Eleanor Quested, Jos A. Bosch, Victoria E. Burns, Jennifer Cumming, Nikos Ntoumanis, and Joan L. Duda University of Birmingham
Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 2011, 33, 828-846 © 2011 Human Kinetics, Inc
Introduction
My inquiry will be look into the physical and psychological support available for injured dancers in professional dance training. To understand the need for support and why dancers can be affected both physically and mentally by injury provides huge scope for research including opinions from psychologists, professional teachers, dancers themselves, health specialists and therapists. Although this literature I have selected is not injury related I have found it to provide great relevance to my inquiry through the relationship discussed between psychology and dance.
I found this journal having used Summon on the MDX Unihub and researching 'Dance psychology' and 'Psychological stressors in Dance'. The Human Kinetics Journals website states that they are "An Official Publication of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Exercise".
Analysis of Literature
The report suggests that "Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction (BPNS) is essential for optimal functioning and health.... and emotional and hormonal homeostatis" (Deci & Ryan, 2000).
Psychological and biological stress can be caused by anticipation and undertaking of athletic artistic feats such as dance training/dance performance.
Basic Needs Theory supports 3 basic psychological needs; autonomy, competence and relatedness. (Cognitive, Emotional and Behavioural responses).
Autonomy - Self directed. Actions derived from personal choices opposed to external control or pressure.
Competence - Feeling capable of meeting task demands effectively (Decharms 1968)
Relatedness - Mutual and meaningful care (Baumeister & Leary 1995)
Studies support the role of BPNS as a central determinant of an athletes psychological health (Gagne & Blanchard, 2007). The article suggests that repeated exposure to situations perceived as excessively stressful may have metabolic and immunological effects (Raison & Miller 2003) as well as long term physical (Burns 2006) & psychological (Raedeke & Smith 2004) health implications.
The "health status of dancers is often recognised to be compromised" (Laws 2005) and the study suggests that teachers should foster BPNS and offer threat appraisals to decrease student anxiety and stress levels.
The study adopts a scientific understanding towards BPNS and is particularly aimed at dancers and athletes. I believe it will be beneficial for my research to provide evidence of psychological effects and most importantly offers an approach which can be practiced in vocational training. Fostering BPNS and realising what it is students need for optimal psychological health I believe is essential for teachers and faculty at a vocational dance school.
This literature has added one method to my list of support/supportive techniques available and from further reading I hope to add to that list. I am considering preparing leaflets or advice booklets with all the supportive methods I reveal during my inquiry to give to dance students and teachers in hope that this will help the student if they are struggling physically or psychologically with the demands and pressure asserted to them. I feel very passionate about this as I know during my training I probably needed support but did not look for it or try to find out to whom or where I could talk. Simply by talking to friends who are either performing, ex performers or have transitioned into teaching I have revealed a great deal of sufferings that they went through in silence because they were too ashamed or embarrassed to discuss. It surprised me that people I knew and saw every day were keeping these depressive thoughts so well hidden!! Some say that 'a problem shared is a problem halved' and recently I find great truth in this. Most of the people I spoke to said they did not speak to anyone about their struggles until after it had past and in some cases after it was too late and the 'damage was done', whether that be physically or mentally, and went on to say that they wished they had spoken out sooner.
Conclusion
Overall the article provides a background as to why support is needed for dancers and offers a technique (BPNS) that teachers can adopt to decrease the risk of psychological harm. It is however, unrelated to injury - prevention, the effect of injury, and support/treatment and so I will use this literature to support certain aspects of my inquiry but will need to combine it with more specific literature to create a strong legitimate report. The areas I will further research are:
- Support available (pre, during and post professional training)
- Rehabilitation/recovery
- Future proposals for dance injury (questioning past practice, medical advances, future)
- Dance psychology
- Physical and mental effects from injury
- Dance related injuries
- Teaching techniques
- Health care
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