Improving Homeostatic Set-Point through Proper Training Adaptations for Better Sporting Outcome

The concept of homeostasis is based on Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest. In order to survive one has to maintain a stable internal and external environment. For attaining positive change of an individual’s physical, physiological, psychological, and mechanical performance stress is required in a systematic and scientific planned way. Regular upsetting the homeostatic set point, a new set-point is able to create within the body, which can be termed as adaptation. In the case of sports performance, the training load must be adopted by an athlete through the process of super-compensation in order to exhibit better performance in the competitive sports arena. Adaptation is facilitated the positive reinforcement through a negative feedback loop in physical, physiological, and psychological areas of any individual and able to develop the concept of feed-forward mechanism. If adaptation stimuli are applied properly, training can be expected to have accumulative effect. The sporting world depends upon the positive adaptation of training load through improving the sporting performance by elevating the homeostatic set point. Long term training has also positive impact on health sports performance by modifying the qualitative and quantitative physiological component. A physiological adaptation refers to the metabolic or physiologic adjustment within the cell, or tissues, of an organism in response to an environmental stimulus resulting in the improved ability of that organism to cope with its changing environment adaptation. The purpose of the present study is to critically discuss the various aspects of homeostatic regulations and the way to create a new set point of an athlete for better performance through the adaptation process.

Learning Needs of Dementia Family Caregivers during the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated and transformed all caregiving contexts and situations. In a time of COVID-19, caregivers now have to learn how to take all of the complicated precautions to keep themselves and their persons from being exposed to the virus given their population’s mortality rate from COVID-19 infections exceed 40%. As part of a larger initiative to develop an asynchronous online education program for family caregivers of persons living with dementia illnesses (PLWD) to prepare them to master the new demands of their caregiving role in this extraordinary circumstance of the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted three focus groups with 13 dementia family caregivers to inform the structure, content, and “feel” of the course. Focus groups were conducted with a lead interviewer, via Zoom, audio and video recorded and transcribed for analysis. Participants were asked two groups of questions: their lived experience over the past year and course content for caregiving during crisis. Caregivers identified 4 themes regarding their lived experience of caregiving during the pandemic: (a) mixed feeling about the stay-at-home orders; (b) positive adaptation to telemedicine, (c) vaccine risks and benefits; and (d) impact of social isolation on the PLWD. The groups also recommended specific course content based on their experiences. Participants recommended specific course content based on their experiences, such as health system navigation and the logistics of what to do following the death of a PLWD. Results from these groups have been incorporated into an asynchronous online course to be pilot tested in coming months.

The Relationship of Psychological Resilience and Jealousy in Adults

Psychological resilience is defined as an individual's ability to positively adjust and adapt to adversity, difficulty, misfortune, or potentially traumatic event to maintain mental health. Psychological resilience is an innate personality trait and a process of positive adaptation when becoming face to face with adversity which can emerge at different life stages depending on the situation. Jealousy is a powerful emotion defined as a negative feeling that arises when an difficulty which includes perceiving a threat from someone else to a valued relationship. This complex emotion, which contains the feelings of anxiety and fear in his heart, is felt as a result of a damage or loss that may occur due to the physical or fantasy existence of a third person who is seen as a rival in bilateral relations. Feelings of anxiety and fear, which are among the most basic contents of jealousy, are clear signs that the individual does not adapt to the situation they face. In this respect, the main hypothesis of our study is that there is an inverse relationship between resilience and jealousy in young adulthood. The research of the study, which was conducted online in 2021, consists of 188 female (75.2%), 62 are male (24.8%), in total 250 volunteers who’s age are between 18-45 (mean age of the sample is 29) who lives in Istanbul. The findings of our study showed that there is an inverse relationship between resilience and jealousy. Keywords: adulthood, pscyhological resilience, jealousy

THE DETERMINANTS OF POSITIVE CREATIVE ADAPTATION OF YOUTH IN THE POLISH-CZECH BORDERLAND

The article is aimed at diagnosing the determinants of youth’s positive adaptation to changing demands of life. It is focused on the relationships between creativity and resilience. The analysis comprised youth’s adaptive competences and the resources and risks of social environment. In two measurement periods, quantitative-qualitative studies were conducted among youth in the Polish-Czech borderland. The research design enabled complex diagonal and longitudinal comparisons, which addressed: the identification and analysis of change trends, recognition of their lack, likelihood assessment of these trends in both compared cohorts. The concept of resilience was used to analyse and interpret research results. The identification was conducted of (outer and inner) risk and protective factors determining positive adaptation in the Polish-Czech borderland. The borderland effect was indicated – the impact of borderland on its inhabitants’ socialization, conditioned by spatial-social-cultural-economic properties. Attention was drawn to the forming of youth’s flexibility, ability to handle everyday situations and their resistful behaviour patterns. Borderland is a source and stimulant for acquiring the disposition of resilience. The presented analyses show tendencies and universal mechanisms of human behaviour, not only in borderlands. The article indicates the need for educational activities developing and forming resilience, for elaborating intervention programmes based on better use (in adaptation) of resources and protective factors in the environment.

Transdiagnostic Validation of the German Benefit Finding Scale (BFSC) for Youth With Chronic Conditions

We examined the psychometric properties of the 10-item Benefit Finding Scale (BFSC) in a transdiagnostic sample of German youth facing chronic conditions (N = 304; 12 – 21 years). Exploratory factor analysis with a first subsample revealed a one-dimensional factor structure. Confirmatory factor analysis with a second subsample verified the one-dimensionality with an acceptable fit. The BFSC exhibited acceptable internal consistency (α = .87 – .88). Benefit finding (BF) was positively correlated with age, disease severity, optimism, self-esteem, self-efficacy, sense of coherence, and support seeking. There were no correlations with avoidance, wishful thinking, emotional reaction, and health-related quality of life. Sex differences in BF were not consistent across subsamples. BF was negatively associated with social status. The BFSC is a psychometrically sound and transdiagnostic instrument to assess BF in youth and may facilitate further research on positive adaptation processes in response to chronic conditions.

The Social organization of urban water heritage and its contribution to the management of scarcity in the southern cities of Morocco: التنظيم الاجتماعي للموروث المائي العمراني وإسهامه في تدبير الندرة بمدن الجنوب المغربي

This short topic talks about the issue of the social organization of the urban water heritage and its contribution to the management of scarcity in the southern cities of Morocco. We have identified this title so as to highlight the importance of water in recent years in the context of heated debate about the future of this vital material in Morocco because of the rapid climate changes that Morocco can live in the future for water scarcity, if it does not have a unified strategy to face All problems related to water scarcity، in the case of what the sky was not merciful. Therefore, I will try to study the forms of dealing with water issues in relation to the problems of scarcity through the creation of traditional social organizations and administrative and architectural techniques Contributed to positive adaptation with constraints the natural environment that does not help human stability.

Terra incognita of vitality problem: Open issues. Part 2

The relevance of studying resilience is among other things conditioned by faster evolution of social objects, increase in general uncertainty, lack of stability, complexity and ambiguity of the dynamics of their state, which, in their turn, lead to an increase in the requirements for adaptation mechanisms of an individual and social groups (families, collectives, sports teams, managerial or project teams); the importance of an individual’s socio-psychological and psychological resources is increasing. Not all spontaneously formed adaptation mechanisms of individual and group subjects are developed in a timely manner, correspond to life situations or change optimally in accordance with changes in the purposes and requirements of the environment. The purpose of the study is to investigate human resilience under conditions of uncertainty; the subjects of the study are social and psychological mechanisms and resources of human resilience; the research methods are historical and theoretical analysis and analysis of the empirical research results. The hypothesis is that maintaining resilience of an individual and social groups through the development of prosocial behavior mechanisms according to the specific model (prototype) is the first stage. Subsequent stages of resilience development presuppose formation of adaptation mechanisms initiated and supported by the evolution of the subject’s “internal conditions”. It is stated that the two states of a person are considered within the boundaries of historically formed paradigms: “below the norm” and “within the norm” of social, psychological and physical functioning. Its characteristics are described by such concepts as “improvement”, “positive adaptation”, “preservation”, “optimal state”, etc. Resilience is viewed as the person’s achievement and maintenance of “social homeostasis” with an orientation towards pro-social behavior models of others and reproduction of such models. Individual’s advancement to a higher level of social functioning and his/her positive professional evolution are often associated with repeated changes and complications of the social conditions of social environment (medium), with the growth in its “resistance”; they remain understudied and retain a kind of “terra incognita” status. One of the possible and probable approaches that contribute to overcoming the binary thinking of the historically established paradigm can be the use of a new methodology, i.e. construction of system triads (that recreate social objects’ integrity) and linear triads that restore the sequences of social objects’ syntheses when they are integrated into systems of a greater generality.

An exploration of psychological trauma and positive adaptation in adults with congenital heart disease during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: The growing population of adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) often have lifelong experience of dealing with potentially traumatic health crises and medical uncertainty whilst facing increased vulnerability to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The COVID-19 pandemic presents additional challenges for this population including increased risk of health complications, shielding and strict social distancing, changes to medical care provision and social stigma. Despite such challenges, adults with CHD have the potential to also experience positive changes, yet little is known as to what helps cultivate positive adaptation and post-traumatic growth (PTG) within this context. Methods: The current study comprised a cross-sectional, anonymous, online study exploring psychosocial measures of traumatic experiences as well as protective factors that mitigate the risks to mental health on the mental health for adults with CHD (n=236) during the pandemic. Closed and open-ended questions and a series of standardised psychosocial measures of traumatic experiences, coping mechanisms, emotional regulation and PTG were measured.Results: Findings suggest the CHD population are at increased risk of PSTD which may be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, positive adaptation may promote post traumatic growth. In particular, health adversity is associated with greater appreciation whilst emotional regulation is associated with post-traumatic growth.Conclusions: We recommend a growth-focused, psychologically and trauma-informed approach to medicine and public health, recognising the importance of supporting mental health and promoting living well with CHD during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. These findings are likely generalisable to other lifelong health conditions and shielding populations.

Psychological Resilience in Young Female Athletes

Psychological resilience is an important construct that can enhance athletic performance and foster valuable life skills. Through positive adaptation to adversity and stressors in the athletic arena, athletes are able to cultivate their ability to effectively respond to negative stimuli, ultimately evolving to personal growth. For young female athletes, development of resilience may be particularly important. Young female athletes face distinct challenges in sport including sport inequity, body image issues, eating disorders, increased mental distress, and internalization of emotions. The aim of this review is to define and describe the construct of resilience and discuss the implications and applications relevant to young female athletes. By understanding how to foster resilience strategies in this population, we can enhance sport performance and enjoyment, as well as bolster valuable life skills that facilitate personal growth.