This study examined the effect of athletes’ competition conditions, personal performance level, and attributions toward winning or losing on the relationship between observational learning (OL) and self-efficacy (SE) based on social cognitive theory and social comparison theory. Study 1 verified the validity and reliability of the Korean versions of the Functions of Observational Learning Questionnaire (FOLQ) and the SE Questionnaire. Study 2 investigated differences in the degree to which OL predicts SE in different pressure conditions and personal performance levels. The results showed that OL increased SE in high-performing athletes in high-pressure games and better predicted SE in low-performing athletes in low-pressure games. Study 3 tested the double-mediating effects of effect and OL on the effect of attributions about winning or losing on SE. The results showed that a stronger perception that the cause of winning was internal was associated with increased pride, OL, and SE.

This study aims to examine whether there is a difference in the sequential effect of depression on academic performance through peer relationships in Chinese adolescents based on gender and physical activity by using longitudinal data. Data from 7170 people from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) were used for analysis. The analysis showed that the indirect effect of depression on academic performance through peer relationships varied depending on gender and physical activity. Specifically, in male students experiencing depression, there was an indirect effect on academic performance through peer relationships in both high and low physical activity groups. In female students experiencing depression, the indirect effect on academic performance through peer relationships was offset if they participated more in physical activity. In other words, for female students participating in physical activity, improvement in peer relationships did not lead to higher academic performance, whereas for male students, improvement in academic performance could be anticipated by improving peer relationships regardless of participation in physical activity. Moreover, since peer relationships play a critical role in improving the academic performance of adolescents experiencing depression, it is important to develop a physical activity or sports program to strengthen peer relationships to improve academic performance.

This study employed a hierarchical linear model analysis to examine the effects of ego depletion and state anxiety on performance changes in golf putting. We randomly assigned 51 female college students with no previous golf putting experience to either an ego-depletion (experimental) group (n = 26) or a non-ego-depletion (control) group (n = 25). Putting performance changes over repeated trials displayed a quadratic curve, and both ego depletion and state anxiety exerted negative effects on early, but not late, putting performance. Contrary to previous findings, the interaction effect between ego depletion and state anxiety on performance was nonsignificant.

The present study examined the effect of aggression on peer acceptance among adolescents. We focused on the moderating effects of gender and participation in physical education activities and examined whether these effects varied during school transition. We used longitudinal data of adolescents aged 10 to 17 years that were obtained from a survey that was conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute. In only early adolescence, the interaction effect of gender and physical education activity influenced the relationship between aggression and peer acceptance. Specifically, the negative relationship between aggression and peer acceptance was strengthened among female students who participated in physical education activities as compared to female students who did not. This effect was not observed in male students. However, during transition from primary to secondary school, the negative effect of physical education activities did not exist. For middle-adolescents, for whom physical education activities increased more than previous years, the negative relationship between aggression and peer acceptance worsened. These influences were the same, regardless of gender. Thus, this study suggests that physical education activities improve the negative relationship between aggression and peer acceptance during school transition.

In previous studies, self-affirmation has been shown to have no effect or have a negative impact on intention to change. We applied construal level theory to examine possible reasons for inconsistencies among findings in existing self-affirmation studies. In Study 1, when female college students in their 20s (N = 113) received health threat information with a psychologically proximal breast cancer message, it induced low-level construal and increased specific physical activity intention. In Study 2, when self-affirmed participants were exposed to health threat information with a psychologically distal Alzheimer’s disease message, there was no increase in specific physical activity intention. These results suggest that when a discrepancy exists between the psychological distance of health threat information and the intention reflecting the construal level, no change of intention occurs, even in self-affirmed individuals.