Kinesiology Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2784
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Item The Effect of Variability of Practice on the Performance of the Layout Squat Vault(1989) Khayat-Mofid, Fariborz; Church, Kenneth; Physical Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)This study focuses on Schema Theory which maintains that the practice of motor skiIIs store a set of general memory of movements. This memory guides the performance of demands specifically made from the environment as well as the objective or goal of the performer. The layout squat vault was selected as the motor task to be studied, since it is a basic vault of gymnastics. The most important factor of a good vault is the angle of the hips and shoulders to the horse at the moment of contact by the hands. It was hypothesized that if Schema Theory is applicable, subjects who practice vaulting at varying heights will achieve a better angle of contact with the horse than wiII subjects who practice when the vault remains at a constant height. The investigation examined the effects of varied heights of the vault during practice to the transfer of new tasks. The study specifically studied the Schema Theory in the performance of the layout squat vault at the time of contact with the horse. Subjects were 38 females, aged 9 to 11 years, who were randomly assigned to two groups. One group practiced at a single height; the other group practiced vaulting at varying heights for 36 practice trails over a period of two days. When this was completed, three consecutive vaults were assigned at a new height for each subject of both groups. At the same time, the subjects were video-taped. Using the tape, four qualified judges scored each of the subjects. The highest and lowest scores for each vault were eliminated. The two remaining scores were averaged to produce the final score. The Students t test for the difference of means was used to determine the differences between the groups. The results showed that the high variability practice group was superior to the non variability practice group. It was concluded that Schema Theory could be applied to closed skills such as vaulting in gymnastics and that there was support for the Schema Theory.Item The Evolution of the Baltimore City Bureau of Recreation: 1940-1988(1993) Jordan, Cheryl L.; Churchill, John; Recreation; Recreation; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)The purpose of this study was to examine the evolution of the Baltimore City Bureau of Recreation from its inception in the 1940, as the Department of Public Recreation to the beginning of 1988. Research focused on major policies that were developed in the areas of administration, budget, staff, facilities, and programs. Social, political an economic factors were examined to determine the effect each had on the formation of these policies. The historical method research was used to examine the artifacts and documents gathered for this study. The data were ordered utilizing the following chronological eras: 1) World War II and the Post-War Era of the 1940s; 2) Desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s; 3) Urban Renewal of the 1970s and the Changing Social Climate of the 1980s. Changes in the policies of the Bureau of Recreation were quantified to measure increases and decreases in budget, staff, facilities and programs. Decisions of the Board of Recreation and Parks, the policy-making body of the Department of Recreation and Parks until 1987, were examined in light of the three factors mentioned above. The research showed that the policies of the Bureau of Recreation changed significantly over the years, most dramatically with the desegregation of the Department after the landmark Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court decision, and the influx of Federal funds for the City of Baltimore after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Board of Recreation and Parks focused much of its attention on the "showcase" areas of the Department, like the Baltimore Zoo, Memorial Stadium and the five public golf courses. In 1984, when most of these units were privatized, a power struggle ensued eventually leading to a 1987 referendum that stripped the Board of its policy-making powers. The conclusions of this study indicated that while economic and social factors had obvious influence over policy decisions in the Bureau of Recreation out of necessity, the political factors had the most dramatic effects.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 LEARNED RESOURCEFULNESS, SELF-MOTIVATION, AND COMMITMENT AS PREDICTORS OF AEROBIC EXERCISE ADHERENCE IN COLLEGE STUDENTS(1990) Mahoney, Colleen Anna; Allen, Roger; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)In this study of exercise adherence among traditional-age college students, a number of variables were used to discriminate between those who adhere to regular aerobic exercise, those who adhere to regular non-aerobic exercise, and those who do not exercise regularly but intend to do so. The relative importance of learned resourcefulness, self-motivation, commitment to aerobic exercise, and various demographic variables to predict exercise adherence was assessed. The instruments employed in this study were a demographic questionnaire, the Self-Control Schedule, the Self-Motivation Inventory, and the Commitment to Aerobic Exercise scale. In order to test the hypotheses in this study, one-way analyses of variance and a multiple discriminant function analysis were conducted. Chi-square analyses were used to assess the relationship between demographic variables and exercise group membership. Furthermore, a two-way analysis of variance (group x gender) was performed on the Self-Control Schedule, Self-Motivation Inventory, and Commitment to Exercise scale. Hypotheses were generated for the following variables: weekly time commitments, learned resourcefulness, self-motivation, and commitment to aerobic exercise. Three of these were fully supported and one was partially supported by the data. In order of their relative importance, the following three psychological variables distinguished between the three exercise groups: commitment to aerobic exercise, self-motivation, and learned resourcefulness. Among the demographic variables examined in this study, only gender discriminated significantly between the three exercise adherence groups. Males were much more likely to be non-aerobic exercise adherers than females, and females were much more likely to be non-exercisers than males. weekly time commitments, class standing, and place of residence explained little of the variance among the three groups. The analyses of this study indicated that psychological variables were the strongest discriminators among exercise adherence behavior patterns. Moreover, these findings dispute the notion that barriers, such as time commitments, prevent college students from engaging in regular, Physical exercise. Implications of these findings and strategies for enhancing exercise adherence among College students are discussed. Specifically, it appears that interventions need to emphasize affective strategies in order to modify attitudes toward regular exercise.Item A Study of Intercollegiate Soccer Data In The United States From 1905 to 1961(1962) Cochrane, Cornelius R.P. Jr; Eyler, Marvin H.; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)While there have been several studies completed on the history of soccer in this country, the absence of complete and accurate records was frequently noted when attempting to trace various coaching and collegiate achievements in the sport. Therefore the general purpose of this study was: (1) to compile and record from the existing sources) as accurately and completely as was possible, an inclusive record of Intercollegiate soccer statistics in this country; (2) to study and analyze this data and to ascertain what implications, trends and conclusions) if any, could be drawn from this information. The desired information was gathered essentially from the NCAA Soccer Guides, the North American Soccer Guides) Soccer Journal, various newspaper articles and from correspondence and interviews with retired coaches and charter members of the National Soccer Coaches Association. The assembled information was presented in tabular form, leaving blank the years and areas where data was unobtainable. The first thirteen tables showed the specific findings of the study and the final three tables illustrated certain comparisons and conclusions. The specific findings of the study were: (1) A complete list of National Championship teams for the years 1905 to 1961 was reconstructed. (2) A list of annual champions and the year of organization for twenty-one collegiate soccer conferences was compiled. (3) All-American teams from 1909-1910 to 1961 were obtained with the exception of the 1919 team list. There was no All-American team in 1918. (4) The names of the officers of the three national college soccer organizations that existed during the period 1905 to 1961 were reconstructed. The names of the officers of the Intercollegiate Association Football League for 1905 through 1913 and 1918 through 1920 were not obtainable. (5) A list of Honor Award recipients of the National Soccer Coaches Association from 1942 through 1961 was compiled. (6) There were thirty college coaches who had coached soccer for twenty years or longer during the period from 1905 to 1961. (7) There were eighteen winstreaks of twenty or more consecutive soccer victories or ties during the years 1905 to 1961. (8) Eleven Olympic berths were earned by college players during the years 1924 to 1960.Item The Interrelationships of Leisure Attitude, Leisure Satisfaction, Leisure Behavior, Intrinsic Motivation and Burnout Among Clergy(1995) Stanton-Rich, Howard Michael; Iso-Ahola, Seppo; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)This study focused on the interrelationships of leisure behavior, leisure attitude, leisure satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and burnout among clergy in The United Methodist Church in Western North Carolina. Responses were obtained from the clergy by a questionnaire that operationalized the primary variables (i.e., leisure behavior, leisure attitude, leisure satisfaction, intrinsic motivation), demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, marital status, education, years in ministry, years in present church), and burnout with its three components (i .e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment). A systematic random sample, further stratified to include no less than one-half of all women clergy in their geographic districts, was taken. A final sample of 438 was obtained representing a 55% return rate. Hypothesized relationships among study variables were tested using path analytic techniques. Also, tests of reliability were run on each of the instruments to compare them with prior studies. Significant relationships among several variables were detected, with the entire pool of independent variables accounting for about 27% of the variance in emotional exhaustion, 22% in depersonalization and 27% in personal accomplishment. Variables with significant relationships with emotional exhaustion included age, years in ministry, years in present church, leisure behavior, and leisure satisfaction. In each of these cases, the relationships were direct and inverse. Variables with significant relationships (all direct and inverse) with depersonalization included age, years in ministry, leisure behavior, leisure satisfaction and intrinsic motivation. Variables found to have significant relationships to personal accomplishment were leisure behavior, leisure satisfaction, and intrinsic motivation. In each of these cases, the relationships were found to be direct and positive. Further, significant relationships existed among the independent variables that confirmed earlier studies highlighting the positive relationship between intrinsic motivation, leisure attitude and leisure satisfaction.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).