Episode 005: Don Christensen

Bridging the Gap Podcast

Study: Psychological coping skills aspredictors of collegiate golf performance: Social desirability as asuppressor variable.

Abstract: The distinction made by Lazarus andFolkman (1984) and by Bandura (1997) between coping strategyselection (“ways of coping”) and successful execution of copingbehaviors (coping skills) is the basis for 2 types of sport-relatedcoping measures. First, we discuss how these constructs andmeasures differ. Then we describe a longitudinal study involvingrelations between scores on the Athletic Coping Skills Inventory-28(ACSI) and subsequent athletic performance in a study of 103 menand women collegiate golfers. Significant relations were foundbetween the ACSI scales and performance, and gender differenceswere observed in coping skills as well as in relations of specificACSI subscales to performance. We assessed the potential role ofsocial desirability (Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale) as asuppressor variable that can enhance relations betweenself-reported psychological attributes and behavioral outcomemeasures by extracting systematic error variance from predictorvariables. On average, performance variance accounted for by theACSI subscales increased from 30% to 39% for men and from 23% to30% for women with scores on the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirabilityscale controlled. Finally, we discuss conditions under which theimpression management variant of social desirability acts asuppressor variable or, conversely, attenuates relations betweenpredictor and outcome variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016APA, all rights reserved)

Author: Donald Christensen

Don grew up playing golf with his family, and began to play morecompetitively as time went on. In high school he won four statetitles in Washington State. His skills helped him get a scholarshipto play golf at Stanford University (pre-Tiger he added in). Hecites being exposed to some mental coaching as youngster (i.e.reading The Inner Game of Tennis) as the spark the interest thatwould influence his career choice.

After finishing at Stanford Don attended the University ofWashington where he obtained his PHD in Clinical Psychology. Duringhis time at UW and following Don worked with various athletic teamsat the school and teams in the community. He currently works forShoreline Community College, where he has been a professor ofpsychology since 2004.

Links:

Author: https://www.shoreline.edu/dchris/donchris/

Study: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/spy/5/1/67/