Melinda's Blog

How fabulous to immerse yourself in learning about the things you are passionate about? My new masters Degree course at London Metropolitan University is just that!

I am completeing  my Masters Degree  in the Psychology of Sport and Exercise. Afetr a long gap in formal education this course is proving to be a learning curve for me.  In some areas, I am playing catch up, as I have not done any formal academic writing for a long time. In other areas my years of experience and practical application of the theory and research we are learning about, puts me at an advantage.

 I am surrounded by bright students and knowledgable  inspirational  course leaders and lecturers. The course subjects cover all the areas of sport and exercise intervention from a psychological perspective. So far the most interesting aspects have been the psychological implications of physical activity and the application of sport and performance psychology.

Essays... where do I start??

Doing a critical review of current research in sports and exercise psychology requires an enourmous amont of reading! Sadly my Entourage obsession will have to take the back seat, as will my favourite magazines. Where will I get all up to to the minute fashion tips now that Grazia has been relegated to the "when I have finished my essay pile"?

After a long break in my University studies, academic writing will probably be the most challenging part of this course for me. The oral presentations should be the easy part- that is if I get the content right.

I have chosen to do Imaging and Visualisation for the first literature review. The readings are based around the use of visual imagery as a performance enhancing tool. There are also interesting research papers on the use of imagery in the rehabilitation of  injured athletes, and on using imagery to increase motivation and confidence in athletes prior to competing.

My interest in visualisation was inspired by the mediation retreat I attended in Canada in the summer this year. We were taught to meditate using imagery and sound. My expereince was quite profound and I found that the meditation became a practice that I not only enjoyed, but it had a postive influence on the way I was coping with stress and the demands of my busy life.

Visual imagery is a vast area and ploughing through the research papers has been interesting. My biggest personal challenge is learning a new skill: academic writing. My goal is to improve my academic writing skills. To this end I have set myself some short term and medium term goals. My short term goal is to  read the surrounding literature effeciently and to make coherant notes. After that I will focus on getting the structure of my essay to a point where the story can be told and the reader will experence a paper that has flow, direction and is interesting! Can I do this?

Talking about balance.... I think it is time for a workout: work the body and give the brain a break!  I am going to try to  use imagery in my exercise routine today, visualising an effective workout. I will attempt to put the various theories to the test( unscientific of course!)  Let us wait and see if it makes a difference!

Monday!

I spent the weekend finishing my essay on imagery, and now have a somewhat readable document. Hopefully it will not bore the reader to tears!

I realised that in order to write a critical review- you really have ot get your head around the subject and understand what has been said and how, and what should be looked at in the future. It helped to discuss the subject with one of my class mates, and I think I have turned the corner in terms of understanding what it is I have to write about in a literature review. First goal achieved!

Next step this week is to gain insight into another area, for another review: obesity. But first I have an oral presentation due today- so I am off to practice in the mirror!

Thankfully I have made time for a few hours of exercise in the past few days-I find it is vital to control my stress levels.. and of course there is my meditation as well!

 Oral presentation went well, although I did not anticipate the level of performance anxiety I would feel. Talking to hundreds of people about exercise and well being is a walk in the park compared to delivering a 5 minute presentation on a literature review on imagery iuse in exercise and spport psychology! With the help of some positive imagery, and some practicing aloud,   I think I did okay.

The amount of literature on obesity and the genetic and environmental effects and causes is huge. I was overwhelmed by th eamount of information out there, but what seems to be very interesting is that the main interventions have been in other countries( not the UK) and ther has not been much written about the causes of low self esteem on obesity. Do obese people get a low self esteem because they are obese or are they obese because they have low self esteem? Interesting question.

After a quick trip to the USA( to see family for 4 days) it was time to settle down and complete my essay on obesity. This time the research was a lot easire, as I now have a handle on how to vavigate my way around the library services and the various websites. I have also grasped how to read the reviews effectively. This was a challenge in th ebegining as I was used to reading every word of any material. In  the academic world, this is not only unnecessary but  not possible. There is too much written in far  too much detail to be of any use, especially when you are loking for an overview of a subject. 

One of my goals was to master the art of  reading the academic material effectively- I seem to be gaining ground in this area. I was able to skim through over 15 different articles, studies and jourmnals while on the aeroplane to Atlanta. I then placed them in categories: genetics, lifestyle, both, definitions etc. Using pretty coloured stickers, I was able to place a marker on every reading that had a relevant point to make. I then grouped the readings and set about planning my essay.

I did a rough plan outlining my aims and objectives within each section of the paper, and then sought the relevant readings that would support my points. It is a world away from writing a column for a womens magazine, and the language demands an entirely different part of my brain!

After I had the rough plan and the readings sorted, I then went back to each reading and re-read the material. I did this in order to make sure that I had the facts correct and was using the comments in the correct context.

Now I was ready to begin writing, but there was one more task in store. I had to get comfortable with the endnote software that wouold ulitmatley help me get my refernces and citations in the correct order and in the correct format. Thankfully, the software is not that difficult to master and although I made a few mistakes with the initial loading of the information, it did prove to be an invaluable help in the referencing.Now time for some exercise, a walk around the park in the cold should do!

The writing of this  essay was a lot easier that the first one I did. The language was a lot easier to master, and as I had a good grasp of the information( I was not nearly as anxious as the first time I did this) things flowed a lot better. I think the key to this process is really understanding what is being said, who is saying it and how it is being said.  I managed to get a first draft done in about 4 hours, including all the references and citations( thank you end note).

I definately dreamed of obesity causes that night! Not pretty! The next day I felt fresher and was able to make changes and get the essay into a second draft. A peer review followed, I sent it to a class mate( who read it after a night out "student style": probably not the best time) but she did have some helpful comments and make some suggestions. The next day was the deadline; so ready or not, in it went!

I felt that I was able to learn a lot more from this essay as opposed to the first one that  I wrote at the begining of the course. I had a much clearer understanding of the topic to begin with, so the start was easier. I also  realated to the subject a lot more, which obviously helped me decide what information was relevant and  what points to include. I gained a lot of knowledge and I could actually begin to see the relevance of doing course work and not exams to test knowledge.

Ttime to go out this weekend and get a bit of social contact, I seem to be lacking in this area. Between my children , my business, my home and my course work, there is little time left to socialise. I hope my friends understand!

Mindless television! A great anti dote to academic writing, and of course my exercise helps too. I am still meditating, although not as often as I was and I am aware of the rise in stress levels and the quality of sleep when I dont meditate. Where can I find an extra half hour a day?

I then began to plan the next project, which was an oral presentation and group discussion on group cohesion and the emergence of a leader. I found an article that really made me think and I set about reading more on the subject to get a clear understanding of what has been said, by whom  and in what way! This was again a whole lot easier than the first time and easier than the second as well.

I planned a fun group activity to help to apply the knowledge in the presentation. Th epresentation part went well, as did the group discussion, although it was not as intellectually stimulating as I would have liked. The group seemed to grasp the idea of emotional intelligence, however it may have been over the heads of some of the group.

My next project is a personal reflection journal, which should be the easiest task to do so far, as it will be a personal account written in the first person. Should be able to do that - no problem!

There is another major essay due for a few weeks time, but I also have to do a short oral presentation on obesity before that. Time to think outside of the box!