Enjoyable Aspects Research Articles

A Longitudinal Investigation of Competitive Athletes' Return to Sport Following Serious Injury

Returning to sport following a serious injury can be a difficult process for competitive athletes (Bianco, 2001; Bianco, Malo, & Orlick, 1999; Gould, Udry, Bridges, & Beck, 1997). Unfortunately, no qualitative longitudinal studies were found that examine athlete return-to-sport experiences following injury recovery. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of competitive athletes' returning to sport following a serious injury over a period of up to 8-months. Salient themes relating to motives to return to sport, return-to-sport appraisals and emotions and decision-making processes were identified in participant interviews. Athletes also described their experiences in overcoming return-to-sport fears and concerns, and how they dealt with adversity. Finally, the enjoyable aspects of the return to competition and the positive consequences of injury were articulated. Findings from this research indicate that self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) may offer a valuable framework for coaches and practitioners hoping to better understand and assist athletes with the return-to-sport process.

Trials, Tribulations, and Occasional Jubilations While Conducting Research with Homeless Children, Youth, and Families

A personal account of a program of research on homelessness and poverty spanning the past 20 years is provided, with a focus on the many methodological, practical, and ethical difficulties encountered. Interesting discoveries and enjoyable aspects of the research process are also presented. Several role conflicts that arose for the researcher in this community-based work are also described, and the importance of nurturing long-term personal relationships with various community leaders is emphasized. The evolution of research ideas is documented by highlighting how the findings and problems encountered in earlier studies led to improved methods and new research questions.

The Role of Hedonomics in the Future of Industry, Service, and Product Design: Panel Overview

Hedonomics has been defined as “ the branch of science which facilitates the pleasant or enjoyable aspects of human-technology interaction.” Hedonomics in general is a fairly new area in research and it is evidently new in ergonomics, human factors, usability and human-computer interaction (HCI). During the last ten years there has been a rapid growth in research about affect and pleasure. Considering the lack of interest from the psychological community during much of the 1900's this comes as a surprise. Affective evaluations provide a new and different perspective in Human Factors Engineering. It is not how to evaluate users — it is how the user evaluates. The research on hedonic values and seductive interfaces is in fact a welcome contrast to issues of safety and productivity, which have dominated human factors and ergonomics (HF/E). In order for industry to adopt these user-evaluating principles (as opposed to user-evaluation principles) it has to be convinced of their practical effectiveness in the workplace. This panel will focus on this issue and the role of Hedonomics in future work environments and products.

Development of a questionnaire measuring student attitudes to working and living in rural areas

Student attachments in rural locations have been instigated, in part to foster positive attitudes to rural practice and encourage rural recruitment. Based on medical and allied health literature, it was hypothesised that students' attitudes to rural practice and rural life encompasses the following three dimensions: (1) community and social issues; (2) family and personal issues; and (3) professional issues. However, there are limited studies assessing attitudinal change before and after rural placement and no valid and reliable tools which examine change across all three dimensions. This article reports on the development, reliability and validity of such a tool to fill this gap in the rural health research literature. Students who undertook a rural placement in South Australia or a rural placement organised by the Mt Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health in Queensland, Australia, during 2001 were invited to complete a pre- and post-placement questionnaire (n = 243). The response rate for the pre-placement questionnaire was 74.9% (n = 182) and 50.2% (n = 122) for the post-placement questionnaire. A literature review informed the content of the initial questionnaire, which consisted of a series of statements to which respondents were instructed to indicate how strongly they agreed or disagreed on a Likert scale of one to six. The assessment of validity and reliability of the questionnaire involved three main processes. Content validity was assessed by discussion and rating by academics and students, resulting in 18 questionnaire items. Exploratory factor analysis was used to provide evidence of construct validity. The internal consistency reliability of the questionnaire was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the post-questionnaire was 0.68, acceptable for newly developed scales. Exploratory factor analysis and varimax rotation was conducted for pre- and post-placement (n = 110) questionnaires. The pre-placement questionnaire did not lend itself to logical interpretation, probably due to the diverse attitudes students may have pre-rural placement. However the factors on the post-placement questionnaire were interpretable. The Scree Plot indicated four factors, explaining 60.82% of the total variance. The factors were rotated using the normalised varimax rotation method. The factors extracted were: (1) friendliness and support in rural areas; (2) isolation and socialisation problems associated with living and working in rural areas; (3) enjoyable aspects of living in a rural area; and (4) opportunities that working in a rural area provides. Analysis of the Student Attitudes to Rural Practice and Life Questionnaire provides evidence of validity. The study identified four factors associated with student attitudes to living and working in rural areas, which differ from those hypothesised. The main deviation was Factor 2, grouping all the negative aspects of isolation and socialisation in a rural area. The resulting factors provide a more integrated reflection of the rural experience, rather than the rigid categorisation of professional, social and personal issues. Reliability was found to be adequate. The questionnaire is able to measure student attitudes to rural practice and rural life, and may be used to evaluate the impact of rural placement on student attitudes.

Morale and job perception of community mental health professionals in Berlin and London

Morale and job perception of staff in community mental health care may influence feasibility and quality of care, and some research has suggested particularly high burnout of staff in the community. The aims of this study were to: a) assess morale, i. e. team identity, job satisfaction and burnout, in psychiatrists, community psychiatric nurses and social workers in community mental health care in Berlin and London; b) compare findings between the groups and test whether personal characteristics, place of working and professional group predict morale; and c) explore what tasks, obstacles, skills, enjoyable and stressful aspects interviewees perceived as important in their jobs. In all, 189 mental health professionals (a minimum of 30 in each of the six groups) responded to a postal survey and reported activities per week using pre-formed categories. Perception of professional role was assessed on the Team Identity Scale, job satisfaction on the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale, and burnout on the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Seven simple open questions were used to elicit the main tasks, skills that staff did and did not feel competent in, aspects that they did and did not enjoy in their job, and obstacles and factors that caused pressure. Answers were subjected to content analysis using a posteriori formed categories. Weekly activities and morale varied between sites and professional groups. Some mean scores for groups in London exceeded the threshold for a burnout syndrome, and are particularly less favourable for social workers. Working in London predicted higher burnout, lower job satisfaction and lower team identity. Being a psychiatrist predicted higher team identity, whilst being a social worker was associated with higher burnout and lower job satisfaction. Male gender predicted lower burnout and higher team identity. However, professional group and site interacted in predicting burnout and job satisfaction. Psychiatrists in London had much more favourable scores than the other two groups, whilst this did not hold true in Berlin. Answers to open questions revealed universal aspects, such as enjoying direct patient contact and disliking bureaucracy, but also various views that were specific to a site or professional group or both. Burnout remains a problem for some, but not all, professional groups in community mental health care, and social workers in London appear to be a group with particularly low morale. Differences between professional groups depend on the location, and it remains unclear to what extent job-related and general factors impact on the morale of mental health professionals. Answers to open questions reveal general as well as specific aspects of the job perception of the professional groups, some of which may be relevant for service development, training and supervision. More conceptual and methodological work and more extensive studies are required to develop a better understanding of how community mental health professionals perceive their job and how morale may be improved.

Morale of mental health professionals in Community Mental Health Services of a Northern Italian Province

To explore morale of psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses working in Community Mental Health Centres (CMHC) in an Italian Province, and identify influential factors. Thirty psychiatrists and 30 nurses working in CMHCs in Modena completed questionnaires on burnout, team identity and job satisfaction. They also answered open questions about different aspects of their work. Answers were subjected to content analysis. Regression analyses were used to identify factors that predicted morale across groups. Psychiatrists had higher scores on emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation. There were no significant differences between the two groups in job satisfaction and job or role perception. Professionals reported positive relationships with patients as the most enjoyable aspects of their job, whilst team conflicts and high workloads were seen as most difficult to cope with. Multivariate analyses showed that being a psychiatrist and perceiving team conflicts as a main cause of pressure in the job predicted higher burnout. Simple open questions coupled with quantitative measures appear a promising tool to investigate morale of mental health professionals and identify factors determining morale. Research, training and service development should focus on relationship aspects both with patients and within teams to reduce burnout in CMHCs.

The Zodiak workshop: an innovative model for teaching financial management through partnership with industry.

The National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues (NCVEI) is working to enhance the non-technical skills, knowledge, aptitudes, and attitudes (SKAs) of veterinarians. This report describes the development of an innovative model for teaching the principles of financial management as they apply to the veterinary practice. Zodiak: The Game of Business Finance and Strategy is a "business literacy" game in which players work together in small teams (generally four people) to run a fictional multi-million-dollar company called Zodiak Industries for three "years" in order to learn principles of business finance and strategy. After finishing the 4.5-hour game, participants spend the rest of the workshop making the right "Connections"-exercises designed to connect what they have learned to business strategies, financial statements, and operational tactics drawn from veterinary practice. Issues addressed for the veterinary practice, with parallels drawn to Zodiak, included return on owner investment in a veterinary practice (vs. salary drawn by owner veterinarians); pricing (setting prices, price elasticity of demand, and relationships between volume, quality, and price); human resources and operations management as they relate to profitability and efficiency; cash flow and management of accounts receivable; and commonly used financial benchmarks. Workshop venues have included Michigan State University, The Ohio State University, the University of Illinois, and Purdue University. Financial and in-kind support were provided through partnership with Pharmacia Animal Health (now Pfizer Animal Health) and Hill's Pet Nutrition, Inc. Through course evaluations, participants generally rated the workshop high as an educational experience and indicated that the most important things learned were related to financial management (principles, terminology, and methods). The most enjoyable aspects of the workshop tended to be group discussions, teamwork, the dynamic/interactive environment, and the "game" atmosphere. Based on these experiences, the Zodiak workshop provides a useful model for teaching career development and practice management topics to veterinary students. The business simulation in a workshop format was especially useful for teaching these "non-mainstream" topics, as traditional classroom lecture approaches might not have engaged students sufficiently to achieve effective learning. In addition, the partnership developed between academia and industry offered substantial benefits to both parties. Similar educational approaches should be considered for additional aspects of the non-technical SKAs.

Women Working in the Administration of Campus Recreation: Career Paths and Challenges

Women have made in-roads into management positions in various traditionally male-dominated industries including the sport industry. The sport industry consists of a number of segments such as professional sport, intercollegiate athletics, health and fitness, facility management, sport for people with disabilities, sport marketing, and recreational sport. While scholars have focused attention on the careers of women working in management positions in several of these segments, almost no work has been done in the recreational sport segment. One specialized area within recreational sport is campus recreation. In this particular area, there is limited research on women working in administrative positions. Thus, the purpose of this study was to establish and examine career information of women working in the administration of campus recreation programs. The survey subjects were 376 women listed in the 2000–2001 NIRSA National Sport Recreational Directory as holding administrative level jobs in campus recreation. The study addressed the following concerning women working in campus recreation administration: (a) demographics; (b) career paths; (c) most/least enjoyable aspects of their jobs; (d) greatest challenges; (e) career advice for women wanting to enter this profession; (f) short-term and long-term career aspirations; (g) the role of mentors on their careers, and (h) how they obtained their first/current job in campus recreation administration. Analysis of the data for this descriptive study focused on two areas. First, means and standard deviations were calculated where appropriate. Second, the answers to the open-ended questions were investigated for recurring themes. After examining the data, suggestions for future research were generated.

Sky Service: The Demands of Emotional Labour in the Airline Industry

Following Hochschild's The Managed Heart, which emphasized the problematic features that emotional labour had for women flight attendants, a critical literature emerged which focused on the more enjoyable aspects of emotional labour in service employee experience. This article draws on this literature and analyses emotional labour as a gendered cultural performance but takes issue with the individualizing and pluralistic tenor in the post‐Hochschild discussions. Using a qualitative and quantitative study of nearly 3000 Australian flight attendants, it focuses on organizational and occupational health and safety variables, as well as sexual harass‐ment and passenger abuse — factors barely discussed by Hochschild's critics. The qualitative data indicate that emotional labour is both pleasurable and difficult at different times for the same individual. Gender is still pivotal, as Hochschild suggested, linking emotional labour with sexual harassment. At the same time, the most significant predictors from the quantitative study of whether emotional labour would be costly were organizational. Variables such as whether flight attendants felt valued by the company show that the airline management context is highly influential in the way in which emotional labour is experienced. As a means of understanding the complex relations in this important and eroticized area of service work where flight attendants, airline crews, airline management and passengers have convergent and conflicting interests, the article also deploys a new concept: ‘demanding publics’, to refer to trangressions of the legitimate boundaries of the service worker.

The Perceived Benefits of a Group CBT Intervention for Patients With Coronary Heart Disease

Participants in a group CBT intervention for men who had undergone stent surgery completed an evaluation of the program at its completion. The evaluation included questions on how much they liked the program, how helpful they found it to be, how well the leader ran the group, what aspects of the program they had found beneficial, and what aspects they liked and disliked. Measures of anxiety, depression, and hostility were taken before and after the intervention. Participants rated the program highly and most frequently cited the opportunity to disclose and share information with fellow participants as an aspect of the program which they particularly liked. Learning specific skills was the most frequently cited benefit of doing the program. The therapeutic aims of the program—reducing anxiety, depression, and hostility—were mentioned infrequently. Although reductions in anxiety and hostility scores were apparent after the program, these were not related to participants’ feedback on the perceived benefits or enjoyable aspects of the program.

Overview of Otto-Joachim Grüsser's work

usser for his unique ability to balance the complexities of his career with the simpler and more enjoyable aspects of life. He often reminded us that the defining criterion for selecting a research project is that it should be both adventurous and speculative. Even his insistence on maintaining an upper hand was done with a sense of humor. Days of exhausting experiments, typically ending at 4 in the morning, would end with an invitation to Gr¨ usser’s house for South German bread and wine. Laborious research was always recognized by an annual party hosted by him and his wife where students and colleagues would enjoy the finest German food and music. In the field of science, O.-J. Gr ¨ usser will likely be best re

The effects of precepting on and the support desired by community-based preceptors in Iowa.

To survey community-based family physician-preceptors about teaching costs, issues, and support desired. In late 1994 a questionnaire was mailed to all 139 community family physicians who served as preceptors for the University of Iowa College of Medicine's third-year family practice preceptorship. The questionnaire contained items regarding teaching costs and the kinds of assistance desired from the university, the difficult and enjoyable aspects of precepting, and demographic data. Analyses were done to explore the associations between the preceptors' demographic variables and the effects of precepting on number of patients seen, practice income, and time spent at work. Also tested were the associations between the demographic variables and the kinds of support desired. In all, 130 surveys were returned, for a response rate of 94%. Nearly all of the respondents were Caucasian, male, and residency trained; 61% were in group practices. While precepting, 87% spent more time at work, 31% saw fewer patients, and 25% lost practice income; mean daily cost estimates of precepting were 51 more minutes at work, 1.4 fewer patients seen, and $34 in lost income. The support the preceptors were most interested in receiving was training in and access to computer-based information. Financial compensation was desired more often by the physicians whose first year of practice was after 1977 (p = .009). Motivations for precepting included positive interactions with students and enjoyment of teaching. Time concerns were overwhelmingly the most difficult aspect of precepting. The physicians-many of whom noted their enjoyment of teaching for its intrinsic rewards-spent a significant amount of extra time teaching while precepting, and thus both lost income and saw fewer patients. Medical schools need to recognize the valuable contributions of preceptors and find ways to support them.

Time Waits for no (Wo)Man: An Investigation of the Gendered Experience of Domestic Time

Quite a lot is already known from the existing sociological literature about the overall time spent by women and men in different domestic tasks, but there is much less information available on more complex sociologically-relevant facets of the experience of time, such as the social context of activities, and the common combinations of different activities. In this paper I use time-use diary data to focus upon three important aspects of the gendered experience of time. These are the social context of domestic tasks in relation to their (gendered) patterns of management, the intensity or density of time-use involving combinations of different activities, and the fragmentation of leisure time according to which activities are responsible for interrupting it. Overall these analyses support the conclusion that women's time is not only more pressured in terms of the intensity of domestic tasks, but that the more enjoyable aspects of their time, such as leisure time, tend to be more fragmented than that of men.

Vicarious Trauma: The Effects on Female Counselors of Working with Sexual Violence Survivors

The primary purpose of this study was to assess the effects on counselors of working with sexual violence survivors. Members of a women psychologists' organization and a group of sexual violence counselors completed questionnaires regarding the extent of their work with survivors and their psychological functioning. Counselors who had a higher percentage of survivors in their caseload reported more disrupted beliefs, (particularly about the goodness of other people), more symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and more self-reported vicarious trauma. Symptomatology was not related to counselors' own history of victimization. Qualitative data regarding difficult and enjoyable aspects of working with survivors also were gathered, along with data on the strategies used by counselors to cope with work-related stress. Implications for counselor training are discussed.

Positive Aspects in Caregiving: An Overlooked Variable in Research

RÉSUMÉCet article passe en revue les divers concepts et les diverses mesures reliées aux aspects positifs de la prise en charge qui ont fait l'objet d'études antérieures. Il décrit également une mesure simple des «aspects plaisants de la prise en charge» utilisée par un projet longitudinal canadien sur le soin accordé aux patients atteints de démence et résidant dans la communauté. Le taux de fidélité test-retest de cette mesure est significatif, ême que les corrélations avec le fardeau de la prise en charge et la santé du donneur de soins. Cette variable prédit également le désir d'institutionnaliser le bénéficiaire, et ce à trois étapes différentes de la prise en charge, mais ne prédit pas l'institutionnalisation comme telle. Cet article conclut qu'il devrait y avoir davantages de mesures reliées aux aspects positifs de la prise en charge et une meilleure compréhension des interactions entre ces variables et leurs répercussions sur les facteurs principaux liés au patient et au donneur de soins.

When things go wrong

When midwives are describing their profession, they tend to concentrate on the more enjoyable and rewarding aspects which, in many ways, make it the most extraordinary career. There are few other occupations that can provide an individual with such emotional highs and, at times, such an overwhelming sense of fulfilment.

A study of the teaching of nursing research using the project method to post-basic registered nurses on ENB Course 100 (General intensive care nursing for RGN)

The study examined how a project based on the research process was included in ENB Course 100 and how effective this method was in teaching course members about nursing research. The data was collected by a postal questionnaire to course teachers and by pre- and post-project questionnaires to 12 course members taught by the investigator. Most course teachers include a project in their programme and felt this met the research objective required by the ENB. Advantages of the method described were improved problem-solving skills, awareness and understanding of research and implications arising for clinical practice. Disadvantages include limitations of time, quality, ethical considerations and selecting suitable topic areas. The course members had received little instruction on nursing research prior to the course, but their attitudes to it were positive. Following the project, they described the practical experience of data collection and analysis as the most enjoyable aspects, and the least enjoyable as interpretation and writing up of results. Attitudes to nursing research had improved or remained positive from the experience of the project method. It was recommended that the project be considered as a method of teaching nursing research in this post-basic course.

What happens to the other 75 percent? A case study of one university's findings on GPA statistics versus job opportunities

Interfacing with industries interested in our graduates is one of the enjoyable aspects of teaching. Typically, all the parties share a sincere desire to be as helpful to each other as possible, along with a shared concern for the future welfare of the graduating students. This attitude of mutual good will is especially apparent in recruitment representatives who are proud of their companies. Occasionally, however, a recruiter, new on the circuit, allows his pride in his company to reach such a high level that he drops a comment like, “We would like to talk to your best students.” Or even the somewhat more conservative, “We would like to interview your top 25 percent.” We suspect, though, that this thought occurs many more times than it is openly stated. This led to the question which became the basis of our study, “What happens to the other 75 percent?”

Design and Trial of a Computer-Assisted Lesson in Rhythm

For this study, a computer-assisted lesson for teaching selected behaviors that are related to the area of rhythm perception was designed and programed for students majoring in elementary education. The lesson's effects on students were then determined by testing the lesson with subjects from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The investigator used the computer-based Education Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois to design and program the lesson, set it into operational form, and test it. The TUTOR language and PLATO III system were used, consisting of a keyset, cathode-ray tube, and random-access slide selector. Also used was a random-access audio device designed for the PLATO IV. Two program objectives were stated for the CAI lesson, called RHYTHM: (1) The student can demonstrate a knowledge of the function of basic rhythmic notation, and (2) the student can demonstrate a knowledge of the relation of rhythmic notation to aural rhythmic patterns. During the two-week experimental program, data were collected by the computer and printed out, then analyzed and reported. The data included: (1) total time spent and amount of program covered, (2) amount of time on each main routine, (3) number of tries and OK or NO responses from the computer, and (4) special keys pressed within an exercise problem. At the end of each lesson session, the investigator interviewed individual students to find out their opinions of the enjoyable and frustrating aspects of the CAI lesson. Participating students generally felt that the lesson was enjoyable and valuable. They especially valued PLATO'S ability to feedback and to define a task, demand input, and quickly judge input. As a whole, students felt they had learned the basic behaviors related to notation encountered in the lesson. Most students felt that certain messages of the audio output were transmitted poorly.