Investigating psychological disparities across gamers: a genre-based study

Objective: While video games have become a widespread form of entertainment, the exploration of their relationship with psychological factors remains relatively limited. The primary objective of this study was to investigate potential disparities in levels of everyday stress, perceived stress, and positive mental health among individuals engaged in three distinct video game genres: horror, competitive shooters, and sandbox. We hypothesized that significant differences would emerge between genres. Method: A total of 54 participants were recruited, queried about their primarily favoured video game genre, and then asked to complete an online survey consisting of three questionnaires, each corresponding to one of the dependent variables. Results: Three 1x3 between subjects ANOVA analyses indicated that levels of everyday and perceived stress were notably higher in the competitive shooter gamers, with sandbox gamers having the lowest levels. No significant differences were observed for levels of positive mental health. Conclusion: It is possible that competitive shooters either elevate everyday and perceived stress levels in individuals, or that already-stressed gamers are drawn to this genre. Finally, the absence of significant variations in levels of positive mental health across genres suggests that individuals may simply choose to play whichever game aligns with their personal sources of enjoyment

An integrated approach to dementia support: Sage House

AbstractThe rising prevalence of dementia, economic costs and growing demand on secondary care services has highlighted the need to start evaluating how we support individuals with dementia and their care givers (Wittenberg et al., 2019). In 2016 the World Alzheimer’s report recommended a shift to post‐diagnostic support services being based in primary and community led care (Prince et al., 2016). As outlined in the WHO global action plan these services need to be accessible, integrated and comprehensive, empowering people with dementia to live in the community for longer (World Health Organisation, 2017).A model of support that meets this directive is an Integrated Dementia Support Approach (IDSA), exemplified by a centre called Sage House. Sage House is an integrated hub for dementia support, offering a range of services for individuals with dementia and caregivers that spans across the dementia journey from diagnosis to day care. This provision includes access to assessment, information, cognitive and social enrichment, and care services in one carefully designed setting.In order to gain a better understanding of the potential of IDSA, a series of research projects were co‐designed with Dementia Support as part of their National Ambition Programme. Three research projects were developed to examine the impact of this integrated approach on outcomes such as wellbeing, quality of life and health economics. The first of these studies is a mixed‐method exploratory service evaluation, that combines survey and interview methods to understand the lived experience of attending Sage House for individuals with dementia and caregivers.Overall, the integrated approach was rated highly, with participants highlighting how the approach was practical and helped to reduce stress. This included reducing the load related to locating services and optimising time by being able to access multiple services in the same visit. Moreover, the continuity helped to facilitate the development of friendships and a sense of familiarity and safety. The evaluation also gave insight into how this innovative approach can impact well‐being, quality of life and engagement with health and social care services. Findings are discussed in light of the potential of this impactful integrated approach to Dementia care

Reappraisal and mindset interventions on pressurised esport performance

This study investigated the impact of two low-resource interventions on esport competitors' responses to pressure, focusing primarily on state anxiety, challenge and threat appraisals, and action performance. In Experiment 1, a single-session arousal reappraisal intervention demonstrated a significant influence on high-pressure esports performance. Notably, it not only prompted a shift in appraisals from threat to challenge but also reduced cognitive and somatic anxiety, increased quiet eye durations, and heightened cognitive effort. In Experiment 2, a preliminary assessment of the Mindset-Reappraisal intervention was undertaken, demonstrating enhancements in esport action performance, including accelerated completion times and heightened shooting accuracy. This intervention cultivated a stress-enhancing mindset, lowered cognitive and somatic anxiety, fostered challenge appraisals, and underscores the practical efficacy of cost-effective interventions within the specific context of our performance task. Effective management of arousal levels and educating esports competitors on stress mindset implications may improve performance under pressure, offering valuable insights for esports performance psychology. These findings suggest opportunities for refining pressure-response strategies, paving the way for comprehensive approaches to optimize performance in competitive esports

Self-regulation, stress appraisal, and esport action performance

Electronic sport has seen substantial growth in market value and popularity in the last 10 years. With this growth has come the pursuit of elite esports performance, especially from a psychological perspective. This study aimed to investigate potential variations in self-regulation levels among athletes of different levels (national vs. student), compare the self-regulation profiles of CS:GO players in the current study to an international sample of e’athletes and to assess the predictive capacity of self-regulation on performance outcomes. A total of 53 esports athletes (student competitors, n = 27 and national-level CS:GO competitors, n = 26), participated in an experiment exploring self-regulation, DRES, and action performance. Furthermore, analysis comparing our collective findings against a larger global sample of e’athletes (n = 993) was conducted. Results demonstrated that CS:GO players who displayed higher levels of self-regulation tended to perceive stressful situations as challenges, consequently showcasing superior accuracy and time trial performance. In contrast, individuals with lower self-regulation tended to perceive such situations as threats, which correlated with less favorable performance outcomes. On a broader scale, the study observed that CS:GO competitors generally exhibited lower levels of self-regulation when compared to the larger global sample. Furthermore, self-regulation was identified as a mediating variable in the relationship between stress appraisal and performance, suggesting that improved self-regulation skills can lead to enhanced accuracy and quicker time trial performance. This may imply that competitors with greater self-regulatory abilities perceive themselves as having more personal resources, enabling them to effectively assess challenging situations and employ problem-focused coping strategies. Overall, this research underscores the significance of self-regulation in optimizing esports performance, while providing valuable insights for player development, action performance, and overall outcomes in the field

Examining the Predictors of Mental Ill Health in Esport Competitors

Few research studies have examined the predictors of mental ill health in esports. This study addresses that gap by investigating stressors, sleep, burnout, social phobia anxiety and mental ill health in esport athletes. An online survey was disseminated to competitive student esport athletes (n = 313) residing in the UK. The survey included measures of stressors resulting from competing in esports, sleep quality, burnout, and social phobia, as well as outcome measures of mental ill health. Hierarchical regression analyses examined these relationships. All the hypotheses were supported, with stressors significantly predicting sleep quality, burnout, and social phobia anxiety, and stressors, sleep quality, burnout, and social phobia anxiety were all significant positive predictors of mental ill health. The strength of these predictions varied, for example, the daytime dysfunction subscale of sleep was a strong predictor of all outcome variables; two subscales of burnout, reduced sense of accomplishment and exhaustion significantly predicted each of the three mental ill health outcome variables, and two subscales of social phobia anxiety, fear and avoidance, significantly predicted mental ill health. Our study has important implications for player health in esports, highlighting interventions that could target specific aspects of stress, sleep, burnout, and social phobia anxiety to improve the mental health of those who compete in esports

Indexing Esport Performance

The assessment of an athlete’s performance can play a key role in determining their current state, their readiness to compete, the impact of an experimental manipulation, and/or the influence of an intervention. At present, there is limited empirical evidence stating the indicators that encapsulate individual performance within any esport. To identify the variables that are historically associated with indicating Counter-Strike: Global Offensive performance, a literature review was conducted. Identified variables were accumulated and presented to three technical expert panels composed of world-class esport athletes, researchers, and practitioners. We utilized a modified Delphi method to provide direction concerning the examination of performance in esports. The expert panelists presented numerous opinions on what encapsulates performance, considerations for best practices, and concerns associated with the semantics of performance. This study presents the opinions of various domain-specific experts and encourages the use of more explicit terminology when discussing performance measurement. It was the intention of the project to generate an open discussion rather than draw a unified conclusion on best practices

Androgens trigger different growth responses in genetically identical human hair follicles in organ culture that reflect their epigenetic diversity in life

YesMale sex hormones-androgens-regulate male physique development. Without androgen signaling, genetic males appear female. During puberty, increasing androgens harness the hair follicle's unique regenerative ability to replace many tiny vellus hairs with larger, darker terminal hairs (e.g., beard). Follicle response is epigenetically varied: some remain unaffected (e.g., eyelashes) or are inhibited, causing balding. How sex steroid hormones alter such developmental processes is unclear, despite high incidences of hormone-driven cancer, hirsutism, and alopecia. Unfortunately, existing development models are not androgen sensitive. Here, we use hair follicles to establish an androgen-responsive human organ culture model. We show that women's intermediate facial follicles respond to men's higher androgen levels by synthesizing more hair over several days, unlike donor-matched, androgen-insensitive, terminal follicles. We demonstrate that androgen receptors-androgen-activated gene transcription regulators-are required and are present in vivo within these follicles. This is the first human organ that involves multiple cell types that responds appropriately to hormones in prolonged culture, in a way which mirrors its natural behavior. Thus, intermediate hair follicles offer a hormone-switchable human model with exceptional, unique availability of genetically identical, but epigenetically hormone-insensitive, terminal follicles. This should enable advances in understanding sex steroid hormone signaling, gene regulation, and developmental and regenerative systems and facilitate better therapies for hormone-dependent disorders

An expert-novice comparison of lifeguard specific vigilance performance

Lifeguards must maintain alertness and monitor an aquatic space across extended periods. However, lifeguard research has yet to investigate a lifeguard’s ability to maintain performance over time and whether this is influenced by years of certified experience or the detection difficulty of a drowning incident. The aim of this study was to examine whether lifeguard experience, drown duration, bather number, and time on task influences drowning detection performance. A total of 30 participants took part in nine 60-minute lifeguard specific tasks that included eleven drowning events occurring at five-minute intervals. Each task had manipulated conditions that acted as the independent variables, including bather number and drowning duration. The experienced group detected a greater number of drowning events per task, compared to novice and naïve groups. Findings further highlighted that time, bather number, and drowning duration has a substantial influence on lifeguard specific drowning detection performance. It is hoped that the outcome of the study will have applied application in highlighting the critical need for lifeguard organisations to be aware of a lifeguard’s capacity to sustain attention, and for researchers to explore methods for minimising any decrement in vigilance performance

Promote “we” to inspire me: examining the roles of group identification and trust in the association between identity leadership and follower inspiration

Recent research has highlighted leaders as a source of inspiration for followers in sport, providing leaders embed, embody, and represent the group’s values (i.e., the leader demonstrates identity leadership and creates a shared identity). Consequently, two studies (one cross-sectional and one longitudinal) aimed to examine the relationship between identity leadership and follower inspiration via the mediating roles of group identification and trust in the leader. In Study 1, 233 participants completed measures of identity leadership, group identification, trust in their leader, and follower inspiration in a cross-sectional design. In Study 2, 121 participants completed the same measures at two time points (towards the start and end of the season). Cross sectional findings (Study 1) indicated that group identification and trust serially mediated the positive association between identity leadership principles and follower inspiration. Whereas, in Study 2, identity advancement and identity impresarioship at the start of the season predicted follower inspiration at the end of the season through trust in the leader but not through group identification. Taken together, the findings add weight to the importance of identity leadership by not only suggesting that followers of leaders who engage in identity leadership are more inspired but, also, by highlighting important mechanisms (group identification and particularly trust) that may explain these processes

Cognition and lifeguard detection performance

Two experiments aimed to determine whether working memory capacity (WMC) and high-order executive functions predict drown detection performance and maintenance under heightened task demands. Experiment 1 (n = 111) found a positive correlation between enhanced performance scores and higher WMC, while executive function showed no comparable association. Experiment 2 (n = 28) individuals with elevated WMC demonstrated an ability to detect a greater number of drowning events over an extended period overall, relative to their lower scoring counterparts. However, this heightened capacity did not necessarily prevent the presence of vigilance decrement, but enabled lifeguards to perform more effectively under conditions of increased bather numbers. Our findings highlight that lifeguards have a measurable underlying process that may systematically discriminate lifeguards of varying degrees of experience and detection performance. This offers a new avenue for future lifeguarding research