Current opportunities and challenges of immersive virtual reality for psychological research and application.

Immersive virtual reality (iVR), that is, digital stereoscopic 360° scenarios usually presented in head-mounted displays, has gained much popularity in medical, educational, and consumer contexts in the last years. Recently, psychological research started to utilize the theoretical and methodological advantages of iVR. Furthermore, understanding cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes in iVR similar to real-life is a genuinely psychological, currently understudied topic.

Testing the hormesis hypothesis on motor behavior under stress.

While much research has focused on the deleterious effects of stress on goal-directed behavior in recent decades, current views increasingly discuss growth under stress, often assuming dose-dependent effects of stress in a curvilinear association. This is based on the concept of hormesis, which postulates a strengthening effect of stress at low-to-moderate doses. Leveraging this approach, hormetic curves indicate under which stress dose an individual is able to maintain or even increase goal-directed behavior.

Direct and Stress-Buffering Effects of COVID-19-Related Changes in Exercise Activity on the Well-Being of German Sport Students.

Maintaining or initiating exercise activity in the COVID-19 pandemic may act as a buffer against the observed stress-related deterioration in well-being, with emotion regulation (ER) discussed as a possible moderator. Therefore, the present study investigated the interaction between stress, exercise activity (EA), and ER on mood. In an online survey, 366 German sports science students (56% women, = 23.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on European police officers: Stress, demands, and coping resources.

Purpose: Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, police officers are confronted with various novel challenges, which might place additional strain on officers. This mixed-method study investigated officers' strain over a three-month-period after the lockdown.

Methods: In an online survey, 2567 police officers (77% male) from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Spain participated at three measurement points per country in spring, 2020.

Acute and Chronic Stress in Daily Police Service: A Three-Week N-of-1 Study.

On duty, police officers are exposed to a variety of acute, threatening stress situations and organizational demands. In line with the allostatic load model, the resulting acute and chronic stress might have tremendous consequences for police officers' work performance and psychological and physical health. To date, limited research has been conducted into the underlying biological, dynamic mechanisms of stress in police service.

Wrist-Worn Wearables for Monitoring Heart Rate and Energy Expenditure While Sitting or Performing Light-to-Vigorous Physical Activity: Validation Study.

Background: Physical activity reduces the incidences of noncommunicable diseases, obesity, and mortality, but an inactive lifestyle is becoming increasingly common. Innovative approaches to monitor and promote physical activity are warranted. While individual monitoring of physical activity aids in the design of effective interventions to enhance physical activity, a basic prerequisite is that the monitoring devices exhibit high validity.

: A Paradigm to Investigate the Risk Sport-Specific Psycho-Physiological Arousal.

In risk sports with medium to high risks of injury (e.g., surfing, free solo climbing, wingsuit flying), athletes frequently find themselves in unexpected and threatening situations.

Mindful Sensation Seeking: An Examination of the Protective Influence of Selected Personality Traits on Risk Sport-Specific Stress.

Stress often has a negative influence on sports performance. Stress-induced decreases in performance can be especially disastrous for risk sports athletes, who often put their life at risk when practicing their sport. Therefore, it is of great importance to identify protective factors in stressful situations in risk sports.

Effects of Coping-Related Traits and Psychophysiological Stress Responses on Police Recruits' Shooting Behavior in Reality-Based Scenarios.

Police officers are often required to perform under high-stress circumstances, in which optimal task performance is crucial for their and the bystanders' physical integrity. However, stress responses, particularly anxiety and increased cortisol levels, shift attention from goal-directed to stimulus-driven control, leaving police officers with poor shooting performance under stress. Cardiac vagal activity and coping-related traits (i.

Cortisol and behavioral reaction of low and high sensation seekers differ in responding to a sport-specific stressor.

Background/objectives: Sensation seeking is closely related to practicing high-risk sports. This domain offers individuals an opportunity to achieve an increased level of arousal. Moreover, stress reactivity implies interindividual differences in the capacity to respond to a stressor.