor (Coatsworth & Conroy,
2006; Smith et al., 2008) only, we adopt an interactionism approach (Andersen & Thorpe,
2009; Griffo & Colvin, 2009) to understand how dispositional and situational factors can
jointly shape athletes’ self-esteem. Next we provide arguments to support our hypotheses.
GRATITUDE AND CHANGE IN SELF-ESTEEM
Gratitude has been defined as a dispositional characteristic (McCullough et al., 2002);
thus, individuals with higher gratitude tend to express their grateful feelings across different
contexts. This grateful tendency is highly relevant to the sports context. For example, Carl
Lewis mentioned that gratitude to his competitors is a part of his competition repertoire
(Lewis & Marx, 1990) and can improve his mental preparation. The benefits of gratitude to
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GRATITUDE AND CHANGE IN ATHLETES’ SELF-ESTEEM 351
athletes have been directly reported by Chen (2013) and Chen and Kee (2008), who showed
that athletes with higher gratitude are more likely to have higher life satisfaction, which is in
accord with the observation that grateful individuals tend to have better social relationships
and exhibit pro-social behavior and well-being (for a systemetic review, see Wood, Froh, &
Geraghty, 2010). Therefore, previous findings have implied the importance of gratitude in
shaping athletes’ lives. Here, we extend previous research by implying that gratitude will have
a positive function by enhancing athletes’ self-esteem over time.
Gratitude is defined as a positive trait involving both cognitive and affective elements.
Those with high levels of gratitude tend to notice and appreciate the positivity in the world
(Wood et al., 2010); thus, they easily perceive when someone has acted in the interest of
their welfare (McCullough, Kilpatrick, Emmons, & Larson, 2001) and tend to recognize and
respond to such benevolence with a positive emotion (McCullough et al., 2002). Because
of these characteristics, we propose that people with high levels of gratitude tend to have,
maintain, and increase their self-esteem, that is, a person’s self-appraisal (Rosenberg, 1965).
The sociometer theory of self-esteem (Leary & Baumeister, 2000) implies that self-esteem
is a sociometer that relates to how an individual is liked and accepted by others. Accordingly,
those with high levels of gratitude tend to have higher self-esteem because they are more
likely to perceive support from others, which is an indication of being liked and accepted in
a social environment. Over time, this sociometer mechanism can lead to a broaden-and-build
effect (Fredrickson, 1998) in enhancing one’s self-esteem. Specifically, those with high levels
of gratitude are more likely to broaden their social capital because they tend to have flexible
worldviews to recognize and interpret the things they have in life as gifts (McCullough et al.,
2002) even in negative circumstances (Lambert, Graham, Fincham, & Stillman, 2009). This
broadening effect will further help an individual achieve his or her goals (a building process)
because an upward spiral of interpersonal connections (Algoe, Gable, & Maisel, 2010) can
help an individual to accumulate social resources (Fredrickson, 2000). For example, having
support from coaches, family, and teammates will result in an athlete’s possessing higher self-
confidence (Freeman & Rees, 2010) and, thus, enhance this athlete’s performance and goal
achievement (Rees & Hardy, 2000). Based on self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987), which
implies that self-evaluations are constructed by comparing one’s actual status with a certain
standard (Elliot, Thrash, & Murayama, 2011; Hein & Hagger, 2007; Hofer, Busch, Bond, Li, &
Law, 2010), we therefore suggest that gratitude can help to enhance one’s self-esteem over time
via a discrepancy-reduction process, and gratitude can help individuals obtain social resources,
which can facilitate their moving forward and reducing the gap between their current statuses
and their wanted statuses.
Empirically, although a positive association between gratitude and daily self-esteem has
been established (Kashdan, Uswatte, & Julian, 2006), whether gratitude can bring enhancement
of self-esteem has not been examined. We suggest that such an examination is important
theoretically because longitudinal studies can help researchers understand the function of
gratitude in self-esteem and is important practically because it helps coaches and others
involved know how to promote athletes’ self-esteem.
In line with previous work in sport psychology (Elliot, Cury, Fryer, & Huguet, 2006; Stoeber,
Uphill, & Hotham, 2009), we examine our hypothesis using a residual change approach that
examines the change phenomena of a specific construct over time by controlling for the prior
level of the construct (Little, Bovaird, & Slegers, 2006). We propose the following:
H1: Athletes’ gratitude at Time 1 will be positively related to their self-esteem at Time 2 after
controlling for the prior level of self-esteem at Time 1.
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352 L. H. CHEN AND C.-H. WU
Moderating Role of Affective Trust in Coach
We further propose that affective trust in one’s coach will enhance the impact of gratitude
in promoting self-esteem over time. We focus on affective trust in one’s coach because coaches
occupy a dominant role, offering instruction, controlling resources, and allocating rewards
(Jowett & Cockerill, 2003).
Affective trust involves an intense emotional investment and one’s beliefs that partners
would express genuine care and concern for one’s welfare; that those sentiments are recipro-
cated (McAllister, 1995); and that this represents a well-established, supportive, and caring
atmosphere (Rempel, Holmes, & Zanna, 1985). As such, coaches with higher affective trust
can be regarded as a secure attachment figures for athletes, as they can provide support when
needed and encourage athletes to approach their goals, facilitating the broaden-and-build
mechanisms of gratitude (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2003).
Specifically, affective trust in a coach denotes a trusting relationship in which athletes can
obtain support from the coach easily because they can comfortably express their opinions,
feelings, and difficulties about training or competition to their coach without fear or worry of
being criticized. In line with this argument, studies on leadership have shown that employees
are more likely to obtain support from their supervisors when they are in a mature, trusting
relationship (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995). Because grateful athletes tend to recognize other
people’s benevolence and broaden possibilities to obtain more social resources, higher affective
trust in a coach will enhance this broadening effect, as grateful athletes are more likely to enjoy
the benefits of obtaining support from coaches. Moreover, higher affective trust in a coach will
also enhance the building effect of gratitude in shaping self-esteem over time because grateful
athletes will be able to rely on the support and resources obtained from trustworthy coaches
to take challenges and pursue personal goals for personal growth, which is a way to enhance
self-esteem according to self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987). In other words, having a
trustworthy coach will help grateful athletes approach their goals, resulting in an enhancement
of their self-esteem, because athletes can always obtain help from coaches when encountering
obstacles during pursuit of their goals. Accordingly, we propose the following:
H2: The positive impact of gratitude on increased self-esteem will be stronger when trust
in coach is high rather than low.
METHOD
Participants and Procedures
Adolescent athletes are participating in an ongoing longitudinal study supervised by the
first author.1Initially, the first wave of data collection (gratitude, affective trust in coach,
and self-esteem) involved 412 athletes recruited from diverse sports (swimming, track and
field, baseball, judo, basketball, volleyball, softball, archery, and cycling) ranging from 15
to 18 years old. Those adolescent athletes represented their teams in national competitions
at the high school level. After 6 months, athlete self-esteem was collected.2To examine our
hypotheses, the completed variables collected from 232 adolescent athletes (128 male) with a
mean age of 16.9 (SD =.75) years were used. Attenuation was high because some of the athletes
graduated from their high schools before the second wave of data collection. Measurements
were administered to the athletes in classrooms before their practices. Athletes’ involvement
in the current study was voluntary, and their confidentiality and anonymity were ensured.
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GRATITUDE AND CHANGE IN ATHLETES’ SELF-ESTEEM 353
Athletes were rewarded with 100 New Taiwan Dollars at the time of each data collection to
increase their response rate.
Measurements
Dispositional gratitude
McCullough et al. (2002) developed the Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ) to assess an indi-
vidual’s dispositional gratitude. GQ has six items, and its reliability and validity has been
established (Froh, Yurkewicz, & Kashdan, 2009). In this study, we used GQ–Taiwan version
(GQ-T) to assess dispositional gratitude. Chen, Chen, Kee, and Tsai (2009) translated the GQ
into the Taiwan version and examined the reliability and validity of GQ-T. In their study, they
reported that (a) the GQ-T contains only five items because one item in GQ was dropped due
to nonsignificant factor loading; (b) Cronbach’s alpha of GQ-T was .80; and (c) GQ-T was
positively correlated with happiness, optimism, agreeableness, and extraversion and negatively
correlated with neuroticism. The GQ-T has been used in athlete samples (Chen, 2013; Chen
& Kee, 2008). In the current study, participants indicated their responses on a 6-point Likert
scale, with responses ranging from 1 (strongly disagree)to6(strongly agree). Cronbach’s
alpha in this study was .83 at Time 1.
Affective trust in a coach
The affect and cognition-based trust scale (McAllister, 1995) was used to assess partici-
pants’ trust. This scale contains two subscales to assess different components of trust: affective
and cognitive trust. For this study, we used the affective trust subscale to assess athletes’ af-
fective trust in their coaches. This scale had been translated into Chinese and has satisfactory
validity and reliability (e.g., Jiand, Ding, & lin, 2012). To fit our research context, the authors
and one independent scholar modified the items to assess trust in a coach specifically. Sample
items are “I can talk freely to ‘my coach’ about difficulties I am having in my sport and know
that (s)he will want to listen,” and “If I shared my problems with ‘my coach,’ I know (s)he
would respond constructively and caringly.” Responses were indicated on a 6-point Likert
type scale with a responses format ranging from 1 (strongly disagree)to6(strongly agree).
Cronbach’s alpha of this measure in this study was .84. Additional data in this sample showed
that affective trust in a coach was positively correlated with team satisfaction (r=.51, p
<.001) and negatively correlated with dropout intention (r=−.26, p<.001), supporting
criterion validity of this measure.
Self-esteem
The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) was used to assess an athlete’s level
of self-esteem. To increase the response rate, our study used the four-item version (Items
3, 6, 7, and 10 in the original order) to assess athletes’ self-esteem. The four-item version
was reliable and valid as reported in previous studies. For example, Nezlek, Feist, Wilson,
and Plesko (2001) reported the four-item version has satisfactory mean daily reliability (.98).
In addition, Kashdan et al. (2006) found that the posttraumatic stress disorder group scored
significantly lower than the non-posttraumatic stress disorder group on the four-item version
of self-esteem, supporting its discriminant validity. To ensure that we assess the trait level
of self-esteem, the self-esteem scale in this study was entitled as “in general” rather than
in the last few days or weeks. The correlation of self-esteem between Time 1 and Time 2
was moderate (r=.48, p<.001), which provided further evidence to support the notion
that the self-esteem scale measures a reliable/stable trait across times. Participants evaluated
self-esteem on a 6-point Likert scale, with responses ranging from 1 (strongly disagree)to6
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354 L. H. CHEN AND C.-H. WU
Table 1
Correlation Matrix for Research Constructs
MSD 123456
1. Gender 1.45 .50 1.00
2. Age 16.09 .75 — 1.00
3. T1GQ-T 4.79 .82 .17∗∗ .141.00
4. T1trust 4.13 1.15 .19∗∗ .05 .40∗∗∗ 1.00
5. T1SE 3.84 .83 .03 .05 .39∗∗ .31∗∗∗ 1.00
6. T2SE 3.78 .85 .06 .14 .20∗∗ .16.48∗∗∗ 1.00
Note. N =232. T =time; GQ-T =gratitude, SE =self-esteem.
p<.05. ∗∗p<.01. ∗∗∗p<.001.
(strongly agree). Cronbach’s alpha of this scale in this study was .66 for Time 1 and .67 for
Time 2, which is slightly lower than the recommendation of .70 (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994).
RESULTS
Preliminary Analysis and Multilevel Modeling
The means, standard deviations, and correlations for the research variables are presented
in Table 1. The correlations between gratitude and self-esteem were as expected. Gratitude at
Time 1 had a positive correlation with self-esteem at Time 1 (r=.39, p<.01) and Time 2
(r=.20, p<.01), respectively. We also conducted a paired-samples ttest to examine whether
self-esteem changed from Time 1 (M=3.84, SD =0.83) to Time 2 (M=3.78, SD =0.85).
Results indicated that self-esteem from Time 1 to Time 2 did not significantly differ (t=1.13,
ns), implying that athletes did not increase their self-esteem in general over time.
Because our participants are nested in teams, we used multilevel modeling with a restricted
maximum likelihood estimator to test our hypotheses. Our data indicated skewness and kurtosis
values within the range from –1 to +1. Moreover, results of the residual analysis imply that
the residuals follow normal distribution in general. As such, the data distributions do not
significantly deviate from normal distribution, the assumption of the restricted maximum
likelihood estimator.
First, we calculated the ICC(1) for each variable and found that the ICCs were approximately
0.05, reaching the criterion level required to address nonindependent data (e.g., Dyer, Hanges,
& Hall, 2005). We, thus, conducted a two-level random intercept model to examine our
hypotheses. In this model, self-esteem at Time 1, gratitude, affective trust, age, and gender are
individual-level constructs, and there is no team-level construct. Grand mean centering was
applied to all research variables (except for gender, which is a dummy variable). This centering
method is appropriate when predictors are from the same level (Hofmann & Gavin, 1998). A
random effect was introduced for the intercept to acknowledge that participants from different
teams can vary in their self-esteem level at Time 2. The random effects of other research
variables were not introduced as they were not significant in preliminary analyses.
In Model 1, gender, age, and self-esteem at Time 1 were included. Model 2 included the
main effects of gratitude and affective trust in one’s coach at Time 1. The final model contained
the interaction term. As shown in Table 2, neither gratitude (b=.04, ns) nor affective trust in
one’s coach (b=.01, ns) at Time 1 significantly predicted changes in self-esteem. However, a
significant moderating effect was found3(b=.12, p<.05). The interaction plot is portrayed
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GRATITUDE AND CHANGE IN ATHLETES’ SELF-ESTEEM 355
Table 2
Results of Fixed Effect in a Two-Level Random Intercept Model for Change in Athlete’s
Self-Esteem
T2 self-esteem
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
Constant 3.80 3.81 3.77
Gender .03 .09 .08
Age .13 .13.13
T1 self-esteem .48∗∗∗ .46∗∗∗ .45∗∗∗
T1Gratitude .04 .04
T1 affective trust .02 .01
Interaction term .12
Note. Unstandardized coefficients are reported.
p<.05. ∗∗∗p<.001.
in Figure 1 based on Aiken and West’s (1996) suggestion. Specifically, 1 standard deviation
above the mean of gratitude and affective trust and lower were used to indicate higher and
lower gratitude and affective trust. To further understand the interaction effect, we examined
simple slopes in a two-level random intercept model. The results showed that the relationship
between gratitude and self-esteem was stronger at higher levels of affective trust in one’s coach
(1 standard deviation above the mean; β=.18, p<.05), whereas there was no relationship at
lower levels of affective trust in coach (1 standard deviation below the mean; β=–.10, ns),
supporting our hypothesis that the relationship between gratitude and an athlete’s self-esteem
would be strengthened under the condition of high affective trust in a coach. On the other
hand, gratitude did not exert its effect on changing athletes’ self-esteem when affective trust
in a coach is low. In other words, only an athlete who possessed high gratitude tendency
3.68
3.94
3.84
3.62
3.40
3.50
3.60
3.70
3.80
3.90
4.00
Low gratitude High gratitude
Self-esteem at time 2
Low trust
High trust
Figure 1. Simple regression lines predicting change in self-esteem.
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356 L. H. CHEN AND C.-H. WU
and affective trust in one’s coach at the same time would lead to a higher change in self-
esteem.
DISCUSSION
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of gratitude on changes in athletes’ self-
esteem. The second aim was to identify the moderating role of affective trust in one’s coach in
the relationship between gratitude and athletes’ well-being. For the first aim, the results did not
support the author’s prediction, indicating that dispositional gratitude alone failed to predict
changes in self-esteem. However, the moderation analysis indicated that affective trust in one’s
coach strengthens the relationship between dispositional gratitude and changes in athletes’
self-esteem. Simply stated, the grateful athlete experiences greater self-esteem increases from
Time 1 to Time 2 when this athlete trusts his or her coach emotionally. In summary, only one
of the hypotheses was supported.
The Longitudinal Relationship Between Gratitude and Athletes’ Self-Esteem
Sport psychologists have gradually shifted their attention from performance enhancement
to athletes’ self-esteem (Coatsworth & Conroy, 2006); however, those studies are usually
cross-sectional in nature (Coudevylle et al., 2011; Engel et al., 2003), which might result in
poor-quality scientific conclusions (Hagger & Chatzisarantis, 2009). This study is a reminder
that sport psychologists should not only be satisfied with investigating what is correlated
with the level of an athlete’s self-esteem but also focus on the factors that lead to lasting
change if our aim is to continually promote positive growth in the youth. Regarding the
bivariate relationship between gratitude and self-esteem at a single time point, a grateful
athlete reported that he or she possessed a positive view toward the self. These results corre-
sponded to most of the field research using cross-sectional surveys, which have demonstrated
a positive relationship between gratitude and optimal function (for a review, see Wood et al.,
2010).
However, a contradiction was observed when the longitudinal results of gratitude were
compared with the results of previous studies. Current results indicated that when controlling
for the initial score, gratitude failed to predict self-esteem. To the author’s best knowledge,
only a few field studies have used longitudinal methods to investigate gratitude, and those
results were also contradictory. For example, Krause (2009) used nationwide survey data
with a 2-year interval and did not find that gratitude significantly decreased older adults’
depressive symptoms over time. Similarly, Algoe and Stanton (2012) found that gratitude
also did not predict an increase in perceived social support after 3 months in women with
metastatic breast cancer. On the other hand, Wood, Maltby, Gillett, Linley, and Joseph (2008)
conducted longitudinal studies on gratitude. Their two independent studies found that grateful
people reported less stress and depression while indicating higher perceived social support.
In addition, Lambert, Fincham, and Stillman (2011) conducted multiple studies indicating
that gratitude significantly predicted a decrease in depressive symptoms in an undergraduate
student sample.
In comparing this study with previous research, the current findings support one aspect of
the previous results but do not support the other results in the literature. This contradiction could
be explained in several ways. First, the operational definitions were slightly different across
studies. Some researchers adopted the psychometrically sound GQ to assess an individual’s
gratitude (Krause, 2009; Lambert et al., 2011; Wood et al., 2008), whereas others designed
new scales (Algoe & Stanton, 2012; Krause & Ellison, 2009). The use of different measures
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GRATITUDE AND CHANGE IN ATHLETES’ SELF-ESTEEM 357
might not capture the same aspects of gratitude, however, which would result in inconsistent
findings. Second, the dependent variables might represent multiple aspects of life function.
Thus, gratitude might not exert its effects equally on the different indicators.
A third possible explanation relates to the samples investigated. The samples surveyed in
previous studies included undergraduate students, older adults, and women with metastatic
breast cancer. The diverse life experiences of these study populations might contribute to
the inconsistent results. The last explanation is a lack of including moderators. For example,
financial strain (Krause, 2009) and ambivalence over emotional expression (Algoe & Stanton,
2012) were identified as moderators. Those studies found significant moderation, which im-
plied that the longitudinal effects of gratitude might be conditional, and this line of reasoning
was explored in the current study.
The Moderating Role of Affective Trust in One’s Coach
The main contribution of this study was to identify the boundary conditions of gratitude; the
results might have several implications for both theory and practice. Based on the interaction-
ism perspective (Reynolds et al., 2010), this study investigated the moderating role of affective
trust in one’s coach. Algoe (2012) asserted that gratitude not only has a function in establishing
new relationships with strangers but also exerts its effect within communal relationships, such
as romantic partners (Algoe et al., 2010), couples (Chang, Li, Teng, Berki, & Chen, 2013), and
parent–child relationships (Hoy, Suldo, & Mendez, 2013). This study corroborated her claim
and succeeded in identifying that gratitude exerts its effects in a coach–athlete context despite
the fact that our data structure was not dyadic. It should be noted that the fact that gratitude
did not contribute to change in self-esteem independently emphasized the importance of fit
between the person and the environment. In our study, athletes’ affective trust in their coach
was conceptualized as a micro environment. It characterized chronic adaptation to positive
social interaction with one’s coach. In such a secure and supportive relational context, affec-
tive trust in one’s coach strengthens the effect of gratitude on athletes’ self-esteem over time.
This finding adds new knowledge to the literature on gratitude by discovering new boundary
conditions.
These results have practical contributions for sport psychology: to enhance their self-
esteem, athletes might need to practice how to be grateful, whereas coaches must learn how to
establish their trustworthiness, as we found that gratitude and affective trust in a coach could
not significantly predict change in athlete self-esteem independently. For the gratitude practice,
previous studies have developed and manipulated gratitude successfully. For example, having
people count three things they are grateful for in their lives (Emmons & McCullough, 2003)
or mailing gratitude letters to those for whom they are grateful (Seligman, Steen, Park, &
Peterson, 2005) can be effective. Although those gratitude practices are easy to perform, we
are not aware, unfortunately, of any well-designed gratitude intervention conducted with an
athlete population. Therefore, gratitude intervention aiming to increase athletes’ awareness of
gratitude might be the first key element for enhancing athlete self-esteem.
The second key element for inducing change in athlete self-esteem involves establishing
trustworthiness; however, it is not a simple task for practitioners. It is well documented that
cognitive trust is the foundation of affective trust (e.g., Johnson & Grayson, 2005; McAllister,
1995). Accordingly, the first step might be to encourage coaches to participate in profes-
sional workshops aimed at enhancing their training skills. Coaches who possess such knowl-
edge, including competence and responsibility, assist in developing athletes’ cognitive trust
(McAllister, 1995). The next step might involve educating coaches to care and empathize with
athletes’ predicaments to cultivate affective trust. Interventions that include multiple steps
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358 L. H. CHEN AND C.-H. WU
might be useful to establish trust. In short, this study implied that athlete self-esteem might be
enhanced step-by-step once the person fits the environment.
Overall, the current study corresponds to the investigation of Froh, Kashdan, Ozimkowski,
and Miller (2009) that reminds researchers who benefits more from gratitude. Although
gratitude manifests itself in different manners, including personality, mood, and emotion,
Froh, Kashdan, et al. (2009) provided valuable insight concerning possible moderators that
could enhance or undermine gratitude. Despite this study’s focus on gratitude as a trait, future
research that intentionally manipulates gratitude should take affective trust in one’s coach into
account to further expand upon the knowledge in the literature.
Limitations and Conclusion
When reading this article, several limitations should be kept in mind. First, this study relied
on self-reported data, which may suffer from common method variance (Lindell & Whitney,
2001). Other rating data could be included in the future to reduce the possible overestimation
of effects. Second, this study did not investigate other types of close relationships that athletes
have. For example, does trust in teammates or a physiotherapist also have the same influence
on an athlete’s self-esteem? Because trust involves a close relationship between two persons,
these interesting issues await further exploration. Finally, we did not explore the issue of time
in our study. We used 6 months as the only period to examine self-esteem change. However,
as there is no specific guidance for when such change would be more likely to occur, more
studies are required to examine the issue of time in the future.
Adolescent athletes are a special population that experiences pressures from the demands
of their academic and sport lives. Factors contributing to athletes’ self-esteem are important
issues for sport psychologists. This study drew on theory to investigate the effect of gratitude
on athletes’ self-esteem, and new boundary conditions were identified, which contributes to
the theory of gratitude and its application.
FUNDING
The first author’s research on gratitude was supported by Ministry of Education (2012
project of elastic salary for outstanding scholar) and National Science Council (100-2410-H-
179 -007, 101-2410-H-179-003, and 102-2410-H-179-003), Taiwan, R.O.C.
FOOTNOTES
1The data for this study were collected in the context of a larger project supervised and
funded by a series of research grants for the first author. Neither the analyses nor the findings
reported in the present research have been reported in any prior work.
2Athletes participating in our longitudinal study completed the GQ-T, affective trust in one’s
coach, and self-esteem measures at bothtime points. However, our purpose was to identify the
change of athletes’ self-esteem rather than the reciprocal relationships between constructs.
Thus, only variables relevant to the current study are reported.
3We performed additional analysis to ensure whether there is a potential gender or age effect
that will influence the obtained interaction effect between gratitude and trust in predicting
changes of self-esteem. Results show that there is no interaction effect of gender or age with
other key research variables (gratitude, trust, and self-esteem at Time 1) to predict self-esteem
at Time 2, implying that our findings will not be influenced by suspected gender or age effect.
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GRATITUDE AND CHANGE IN ATHLETES’ SELF-ESTEEM 359
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This study aimed to determine the effects of the psycho-physical intervention program on the psychological well-being and self-esteem of Filipino young adults. This study utilized a true experimental research design and voluntary sampling technique. The findings of this study had shown that the participants (n=31) had normal levels of self-esteem and above average psychological well-being. There were no significant differences on the control group's self-esteem and psychological well-being whereas the experimental group had significant differences in self-esteem and psychological well-being in terms of purpose in life only. Before the intervention, there were no significant differences between the two groups but after the intervention there was a significant difference in their self-esteem levels only. Therefore, this study discovered that individuals who regularly engage in HIIT and express gratitude for 14 days can increase their self-esteem and psychological well-being in terms of purpose in life during this pandemic.
... With the rise of positive psychology, a growing number of studies have focused on gratitude (Chen & Wu, 2014;Watkins et al., 2019;Wood et al., 2010). The word 'gratitude' derives from the Latin term gratia, meaning grace, graciousness, or thankfulness (Emmons & Shelton, 2002). ...
... (Rash et al., 2011;Tsang et al., 2014;Chen & Wu, 2014;Watkins et al., 2004;Disabato et al., 2016;Petrocchi & Couyoumdjian, 2016;Wood et al., 2008ٔ - ‫ٍِرٛٞ‬ ‫ِا‬ ‫ا٨ِرٕاْ‬ ِٓ ‫ػ١ٕح‬ ‫ٌكٜ‬ ‫اٌٍؼٛق٠اخ؟‬ ‫اٌّّهػاخ‬ ٕ - ‫ٍِرٛٞ‬ ‫ِا‬ ‫اٌؽ١اج‬ ‫ػٓ‬ ‫اٌهػا‬ ِٓ ‫ػ١ٕح‬ ‫ٌكٜ‬ ‫اٌٍؼٛق٠اخ؟‬ ‫اٌّّهػاخ‬ 3 - ‫ا٤ٌهج‬ ‫طهاع‬ ِٓ ‫وً‬ ‫ٍِرٛٞ‬ ‫ِا‬ - ‫اٌؼًّ‬ ِٓ ‫ػ١ٕح‬ ‫ٌكٜ‬ ‫اٌٍؼٛق٠اخ؟‬ ‫اٌّّهػاخ‬ ٗ - ِٓ ‫ػ١ٕح‬ ‫ٌكٜ‬ ‫اٌؽ١اج‬ ‫ػٓ‬ ‫ٚاٌهػا‬ ‫ا٨ِرٕاْ‬ ‫ت١ٓ‬ ‫اٌؼ٩لح‬ ‫ِا‬ ‫اٌٍؼٛق٠اخ؟‬ ‫اٌّّهػاخ‬ ٘ - ‫ا٤ٌهج‬ ‫ٚطهاع‬ ‫ا٨ِرٕاْ‬ ‫ت١ٓ‬ ‫اٌؼ٩لح‬ ‫ِا‬ - ِٓ ‫ػ١ٕح‬ ‫ٌكٜ‬ ‫اٌؼًّ‬ ‫اٌٍؼٛق٠اخ؟‬ ‫اٌّّهػاخ‬ ٙ - ‫ممهج‬‫ػ٩لح‬ ‫ٚظٛق‬ ‫اٌٝ‬ ‫اٌكناٌح‬ ‫ٔرائط‬ ‫ٚأشانخ‬ ، ‫اٌؽ١اج)‬ ‫ػٓ‬ ‫اٌهػا‬ ‫اٌماذ١ح،‬ ‫اٌٍؼاقج‬ ‫اٌشفظ١ح،‬ ‫اٌؼ٩لاخ‬ ‫تٕاء‬ ‫ػٍ‬ ‫ٚاٌمكنج‬ ‫ا٨ِرٕاْ‬ ِٓ ٍ ‫ٚوً‬ ‫اٌماذ١ح‬ ‫اٌٍؼاقج‬ ‫ت١ٓ‬ ‫اؼظائ١ح‬ ‫ق٨ٌح‬ ‫لاخ‬ ‫وّا‬ ‫اٌشفظ١ح،‬ ‫اٌؼ٩لاخ‬ ‫تٕاء‬ ٝ ِٓ ٍ ‫ٚوً‬ ‫اٌؽ١اج‬ ‫ػٓ‬ ‫اٌهػا‬ ‫ت١ٓ‬ ‫اؼظائ١ح‬ ‫ق٨ٌح‬ ‫لاخ‬ ‫ا٠عات١ح‬ ‫ػ٩لح‬ ‫ٚظٛق‬ ‫اٌٝ‬ ‫اٌكناٌح‬ ‫ٔرائط‬ ‫أشانخ‬ ‫اٌؽ١اج‬ ‫ػٓ‬ ‫اٌهػا‬ ‫أْ‬ ‫اٌٝ‬ ‫ًا‬ ‫أ٠ؼ‬ ‫اٌكناٌح‬ ‫ٔرائط‬ ‫أشانخ‬ ‫وّا‬ ‫اٌشفظ١ح،‬ ‫اٌؼ٩لاخ‬ ‫تٕاء‬ ‫ػٍٝ‬ ‫ٚاٌمكنج‬ ‫ا٨ِرٕاْ‬ ‫ٚاٌ‬ ‫تا٨ِرٕاْ‬ ‫اٌرٕثئ‬ ‫فٟ‬ ‫ا٠عاتٟ‬ ‫تشىً‬ ‫٠ٍاُ٘‬ ‫اٌشفظ١ح.‬ ‫اٌؼ٩لاخ‬ ‫تٕاء‬ ‫ػٍٝ‬ ‫ٚاٌمكنج‬ ‫ا٤واق٠ّٟ‬ ‫رؽظ١ً‬ ‫أظهٞ‬ (Kong et al., 2015) ‫ٚذمك٠ه‬ ‫ا٨ظرّاػٟ‬ ‫اٌكػُ‬ ِٓ ٍ ‫وً‬ ‫ذؤش١ه‬ ‫ػٍٝ‬ ‫اٌرؼهف‬ ‫اٌٝ‬ ‫٘كفد‬ ‫قناٌح‬ ‫ػ١ٕح‬ ‫ذىٛٔد‬ ‫اٌعاِؼ١١ٓ.‬ ...
... It helps in their self-regulation and academic motivation. In most of the psychology researches, the reflection of gratitude can affect the well-being (Chen & Wu, 2014). It increases the self-esteem in students (Li et al. 2012;Kashdan et. ...
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It is known that we have entered in a challenging era when the educational systems are digitalized with a heavy reliance on digital technology. The challenge of keeping the students engaged, academically motivated, and self-regulated is common across grade levels, subject matters, and all types of institutions around the globe. This challenge is particularly relevant to the students who work alongside education to meet their finances. This study was aimed at assessing whether earning and non-earning students score differently on gratitude, self-regulation, and academic motivation during online education. A secondary objective was to assess whether gratitude and self-regulation differently associate with specific academic motivation constructs across earning and non-earning students in online education. A cross-sectional research design was used and a sample of 247 participants (M age= 24.20 years, SD = 2.25 years; earning university students = 122 & non-earning = 125) was selected and approached through an online survey. The gratitude scale, self-regulation scale, and academic motivation scale were used to assess the levels of gratitude, self-regulation, and extrinsic and intrinsic academic motivation, in the sample. Results from t test demonstrated that earning students scored significantly higher on four academic motivation outcomes including intrinsic motivation to know, intrinsic motivation towards accomplishment, extrinsic motivation of identified regulation, and extrinsic motivation of external regulation compared to non-earning students. Both the gratitude and self-regulation significantly and positively correlated with the 3 intrinsic motivation outcomes and 3 extrinsic motivation outcomes. Finally, analyzing the mediated moderation models, it was found that gratitude was strongly associated with all academic motivation constructs except extrinsic motivation of interjected regulation in earning students compared to non-earning students. Also, self-regulation significantly mediated the association of gratitude with all academic motivation constructs. Key words: Gratitude, Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, Self-regulation, Earning and Non-Earning Students, Covid 19 pandemic
... This study did not measure the subjective aspect of quality of life, but it can be assumed that a higher level of self-esteem as a subjective quality of a person may also be associated with a higher quality of life in the subjective sphere, which would also explain the relationship of gratitude to the subjective dimension of quality of life. Also, studies of athletes (Chen, Wu, 2014) indicate that a higher level of gratitude contributes to an increase in self-esteem. Positive self-assessment is an important aspect of the subjective sphere of the quality of life. ...
Article
Full-text available
In the article there is measured and discussed the relationship between dispositional gratitude and the holistic concept of quality of life in the personalist-existential approach, with a psychophysical, psychosocial, subjective, metaphysical and global dimension of the quality of life. The aim of this study is to identify the relationship between gratitude, measured with the GQ-6 Gratitude Questionnaire by McCullough, Emmon and Tsang in Polish adaptation of Kossakowska and Kwiatek, and quality of life, measured with the Sense of Quality of Life Questionnaire. The research questions was “Is gratitude related to the psychophysical, psychosocial, subjective, metaphysical and global dimensions of the quality of life in the personalist and existential concept?”. The study involved 148 students, aged 17–59 ( M = 30.21; SD = 10.09). The results show the presence of low and moderate positive relationships between gratitude and quality of life in all dimensions. Moreover, the research discovered some gender differences in the correlations between gratitude and some dimensions of quality of life. Gratitude correlates with better quality of life in all spheres of human functioning – biological, social, subjective and metaphysical.
... Dengan tujuan untuk mengenali dan menafsirkan hal-hal yang mereka miliki dalam hidup sebagai hadiah bahkan dalam keadaan negatif (L. H. Chen & Wu, 2014). Berdasarkan penelitian yang telah dilakukan, maka diharapkan penelitian selanjutnya yang ingin meneliti keefektifan intervensi rasa bersyukur (gratitude) untuk meningkatkan harga diri dapat menambahkan jumlah responden dalam satu kelompok eksperimen atau membandingkan dengan karakteristik yang berbeda. ...
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Full-text available
Low self-esteem is also associated with poverty, it is necessary to have an effort to accept the conditions of life first. One of the simple characteristics of the acceptance effort is gratitude. Gratitude is a strong predictor to increase hope and happiness in adolescents who experience poverty. This research was designed as experimental group in X secondary school. The group was consisted of 6 respondents without a control group. The design of this study was a quasi-experimental (one group pretest-posttest) using the Rosenberg Self-esteem scale (RSSE) with a reliability coefficient of 0.88. The implementation of the gratitude intervention was designed using an intervention module from the aspect of the Indonesian grateful scale (SBI) and it was neither just a list of words of gratitude nor gratefulness. This gratitude intervention is done by inviting participants to focus on positive aspects of life, exploring positive emotions by recalculating the blessings of life that have been received from God and others. To sum up, these findings provide new findings in the use of gratitude intervention that focuses on the divine aspect. The results of this study indicate that there are significant differences in respondent's self-esteem before and after administration of the gratitude intervention, with self-esteem (RSSE) (Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) = 0.042, p <0.05). This discussion focuses on the implications generated for Gratitude literature which are adapted to Indonesian cultural values. ABSTRAK Harga diri yang rendah juga terkait dengan kemiskinan, maka diperlukan adanya usaha penerimaan kondisi kehidupannya terlebih dahulu. Salah satu karakteristik sederhana sebagai upaya penerimaan tersebut yakni dengan rasa bersyukur. Rasa bersyukur merupakan prediktor yang kuat untuk meningkatkan harapan dan kebahagiaan pada remaja yang mengalami kondisi miskin sekalipun. Penelitian ini diberikan kepada satu kelompok eksperimen yang terdiri dari 6 responden tanpa adanya kelompok kontrol di salah satu sekolah menengah pertama (SMP) terbuka X di Jakarta Utara. Desain penelitian ini merupakan quasi eksperimen (one group pretest-posttest) dengan menggunakan Rosenberg Self-esteem scale (RSSE) dengan hasil koefisien reliabilitas sebesar 0.88. Pelaksanaan pelatihan rasa bersyukur ini dirancang dengan menggunakan modul intervensi dari aspek skala bersyukur Indonesia (SBI) dan bukan hanya sekedar daftar ucapan rasa bersyukur atau terimakasih. Pelatihan kebersyukuran ini dilakukan dengan mengajak partisipan untuk fokus terhadap aspek positif dalam hidup, mengeksplorasi emosi positif dengan menghitung kembali berkah kehidupan yang telah diterima dari Tuhan dan orang lain. Singkatnya, temuan ini memberikan temuan baru dalam penggunaan intervensi rasa bersyukur yang berfokus pada aspek keTuhanan. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa terdapat perbedaan yang signifikan pada harga diri responden sebelum dan sesudah pemberian pelatihan kebersyukuran, dengan nilai self-esteem (RSSE) (Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) = 0.042, p< 0.05 Diskusi ini berfokus pada implikasi yang dihasilkan untuk literature bersyukur yang disesuaikan dengan nilai-nilai budaya Indonesia.
... Dengan tujuan untuk mengenali dan menafsirkan hal-hal yang mereka miliki dalam hidup sebagai hadiah bahkan dalam keadaan negatif (L. H. Chen & Wu, 2014). Berdasarkan penelitian yang telah dilakukan, maka diharapkan penelitian selanjutnya yang ingin meneliti keefektifan intervensi rasa bersyukur (gratitude) untuk meningkatkan harga diri dapat menambahkan jumlah responden dalam satu kelompok eksperimen atau membandingkan dengan karakteristik yang berbeda. ...
Article
Full-text available
Low self-esteem is also associated with poverty, it is necessary to have an effort to accept the conditions of life first. One of the simple characteristics of the acceptance effort is gratitude. Gratitude is a strong predictor to increase hope and happiness in adolescents who experience poverty. This research was designed as experimental group in X secondary school. The group was consisted of 6 respondents without a control group. The design of this study was a quasi-experimental (one group pretest-posttest) using the Rosenberg Self-esteem scale (RSSE) with a reliability coefficient of 0.88. The implementation of the gratitude intervention was designed using an intervention module from the aspect of the Indonesian grateful scale (SBI) and it was neither just a list of words of gratitude nor gratefulness. This gratitude intervention is done by inviting participants to focus on positive aspects of life, exploring positive emotions by recalculating the blessings of life that have been received from God and others. To sum up, these findings provide new findings in the use of gratitude intervention that focuses on the divine aspect. The results of this study indicate that there are significant differences in respondent's self-esteem before and after administration of the gratitude intervention, with self-esteem (RSSE) (Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) = 0.042, p <0.05). This discussion focuses on the implications generated for Gratitude literature which are adapted to Indonesian cultural values. ABSTRAK Harga diri yang rendah juga terkait dengan kemiskinan, maka diperlukan adanya usaha penerimaan kondisi kehidupannya terlebih dahulu. Salah satu karakteristik sederhana sebagai upaya penerimaan tersebut yakni dengan rasa bersyukur. Rasa bersyukur merupakan prediktor yang kuat untuk meningkatkan harapan dan kebahagiaan pada remaja yang mengalami kondisi miskin sekalipun. Penelitian ini diberikan kepada satu kelompok eksperimen yang terdiri dari 6 responden tanpa adanya kelompok kontrol di salah satu sekolah menengah pertama (SMP) terbuka X di Jakarta Utara. Desain penelitian ini merupakan quasi eksperimen (one group pretest-posttest) dengan menggunakan Rosenberg Self-esteem scale (RSSE) dengan hasil koefisien reliabilitas sebesar 0.88. Pelaksanaan pelatihan rasa bersyukur ini dirancang dengan menggunakan modul intervensi dari aspek skala bersyukur Indonesia (SBI) dan bukan hanya sekedar daftar ucapan rasa bersyukur atau terimakasih. Pelatihan kebersyukuran ini dilakukan dengan mengajak partisipan untuk fokus terhadap aspek positif dalam hidup, mengeksplorasi emosi positif dengan menghitung kembali berkah kehidupan yang telah diterima dari Tuhan dan orang lain. Singkatnya, temuan ini memberikan temuan baru dalam penggunaan intervensi rasa bersyukur yang berfokus pada aspek keTuhanan. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa terdapat perbedaan yang signifikan pada harga diri responden sebelum dan sesudah pemberian pelatihan kebersyukuran, dengan nilai self-esteem (RSSE) (Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) = 0.042, p< 0.05 Diskusi ini berfokus pada implikasi yang dihasilkan untuk literature bersyukur yang disesuaikan dengan nilai-nilai budaya Indonesia.
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The aim of this study is to investigate ideal and non-ideal image of six Turkish national players and their cognitive representation of karate players. This study involved six participants majoring in Physical Education and Sports who are national karate players and was carried out with young adult elite karate players who became successful in national and international tournaments. The data of this study were collected via repertory grid, a semi-structured interview technique. Self-identity graph of each participant was obtained and analyzed based on repertory grid data. The findings show that all the participants’ personal and social sport identities, except one participant, are positive. The study found that the participants who had high self-value identified selves, ideal self and social self with positive personal constructs as a karate player.
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Gratitude is conceptualized as a moral affect that is analogous to other moral emotions such as empathy and guilt. Gratitude has 3 functions that can be conceptualized as morally relevant: (a) a moral barometer function (i.e., it is a response to the perception that one has been the beneficiary of another person's moral actions); (b) a moral motive function (i.e., it motivates the grateful person to behave prosocially toward the benefactor and other people); and (c) a moral reinforcer function (i.e., when expressed, it encourages benefactors to behave morally in the future). The personality and social factors that are associated with gratitude are also consistent with a conceptualization of gratitude as an affect that is relevant to people's cognitions and behaviors in the moral domain.
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The Oxford Handbook of Sport and Performance Psychology includes the latest research and applied perspectives from leaders in the field of performance psychology, presenting sport and performance psychology from myriad perspectives. It looks at individual psychological processes in performance such as attention, imagery, superior performance intelligence, motivation, anxiety, confidence, cognition, and emotion. Articles also consider the social psychological processes in performance including leadership, teamwork, coaching, relationships, moral behavior, and gender and cultural issues. The book further examines human development issues in performance, such as the development of talent and expertise, positive youth development, the role of the family, the end of involvement transitions, and both youth and masters-level sport and physical activity programs. Finally, the text looks at interventions in sport and performance psychology and counseling of performers in distress including such important issues for all performers as: appearance- and performance-enhancing drug use, injuries, managing pain, eating and weight issues, burnout, and the role of physical activity in maintaining health. The articles collected here also cover the history of sport and performance psychology; the scope and nature of the field; ethical issues in sport and performance psychology; performance psychology in the performing arts and other non-sporting fields; perfectionism and performance; the role of the performance coach and of the sport psychologist with a coach and team; supervision; and a look ahead to the future of the field.
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