The Importance Of Physical Activities In Moderating The Impulsiveness Of Young Generation

Abstract

Motricity is a means of education in close connection with the intellectual and the affective sides of individuals and conceals behind it an entire universe related to the manner in which each individual acts and thinks in different situations. Research Questions: Should impulsiveness be analyzed every time in the context of other variables of individuality or in a singular context? The present research was undertaken on a group composed of: Experiment Group (E.G.), consisting of 47 students; - and a Control Group (C.G.) consisting of 57 students. The group was randomly chosen and, at least theoretically, the selected students had the same intellectual and physical potential. The research methods used were: the bibliographic study method, the observation method, the investigation method (conversation, the questionnaire “How impulsive are you?”etc.); the method of pedagogical experiment; the statistical-mathematical method; the graphic method. The purpose of the research was to verify the importance and role of physical activities in moderating the impulsiveness of the young generation. In conclusion, physical activities should be present at least once a week in the shedule of the young generation, being one of the few aspects that would influence the behaviour and diminish the instincts of aggressiveness and impulsiveness.

Keywords: Physical activitiesstudentsbasketballimpulsiveness

Introduction

“In everyday life, we usually encounter with numerous kinds of problems related directly to our personal issues such as emotional and social relationships …” (Icellioglu & Ermiş, 2017, p. 9) but as it is known “... success occurs when the strategy succeeds more than it fails ….” (Albu, 2017, p. 281) because, “the human individual needs to be recognized, to know that he exists... to be confirmed, approved ... (Albu, 2013, p.5), therefore there is “... a direct correlation between the ability to <<simulate>> and the ability to overcome frustration ... “ (Tisseron, 2013, p. 206), because “ ... an intelligent man does not act on the basis of past experiences ... he acts in the present ... “ (Osho, 2014, p. 7), he learns to contextualize and manage his emotions, reason for which we believe that Physical Education, and by this we mean physical activities, is a means of education closely connected with the intellectual and affective sides of individuals, and for this reason Physical Education should represent an activity of major interest through its purpose and its tasks within the instructional educational process. “Emotional self-control is a skill that determines ... for an individual ... the quality of life ... “(Sadner, 2015, p. 12), hence we chose this topic precisely to bring to the forth a widely debated issue, but poorly discussed, on the importance of Physical Education in tempering the impulsiveness of the younger generation. The research started from the idea that the role of Physical Education lessons and the involvement of physical abilities in educating young people is so little known, that this aspect should be made known, since “Society means change ...”, it means changing attitudes, ideas, opinions, but, above all, it “means the process through which one of its components transforms into a different qualitative and quantitative state” (Albu., 2016, p.37, 38). We aim that our research would make a difference in understanding the idea that physical activity is a means of education connected with both the intellectual and the affective sides and conceals behind it an entire universe about how each individual acts and thinks in different situations, because the subjects, ... “ act and think differently in different situations ...” (Janda, 2012, p. 60). The awareness of the importance that this discipline has in the instructional- educational process and in moderating impulsiveness will, at some point, allow the emergence of the idea that impulsiveness should be analyzed every time by also taking into consideration the context of other variables such as action and activity, because “ ... the brain learns and remembers best when the body is actively involved in exploration ... “ (Gardner, 2005, p. 88) , and one could better explore time, space, emotions, feelings, attitudes in no other activity rather than in the Physical Education lesson where the cognitive-affective-motor involvement is so complex.

Problem Statement

This research started from the hypothesis according to which impulsiveness does not make one violent, but it affects one’s manner of expressing violence, and this condition may improve if physical activities, especially collective physical activities (team games), are used as a means of education in tempering the impulsiveness of the young generation.

Research Questions

Should impulsiveness be analyzed each time in the context of other personality variables or in a singular context?

Purpose of the Study

In the present research we started from the idea that the importance of physical activities in tempering the impulsiveness of the young generation is little known. For this purpose, we implemented a questionnaire on an experimental group consisting of 47 students; - and a control group composed of 57 students (randomly chosen).

Research Methods

Findings

In the research we started from an observation that raised a question for us, namely the students’ quite incisive way, even violent in the last period of time, of reaction to some frustrations during the lessons. Verbal reactions and gestures have increasingly been manifested in the free activities that students perform in the second part of a lesson. Here, we need to explain the process in order to contextually understand the sports lessons held in our university. These lessons have two major parts:

-part I – Imposed theme of training the body for effort - in which the lesson unfolds directly with the teacher who orders, corrects, guides, directs, even executes the moves with the students;

- part II of the lesson - Theme of choice - in which students have the choice of choosing what they want to do within the lesson (e.g. exercises in gymnastics, running on various distances, badminton, skipping, etc.). Here the teacher supervises and intervenes if he is asked to, because it is thought that the student needs to develop from a personal point of view, to develop his free personality without thinking that he is censored.

The second observation from which we started was that “People act and think differently in different situations” (Janda, 2012, p. 60). And impulsiveness does not make one violent but it affects one’s way of expressing violence, and this condition could be improved by using physical activities, especially collective physical activities (team games), to temper the impulsiveness of the young generation. That is the reason for which we designed a sports-based programme. We chose basketball for our research for several reasons: we have basketball courts and sports equipment; it is a sport that can be learned faster than other sports games; we used simple rules for the game; we also relied on the fact that the game itself has precise rules that must be respected and all students understand this, if they do not obey the rules they shall be eliminated from the field, a fact which would be an unpleasant aspect for every individual. In this game direct contact is not allowed, this way we attempted to avoid brutal body-to-body fighting behaviour, not only on the field but also in ordinary life; violent language was also forbidden, and immediate satisfaction comes right after learning (e.g. if scoring a basket is spectacular, it gathers applause and the admiration of others) which is sufficient to motivate our choice. The game was practiced weekly, voluntarily and for pleasure, only by the experiment group (E.G.). In the first three months the students played in separated teams, girls with girls, boys with boys, each on their own field. The next three months team games were played, girls against boys, and in the next three months mixed teams of boys and girls played on the same field. Unlike the experiment group (E.G.), the control group (C.G.) only followed the school programme, the usual sports lesson described above and other activities (gymnastics exercises, running on various distances, badminton, skipping etc).

Based on the programme, along with the rules of collective games and with the help of the questionnaire described below, we tried to identify the factors and the reasons that led or might lead to impulsiveness or behavioural shifts. We mention that this research was rather an ascertaining study on the importance of physical activities in tempering the impulsiveness of the young generation. For this reason, the questionnaire that we implemented in the present research was an opinion questionnaire on the topic of discovering the subjects’ opinion on the importance of physical activities in tempering impulsiveness. This test measured the manner in which the subjects of the two groups of this research act and think: the Experiment Group (E. G.) and the Control Group (C. G.). The applied questionnaire included 30 items. All items were measured and interpreted using the “Barratti Impulsiveness Scale”. Our subjects were asked to respond quickly and honestly using the scale below, then their answers were scored according to the points on the scale, as follows:

4points for the answer = Almost always;

3 points for the answer = Often;

2 points for the answer = Occasionally;

1 point for the answer = Rarely / Never.

Not all 30 items were scored the same. Certain items marked by a star on the right corner for differentiation were scored backwards, to check the sincerity of the subjects, so the points given for each response were reversed (e.g., if the subjects responded almost always, answer for which they had to receive 4 points, instead of 4 points for this answer they received the scoring for the answer rarely / never, i.e. 1 point, see Tables 1 and 2 for clarification).

The items scored backwards are those written in parentheses, marked by a star (1 *, 7 *, 8 *, 9 *, 10 *, 12 *, 13 *, 15 *, 20 *, 29 *, 30 *). After giving a reversed score for these answers, the score was calculated. Three subclasses were organized afterwards and then the score of all items was calculated in order to obtain the total score of impulsiveness.

The first subscale was - The Non-Plan Subscale, the corresponding items were (1 *, 7, * 8 *, 10 *, 12 *, 13 *, 14 *, 15 *, 18, 27, 29);

The second subscale was - Physical Impulsiveness scale, the corresponding items were (2, 3, 4, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 30 *);

The third subscale - Cognitive Impulsiveness scale, the corresponding items were (5, 6, 9, 11, 20 *, 24, 26, 28).

At the end, the points of all items were gathered in two tables, Table no. 1 and no. 2, and based on these results more information concerning the moderation of impulsiveness was deduced, and thus an image of the importance of physical activities in the life of young people was obtained.

Then the scores of all the items were centralized and the impulsiveness total score was obtained, according to the data in the tables below.

Based on the items in the questionnaire, we intended to obtain information about the Experiment Group (E.G.) in comparison with the Control Group (C.G.). While questioning the subjects with certain items (1 *, 7 *) concerrning task planning and other items (8 *, 12 *) concerning the ability to self-control, we noticed the following: the Experiment group (E.G.) indicated in a proportion of 89.37% that it is important to have self-control while the subjects in the Control Group (C.G.) in a proportion of 82.46% said that they do it (that is, to have self-control) occasionally, self-control not being their strong point. A significant proportion of the subjects (87.23%) of the Experiment Group (E.G.) considered important to always think carefully when acting or talking, as compared to subjects in the Control Group (C.G.) who said, in a proportion of 47.37%, that they often think, but not always, when they act or speak, while 43.86% of the Control Group (C.G.) asserted that they only occasionally censor themselves, otherwise they act impusivey (according to the data in Tables 1 and 2 ).

“Physical training has the purpose of working out the locomotive apparatus, referring to all the abilities of general and specific movement …. The body is trained to be ready speed, strength and endurance wise as well as to have optimal coordination” (Sabău, Niculescu, & Gevat, 2014, p. 498) therefore the last part of the research focused on the motivation of students in order to practice Physical Education. Here, we observed that the two groups, regardless of the type of activity they performed, were focused on three events emphasized by items 13 *, 30 *, meaning everyone has plans for the future and item 30 *, everyone likes puzzles (90.91% - E.G. and 82.46% C.G.). We have to mention and emphasize that in our research we did not analyze each question separately, because all items were detailed in the two tables and in Graph no. 01, but in order to comment on the differences between the two groups, the Experiment Group (E.G.) had a training programme based on sports games - basketball and the Control Group (C.G.) had the usual programme, we stopped over the items that were relevant for this research and which were of great importance in marking the differences concerning impulsiveness. To obtain details, we created a comparison between the two groups (E.G. and C.G.) specifically presented in Graph no. 01. It is important to note that the 1-point score of the answers to the items indicates a low degree of impulsiveness, over 1 point, namely from 2 points and up to 4 points indicates increased impulsiveness which is hard to control. The aim of this comparison was to establish the level of awareness on the importance of physical activity in analysing impulsiveness, to establish the fact that impulsiveness must be analyzed in the context of some personality variables and the position occupied by physical activities in the everyday life of the students, as well as testing the motivational level regarding the involvement of students in the Physical Education lesson. According to the results registered in the table for the students in the Experiment Group, it appears that controlled carelessness, obtained as a state following a life disciplined by physical activities, does not have relations with impulsiveness.

The first part focused on identifying the extent to which the Physical Education lessons take place in universities, as well as the feelings about this subject. It was found that students in the Experiment Group (see item 15 * in Tables 1 and 2 ) in a proportion of 74.47% (35 students out of a total of 47), quite a large percentage, often think of complex problems and do not look superficially on things, while students in the Control Group, in a proportion of 47.37% (27 students out of a total of 57), as it can be observed a fairly low percentage, only sometimes think of complex issues. On the non-plan scale and on the physical scale (according to the data in Table 2 ), students in the control group (C.G.) scored high scores, in other words they prefer to live the moment and what the moment offers and do not focus too much on learning, they act impulsively and live only in the present.

In contrast to these subjects, the students from the experiment group, we suppose, under the impulse of an ordered, disciplined life subjected to a weekly ritual of discipline, communication and socialization achieved through basketball-game, responded differently to the same items, because they gained different mentalities (see figure 01 ). They seem to have a higher capacity to plan their tasks carefully, a greater capacity for self-control (item 8 *), carefully thought out each action or word (item 12 * / 87.23%), they have complex thinking (item 15 * / 74.47%) and do not leave things to chance. This stability was probably gained by the students in the experiment group through the exercises triggered by the basketball game, when they had to contain, using their mind and eyes, both the phases of the game and the movement of the opponents in the field and for this it was necessary to increase the power of concentration, to persevere, and perseverance in this case could be synonymous with permanent control, a fact that leads to the confirmation of the hypothesis according to which impulsiveness does not make one violent but it affects one’s way of expressing violence, and this state might improve if physical activities will be used as a means of education, especially the collective physical activities (team games) in moderating the impulsiveness of the young generation.

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Conclusion

Motricity is a means of education in close connection with the intellectual and the affective sides of individuals and.

Physical activities should be present at least once a week in the shedule of the young generation, being one of the few aspects that would influence the behaviour and diminish the instincts of aggressiveness and impulsiveness.

Physical activity conceals behind it an entire universe related to the manner in which each individual acts and thinks in different situations.

According to the research and to the registered results, we could conclude that Physical Education is indispensible for the university curriculum, and the combination of physical activity with lessons containing sports games would be one of the few aspects that could influence their behaviour and diminish their instincts of impulsiveness and agressiveness.

This aspect is due, we believe, to the fact that sports games have a clear regulation and a game behaviour which cannot be broken, which would force players to control their language and non-sportive reactions thus confirming the hypothesis according to which impulsiveness does not make one violent, but it affects one’s manner of expressing violence, and this condition may improve if physical activities, especially collective physical activities (team games ), are used as a means of education in tempering the impulsiveness of the young generation.

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