Integrated Social- and Neurocognitive Model of Physical Activity Behavior in Older Adults with Metabolic Disease.

BACKGROUND: Despite the proven benefits of physical activity to treat and prevent metabolic diseases, such as diabetes (T2D) and metabolic syndrome (MetS), most individuals with metabolic disease do not meet physical activity (PA) recommendations. PA is a complex behavior requiring substantial motivational and cognitive resources. The purpose of this study was to examine social cognitive and neuropsychological determinants of PA behavior in older adults with T2D and MetS. The hypothesized model theorized that baseline self-regulatory strategy use and cognitive function would indirectly influence PA through self-efficacy. METHODS: Older adults with T2D or MetS (M age = 61.8 ± 6.4) completed either an 8-week physical activity intervention (n = 58) or an online metabolic health education course (n = 58) and a follow-up at 6 months. Measures included cognitive function, self-efficacy, self-regulatory strategy use, and PA. RESULTS: The data partially supported the hypothesized model (χ2 = 158.535(131), p > .05, comparative fit index = .96, root mean square error of approximation = .04, standardized root mean square residual = .06) with self-regulatory strategy use directly predicting self-efficacy (ß = .33, p < .05), which in turn predicted PA (ß = .21, p < .05). Performance on various cognitive function tasks predicted PA directly and indirectly via self-efficacy. Baseline physical activity (ß = .62, p < .01) and intervention group assignment via self-efficacy (ß = -.20, p < .05) predicted follow-up PA. The model accounted for 54.4 % of the variance in PA at month 6. CONCLUSIONS: Findings partially support the hypothesized model and indicate that select cognitive functions (i.e., working memory, inhibition, attention, and task-switching) predicted PA behavior 6 months later. Future research warrants the development of interventions targeting cognitive function, self-regulatory skill development, and self-efficacy enhancement. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: The trial was registered with the clinical trial number NCT01790724.

Self-Regulation and Implicit Attitudes Toward Physical Activity Influence Exercise Behavior.

Dual-process models of health behavior posit that implicit and explicit attitudes independently drive healthy behaviors. Prior evidence indicates that implicit attitudes may be related to weekly physical activity (PA) levels, but the extent to which self-regulation attenuates this link remains unknown. This study examined the associations between implicit attitudes and self-reported PA during leisure time among 150 highly active young adults and evaluated the extent to which effortful control (one aspect of self-regulation) moderated this relationship. Results indicated that implicit attitudes toward exercise were unrelated to average workout length among individuals with higher effortful control. However, those with lower effortful control and more negative implicit attitudes reported shorter average exercise sessions compared with those with more positive attitudes. Implicit and explicit attitudes were unrelated to total weekly PA. A combination of poorer self-regulation and negative implicit attitudes may leave individuals vulnerable to mental and physical health consequences of low PA.

Understanding the Mechanisms Underlying Gambling Behaviour and Sleep.

Problem gambling and sleep difficulty threaten health. Using the basis of self-regulatory theory, potential mechanisms for these problems were investigated. Fifty-nine treatment-seeking gamblers completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (sleep difficulty), the Sleep Hygiene Index (negative sleep habits), the Problem Gambling Severity Index and measures of self-regulatory capacity and arousability with data entered into regression analyses. Results supported the relationship between problem gambling and greater sleep difficulty (ß = .18, t = 3.22, p < .01). Self-regulatory capacity mediated the relationship between problem gambling and sleep difficulty (R (2) change = .15, F(2, 57) = 12.14, ß = -.45, t = -3.45, p < .001) as well as between problem gambling and negative sleep habits; R (2) change = .17, F(2, 57) = 13.57, ß = -.28, t = -3.76, p < .001. Arousability predicted sleep difficulty (ß = .15, t = 3.07, p < .01) and negative sleep habits (ß = .40, t = 5.40, p < .01) but showed no relationship with problem gambling (r = .09, ns). Self-regulatory capacity represents an important mediator of the relationship between problem gambling and sleep-related behaviour and if targeted could reduce behavioural threats to health.

Positive emotions, self-regulatory capacity, and EFL performance in the Chinese senior high school context.

Previous research on English as a foreign language (EFL) learning has predominantly focused on negative emotions such as anxiety and boredom, neglecting positive emotions. Self-regulation, a cognitive factor, has emerged as a key construct of positive psychology in recent years. However, few studies have examined the mechanisms by which positive emotions influence EFL performance, especially through cognitive factors. Given the high-stakes nature of Chinese college entrance examination and Chinese culture's value on effort, Chinese senior high school students may experience distinct EFL emotions. Therefore, this study, based on the control-value theory (CVT), explored the potential mediating role of self-regulatory capacity (boredom, awareness, goal, and emotion controls) in the relationship between the three focal positive emotions (enjoyment, hope, and pride) and EFL performance among Chinese senior high school students. A paper-and-pencil questionnaire survey was administered to 330 Chinese third-year senior high school students (male: n = 159; female: n = 171). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and mediation analysis with SPSS 26 and PROCESS V3.3. The results indicated that the students reported low levels of enjoyment and pride, moderate levels of hope, low levels of awareness, goal, and emotion controls, and moderate levels of boredom control. The results also revealed significant and large associations among the three positive emotions, the four components of self-regulatory capacity, and EFL performance. Furthermore, the results suggested that self-regulatory capacity partially mediated the effect of positive emotions on EFL performance, supporting the CVT framework. The study concluded with implications for educators and suggestions for future research.

Applying the temporal self-regulation theory to understand sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among Chinese college students.

Objective: Worldwide, there is a growing trend that college students are consuming more and more sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). In order to develop effective intervention strategies, it is important to explore what social-cognitive factors impact on college students' SSB consumption. Building on the temporal self-regulation theory (TST), the current study aimed to examine the effects of intention, behavioral prepotency, and self-regulatory capacity on SSB consumption among college students. Design: Data were collected from five hundred Chinese college students online. Participants self-reported their intention, behavioral prepotency (environmental cues and habits), self-regulatory capacity, and behaviors of SSB consumption. Results: Study findings showed that intention, behavioral prepotency, and self-regulatory capacity accounted for 32.9% of variance in SSB consumption. In terms of the direct effects, intention, behavioral prepotency, and self-regulatory capacity were significantly associated with the SSB consumption among college students. In addition, self-regulatory capacity and habits but not the environmental cues showed significant moderation effects on the intention-SSB consumption path, indicating that individual factors rather than environmental cues influenced the intention-behavior path of SSB consumption among college students. Conclusion: Findings of the current study demonstrated that the TST can be used to explain and understand the impacts of social-cognitive factors on college students' SSB consumption. Future research can apply TST to develop effective intervention programs targeting the reduction of SSB consumption among college students.

Unbalanced, Unfair, Unhappy, or Unable? Theoretical Integration of Multiple Processes Underlying the Leader Mistreatment-Employee CWB Relationship with Meta-Analytic Methods.

Although a litany of theoretical accounts exists to explain why mistreated employees engage in counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), little is known about whether these mechanisms are complementary or mutually exclusive, or the effect of context on their explanatory strength. To address these gaps, this meta-analytic investigation tests four theoretically-derived mechanisms simultaneously to explain the robust relationship between leader mistreatment and employee CWB: (1) a social exchange perspective, which argues that mistreated employees engage in negative reciprocal behaviors to counterbalance experienced mistreatment; (2) a justice perspective, whereby mistreated employees experience moral outrage and engage in retributive behaviors against the organization and its members; (3) a stressor-emotion perspective, which suggests that mistreated employees engage in CWBs to cope with their negative affect; and (4) a self-regulatory perspective, which proposes that mistreated employees are simply unable to inhibit undesirable behaviors. Moreover, we also examine whether the above model holds across cultures that vary on power distance. Our meta-analytic structural equation model demonstrated that all but the justice mechanism significantly mediated the relationship between leader mistreatment and employee CWBs, with negative affect emerging as the strongest explanatory mechanism in both high and low power distance cultures. Given these surprising results, as the stressor-emotion perspective is less frequently invoked in the literature, this paper highlights not only the importance of investigating multiple mechanisms together when examining the leader mistreatment-employee CWB relationship, but also the need to develop more nuanced theorizing about these mechanisms, particularly for negative affect.

The Impact of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning on English as a Foreign Language Learners' Vocabulary Learning Attitudes and Self-Regulatory Capacity.

Over the past decades, English as a foreign language (EFL) learning has witnessed a heightened interest in the role of mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) in vocabulary learning. To shed more light on the impact of MALL on vocabulary learning, this study, employing a quantitative longitudinal design, aimed at examining the impact of a MALL programme on 139 EFL learners' vocabulary learning attitudes and self-regulatory capacity. To this end, this study investigated the latent change score models of the learners' vocabulary learning attitudes and self-regulatory capacity over time. Over the course of 1 year, various mobile applications were integrated into the regular English language instruction of the learners. The required data were collected via administering vocabulary learning attitude and self-regulating capacity in vocabulary learning scales. The data were analysed applying latent growth curve modelling to examine the participants' longitudinal trajectories and patterns of change in the two waves of collected data. The fit indices of the latent change models revealed an increase in both the EFL learners' vocabulary learning attitudes and their self-regulatory capacity during the 1-year MALL programme. The analysis of between-person differences also indicated that changes in both variables were positively correlated.

Leaders' Windows of Tolerance for Affect Arousal-and Their Effects on Political Decision-making During COVID-19.

The recent 'affect revolution' in strategic decision-making research has placed greater emphasis on the role of stress and emotions in decision-making, with new theorizing to highlight how leader decisions often differ from rational choice expectations. However, while existing theories add to our understanding of the interplay between affect and cognition, they have not yet explained why affect drives decisions in some situations and not others. Undertheorized connections between leaders' neurobiological windows of tolerance to affect arousal and their self-regulatory capacity-their capacity to regulate stress and emotions so that these phenomena do not drive resulting decisions-may hold the key to explaining this variation in affect's influence on decision-making. Furthermore, this article considers how leaders' windows of tolerance have unique ripple effects in their social environments, thereby affecting their groups' collective window of tolerance. While regulated leaders can convey a calming and creative influence in their organizations that helps the group access strategic decision-making, dysregulated leaders are likely to convey stress and emotion contagion-which may erode the group's ability to cooperate, adapt, and learn. It illustrates this argument using evidence from the upper echelons of governmental decision-making, comparing New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's and US President Donald Trump's responses to the coronavirus pandemic in their respective nations. It concludes by offering hypotheses for testing the argument in future empirical research.

Heart Rate Variability: New Perspectives on Physiological Mechanisms, Assessment of Self-regulatory Capacity, and Health risk.

Heart rate variability, the change in the time intervals between adjacent heartbeats, is an emergent property of interdependent regulatory systems that operates on different time scales to adapt to environmental and psychological challenges. This article briefly reviews neural regulation of the heart and offers some new perspectives on mechanisms underlying the very low frequency rhythm of heart rate variability. Interpretation of heart rate variability rhythms in the context of health risk and physiological and psychological self-regulatory capacity assessment is discussed. The cardiovascular regulatory centers in the spinal cord and medulla integrate inputs from higher brain centers with afferent cardiovascular system inputs to adjust heart rate and blood pressure via sympathetic and parasympathetic efferent pathways. We also discuss the intrinsic cardiac nervous system and the heart-brain connection pathways, through which afferent information can influence activity in the subcortical, frontocortical, and motor cortex areas. In addition, the use of real-time HRV feedback to increase self-regulatory capacity is reviewed. We conclude that the heart's rhythms are characterized by both complexity and stability over longer time scales that reflect both physiological and psychological functional status of these internal self-regulatory systems.

La variabilidad de la frecuencia cardiaca, o modificación de los intervalos de tiempo entre los latidos consecutivos del corazón, es una propiedad emergente de los sistemas reguladores interdependientes que opera sobre diferentes escalas temporales para adaptarse a los retos ambientales y psicológicos. Este artículo revisa brevemente la regulación nerviosa del corazón y ofrece nuevas perspectivas sobre los mecanismos subyacentes al ritmo de muy baja frecuencia de la variabilidad de la frecuencia cardiaca. Se analiza la interpretación de los ritmos de la variabilidad de la frecuencia cardiaca en el contexto del riesgo para la salud y la valoración de la capacidad autorregulatoria fisiológica y psicológica. Los centros reguladores cardiovasculares de la médula espinal y del bulbo raquídeo integran entradas de centros cerebrales superiores con entradas de sistemas cardiovasculares aferentes para ajustar la frecuencia cardiaca y la tensión arterial por vías eferentes simpáticas y parasimpáticas. También hablamos sobre el sistema cardiaco nervioso intrínseco y las vías de conexión corazón-cerebro, a través de las cuales la información aferente puede influir sobre la actividad en las áreas subcortical, frontocortical y de la corteza motora. Además, se revisa el uso de retroalimentación de variabilidad de la frecuencia cardiaca a tiempo real para aumentar la capacidad autorreguladora. Concluimos que los ritmos cardiacos se caracterizan tanto por su complejidad como por su estabilidad sobre escalas temporales más largas que reflejan los estados funcionales tanto fisiológicos como psicológicos de estos sistemas internos autorreguladores.