A fresh look at the concepts of economic and macroeconomic crises: General, priority, and institutional approach

Subject. The article addresses approaches to understanding the economic and macroeconomic crisis. Objectives. The aim is to study and update the concepts of macroeconomic crisis and economic crisis, taking into account modern crisis phenomena and processes, for easier identification and timely anti-crisis measures. Methods. The study draws on the abstract-logical method. Results. The paper clarifies the terms "macroeconomic crisis" and "economic crisis", adds two approaches to the traditional general economic approach to understanding macroeconomic and economic crises, i.e. priority-economic (new approach) and institutional- economic (updated approach). I offer a new systemic grouping of signs of macroeconomic crises and examples that reveal the impact of new signs of these crises on macroeconomics. I formulated a new idea of the unity of intermittent and persistent crisis. Conclusions. The priority-economic approach indicates the priority areas of effort mobilization in the process of crisis management of macroeconomics. The institutional-economic approach broadens the perception of the crises and confirms the need to apply an updated institutional approach to all phenomena and processes studied in macroeconomics.

The Intensity Side of Volition

Attaining sports or health goals requires not only high motivation but also the willpower to translate sport-behavior intentions into successful action. This volitional regulation calls for the mobilization of effort to overcome obstacles in the pursuit of goals. The present article provides a theoretical and empirical overview of motivation intensity theory ( Brehm & Self, 1989 ) – a conceptual framework that makes clear and testable predictions about effort mobilization in various contexts. First, we present the guiding principles of this theory and its operationalizations by measures of effort-related cardiovascular reactivity and physical handgrip force. Second, we review a selection of empirical tests of the basic assumptions of this theory and the impact of psychological moderator variables such as affect, fatigue, pain, and personality on effort mobilization. Finally, we discuss important implications of these findings for the sports and health domains and make suggestions for future research.

Does Trait Affect Impact Activity Engagement?

Research has shown the amount of effort we expend towards our goals depends on a sense of self-efficacy, perception of task difficulty, and likelihood of achieving our goal. All of these processes are susceptible to the influence of affect. For example, negative moods may impede goal achievement by increasing perceptions of difficulty (Silvestrini & Gendolla, 2019). Negative experiences (such as past failures) can encourage these negative moods and subsequently impact self-efficacy (Esposito, Gendolla, & Van der Linden, 2014). Findings from self-efficacy research (e.g. Esposito et al., 2014) suggest that older adults may be particularly susceptible to the impacts of negative affect on effort mobilization, especially when tasks already seem challenging, with little chance of success. Perception of task difficulty, then, impacts the amount of effort exerted in completing the task. The present study sought to examine the factors that impact perceptions of difficulty and subsequent effort expenditure, represented by systolic blood pressure responsivity (SBP-R). Younger (N = 41) and Older (N = 163) adults completed a difficult cognitive task as part of a larger, longitudinal study, as well as measures of trait affect before study sessions. Our findings indicate younger adults exert less effort overall than older adults; however, when negative trait affect is considered, we find that higher levels of negative affect in older adults reduced task engagement. These results provide support for an effect of negative affect on task appraisals and posited age-related differences in effort mobilization.

Four minutes might not be enough for light colour temperature to affect sleepiness, mental effort, and light ratings

Light exerts a number of non-image-forming effects that are mostly apparent during night-time but can also been seen during daytime. Recently, we have shown that exposure to light of higher colour temperature prior to performing a cognitive task leads to a weaker effort-related cardiovascular response compared to exposure to light of lower colour temperature. This present study tested if presenting light of different colour temperatures during rather than before the task performance would lead to equivalent changes in effort mobilization. Participants performed a modified Sternberg short-memory task for eight minutes as lighting conditions were adjusted to one of four experimental lighting conditions (2800 K, 4000 K, 5000 K, or 6500 K) after the first four minutes, for the remaining four minutes. We predicted that effort-related cardiovascular response would strengthen with decreasing colour temperature. The results, however, did not follow this predicted pattern. No significant effects of lighting conditions on subjective measures were observed. Therefore, we conclude that four minutes might not be enough for light colour temperature to induce changes in effort-related cardiovascular response or affect subjective ratings of sleepiness and lighting.

Major depression impairs incentive processing: evidence from the heart and the face

BackgroundThe present study tested the hypothesis of a differential pattern of reward and punishment responsiveness in depression measuring effort mobilization during anticipation and facial expressions during consumption.MethodsTwenty patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 20 control participants worked on a memory task under neutral, reward, and punishment instructions. Effort mobilization was operationalized as cardiovascular reactivity, while facial expressions were measured by facial electromyographic reactivity. Self-report measures for each phase complemented this multi-method approach.ResultsDuring anticipation, MDD patients showed weaker cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) reactivity to reward and blunted self-reported wanting, but weaker PEP reactivity to punishment and unchanged self-reported avoidance motivation. During consumption, MDD patients showed reduced zygomaticus major muscle reactivity to reward and blunted self-reported liking, but unchanged corrugator supercilii muscle reactivity to punishment and unchanged self-reported disliking.ConclusionsThese findings demonstrate reduced effort mobilization during reward and punishment anticipation in depression. Moreover, they show reduced facial expressions during reward consumption and unchanged facial expressions during punishment consumption in depression.