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Second Language Acquisition: An Introduction

Ruiqin Miao, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition), 2015

Interactional Approaches
Interactional approaches take into consideration the interactional nature and the communicative functions of
language to account for the mechanism of second language learning.
• Conversation Analysis

Conversation Analysis, a subarea of discourse analysis, examines language learning as situated in the social
interaction that the learner participates in. It recognizes that language cannot be understood in isolation from social
contexts and argues that changes in the structure of the interaction discourse evidence learning (see review in Gass
and Selinker, 2008, pp. 281–283). In this framework, the conversation between the L2 learner and his or her
interlocutor constitutes an important source of language acquisition, serving a variety of functions, e.g., to provide
feedback and corrections, to encourage participation and to negotiate meaning. For instance, Hatch (1978) argues
that a learner can acquire syntactic structures through conversations or verbal interactions with another person (cited
in Larsen-Freeman and Long, 1991, pp. 70–71).
Conversation analysis focuses on the significant role of input and interaction in language learning. By including both
form and function, it initiates a number of new directions to investigate SLA, e.g., foreigner talk, contrastive rhetoric,
classroom discourse, and speech act analysis (see Larsen-Freeman and Long, 1991, pp. 71–73).
• The Multidimensional Model

The Multidimensional Model developed from the ZISA (Zweitsprachenwerb Italienischer und Spanischer Arbeiter)
project conducted in Germany in the 1970s. It was first proposed by Meisel et al. (1981) (cited in Larsen-Freeman
and Long, 1991, pp. 270–287; Ellis, 1994, pp. 382–388). Based on the development of word order rules in German as
a second language, ZISA researchers propose that two independent dimensions regulate the developmental

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sequences of the IL. One is the developmental axis, which represents an invariant order of developmental stages. The
other is the variation axis, which accounts for the differences among individual learners with respect to whether their
orientation toward a learning task is a ‘standard’ (integrative) one or a ‘simplifying’ (segregative) one. By using the
concept of orientation, the model incorporates the role of social and psychological factors such as motivation and
interest in accounting for the learning process.
Although a powerful tool to explain IL development, the Multidimensional Model is not flawless (Larsen-Freeman
and Long, 1991, pp. 283–287; Ellis, 1994, pp. 387–388). For instance, it accounts for acquisition in view of the
learner's L2 production only, dismissing the interaction between comprehension and production. In addition, it is
hard to identify formulaic chunks of language and variational features a priori.
• The Competition Model

The Competition Model (Bates and MacWhinney, 1982, cited in Gass and Selinker, 2008, pp. 221–226) adopts a
functional approach to language development. It claims that language forms “are created, governed, constrained,
acquired and used in the service of communicative functions” (MacWhinney et al., 1984, cited in Ellis, 1994, p. 374).
A form fulfills one or more functions, and a function is realized in one or more forms.
According to this model, languages differ in the strengths of particular form-function mappings. The input provides
four types of cues to convey meaning, namely word order, vocabulary, morphology and intonation. Since the human
processing system employs only a limited number of information at a time, these different signals compete for
processing space. In learning a second language, one needs to figure out which forms are mapped to what functions
and what weights these mappings assume in the target language (see Ellis, 1994, pp. 373–378 for more discussions).

Collective Memory, Social Psychology of

Laurent Licata, Aurélie Mercy, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition),
2015

Cognition
Coman et al. (2009) anchor their approach of collective memory in cognitive psychology, in line with Bartlett's
interactionist and constructivist stance. They reckon that collective memory should not be conflated with individual
psychology. However, they emphasize that collective memories should not only be studied at the collective level –
publicly available symbols maintained by society – because it is the interplay between these public symbols and
individual psychology that makes these memories collective. This interplay is necessary because of the very nature of
human memory. Coman et al. advocate a social interactional approach to memory according to which internal and
external factors should be considered: “When it comes to the study of memory, the claim would be that, in order to
understand how a person remembers what he ate last night, a researcher needs to consider not only the neural
mechanisms underlying memory, but also, for instance, the visual cues in the environment, such as the pile of dishes
in the sink” (2009: p. 127). Human beings reconstruct their memories by using cues available in their environment.
For example, bartenders use the shape of glasses as cues to remember complex orders. They place the appropriate
glass on the bar when they receive the order; the presence of different glass shapes then guides their memory. The
use of social artifacts is seen as a response to the limitation of human mnemonic capacities. As Sutton (2008: p. 220)
pointed out, “it's just because isolated items aren't stored atomically in the brain that our relatively vulnerable
biological memories are supplemented by more stable external scaffolding. Brains like ours need media, objects, and
other people to function fully as minds.” Likewise, society restructures the world so that the group better remembers.
For example, the Washington Lincoln memorial was built in order to guide people's remembering of this president
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as a godlike figure. Thus, the memories of people who visited the Lincoln memorial are influenced in a similar way,
which gradually changes their collective memory. Thus, the interactions that group members have with social
artifacts shape their memories (Coman et al., 2009).

With his ‘lay historian’ metaphor, Klein (2013) also advocates for the taking into account of the role of cognitive
processes in the formation of collective memory. Lay people are regularly facing the necessity of explaining the past,
either for themselves or for others. Klein parallels the construction of lay knowledge about the past with the three
steps involved in historical research: archival (access to knowledge), explanatory (elaboration of causal reasoning
about past events), and representational (elaboration and communication of a representation adapted to an
audience). Cognitive or sociocognitive processes intervene at each of these steps when lay historians form their
historical knowledge. These processes may lead to biases, thus hampering the epistemic function of collective
memory. For example, people's evaluation of the truthfulness of testimonies depends on their evaluation of the
reliability of the source: they tend to use ready-made heuristics when the source is deemed trustful, or adopt a
critical posture when it is not, thus influencing the archival step. At the explanatory step, other cognitive phenomena
may then interfere. For example, people generally try to explain unexpected or unpleasant events, thus neglecting
events that appear to follow the ‘normal course of history’ or that are pleasant. They also underestimate chance and
overestimate causal explanations. In addition, they often fall prey to the retrospective illusion or hindsight bias: when
the outcome of a sequence of events is known, people tend to overestimate the probability of that particular outcome
over all other possible ones. This might lead to reconstructing the sequence of events in order to explain this
outcome through a coherent narrative that logically leads to it, thus obliterating elements of the past that do not
contribute or contradict this narrative. Finally, social cognitive biases can also interfere at the representational step,
when a representation of the past is communicated to others through narration. Explaining is always explaining
something to someone. Therefore, the representation that one communicates may be influenced by the
characteristics of the audience one is addressing. A study showed that participants provided different explanations of
a mass murder as a function of whether they addressed a personality psychologist or a nonspecialist: their
explanations were more dispositional in the former than in the latter case. Thus, people adapt their message as a
function of the way they perceive their audience. In brief, various cognitive and social cognitive processes known by
psychologists may shape laypeople's understanding of the past and, indirectly, contribute to the formation of
collective memories.
Collective memory approaches anchored in cognitive psychology or social cognition already pay due attention to
interactional factors. Some approaches have gone a step further in that direction by stressing the importance of
conversations in the formation and transmission of collective memories.

Gender and Language: Cultural Concerns

R. Wodak, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001

6.2 Doing Gender

Unlike a research approach that accepts sexual differences as an aggregation of qualities and deals with the
qualitative behavioral tendencies of women and men, ethnomethodologically oriented studies produced a new focus
of research: ‘doing gender.’ Such an approach complements traditional theories which viewed gender as an
aggregation of static attributes and are concerned with investigating and displaying the peculiarities of women and
interpreting them as ‘gender-specific’ or ‘gender-typical’ attributes so as to reveal the asymmetry of the difference
between the sexes, to criticize it and to make it politically visible. The use of a bundle of characteristics and attributes
to define gender complicates or renders impossible an interactional approach since attributes are ‘entities’ and not
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to define gender complicates or renders impossible an interactional approach since attributes are entities and not
processes. This concept entails that definitions of gender cannot change, transform, and are not influenced by,
spontaneous interactions. A further problem raised by the concept of gender as a concept of attributes is the
possibility of individualization; that is, the individual who has been seen to possess or not to possess certain
attributes becomes the centre of focus, and the level of the social system is neglected.
Unlike this noninteractive approach, ‘doing gender’ regards membership of a sex not as a pool of attributes
‘possessed’ by a person, but as something a person ‘does.’ In this sense, membership of a gender constitutes a
performative act and not a fact. Gender is continually realized in interactional form. Gender is created not only in the
everyday activities that characterize ‘doing gender,’ but also in the asymmetry of the relationship between the sexes,
the dominance of the ‘male’ and its normativeness. Patriarchal inequality is produced and reproduced in every
interaction. This concept of ‘doing gender’ stresses the creative potential and the embedding of gender-typical
behavior in a social context.
Female Members of the European Parliament, for example, have created very different ways of positioning
themselves in interactions with male colleagues in the European Commission or in the European Parliament itself.
Interviews with female MEPs (Wodak 2000) illustrate that they are very conscious of their gender roles and that they
tend to construct very different ways of self-presentation in interactions: in particular, one MEP stated the following,
in talking about her first experience as a rapporteur.
when I—entered the parliament—Orientation (lines 1–3)
on my first report it was about Leonardo
I don't know if you know:
((laughing)) well—I said ‘I'm going to speak to the commissioner’
and—I—/I knew—he only speaks very bad French
and my er my French was very bad as well.
so I said ‘I want to have interpretation’
So—I went to the commissionerComplicating Actions (lines 4–14)
with a very good int/int/interpreter
and I/I/I/I talked more than an hour with him.
because we talked the same about it
and at the end he said—
‘well: I have here the advice of my: civil servants but I—agree with you:
and this and this and this all goes through—’
so you have to be:—er—
I don't know h/how do we call it in English in /
in the Netherlands we say [brutal]
so you have to: ((laughing)) be polite Evaluation (lines 16–20)
but you have to—you:/you mustn't be/
you mustn't sit behind your -/your desk—
because that doesn't help. ((laughing))
but then then you have the worse system
that I tried several times Coda (22–31)
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then you have the Council. …

In this example, which has been marked for basic narrative structure according to Labov and Waletzky's (1967)
model, we see that this MEP's story is objectively about having a successful meeting with a Commissioner while
acting as rapporteur on a report about Leonardo—an EU youth and education related program established in 1995
to provide financial support for professional development and job training. In lines 4–6, the complicating actions,
she shows how she went to the commissioner with an interpreter, and because she and the commissioner had the
same understanding of the issues involved, he was willing to support her, despite contrary advice by his ‘civil
servants’ on the matters involved. The main point of the story, or evaluation, from the MEP's perspective, is to show
that as an MEP, to get things done, you must be active and assertive, ‘not sit behind your desk.’ Thus, in this
narrative, she positions herself as an MEP who is proactive and who will do what it takes, including arguing directly
with Commissioners, to see that her voice is heard. She also orients to being a rapporteur (line 2), which carries
some responsibility in a committee, and to being from the Netherlands (line 17), although this last identity is evoked
only to characterize her style of work (‘brutal’ in Dutch, or ‘assertive’). (For further details of the analysis see Wodak
2000). This narrative also manifests the complexity of the European Parliament, the interwovenness of languages,
cultures, positions, political affiliations, and gender roles, as well as professional experiences.
Another of the interviewees is oriented to a particularly wide range of identities (left, woman, Swedish, mother,
political outsider, etc.) during her interview. Most striking is the way in which she repeatedly positions herself as
being an ‘atypical MEP.’ Here we see one such occasion.
I figure here the most common—ah civil—job—for an MEP
is er to be a lawyer.
me myself I'm far from that
the job I had doesn't even exist outside Scandinavia.
so: it's a sort of a social teacher—so
so I'm/I'm very in/an/a very special bird in this er:
Interviewer mhm mhm so now you don't feel like you—fit into sort of a typical MEP er
ME no. no: no: I'm not. I'm left I'm a woman I'm Swedish and I'm also everything—/everything's wrong (laughs)
In this example, the MEP contrasts herself with what she considers to be a typical profile for an MEP (lawyer by
profession), emphasizing the degree to which she feels different (I'm far from that … I'm a very special bird …
everything‘s wrong’). She also points out many of the identities that she associates with and that she perceives as
marking her as different (social teacher, left, female, Swedish). This MEP is very much concerned with her self-
presentation as being different, different than other female MEPs and also male MEPs. Moreover, she explains her
success as a female MEP by being exotic and narrates different strategies which she applies in ‘doing politics and
gender.’
Even such short examples illustrate the diversity and complexity of gender roles and make clear why an
interdisciplinary, qualitative, and context-sensitive approach is necessary to access the whole domain of ‘gender and
language.’ To be able to make more general observations, however, much more cross-cultural comparable research is
urgently needed.

Sport and the Brain: The Science of Preparing, Enduring and

Winning, Part C
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Mark R. Wilson, ... Samuel J. Vine, in Progress in Brain Research, 2018

4 Discussion
The cognitive mechanisms that underpin performance decrements in visually guided skills when performed under
physiological stress are not well known. The current study therefore aimed to apply theoretical and experimental
developments from research into psychological stress to further enhance this understanding. We predicted that
basketball-playing participants would struggle to inhibit signals related to physiological stress (e.g., Boksem et al.,
2005) following high intensity exercise and that this would be reflected in impaired goal-directed attentional control
(reduced QE durations) during free-throw attempts. As the QE duration reflects a critical period of cognitive
processing during which parameters of movement (e.g., force, direction and velocity) are programmed (Vickers,
1996), significant deficits should result in subsequent impaired performance.
Findings were as predicted. First, our manipulations of physiological stress provided different physiological load
conditions, as evidenced by the changes in pre- to post-heart rates (see Fig. 1). The severe condition resulted in
participants performing free-throws at approximately 85% of their maximum heart rate, and only in this condition
was performance significantly impaired. Similar to Padulo et al. (2014) we found that performing at this intensity
resulted in a 19% impairment in free throw accuracy (Fig. 3B), although there was no effect on free throw percentage
(Fig. 3A). Importantly, this significant reduction in performance was also associated with a significant (45%)
reduction in QE duration in the severe condition (see Fig. 2). Interestingly the mean values for QE duration pre-
(1459 ms) and post- (808 ms) the severe condition were of a similar magnitude to QE durations published in
previous research in which skilled basketball players were recruited (e.g., Vickers, 1996). We also noted that exercise-
induced changes in QE duration significantly predicted changes in free-throw performance (Fig. 4), supporting its
proposed role in underpinning performance accuracy (Lebeau et al., 2016).

The results are therefore similar to those outlined for the effect of psychological pressure on free-throw performance
and QE duration (Wilson et al., 2009). Indeed, the magnitude of change for QE duration as a result of severe
intensity exercise (67.7%) is similar to that as a result of psychological pressure (55.3%; Wilson et al., 2009).
Subsequently, it appears that, as with the findings relating to psychological pressure, the findings from the current
study are in keeping with one of the central tenets of ACT (Eysenck et al., 2007). More specifically, the influence of
severe physiological stress was greater on attentional control than performance; impairing processing efficiency to a
greater extent than performance effectiveness. Measures of efficient attentional control, such as QE duration, may
therefore provide an early warning of potential upcoming performance failure, for example, when under sub-severe
exercise intensities.c Future research should explore the extent to which individuals may have a QE threshold below
which performance cannot be maintained. Furthermore, future research should aim to examine the combined and
interactional effects of psychological and physiological stress on cognition and performance (Vickers and Williams,
2007), given that it is this combined demand that most likely disrupts real-world performance. There is a strong
theoretical foundation for this interactional approach (e.g., Humphreys and Revelle, 1984; Sanders, 1983), which may
benefit from the adoption of real-world complex motor tasks (e.g., sport, military).
The results also have clear practical implications, particularly with regards intervention design to mitigate against
these debilitating effects. There is evidence that QE training—the training of optimal QE durations via video
instruction—can help both experienced basketball players (Harle and Vickers, 2001) and novices (Vine and Wilson,
2011) perform better under psychological pressure. While there is further evidence for the benefits of QE training for
skill acquisition and performance under pressure across a range of sports (see Lebeau et al.’s, 2016’s meta-analysis),
to date, there has been no work examining potential benefits under physiological stress. Future research should
therefore explore if QE training can help improve the inhibition of distracting signals of discomfort from
physiological stress, in the same way that has been shown to help inhibit distracting thoughts related to performance
worries (Wilson et al., 2015).
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Additionally, it may be possible to train generic functions of working memory to improve attentional control under
physiological stress. According to recent models of working memory (e.g., Miyake et al., 2000; Unsworth et al., 2012),
attentional control refers to the relative efficiency of the main executive functions of working memory in attaining a
task goal, which include inhibition (e.g., resistance to distraction), shifting (e.g., within-task control), and updating
(e.g., memory-based updating of information). While there is limited support for the utility of off-the-shelf cognitive
training devices (Harris et al., 2018), there is some support that working memory training can improve both sporting
performance under pressure, and attentional control (QE). For example, Ducrocq and colleagues have shown that
both training the inhibition function alone (Ducrocq et al., 2016) and alongside shifting and updating functions
(Ducrocq et al., 2017) can improve attentional control and tennis volley performance under pressure. In both cases,
tennis players who trained on an online cognitive task for 10 days performed better than those assigned to an active
control group when placed under conditions designed to heighten psychological pressure.
Rather than focus on improving attentional control directly via targeted training, ergogenic aids may prove useful in
improving aspects of cognitive performance and subsequent skill production. For instance, consumption of caffeine
has been found to enhance concentration, alertness, vigilance and reaction time at rest and during exercise (e.g.,
Connell et al., 2016; Hogervorst et al., 2008; Nehlig, 2010). Moreover, supplementation with inorganic nitrate, a
natural component of many foods, most notably green leafy vegetables, has been found to enhance cerebral
perfusion (Haskell et al., 2011; Presley et al., 2011), mainly to areas responsible for executive functioning (Presley et
al., 2011). Furthermore, an enhanced coupling of cerebral blood flow to neuronal activity (Aamand et al., 2013) and
improvements in decision-making reaction time during exercise (Thompson et al., 2015 cf. Thompson et al., 2014)
have been reported following nitrate supplementation. Future research should aim to ascertain whether
supplementation with caffeine and/or inorganic nitrate can attenuate the reduction in QE induced by severe-
intensity exercise.

The implications of the research must be interpreted with caution. First, we did not uncover effects on free-throw
accuracy—the outcome measure of performance that is most relevant to practitioners. However, as we have
mentioned, uncovering changes in underpinning mechanisms (attentional control and shooting efficiency) may be a
key precursor to subsequent performance degradation (e.g., see Miles et al., 2015). Second, a reduction in attentional
control is unlikely to be the sole mechanism responsible for the exercise-induced performance decrements observed
in the present study. Indeed, severe intensity exercise significantly reduces postural control (Steinberg et al., 2016)
which is important for basketball free-throw shooting accuracy. Third, severe-intensity exercise also results in fatigue
of the central nervous system (O'Leary et al., 2016), a process that has been linked to impaired coordination and
ability to perform simple and complex motor tasks (see Batson, 2013 for review). However, given the limited
involvement of upper body muscle groups (i.e., arms and shoulders) during lower-limb cycle exercise, peripheral
fatigue of these muscle groups is unlikely to have contributed to the impaired shooting accuracy observed herein.
Finally, it is also presently unclear if QE duration will be impaired following repeated bouts of short (4–6 s) of all-out
sprints which may be more typical of game play (Spencer et al., 2005). Future research should utilize an
interdisciplinary approach to comprehensively assess the mechanisms responsible for impaired whole-body,
psychomotor skill performance following severe-intensity exercise.
To conclude, the current study provides novel findings to support the underpinning role of QE—an objective
measure of attentional control—in sustaining visuomotor performance under physiological stress. The results mirror
those found for psychological stress and therefore have particular implications in sport and other settings (e.g.,
military environments) where skilled visuomotor performance is required under interacting psychological and
physiological stressors. Interventions designed to maintain attentional control and quiet eye at pre-fatigued levels
may help to limit the degree of performance degradation.

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Procrastination and Well-Being at Work

Wendelien van Eerde, in Procrastination, Health, and Well-Being, 2016

A conceptual framework for workplace procrastination

The conceptual framework presented in Fig. 11.1 guides this discussion. The framework proposes an interactional
approach: both the characteristics of the person and of the work context are important to the occurrence of
procrastination and its effect on well-being at work. The exact relation of person and context factors may differ
according to which factors are involved. Sometimes, the context makes the occurrence of certain behaviors less likely,
and sometimes they enhance particular behaviors of the person.

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Figure 11.1. Conceptual framework.

With regard to characteristics of the person at work, I consider personality first, focusing on nonclinical aspects of
personality. I then discuss procrastination as avoidance behavior. Avoidance can be considered a relatively stable
aspect or a personality trait, but can also be viewed as momentary tendencies, when people appraise certain
situations as threatening and when they cope with the threatening situation using avoidance coping strategies
(Mackey & Perrewé, 2014). This should be viewed in light of the total amount of energy a person has, or the
resources needed for self-regulation. Sleep is important in this respect (see Chapter 5, Bedtime Procrastination: A
Behavioral Perspective on Sleep Insufficiency for a discussion of sleep as a health behavior). With regard to the
context, I suggest that although some people are more prone to show avoidance due to their personality,
procrastination will be likely to occur more in some settings than in others based upon selection, both formal and
informal (Schneider, 1987) and according to situational strength (Mischel & Shoda, 1995; Tett & Burnett, 2003), as
explained later. Based upon a conceptual model of time management (Burt, Weststrate, Brown, & Champion, 2010),
time demands, autonomy, and support are included. In addition, self-control demands related to the task that needs
to be executed and the broader aspects of the work environment are considered (Diestel & Schmidt, 2011; Schmidt,
Hupke, & Diestel, 2012). Three types of well-being may be distinguished (Grant, Christianson, & Price, 2007) and
h f th b ff t db ti ti I th
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each of them may be affected by procrastination. In the next section, I discuss well-being, person, and context in
more detail.

Interpersonalism: Personality processes in dyads☆

Thomas E. Malloy, in Social Relations Modeling of Behavior in Dyads and Groups, 2018

Against the backdrop of a turbulent theoretical history, Professor Walter Mischel (1999) called for integration of
personality research. He warned of a lingering paradigmatic standoff between the dispositional and interactional
approaches and wrote “The question that faces the field as the century ends is: Can these competing approaches be
constructively reconciled within one unifying framework and pursued within a unitary field?” (p. 525). This chapter
offers a foundation for that framework, while highlighting the guideposts for the future of personality science. While
historically, the primary focus in personality has been on the individual, there has been increasing attention to
psychological situations (Funder, 2016), and their continuity in different cultures (Guillaume et al., 2016). When
people around the globe reported on the situation they were in at 7 pm last evening, the seven most common
descriptors were:
(1) “Situation is basically simple and clear-cut.”
(2) “Social interaction is possible.”
(3) “Situation is potentially enjoyable.”
(4) “Talking is permitted.”
(5) “Situation allows a free range of emotional expression.”
(6) “Situation includes sensuous stimuli (e.g., touch, taste, smell, physical contact).”
(7) “Close personal relationships are present or have the potential to develop” (p. 5).

Performing under Pressure

Emma Mosley, Sylvain Laborde, in Performance Psychology, 2016

PTLIDs: An Interactionist Approach

Interactionism suggests that traits and situations interact together to affect behavior, and neither dimension alone
can be considered as the cause of behavior (Carver & Scheier, 2012). Personality is not the sole contributor or
predictor of pressurized performance outcomes. However, if the concept of PTLIDs is combined with other variables,
such as appraisal and physiological parameters, a more rounded prediction starts to develop. Another contributor is
the influence of the situation on the individual, and it is widely agreed that understanding behavior is enhanced
through the interactions between the individual and the situation (Fleeson, 2001; Zuckerman, 1983). The person–
environment interaction is a widely accepted conceptual paradigm within psychology (Schneider, 2001; Walsh, Craik,
& Price, 1992) and this represents an interactional approach to personality (Bowers, 1973). As an example of this, Cox
(2012) devised a model of estimation of importance of these factors in relation to the sporting environment.
Figure 2 demonstrates the contribution to performance behaviors from personality, situational factors, and the
interaction between them; if the three areas are summed, it accounts for approximately 30% of an athlete’s behavior
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(Cox, 2012). Although this model excludes other factors that contribute to an individual’s performance, for example,
motor ability, it does demonstrate how the highlighted factors may be a moderator for performance under pressure.
This area of interest is highlighted through current research trends below that are linked to situational or state
factors.

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Figure 2. Factors effecting athletic behavior: situation, personality, and interaction.

(Adapted from Cox, 2012).

Trait Activation
Personality traits may predict behavior in particular situations, but the individual’s behavior may fluctuate due to
situational demands (Fleeson, 2001). Fleeson (2001) uses a density-distribution approach and believes that a person
has an accumulation of traits, which are distributed among particular situations. This suggests that different traits
play individual roles in particular situations, a concept recently explored within the sporting domain as trait
activation (Geukes, Mesagno, Hanrahan, & Kellmann, 2012). For example, if an athlete is performing well during a
training session, reinvestment may not play a role in determining behavior. However, if they were losing in the final
of a competition, it may play a huge part in coping with the pressure. This is demonstrated in Geukes, Mesagno,
Hanrahan, and Kellmann (2013a), who found in a private, high-pressure condition, the situational demands activated
self-focus traits, that is, reinvestment, but these findings were not matched within the low-pressure condition. When
assessing differing pressurized situations such as private, mixed, and public, a similar result was found in that with
differing situational demands, self-focussed traits were activated (Geukes, Mesagno, Hanrahan, & Kellmann, 2013b).
This shows the need to investigate together both traits and states within pressurized environments The notion that
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This shows the need to investigate together both traits and states within pressurized environments. The notion that
particular traits can be activated dependent on situational demands is one of great interest. However, the situational
demand may be first dependent on the individual appraisal processes.

Appraisals
The way individuals view the situation that they are exposed to depends on a process known as cognitive appraisal
(Lautenbach & Laborde, Chapter 19). This relates to the individual’s perception of the stressors within the
environment (Lazarus, 1984). More specifically, individuals view performance situations, where valued goals are
strived toward, as either a challenge or a threat (Jones, Meijen, McCarthy, & Sheffield, 2009). Those who respond
positively to potentially stressful situations are considered to have a challenge appraisal and those who respond
negatively, a threat appraisal (Jones et al., 2009). This concept is present within personality not only in the

composition of individual traits but also as a moderator of the resulting behavioral responses. For example,
hardiness has a challenge component, which encourages individuals to see the situation as a challenge to be
overcome rather than as a threat to themselves (Nelson & Simmons, 2003). This appraisal of stress promotes
transformational coping, which is demonstrated in competitive anxiety research (Hanton et al., 2003). Kaczmarek
(2009) found that those higher in resilience used challenge appraisals resulting in greater positive affect within
stressful situations. Therefore, it may be a valuable route for future research to understand the role of appraisals and
its link to PTLIDs and performance under pressure. This could be further enhanced by incorporating the objectivity
of physiological measures.

Physiological Measures
Individual differences and personality research often involve measuring constructs that we cannot directly observe,
also known as latent variables (Caprara & Cervone, 2000). Therefore, by using an objective measure, such as
physiological parameters, we are able to objectify how a person is reacting under a pressurized situation.
Furthermore, by using an objective measure, it helps to increase the validity of measuring personality through self-
report measures, given the fact that personality is considered to have links to physiological responses (Allport, 1961)
and neural pathways (Davis & Panksepp, 2011). Recent PTLID research has utilized a measure known as HRV, which
is a cardiac measure of activation within the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is involved with
physiological activation within the stress response, and HRV represents the efficiency and adaptability of the ANS in
response to environmental and situational demands (Appelhans & Luecken, 2006; Thayer & Lane, 2000). Therefore,
by using HRV, researchers can understand the levels of stress an individual is experiencing; this objectifies the
reaction that can be directly linked with personality’s role under pressure. One trait successfully linked to HRV is EI
(see also Laborde, Chapter 17; Lautenbach & Laborde, Chapter 19). Two studies (Laborde et al., 2011; Laborde,
Lautenbach, et al., 2015) found that those higher in EI had a better physiological resilience to stress when exposed to
laboratory stressors. Similarly, at the hormonal level when using cortisol as the physiological marker of stress
(Lautenbach & Laborde, Chapter 19), a higher trait EI was associated to a lower cortisol secretion but not
performance under pressure (Laborde, Lautenbach, et al., 2014). HRV has been assumed to be part of the
neurophysiological basis of the reinvestment trait under pressure, as high reinvestors were found to have a higher
decrease in parasympathetic activity as well as a decreased performance in comparison to low reinvestors during a
pressurized decision-making task (Laborde, Raab, et al., 2014). More recently, Laborde, Furley, et al. (2015) found
that HF-HRV baseline could predict performance beyond the self-reported reinvestment trait. This demonstrates
that physiology helps to support findings from personality research and may even be able to predict performance
beyond traits.

Gender and Language: Cultural Concerns

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Ruth Wodak, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition), 2015

Doing Gender
Unlike a research approach that accepts sexual differences as an aggregation of qualities and deals with the
qualitative behavioral tendencies of women and men, ethnomethodologically oriented studies produced a new focus
of research: ‘doing gender’ (Kotthoff, 2010). Such an approach complements traditional theories, which viewed
gender as an aggregation of static attributes and are concerned with investigating and displaying the peculiarities of
women and interpreting them as ‘gender-specific’ or ‘gender-typical’ attributes so as to reveal the asymmetry of the
difference between the sexes, to criticize it, and to make it politically visible. The use of a bundle of characteristics
and attributes to define gender complicates or renders an impossible interactional approach since attributes are
‘entities’ and not processes. This concept entails that definitions of gender cannot change, transform, and are not
influenced by, spontaneous interactions. A further problem raised by the concept of gender as a concept of attributes
is the possibility of individualization; that is, the individual who has been seen to possess or not to possess certain
attributes becomes the center of focus, and the level of the social system is neglected. Unlike this non-interactive
approach, ‘doing gender’ regards membership of a sex not as a pool of attributes ‘possessed’ by a person, but as
something a person ‘does.’ In this sense, membership of a gender constitutes a performative act and not a fact.
Gender is continually realized in interactional form. Gender is created not only in the everyday activities that
characterize ‘doing gender,’ but also in the asymmetry of the relationship between the sexes, the dominance of the
‘male’ and its normativeness. Patriarchal inequality is produced and reproduced in every interaction. This concept of
‘doing gender’ stresses the creative potential and the embedding of gender-typical behavior in a social context.
Female MEPs, for example, have created very different ways of positioning themselves in interactions with male
colleagues in the European Commission or in the European Parliament itself. Interviews with female MEPs (Wodak,
2003, 2004, 2011) illustrate that they are very conscious of their gender roles and that they tend to construct different

ways of self-presentation in interactions: in particular, one MEP stated the following, in talking about her first
experience as a rapporteur.
when I – entered the parliament – Orientation (lines 1–3) on my first report it was about Leonardo I don't know if you
know: ((laughing)) well – I said ‘I'm going to speak to the commissioner’ and – I – /I knew – he only speaks very bad
French and my er my French was very bad as well. so I said ‘I want to have interpretation’ So – I went to the
commissioner Complicating Actions (lines 4–14) with a very good int/int/interpreter and I/I/I/I talked more than an
hour with him. because we talked the same about it and at the end he said – ‘well: I have here the advice of my: civil
servants but I – agree with you:
and this and this and this all goes through – ’ so you have to be: – er – I don't know/how do we call it in English in /
in the Netherlands we say [brutal] so you have to: ((laughing)) be polite Evaluation (lines 16–20) but you have to –
you:/you mustn't be/ you mustn't sit behind your -/your desk – because that doesn't help. ((laughing)) but then then
you have the worse system that I tried several times Coda (22–31). …
In this example, which has been marked for basic narrative structure according to Labov and Waletzky's (1967)
model, we see that this MEP's story is objectively about having a successful meeting with a Commissioner while
acting as rapporteur on a report about Leonardo – an EU youth and education related program established in 1995
to provide financial support for professional development and job training. In lines 4–6, the complicating actions,
she shows how she went to the commissioner with an interpreter, and because she and the commissioner had the
same understanding of the issues involved, he was willing to support her, despite contrary advice by his ‘civil
servants’ on the matters involved. The main point of the story, or evaluation, from the MEP's perspective, is to show
that as an MEP, to get things done, you must be active and assertive, ‘not sit behind your desk.’ Thus, in this
narrative, she positions herself as an MEP who is proactive and who will do what it takes, including arguing directly
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with Commissioners, to see that her voice is heard. She also orients to being a rapporteur (line 2), which carries
some responsibility in a committee, and to being from the Netherlands (line 17), although this last identity is evoked
only to characterize her style of work (‘brutal’ in Dutch, or ‘assertive’) (for further details of the analysis see Wodak,
2011). This narrative also manifests the complexity of the European Parliament, the interwovenness of languages,
cultures, positions, political affiliations, and gender roles, as well as professional experiences.
Another of the interviewees is oriented to a particularly wide range of identities (left, woman, Swedish, mother,
political outsider, etc.) during her interview. Most striking is the way in which she repeatedly positions herself as
being an ‘atypical MEP.’ Here we see one such occasion.
I figure here the most common – ah civil – job – for an MEP is er to be a lawyer. me myself I'm far from that the job I
had doesn't even exist outside Scandinavia. so: it's a sort of a social teacher – so so I'm/I'm very in/an/a very special
bird in this er: Interviewer mhm mhm so now you don't feel like you – fit into sort of a typical MEP er ME no. no: no:
I'm not. I'm left I'm a woman I'm Swedish and I'm also everything – /everything's wrong (laughs).
In this example, the MEP contrasts herself with what she considers to be a typical profile for an MEP (lawyer by
profession), emphasizing the degree to which she feels different (I'm far from that … I'm a very special bird …
everything is ‘wrong’). She also points out many of the identities that she associates with and that she perceives as
marking her as different (social teacher, left, female, Swedish). This MEP is very much concerned with her self-
presentation as being different, different than other female MEPs and also male MEPs. Moreover, she explains her
success as a female MEP by being exotic and narrates different strategies which she applies in ‘doing politics and
gender.’
Even such short examples illustrate the diversity and complexity of gender roles and make clear why an
interdisciplinary, qualitative, and context-sensitive approach is necessary to access the whole domain of ‘gender and
language.’ To be able to make more general observations, however, much more cross-cultural comparable research is
urgently needed.

Sport and Exercise Psychology:Overview

A.E. Abele, D. Alfermann, in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2001

1 Individual, Social, and Motivational Influences on Sport and Exercise Behavior

1.1 Individual Determinants of Sport and Exercise
Research on personality differences in sport was greatly influenced by the paradigms of differential psychology. The
trait approach was most popular until the 1970s. Numerous studies looked for differences in personality variables
between athletes and nonathletes as well as between athletes of different performance levels. Talent detection via
personality tests and performance enhancement due to personality training were the main impetus of this line of
research. Taken together the results are rather inconclusive and show only correlational but no causal relationships.
There were several methodological problems leading to these disappointing findings, like lacking adaptation to the
sports context of the scales used and suboptimal research designs with respect to causal conclusions. Even the well-
known finding from the 1960s showing a healthier personality profile of successful elite athletes than of nonathletes
did not prove valid in the long run (Rowley et al. 1995). The interactional approach that followed is more promising
and is still popular. Scales were developed within the sports context that differ between state and trait aspects of
respective variables like, for instance, competitive anxiety, sport confidence, or cognitive strategies. Personality
research in sport at the beginning of the twenty-first century is more concerned with either performance
enhancement in sport or with effects of exercise on personality variables like, for instance, self-esteem (cf. Sect. 2.2).
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1.2 Social Processes in Sport and Exercise

The beginnings of research on productivity in sport teams and about spectators' influence on performance can be
traced back to the end of the nineteenth century. Sport and exercise are often performed in groups or teams, and
therefore social processes are deemed highly significant (Carron and Hausenblas 1998). Team cohesion, leadership,
and aspects of group composition on individual and group outcomes are the most important topics. Whereas in the
beginning cohesion was regarded as interpersonal attraction between team members, i.e., social cohesion, at the
beginning of the twenty-first century cohesion in sport teams is conceptualized and assessed as social and task
cohesion. The positive relationship of group cohesion and performance has been well-documented for sport teams
and is mainly based on task cohesion. This relationship is quite robust, and exists irrespective of the group task. For
example, highly cohesive handball, rowing, or golf teams alike are more successful than low cohesive teams. Less is
known about the causal paths of the relationship. There is convincing evidence that success fosters cohesion more
than vice versa (Mullen and Copper 1994). Looking at the relationship of cohesion and adherence to sport and
exercise reliable differences can be found between dropouts perceiving a lower cohesion and adherers perceiving a
higher coherence in exercise groups and in sport teams. Perceived high cohesion may lead to more satisfaction of
the group members and their overall attraction to the group, whereas perceived low cohesion reduces the motivation
to stay in the group. This result is of high importance for any setting, be it exercise, recreational, or competitive
sport.
The predominant approaches to leadership behavior of coaches in sport are the mediational model of Smoll and
Smith (1989) and the multidimensional model of Chelladurai (see Chelladurai and Riemer 1998). The mediational
model was developed in youth sport and postulates that the effects of the coaches' behaviors are mediated by the
meaning that players attribute to them. Smoll and Smith (1989) could demonstrate that coaches who give general
technical instruction, who prefer positive feedback, and who give mistake-contingent instruction and
encouragement are evaluated most highly by their athletes. Training in these skills led to more positive evaluation of
youth sport coaches, to fewer dropouts from their groups, and to an increase in the athletes' self-esteem and in team
cohesion compared to nontrained youth sport coaches. However, the coaches' behaviors had no direct impact on the
athletes' performance.
The multidimensional model of leadership (MDL) by Packianathan Chelladurai postulates that individual and group
outcomes (satisfaction and performance) are dependent on the congruence among required, actual, and preferred
leader behavior. Preferred and perceived leader behavior is measured with a five-dimensional questionnaire called
the Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS). This instrument has been tested and validated in quite a few studies with
athletes and coaches in various sport contexts and countries, in North America, Asia, and Europe. Research was
primarily focused on the perception of coach behavior by adult and high-level athletes. The relationship to outcome
measures is inconclusive. Future research has to focus on this relationship between coaches' behavior and outcome
measures such as performance and satisfaction in the group.

1.3 Motivation
Considering motivation as a term for explaining intensity and direction of an individual's effort, motivation research
in the field of sport and exercise is on the one hand concerned with explaining why and how certain people are
attracted to which kind of sport or exercise and why others are not. On the other hand strategies to enhance
motivation, like mastery training, attributional retraining, or goal setting have been developed and tested (Roberts
1992). With regard to the first issue, achievement and competition have been a traditional focus of motivation
research in sport. Three theoretical perspectives were most influential: need achievement theory, attribution theory
and social-cognitive approaches, mainly goal orientation theory. Starting with need achievement theory in the 1950s
and 1960s, high and low achievers in sport were found to differ in their dispositional orientations (motive to achieve
success or to avoid failure), their task choice, and their emotional reactions to success and failure, as was predicted
by the theory.
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The attributional model of achievement motivation of Bernard Weiner led to a considerable number of studies since
the 1970s (Singer et al. 1993, ch. 19). They showed that the initial attributional framework of ability, task, effort, and
luck attributions needs an extension to more sport specific attributions like opponents' quality or audience support.
Self-serving biases in attributions were also found in the sports context, whereas gender differences were rarely
found. Reattribution training for low achievers was successfully applied in sport settings like physical education, elite
sport, and exercise. Another important topic was the relationship of attributions and emotions in sport. Though an

attributional model would predict that emotions after success and failure depend on attributions, emotions of
athletes seem to depend more on outcome than on attributions (Willimczik and Rethorst 1995).
Since the 1980s social cognitive approaches have gained attention in sport psychology. For instance, the goal
perspective approach of John Nicholls was adapted to sport settings by Joan Duda and tested in numerous studies
(cf. Duda 1992). Goal perspective theory assumes that in achievement contexts like sport and exercise individuals are
motivated because they want to demonstrate ability or competence. This can be done with two types of goal, which
are conceptualized as dispositions. The ego or outcome orientation is easily aroused in competitive situations like
sport. Success or failure is dependent on the performance of others and perceptions of ability are referenced to the
ability of others. In contrast, the task goal or mastery goal focuses on individual comparison. Perceptions of ability
are self-referenced. Task orientation is typically aroused in situations where the focus is on learning or mastery.
Results show that task orientation is correlated with intrinsic motivation, with more enjoyment in sport, with
persistence in the face of failure, and with the selection of moderately difficult tasks. Task-oriented individuals are
more like high achievers. In contrast, ego-oriented individuals, especially when low in perceived competence, are
more at risk to drop out of sports, they are more prone to develop fear of failure, and they emphasize fairness in
sport less than task-oriented individuals. Fostering task orientation more than ego orientation is therefore highly
recommended. Goal perspective theory has also focused on socialization contexts and their impact on the
development of one or the other kind of goal. It is assumed that the socialization context induces a motivational
climate where either competition or mastery is emphasized. A competitive climate may enhance ego orientation,
whereas a mastery climate enhances task orientation.
Though achievement motivation is clearly important it is not the sole reason for sport and exercise participation. For
many youngsters and adults affiliation motivation, pleasure seeking, physical challenge, adventure, and risk
motivation, as well as the wish to shape an attractive body and to keep one's ‘fitness’ by means of exercise play an
equally or even more important role. Sport and exercise become integrated into a person's lifestyle, and the wish to
express a certain lifestyle is an important motivation to practice exercise and sport. A lifestyle theoretical perspective
in sport and exercise psychology (Dishman 1994, Abele et al. 1997) posits that sport is an important aspect of a
person's general way of living. It is a means both to pursue different motives (affiliation, achievement, risk, fun,
challenge, health), and to express certain attitudes (toward youth, health, physical attractiveness) at the same time.
With increasing knowledge about the physical and mental health benefits of exercise (see Sect. 2) psychology
becomes increasingly concerned with exercise adherence (Dishman 1994, Abele et al. 1997). Knowing that more than
half of the adults in Western countries do not exercise enough from a health-oriented point of view and knowing
that more than half of the participants who have started an exercise program for health reasons quit it again after a
short time points to the importance of research on the determinants of exercise adherence and on interventions
aimed at enhancing adherence and preventing dropout. Whereas early models have stated that perceived
vulnerability or health protection motivation are most important, research has shown that perceived vulnerability
does not lead to long-term adherence. Rather positive factors like exercise-specific self-efficacy beliefs, social support
in the person's immediate environment, perceived group cohesion (see Sect. 1.2), and a suitable program and
program climate are important. Participation motivation has to be understood not as a state but rather as a process
undergoing at least three phases (inactivity, intention to participate and begin participation, adherence) that need
ifi ti ti l t
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specific motivational support.

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