Do public libraries contribute to social capital?: A preliminary investigation into the relationship

Public libraries have been held in high regard by communities since they were established in North America in the mid-19th century. Recently, with their diminishing informational role combined with the economic downturn, libraries have had to reassert their relevance to communities in a period of severely reduced municipal budgets. One role that is often assumed but rarely examined in depth is the library as a generator of social capital. This preliminary study investigates the relationship between public libraries and indicators of social capital using a questionnaire survey administered in three branch libraries in a large Midwestern American city. Library users had significantly higher levels of social capital in terms of community involvement and trust than a random sample of city residents. When frequency of library use was correlated with indicators of social capital there were mixed results. Library use was significantly associated with community involvement, but not with trust. Lack of trust in neighbors may be the incentive for people to become more involved in their communities in order to create a safer environment. The findings suggest that there is a strong relationship between public libraries and social capital but that further research is needed to broaden the base of the study and to include interviews with library patrons and staff so as to get a more nuanced view of how social capital is created.     

There is an "I" in TEAM: narcissism and social loafing

We investigated narcissism as a moderator of social loafing on a physical performance task. High and low narcissistic individuals twice performed a cycling task in same-sex teams of three: once when identifiability was low; and once when identifiability was high. A significant interaction between narcissism and identifiability was revealed, F(1, 40) = 4.09, p < .05, eta2 = .09 for performance. Follow-up tests indicated that high narcissists' performance significantly increased with greater identifiability, whereas low narcissists displayed no such performance differences. Results suggested that this effect was due to an increase in narcissists' on-task effort (ratings of perceived exertion and heart rate) when they knew that their performance was to be identified.     

Coach autonomy support, basic need satisfaction, and intrinsic motivation of paralympic athletes

The purpose of the present study, grounded in self-determination theory, was to explore the relationship between Paralympic athletes' perceptions of autonomy-supportive coach behavior basic psychological needs, and intrinsic motivation to know, accomplish, and experience stimulation. One hundred thirteen Canadian Paralympic athletes completed an online survey, consisting of measures of coach autonomy support; of perceptions of autonomy, competence, and relatedness; and of intrinsic motivation. Perceived coach autonomy support was a predictor of athletes' perceptions of autonomy and relatedness. Perceived competence was a significant predictor of all three forms of intrinsic motivation, while perceived autonomy was a significant predictor of intrinsic motivation to accomplish and experience stimulation. The results highlight the important relationship between coach behavior and athlete motivation in disability sport.     

The development of social relationships, social support, and posttraumatic growth in a dragon boating team for breast cancer survivors

Physical activity experiences may contribute to psychological and social wellbeing among breast cancer survivors. The main purpose of the current study was to qualitatively explore the development of social relationships, social support, and posttraumatic growth among breast cancer survivors participating in a dragon boat program over 19 months. Guided by interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009), semistructured interviews were conducted with 17 breast cancer survivors on five occasions over their first two seasons of dragon boating. Narrative accounts were developed for each participant, and four profiles emerged describing processes of social and posttraumatic growth development over time: "developing a feisty spirit of survivorship," "I don't want it to be just about me," "it's not about the pink it's about the paddling," and "hard to get close." Profiles were discussed in terms of developing social relationships and support, providing support to others, physicality and athleticism, and negative interactions and experiences.     

Stability of repeated student evaluations of teaching in the second preclinical year of a medical curriculum

The second preclinical year of the medical curriculum at the Medical Faculty of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland includes nine multidisciplinary organ-system-oriented modules consisting of lectures and problem-based-learning tutorials. This study reports the experience accumulated with the evaluation of lectures during the academic years 1998–1999 and 1999–2000. The ratings of the different modules were highly variable, indicating the ability of students to have a critical view on the teaching and the teachers. There was a close to very close correlation between the ratings obtained during the two study years. The high discriminative capacity of students in evaluating the teaching and the teachers was also supported by their critical point of view expressed in free comments. Our observations stress therefore the reliability of teaching evaluations systematically performed by medical students.