Effects of mental workload and caffeine on catecholamines and blood pressure compared to performance variations

Caffeine is characterised as a central nervous system stimulant, also affecting metabolic and cardiovascular functions. A number of studies have demonstrated an effect of caffeine on the excretion of catecholamines and their metabolites. Urinary epinephrine and norepinephrine have been shown to increase after caffeine administration. Similar trends were observed in our study in adrenaline (ADR) and noradrenaline (NORADR) levels and additionally a dose dependent effect of caffeine. The effect of caffeine on cognitive performance, blood pressure, and catecholamines was tested under resting conditions and under mental workload. Each subject performed the test after oral administration of 1 cup and then 3 cups of coffee. Root mean square error (RMSE) for the tracking task was continuously monitored. Blood pressure was also recorded before and after each stage of the experiment. Catecholamines were collected and measured for three different conditions as: at rest, after mental stress alone, after one dose of caffeine under stress, and after triple dose of caffeine under stress. Comparison of the performance of each stage with the resting conditions revealed statistically significant differences between group of smokers/coffee drinkers compared with the other two groups of non-coffee drinkers/non-smokers and non-smokers/coffee drinkers. There was no statistically significant difference between the last two groups. There was an increase of urine adrenaline with 1 cup of coffee and statistically significant increase of urine noradrenaline. Both catecholamines were significantly increased with triple dose of caffeine. Mental workload increased catecholamines. There was a dose dependent effect of caffeine on catecholamines.     

Career Services in the Post‐COVID‐19 Era: A Paradigm for Career Counseling Unemployed Individuals

The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID‐19) pandemic has caused unprecedented economic disruption and unemployment worldwide, threatening to become both a financial and a humanitarian crisis. Prolonged labor market recession and an acute rise of unemployment are expected. The main question for career counselors will be how to provide effective career counseling to unemployed people in the post‐COVID‐19 world, where they may face many other unemployment‐related problems. In this article, we suggest application of a holistic intervention model of career counseling for unemployed people that was designed to address the consequences of the acute financial recession in Greece.     

Asylum Seekers,Hotspot Approach and Anti-Social Policy Responses in Greece (2015–2017)

This article discusses the social and housing conditions of refugee flows to Greece in the period 2015–2017. A review of the main institutional initiatives taken by the Greek state to manage the refugee crisis, following pressure from the EU, indicates that the main form of accommodation for asylum seekers is the hotspot. In the second part of the article, field research seeks to examine the fundamental social problems encountered in the hotspots. Inappropriate housing conditions, problematic hotspot management procedures, as well as onerous working conditions for the staff are only some of the issues, which make it clear that such forms of accommodation violate fundamental human rights.     

The Relationships Between Athletes’ Perceptions of Coach-Created Motivational Climate,Self-Talk,and Self-Efficacy in Youth Soccer

The purpose of this study was to explore the mediating role of self-talk in the relationship between athletes’ perceptions of coach-created motivational climate and athletes’ self-efficacy. Two hundred eighty-nine youth soccer players (M = 11.63 years, SD = 1.55 years) completed the Automatic Self-Talk Questionnaire for Sport, the Empowering and Disempowering Motivational Climate Questionnaire, and a self-efficacy measure for soccer. The results showed that only positive and not negative self-talk mediated the relationship between empowering motivational climate and self-efficacy, whereas no relationship emerged between disempowering climate and self-efficacy, highlighting the role of self-talk explaining this relationship.     

Mindfulness and the intention-behavior relationship within the theory of planned behavior

The present study examined moderating effects of mindfulness on the intention-behavior relationship within the theory of planned behavior. Mindfulness describes a quality of consciousness characterized by heightened clarity and awareness of present experiences and functioning. Study 1 showed that mindfulness moderated the intention-behavior relationship in a leisure-time physical activity context such that intentions predicted physical activity among mindful individuals and not among less-mindful individuals. Study 2 measured counterintentional habits relating to binge-drinking and found that habitual binge-drinking obstructed the enactment of physical activity intentions among individuals acting less mindfully but not among individuals acting mindfully. Finally, Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that the effects of mindfulness on physical activity were independent of effects observed for habit and variables contained in the theory of planned behavior. These findings suggest that mindfulness is a useful construct that helps understand the intention-behavior relationship within the theory of planned behavior.     

Exercise imagery and its correlates in older adults

Objectives

The purpose of the present study was to test a structural model examining the interrelationships between exercise imagery, self-reported exercise behaviour and well-being in older adults.

Design

Cross-sectional survey.

Method

Participants were 499 older Greek adults (50.10% males) aged between 51 and 84 years (M age = 57.31; SD = 5.52) who completed questionnaires measuring exercise imagery use, exercise behaviour, subjective vitality, and physical self-worth. The relationship between these variables was tested with a structural model based on the applied model of imagery use for exercise (Munroe-Chandler & Gammage, 2005).

Results

Energy imagery positively predicted exercise behaviour and subjective vitality, and appearance and technique imagery positively predicted physical self-worth.

Conclusions

These results indicate older adults engage in different types of imagery to motivate themselves to exercise and improve their well-being, thus implying that the content of imagery interventions should be specifically tailored to the outcomes older adults wish to realise for interventions to be effective.     

Achievement goals and self-talk in physical education: The moderating role of perceived competence

Self-talk plays a key role in performance and self-regulation. One of the antecedents that may influence individual’s self-talk are achievement goal orientations. Three studies of 628, 313 and 1,169 participants were conducted to examine the relationships between positive and negative self-talk, perceived competence and achievement goals using two theoretical models of achievement goals. The participants completed the Automatic Self-Talk Questionnaire for Sports, the Task and Ego Orientation in Physical Education, the physical self-perception profile, and the Achievement Goal Questionnaire-Revised. The results revealed additive and interactive effects of achievement goals and perceived competence on students’ positive and negative self-talk. Overall, the results stressed the potential role of achievement goals and perceived competence as personal factors that influence students’ self-talk.     

Seek,and You Will Find: The Influence of Expectations on Evaluations of Physical Activity

Despite hundreds of studies on the effects of expectations on evaluations, few commentaries have focused on summarising the relevance of these findings for physical activity pursuits. Moreover, a parsimonious framework on the nature of these relationships in physical activity is yet to be developed. Such a framework is important given the significance of physical activity evaluations in predicting future physical activity participation. Based on existing models on persuasion, it is premised that the self can be persuaded by one's own expectations about physical activity and that such persuasion can support or refute those expectations. Which of these effects are created, and the extent of one's psychological and physical involvement in the creation of physical activity evaluations, is likely to hinge on motivation and ability to confirm or disconfirm expectations. Evidence from related bodies of literature is presented to support the primary tenets of the model, which is termed the expectation‐to‐evaluation model, and recommendations for practitioners and future research are offered.     

Basic principles of MRI and morphometry studies of human brain development

Magnetic resonance imaging has undergone dramatic development in the past years. This has been paralleled by developments in the tools for extracting quantitative information from these images in support of capturing the anatomic features of brain development in living humans. This has revolutionized our expectations for current and future diagnostic and investigative work with the developing brain. This paper will cover the classes of information that are readily available in the MR image, the mechanisms for extracting quantitative results, and a sample of the application of these types of methods to developmental issues. These applications highlight tissue‐ and anatomic‐based contrasts in the nature and rate of developmental maturation within the brain. This will be followed by a discussion of the emergent themes of developmental science as elucidated by these classes of observation.     

Bodily and temporal pre-reflective self-awareness

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences -