Kinesiology Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2784
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Item SHOE MIDSOLE DROP AFFECTS JOINT-LEVEL KINETICS AND ENERGETICS DURING JUMP-LANDING(2019) Garcia, Gina Lorraine; Shim, Jae K; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Traditional athletic footwear is designed with an elevated heel, causing ankle plantarflexion (positive drop). Conversely, research suggests an elevated forefoot (negative drop) could take advantage of calf musculature and improve jump height. It is unknown, though, if a negative drop simultaneously benefits landing mechanics related to lower extremity injury risk, and how individual lower extremity joints are affected, which contribute to whole-body jump-landing performance. Maximum vertical countermovement jumps were performed by 16 females in shoes with negative (NEG), neutral (NTRL), and positive (POS) drops. Although jump height was similar, peak concentric joint power was significantly greater in NEG than POS at the ankle, but opposite at the knee during jumping. During landing, eccentric work was greatest in POS. Joint work was greater in NEG than POS at the ankle, but opposite at the knee. These findings suggest shoe drop can affect joint-level jump-landing mechanics without concomitant changes in whole-body performance.Item Understanding and Retraining the Causal Attributions for Exercise Intenders(2019) Singpurwalla, Darius; Iso-Ahola, Seppo E; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Given that ~50% of all exercise intenders will fall into the intention-behavior gap (i.e., a situation where people fail to act on their intentions), it is necessary to identify the constructs and/or theories that can explain the discord between intention and behavior (i.e., the intention-behavior gap). For this purpose, the present research was conducted through two studies that were designed to test the efficacy of causal attributions as a means to reduce the intention-behavior discord. The first study collected information from 952 individuals on their exercise behavior and their associated causal attributions over a six-week period. The findings from this study included: (1) those individuals who fell into the intention-behavior gap made self-serving attributions for their exercise failure; (2) Weiner’s model accurately predicted several of the affective and cognitive responses to exercise behavior for the sample of exercise intenders; and (3) causal attributions were not found to be effective moderators of the intention-behavior relationship. The second study was an experiment that tested whether an attribution retraining intervention could improve exercise behavior for a sample of sedentary, exercise intenders (n=200). Results of this study were mixed as the intervention appeared to have been able to modify one of the targeted attributional dimensions (control), but the effect was not strong enough to change the exercise behavior of the participants in the experimental group. It is suggested that attributions may not be able to reduce the gap because they represent conscious deliberations of the behavior, while sustained exercise is based on nonconscious processing of relevant information to make exercise an automatic behavior.Item "That Chart Ain't For Us": An Examination of Black Women's Understandings of BMI, Health, and Physical Activity(2019) Thompson, Tori; Jette, Shannon; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Significantly, black women have the highest rates of being overweight or obese compared to other groups in the United States, with 60% being classified as obese per the BMI (CDC, 2017). However, there is currently a lack of scholarship which examines black women’s perceptions of the BMI, and how/if those perceptions influence their attitudes toward health and physical activity. In this project, I take a Foucauldian approach to analyze data collected from eight semi-structured interviews with black women who self- identify as obese and who are physically active. Findings suggest that black women find the BMI to be irrelevant to their health and well-being, and do not attribute their engagement in physical activity to their BMI. Instead, their reasons for partaking in physical activity are due to their individual experiences understandings of health and black female identity. These results have the potential to inform healthcare policies, physician practice, and public health interventions that target communities of color.Item Human-Human Sensorimotor Interaction(2019) Honarvar, Sara; Shim, Dr. Jae Kun; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)We investigated the role of sensory feedback in inter-personal interactions when two co-workers are working together. Twenty-five co-workers completed two isometric finger force production experiments. In Experiment 1, co-workers isometrically produced finger forces such that combined force will match a target force and/or torque under different visual and haptic conditions. In Experiment 2, without participants’ knowledge, each performed the same task with the playback of his/her partner’s force trajectory previously recorded from Experiment 1. Results from both experiments indicated that co-workers performed the task worse in the presence of haptic and visual feedback. Since, in latter as opposed to the former condition, they adopted a compensatory strategy to accomplish the task accurately. Further analysis showed that co-workers achieved the same level of motor performance with similar control strategies, suggesting that they did not work synergistically to achieve better performance, but one co-worker processed another as disturbance when they worked together.Item Consuming the (Postmodern) Self: Sneaker Customization and the Symbolic Creation of Meaning and Identity(2019) Wallace, Brandon Tyler; Andrews, David L; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)With regard to the centrality of symbolic cultural consumption in late capitalism (Jameson, 1991; Mandel, 1978), this thesis broadly details how consumers negotiate meaning and construct identity through engagement with cultural commodities. I examine this phenomenon through the athletic sneaker: a commodity that’s value largely derives from the cultural meanings it exhibits (Baudrillard, 1983; Miner, 2009; Turner, 2015). Specifically, I analyze sneaker customization, or the act of personal modification of traditional sneakers. Drawing from 15 in-depth interviews with individuals who have experience with sneaker customization, I explicate the various meanings that participants attach to sneaker customization, along with articulating its emergence, current position, implications and significance within its broader sociocultural contexts. This thesis contributes to understandings of how everyday individuals engage with popular cultural practices – such as sneaker customization – to create and define the means of their existence amidst the societal conditions with which they are confronted (Hall, 1996).Item THE PHYSICAL CULTURE OF DIVERSITY WORK: A CASE STUDY OF EMBODIED INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION WITHIN THE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN UNIVERSITY(2019) Cork, Stephanie Joan; Jette, Shannon; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Considering recent incidents of white nationalism and racial violence on college campuses, the efficacy of diversity and inclusion work within this context has garnered increased attention. What received less attention, however, the embodied experiences of university employees, specifically “diversity workers,” who are tasked by their institution to combat equity issues. Previous research has shown that experiences of exclusion and discrimination can negatively impact work, educational, and health outcomes.This study explores how these impacts are experienced by the diversity workers themselves, many of whom inhabit intersectionally marginalized identities. In examining the physicality of the diversity worker, this project merges scholarship from the field of public health and the sociology of work to investigate occupational health and wellness through the lens of critical theory. It builds on a long tradition of studying the working body in the field of kinesiology through the lens of occupational health, and in doing so also fills a gap in the area of Physical Cultural Studies given that bodies at work (outside the sporting context) have received little attention in this subfield.The aims of this study are to explore the social, political, and economic context of the diversity worker in contemporary American post-secondary education, and how this impacts health, wellness, and job performance. This study uses a critical qualitative approach drawing from theories of embodiment, radical contextualism, and intersectionality. Data collection entailed a survey (n = 48) and one-on-one semi-structured interviews with diversity workers (n = 8) at an anonymized site referred to here as “public four-year university.” Using thematic analysis and the radical contextual method of articulation, the data was coded and synthesized to construct the three empirical chapters. Through centering the embodied experiences of diversity workers within the context of the contemporary American university, this study contributes to existing scholarship in a variety of disciplines. Study findings point to how we might better support diversity work and workers through a more supportive and healthier workplace environment.Item THE DATAFICATION OF EVERYDAY LIFE: CRITICALLY CONTEXTUALIZING THE “QUANTIFIED SELF” IN PHYSICAL CULTURE(2019) Esmonde, Katelyn Rebecca; Jette, Shannon; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The contemporary moment has been characterized as that of the “Quantified Self” (QS); a time in which the body is increasingly subjected to meticulous measurement in the service of generating data that will maximize individual potential through self-improvement. The QS is most readily associated with fitness tracking devices like the Fitbit that quantify various aspects of physical activity (i.e., steps taken, distance walked, heart rate, caloric intake/output). While these devices are often taken up as an individual fitness or health choice, institutions, through efforts such as workplace wellness programs, increasingly utilize them to survey and manage their workers’ health. Widespread use of these technologies is often positioned as a panacea for institutional and personal betterment. In this dissertation, I critically evaluate this assumption, by examining the emergence, nature, and influence of the QS, through a contextualization of the quantification of the physically (in)active body. This is an important undertaking given that the preoccupation with statistical measurement and metrics has seemingly de-emphasized the experiential and, often un-quantifiable, dimensions of physical activity. In light of these concerns, I seek to understand if these technologies are enhancing people’s lives and allowing them to become technologically self-actualized, if they are alienating people from their bodies and physical activity while subjecting them to even greater scrutiny from others, or both. This dissertation comprises three interrelated research studies, in which I draw on the theoretical tools of Foucauldian poststructuralism and sociomaterialisms. In the first study, I historically contextualize the QS, with a focus on how and why the physically (in)active body has been quantified. The second study is a sensory ethnographic study wherein I analyze women runners’ fitness tracking practices to explore how fitness tracking shapes their experiences of embodiment and emplacement. Finally, in the third study I interview key informants in the workplace wellness industry and study documents from workplace wellness programs and proponents. By examining the sociomaterial conditions of self-tracking, both historical and contemporary, this dissertation highlights the politics of self-tracking and the contingencies that are required to produce ‘self-evident’ and factual data about oneself.Item INVESTIGATING SOURCES OF AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN WALKING MECHANICS(2019) Krupenevich, Rebecca Lynn; Miller, Ross H.; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Walking is one of the most common activities of daily living and represents independence and improved quality of life, particularly among older adults. However, many older adults report substantial mobility challenges, which may be associated with age-related differences in lower-extremity gait kinetics. These differences are summarily referred to as a ‘distal to proximal shift’ of joint moments and powers, and are characterized by smaller ankle kinetics and larger hip kinetics in older vs. young adults. Although age-related differences in walking mechanics are well-documented, there is little consensus about which biomechanical factors contribute to these differences. Addressing this gap in knowledge is an important step in determining if this shift is preventable, or rather, an unavoidable part of healthy aging. Therefore, the overarching goal of this dissertation was to investigate sources of the age-related distal to proximal shift in gait kinetics. Specifically, this dissertation determined the extent to which the shift in kinetics is explained by age-related differences in (i) step length and trunk kinematics, (ii) years of endurance running (i.e., habitual physical activity), and (iii) gastrocnemius muscle architecture and individual lower-extremity muscle forces. In study 1, step length and trunk position did not reverse or reduce the age-related distal to proximal shift. Similarly, in study 2, a history of habitual endurance running did not reduce or reverse the shift. The third study confirmed the distal to proximal shift at the muscle level, suggesting that gastrocnemius may be a primary site of age-related differences in plantarflexor force, due to the shorter gastrocnemius muscle fascicles and smaller gastrocnemius force production in older adults vs. young adults. The present findings support the notion that the age-related distal to proximal shift of kinetics in active older adults is due primarily to differences at the muscle level and do not support previous speculations that this shift is due to spatiotemporal factors such as step length, joint kinematics, or physical activity. Further, these results suggest that age-related differences in lower-extremity joint kinetics are an unavoidable part of natural aging even in the absence of mobility limitations and the presence of a lifelong history of endurance running.Item THE IMMEDIATE EFFECT OF VENTILATORY TRAINING ON HEART RATE VARIABILITY AND BRAIN DYNAMICS, DURING TRAINING AND CHALLENGE(2018) Lu, Calvin; Hatfield, Bradley D; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A Guided Ventilatory Maneuver (GVM) can lead to changes in the central and autonomic nervous systems. Chronic effects of GVM have been reported in the literature to enhance physical and mental health. Purpose: To investigate the immediate effects of GVM on cortical activity and cardiovascular activity. Method: Twenty healthy participants (age 18-30) were recruited. Eligibility for the study required no experience in any mindfulness training. Results: Measures of the study utilized electroencephalography and electrocardiogram to measure cortical and cardiovascular changes. The study provided support for acute effects of GVM on cortical dynamics and heart rate variability. Cortical activity exhibited an increase in cortical relaxation during GVM. And cardiovascular activity exhibited an increase in parasympathetic activity. Conclusion: The psychophysiological measures of this study provided evidence for GVM as a relaxation technique. Specifically, during GVM, participant’s cortical dynamics reflect an increase in relaxation.Item Muscular Fatigue Influences Motor Synergies During Push-ups(2018) Bell, Elizabeth M; Shim, Jae Kun; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This research used the push-up as an experimental paradigm for the study of adaptations in motor synergies throughout the challenge of muscular fatigue. Fatigue was expected to lead to greater synchronization of power production (greater motor synergy) by the Central Nervous System (CNS). Greater between and within-limb synergies would be necessary to overcome the reduced force production of fatigued muscles. Different changes in joint power synergies were expected for eccentric and concentric phases due to muscle properties and direction of gravity. Eleven subjects performed push-ups repetitions to self-selected failure. Subjects initially performed push-ups using positive between and within-limb joint power synergies, however synergies reduced throughout reps. Congruent with hypotheses, between and within-limb synergy reduced at a lesser rate throughout eccentric movements. The strategy used relied on bilateral elbow and shoulder joint production. The CNS was not able to adapt control strategies, but instead the dominant strategy was affected throughout fatigue.