Don't Make Me Angry! A Psychophysiological Examination of the Anger–Performance Relationship in Intermediate and Elite Fencers

We aimed to identify the effect of state-anger on precision, speed, and power components of performance during fencing attacks. We conducted a laboratory-based, single-case research experiment to test the fine motor task performance of two experienced and two elite-level fencers under two emotional states: anger and emotion-neutral. We assessed anger via psychophysiological and self-report measures, and we induced anger via a brief imagery intervention. Through the use of an innovative design, which included multiple measures of change, we showed that anger had a consistent negative effect on precision but an inconsistent relationship with response time and muscle activity. The current research design and protocol offer a novel and in-depth method for examining the specific relationships between affective states, emotions, and the complexities that underpin performance. The specific effects of anger on performance were multifarious, complex, and inconsistent. Nonetheless, the results tend to indicate that anger facilitates reaction time and debilitates performance, and these effects were clearer for the most elite performers. The effects of anger on performance are clearly complex, so it would be rather premature to make any suggestions for future practice at this point. Nonetheless, the clearer findings with the elite fencers indicate that researchers will likely yield the most fruitful insights by examining the effects of emotion of performance in elite performers.     

Personality Traits and Body Weight Measures: Concurrent and Across‐Time Associations

We tested the possibility that the five‐factor model of personality is associated with three measures of body weight and with changes in their levels over time and that these associations are gender specific. The study was conducted at two points of time, Time 1 (2664 participants) and Time 2 (1492 participants), over approximately 4 years, controlling for gender, age, education, and having a chronic disease. Body weight was assessed by body mass index, waist circumference, waist‐to‐hip ratio, and the five‐factor model by Saucier's Mini‐Markers. Cross‐sectional regression results indicated that conscientiousness was negatively associated with the three body weight measures, whereas neuroticism and extraversion were positively associated with the three body weight measures. The longitudinal regression results indicate that extraversion was associated with an increase in two of the body weight measures. Neuroticism was associated with increase in all three body weight measures and more strongly for women than for men. Openness was associated with a decrease in all three body weight measures for women, but this association was not significant for men. These findings help identify personality traits that lead to risk of weight gain and point to the modifying role of gender. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Imagining an ‘ideal school’: an approach for reflecting on principals’ educational creed

In this paper, we describe an approach to the study and development of school principals’ school creed. The approach and its underlying method are grounded in the phenomenological tradition, predominantly in the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty. School principals are asked to imagine an ideal school and present it both visually and verbally. We illustrate the potential of this process using one ideal school proposal developed by a high school principal in Israel. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the approach for research, theory and practice.     

Loss of emotional insight in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia or "frontal anosodiaphoria"

Loss of insight is a prominent clinical manifestation of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), but its characteristics are poorly understood. Twelve bvFTD patients were compared with 12 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients on a structured insight interview of cognitive insight (awareness of having a disorder) and emotional insight (concern over having a disorder). Compared to the AD patients, the bvFTD patients were less aware and less concerned about their disorder, and they had less appreciation of its effects on themselves and on others. After corrective feedback (“updating”), the bvFTD patients were just as aware of their disorder as the AD patients but remained unconcerned and unappreciative of its effects. These findings suggest that lack of insight in bvFTD is not due to “anosognosia,” or impaired cognitive and executive awareness of disease, but to “frontal anosodiaphoria,” or lack of emotional concern over having bvFTD and its impact on themselves and others.     

Sex as a status characteristic: An examination of sex differences in locus of control

The conceptualization of sex as a status characteristic has been recently advanced (Meeker & Weitzel-O'Neill, 1977) as an explanatory principle for the apparently inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between sex and role specialization (e.g., the task/expressive distinction). This study is concerned with the validity of sex-as-status hypothesis and its potential generality examined in the context of research on locus of control. It is argued that sex differences in this variable may represent a special case of a more general pattern of relationships between status differentiations and locus of control. Conceived as realistic responses to position in the social hierarchy, beliefs in internal control are expected of higher status persons, while an external orientation is anticipated for individuals of lower status. This proposition has been empirically tested in a sample of Israeli college students. The findings lend support to the hypothesis, showing that females' tendency to external orientation is reinforced if they come from lower-class families; correspondingly, males' a priori internal orientation is more sharply pronounced if they come from the higher social classes. The theoretical appeal of the sex-as-status hypothesis vis-à-vis some alternative perspectives is discussed.     

Burnout and risk of cardiovascular disease: evidence, possible causal paths, and promising research directions

Burnout is characterized by emotional exhaustion, physical fatigue, and cognitive weariness, resulting from prolonged exposure to work-related stress. The authors review the accumulated evidence suggesting that burnout and the related concept of vital exhaustion are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular-related events. The authors present evidence supporting several potential mechanisms linking burnout with ill health, including the metabolic syndrome, dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis along with sympathetic nervous system activation, sleep disturbances, systemic inflammation, impaired immunity functions, blood coagulation and fibrinolysis, and poor health behaviors. The association of burnout and vital exhaustion with these disease mediators suggests that their impact on health may be more extensive than currently indicated.     

Two Sides of the Coin: Lack of Academic Integrity in Exams During the Corona Pandemic,Students' and Lecturers' Perceptions

Journal of Academic Ethics - The Covid-19 pandemic that entered our lives suddenly in 2020 compelled higher education systems throughout the world to transfer to online learning, including online...     

The kinetics of anodic oxide growth

Abstract

The process of anodic oxide growth has been investigated. It is shown that the obtained experimental results confirm the Fehlner-Mott oxidation model in the case of InSb, a typical compound of the 111-V group. We also present a kinetic theory of the anion migration in the formed oxide. The theory is based on the following assumptions. (a) The only species which moves through the formed oxide is the OH^? anion. (b) The chemical reactions of OH^? with In³⁺ and Sb³⁺ cations take place simultaneously and independently, in a thin layer of the oxide/InSb interface. The resulting solution of the kinetic equations describes the anion distribution in the formed oxide. A simple expression for the rate of oxidation is obtained. Another possible application of the presented theory is suggested.