TY - JOUR A1 - Timme, Sinika A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Raboldt, Michaela T1 - Exercise or not? BT - An empirical illustration of the role of behavioral alternatives in exercise motivation and resulting theoretical considerations JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Objective: Individuals’ decisions to engage in exercise are often the result of in-the-moment choices between exercise and a competing behavioral alternative. The purpose of this study was to investigate processes that occur in-the-moment (i.e., situated processes) when individuals are faced with the choice between exercise and a behavioral alternative during a computerized task. These were analyzed against the background of interindividual differences in individuals’ automatic valuation and controlled evaluation of exercise. Method: In a behavioral alternatives task 101 participants were asked whether they would rather choose an exercise option or a behavioral alternative in 25 trials. Participants’ gaze behavior (first gaze and fixations) was recorded using eye-tracking. An exercise-specific affect misattribution procedure (AMP) was used to assess participants’ automatic valuation of exercise before the task. After the task, self-reported feelings towards exercise (controlled evaluation) and usual weekly exercise volume were assessed. Mixed effects models with random effects for subjects and trials were used for data analysis. Results: Choosing exercise was positively correlated with individuals’ automatic valuation (r = 0.20, p = 0.05), controlled evaluation (r = 0.58, p < 0.001), and their weekly exercise volume (r = 0.43, p < 0.001). Participants showed no bias in their initial gaze or number of fixations towards the exercise or the non-exercise alternative. However, participants were 1.30 times more likely to fixate on the chosen alternative first and more frequently, but this gaze behavior was not related to individuals’ automatic valuation, controlled evaluation, or weekly exercise volume. Conclusion: The results suggest that situated processes arising from defined behavioral alternatives may be independent of individuals’ general preferences. Despite one’s best general intention to exercise more, the choice of a non-exercise alternative behavior may seem more appealing in-the-moment and eventually be chosen. New psychological theories of health behavior change should therefore better consider the role of potentially conflicting alternatives when it comes to initiating physical activity or exercise. KW - eye-tracking KW - dual-process models KW - situated processes KW - motivation KW - physical activity Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1049356 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 14 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Timme, Sinika A1 - Hutchinson, Jasmin A1 - Regorius, Anton A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - The influence of affective priming on the affective response during exercise BT - a replication study JF - Journal of sport & exercise psychology N2 - The affective response during exercise is an important factor for long-term exercise adherence. Pottratz et al. suggested affective priming as a behavioral intervention for the enhancement of exercise-related affect. The present paper aims to replicate and extend upon these findings. We conducted a close replication with 53 participants completing a brisk walking task in two conditions (prime vs. no prime). Affective valence was assessed during exercise, and exercise enjoyment and remembered/forecasted pleasure were assessed postexercise. We could not replicate the findings of Pottratz et al., finding no evidence for positive changes in psychological responses in the priming condition. However, linear mixed models demonstrated significant interindividual differences in how participants responded to priming. These results demonstrate that affective priming during exercise does not work for everyone under every circumstance and, thus, provide an important contribution to the understanding of boundary conditions and moderating factors for priming in exercise psychology. KW - subliminal priming KW - interindividual differences KW - physical activity; KW - affective intervention Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2022-0025 SN - 0895-2779 SN - 1543-2904 SN - 0163-433X VL - 44 IS - 4 SP - 286 EP - 294 PB - Human Kinetics Publishers CY - Champaign ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Timme, Sinika A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Englert, Chris A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Tracking Self-Control – Task Performance and Pupil Size in a Go/No-Go Inhibition Task JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - There is an ongoing debate about how to test and operationalize self-control. This limited understanding is in large part due to a variety of different tests and measures used to assess self-control, as well as the lack of empirical studies examining the temporal dynamics during the exertion of self-control. In order to track changes that occur over the course of exposure to a self-control task, we investigate and compare behavioral, subjective, and physiological indicators during the exertion of self-control. Participants completed both a task requiring inhibitory control (Go/No-Go task) and a control task (two-choice task). Behavioral performance and pupil size were measured during the tasks. Subjective vitality was measured before and after the tasks. While pupil size and subjective vitality showed similar trajectories in the two tasks, behavioral performance decreased in the inhibitory control-demanding task, but not in the control task. However, behavioral, subjective, and physiological measures were not significantly correlated. These results suggest that there is a disconnect between different measures of self-control with high intra- and interindividual variability. Theoretical and methodological implications for self-control theory and future empirical work are discussed. KW - self-control KW - response inhibition KW - psychophysiological KW - behavioral and self-report measures KW - pupil diameter Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.915016 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 13 PB - Frontiers CY - Lausanne, Schweiz ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Nosrat, Sanaz A1 - Späth, Constantin A1 - Timme, Sinika T1 - Using COVID-19 Pandemic as a Prism: A Systematic Review of Methodological Approaches and the Quality of Empirical Studies on Physical Activity Behavior Change JF - Frontiers in Sports and Active Living N2 - Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of scientific endeavors. The goal of this systematic review is to evaluate the quality of the research on physical activity (PA) behavior change and its potential to contribute to policy-making processes in the early days of COVID-19 related restrictions. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of methodological quality of current research according to PRISMA guidelines using Pubmed and Web of Science, of articles on PA behavior change that were published within 365 days after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). Items from the JBI checklist and the AXIS tool were used for additional risk of bias assessment. Evidence mapping is used for better visualization of the main results. Conclusions about the significance of published articles are based on hypotheses on PA behavior change in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Among the 1,903 identified articles, there were 36% opinion pieces, 53% empirical studies, and 9% reviews. Of the 332 studies included in the systematic review, 213 used self-report measures to recollect prepandemic behavior in often small convenience samples. Most focused changes in PA volume, whereas changes in PA types were rarely measured. The majority had methodological reporting flaws. Few had very large samples with objective measures using repeated measure design (pre and during the pandemic). In addition to the expected decline in PA duration, these studies show that many of those who were active prepandemic, continued to be active during the pandemic. Conclusions: Research responded quickly at the onset of the pandemic. However, most of the studies lacked robust methodology, and PA behavior change data lacked the accuracy needed to guide policy makers. To improve the field, we propose the implementation of longitudinal cohort studies by larger organizations such as WHO to ease access to data on PA behavior, and suggest those institutions set clear standards for this research. Researchers need to ensure a better fit between the measurement method and the construct being measured, and use both objective and subjective measures where appropriate to complement each other and provide a comprehensive picture of PA behavior. KW - meta-science KW - exercise KW - methods KW - quality KW - study designs KW - standards Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.864468 SN - 2624-9367 VL - 4 SP - 1 EP - 17 PB - Frontiers CY - Lausanne, Schweiz ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Timme, Sinika A1 - Nosrat, Sanaz T1 - When pandemic hits BT - exercise frequency and subjective well-being during COVID-19 pandemic JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - The governmental lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic have forced people to change their behavior in many ways including changes in exercise. We used the brief window of global lockdown in the months of March/April/May 2020 as an opportunity to investigate the effects of externally imposed restrictions on exercise-related routines and related changes in subjective well-being. Statistical analyses are based on data from 13,696 respondents in 18 countries using a cross-sectional online survey. A mixed effects modeling approach was used to analyze data. We tested whether exercise frequency before and during the pandemic would influence mood during the pandemic. Additionally, we used the COVID-19 pandemic data to build a prediction model, while controlling for national differences, to estimate changes in exercise frequency during similar future lockdown conditions depending on prelockdown exercise frequency. According to the prediction model, those who rarely exercise before a lockdown tend to increase their exercise frequency during it, and those who are frequent exercisers before a lockdown tend to maintain it. With regards to subjective well-being, the data show that those who exercised almost every day during this pandemic had the best mood, regardless of whether or not they exercised prepandemic. Those who were inactive prepandemic and slightly increased their exercise frequency during the pandemic, reported no change in mood compared to those who remained inactive during the pandemic. Those who reduced their exercise frequency during the pandemic reported worse mood compared to those who maintained or increased their prepandemic exercise frequency. This study suggests that under similar lockdown conditions, about two thirds of those who never or rarely exercise before a lockdown might adopt an exercise behavior or increase their exercise frequency. However, such changes do not always immediately result in improvement in subjective well-being. These results may inform national policies, as well as health behavior and exercise psychology research on the importance of exercise promotion, and prediction of changes in exercise behavior during future pandemics. KW - mood KW - motivation KW - physical activity KW - habit KW - health Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.570567 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 11 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Ekkekakis, Panteleimon T1 - Affective-Reflective Theory of physical inactivity and exercise T1 - Die Affective-Reflective Theory zur Erklärung von körperlicher Inaktivität und Sporttreiben BT - Foundations and preliminary evidence BT - Grundlagen und erste Studienergebnisse JF - German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research N2 - This article introduces a new theory, the Affective-Reflective Theory (ART) of physical inactivity and exercise. ART aims to explain and predict behavior in situations in which people either remain in a state of physical inactivity or initiate action (exercise). It is a dual-process model and assumes that exercise-related stimuli trigger automatic associations and a resulting automatic affective valuation of exercise (type-1 process). The automatic affective valuation forms the basis for the reflective evaluation (type-2 process), which can follow if self-control resources are available. The automatic affective valuation is connected with an action impulse, whereas the reflective evaluation can result in action plans. The two processes, in constant interaction, direct the individual towards or away from changing behavior. The ART of physical inactivity and exercise predicts that, when there is an affective-reflective discrepancy and self-control resources are low, behavior is more likely to be governed by the affective type-1 process. This introductory article explains the underlying concepts and main theoretical roots from which the ART of physical inactivity and exercise was developed (field theory, affective responses to exercise, automatic evaluation, evaluation-behavior link, dual-process theorizing). We also summarize the empirical tests that have been conducted to refine the theory in its present form. KW - Motivation KW - Implicit KW - Explicit KW - Dual system KW - Self-control KW - Motivation KW - Implizit KW - Explizit KW - Zwei-System-Theorien KW - Selbstkontrolle Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-017-0477-9 SN - 2509-3142 SN - 2509-3150 VL - 48 IS - 1 SP - 48 EP - 58 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gerber, Markus A1 - Ehrbar, Janine A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Antoniewicz, Franziska A1 - Brand, Serge A1 - Colledge, Flora A1 - Donath, Lars A1 - Egger, Stephan T. A1 - Hatzinger, Martin A1 - Holsboer-Trachsler, Edith A1 - Imboden, Christian A1 - Schweinfurth, Nina A1 - Vetter, Stefan A1 - Ludyga, Sebastian T1 - Implicit attitudes towards exercise and physical activity behaviour among in-patients with psychiatric disorders JF - Mental Health and Physical Activity N2 - The current body of evidence suggests that in healthy participants, implicit attitudes towards physical activity explain variance in exercise behaviour beyond explicit cognitive processes. However, such relationships have not been examined in psychiatric patients, although this may contribute to a better understanding of the motivational and volitional resources needed to self-regulate their exercise behaviour. Therefore, the present cross-sectional study aimed to assess implicit attitudes towards exercise among psychiatric in-patients, and to correlate these implicit attitudes with their physical activity levels. Patients (N = 101) showing a psychiatric disorder, but no severe cognitive impairment, were directly recruited from psychiatric clinics. Their physical activity levels were assessed using both accelerometers and self-reports. Additionally, patients reported psychiatric symptoms and performed a single-target implicit association test (ST-IAT) with exercise employed as the target category. Of all patients, 39% showed a preference for exercise, whereas 13% showed an aversion towards exercise. The implicit attitudes of the remaining participants were equally strong for both concepts. Based on correlational analysis (correcting for age, sex, psychiatric symptoms severity, and ST-IAT sequence), no association was found between ST-IAT score, or self-reported and objectively assessed physical activity. Consequently, the link between exercise behaviour and implicit attitudes towards physical activity found in healthy participants could not be observed in psychiatric patients. KW - Accelerometry KW - Automatic evaluation KW - Dual mode theory KW - Physical activity Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mhpa.2018.08.001 SN - 1755-2966 VL - 15 SP - 71 EP - 77 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Cheval, Boris T1 - Theories to explain exercise motivation and physical inactivity BT - ways of expanding our current theoretical perspective JF - Frontiers in psychology KW - exercise KW - motivation KW - affect KW - automaticity KW - physical inactivity Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01147 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 10 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gerber, Markus A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Antoniewicz, Franziska A1 - Isoard-Gautheur, Sandrine A1 - Gustafsson, Henrik A1 - Bianchi, Renzo A1 - Colledge, Flora A1 - Madigan, Daniel J. A1 - Brand, Serge A1 - Ludyga, Sebastian T1 - Implicit and explicit attitudes towards sport among young elite athletes with high versus low burnout symptoms JF - Journal of sports sciences N2 - The development of cynical attitudes towards elite sport is a core symptom of athlete burnout and has been associated with dropout from elite sport. To date, this phenomenon has mainly been studied by investigating explicit attitudes towards sport, whereas athletes’ automatic evaluations (i.e. implicit attitudes) that have been shown to influence behavior as well were not considered. This study aimed to compare explicit and implicit attitudes towards sport of young elite athletes with high (N = 24) versus low (N = 26) burnout symptoms. Using self-reported measures, general and athlete burnout symptoms were assessed. Additionally, a single-target implicit association test was administered to examine participants’ automatic evaluation of sport. Statistical analysis revealed greater emotional/physical exhaustion and sport devaluation in athletes reporting high compared to low burnout symptoms. Implicit attitudes towards sport did not significantly differ between the groups. Furthermore, no significant correlations were observed between different athlete burnout symptoms and implicit attitudes. Athletes with high burnout symptoms show a tendency to explicitly detach themselves from sport, thus fostering sport devaluation as a core symptom of athlete burnout. However, this process does not seem to be reflected in their implicit attitudes towards sport. KW - Adolescents KW - automatic evaluations KW - dual mode model KW - reflective processes KW - sport Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2019.1585313 SN - 0264-0414 SN - 1466-447X VL - 37 IS - 14 SP - 1673 EP - 1680 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Petzold, Moritz Bruno A1 - Mumm, Jennifer Lara Maria A1 - Bischoff, Sophie A1 - Große, Julia A1 - Plag, Jens A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Ströhle, Andreas T1 - Increasing physical activity and healthy diet in outpatients with mental disorders BT - a randomized-controlled evaluation of two psychological interventions JF - European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience : official organ of the German Society for Biological Psychiatry N2 - IntroductionWhile physical activity (PA) can play an important role in the treatment of mental disorders (MD), large proportions of patients with MD do not meet PA recommendations. The aim of this trial was to evaluate whether structured psychological intervention (MoVo-LISA) is effective in helping outpatients with MD to increase their level of PA. As active control group (CG) we modified MoVo-LISA to target healthy diet behavior.MethodsN=83 outpatients with MD (F1-F4) were randomized to the two conditions. PA (self-report and accelerometry), dietary behavior, social-cognitive determinants of health behavior change, psychiatric symptoms and health-related quality of life were assessed at baseline, 1 and 12 weeks after the intervention.ResultsSignificant time*group interaction effects for objectively measured PA, dietary behavior and fruit and vegetable consumption indicated differential effects of the interventions on these outcomes. PA increased in the MoVo-LISA group (IG) from baseline to follow-up while it decreased in CG. IG showed a significant higher level of objectively measured PA at follow-up compared to CG. Dietary behavior and fruit and vegetable consumption significantly increased from baseline to follow-up in CG, but not IG. IG showed a significant increase in some, but not all social cognitive determinants of health behavior change.ConclusionsMoVo-LISA is effective in helping outpatients with MD to increase their level of PA in short- and mid-term. The used intervention strategies are effective for the promotion of healthy diet in patients with MD as well. KW - Physical activity KW - Physical exercise KW - Mental disorder KW - Mental disease KW - Intervention KW - MoVo Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-018-0941-z SN - 0940-1334 SN - 1433-8491 VL - 269 IS - 5 SP - 529 EP - 542 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schinköth, Michaela A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Automatic associations and the affective valuation of exercise BT - disentangling the type-1 process of the affective–reflective theory of physical inactivity and exercise JF - German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research N2 - The decision to exercise is not only bound to rational considerations but also automatic affective processes. The affective–reflective theory of physical inactivity and exercise (ART) proposes a theoretical framework for explaining how the automatic affective process (type‑1 process) will influence exercise behavior, i.e., through the automatic activation of exercise-related associations and a subsequent affective valuation of exercise. This study aimed to empirically test this assumption of the ART with data from 69 study participants. A single-measurement study, including within-subject experimental variation, was conducted. Automatic associations with exercise were first measured with a single-target implicit association test. The somato-affective core of the participants’ automatic valuation of exercise-related pictures was then assessed via heart rate variability (HRV) analysis, and the affective valence of the valuation was tested with a facial expression (FE; smile and frown) task. Exercise behavior was assessed via self-report. Multiple regression (path) analysis revealed that automatic associations predicted HRV reactivity (β = −0.24, p = .044); the signs of the correlation between automatic associations and the smile FE score was in the expected direction but remained nonsignificant (β = −0.21, p = .078). HRV reactivity predicted self-reported exercise behavior (β = −0.28, p = .013) (the same pattern of results was achieved for the frown FE score). The HRV-related results illustrate the potential role of automatic negative affective reactions to the thought of exercise as a restraining force in exercise motivation. For better empirical distinction between the two ART type‑1 process components, automatic associations and the affective valuation should perhaps be measured separately in the future. The results support the notion that automatic and affective processes should be regarded as essential aspects of the motivation to exercise. KW - Heart rate variability KW - Facial expression KW - Somatic KW - Dual-process KW - Motivation Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-020-00664-9 SN - 2509-3150 SN - 2509-3142 VL - 50 IS - 654 SP - 366 EP - 376 PB - Springer CY - Berlin ; Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schinköth, Michaela A1 - Weymar, Mathias A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Listening to the heart BT - Getting closer to the somatic core of affective valuation of exercise through heart rate variability analysis JF - Psychology of sport and exercise N2 - Objective: The affective-reflective theory of physical inactivity and exercise suggests that the mere thought of exercise can lead to an immediate somato-affective response which, if negative, will drive a physically inactive person to maintain his or her current exercise-avoidant behavior. This study aimed to test the assumption that the somatic core of this affective response can be identified by means of heart rate variability (HRV) analysis. Design: This study followed a within-subject experimental design. Method. Participants were 91 adult men and women whose HR and HRV were monitored whilst they viewed exercise-related and control pictures in a laboratory setting. Results: Analyses revealed a decrease in HRV during the viewing of exercise-related pictures in less physically active participants. These participants reported that the same pictures elicited feelings with relatively low affective valence and arousal. There were no changes in HR. KW - Dual-process KW - Motivation KW - Valence KW - Arousal KW - Psychophysiology KW - Self-assessment manikin (SAM) Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2019.101541 SN - 1469-0292 SN - 1878-5476 VL - 45 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lazuras, Lambros A1 - Barkoukis, Vassilis A1 - Mallia, Luca A1 - Lucidi, Fabio A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - More than a feeling: The role of anticipated regret in predicting doping intentions in adolescent athletes JF - Psychology of sport and exercise : PSE ; an official journal of the European Federation of Sport Psychology N2 - Objectives: Anticipated affective responses influence decision-making processes in profound ways. The present study emphasized the role of anticipated regret and assessed the additive and interactive effects of anticipated regret in predicting doping intentions among adolescent athletes. Design: Survey-based, correlational. Method: Two hundred and sixteen adolescent athletes (M age = 17.37, SD = 1.68, 79.1% males) from team sports took part in the study and completed structured and anonymous questionnaires on social cognitive variables relevant to doping use, anticipated regret from engaging in doping and doping intentions. Results: Variance-based structural equation modeling showed that anticipated regret significantly predicted doping intentions over and above the effects of past use of doping substances and nutritional supplements, and other social cognitive predictors, and the overall model predicted 72% of the variance in doping intentions. Further analysis of interaction effects showed that anticipated regret significantly interacted with past use of nutritional supplements, and subjective and descriptive social norms in predicting doping intentions. Conclusions: Anticipated regret represents a theoretically relevant and important predictor of doping intentions in sports, and can have a protective role against pro-doping use intentions among athletes with past use of nutritional supplements. Regret also appears to be relevant to social norms and expectations, thus, highlighting for the first time a normative component in the process linking anticipated affective responses with behavioural intentions. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Anticipated regret KW - Doping KW - Social norms KW - Adolescents Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2017.03.003 SN - 1469-0292 SN - 1878-5476 VL - 30 SP - 196 EP - 204 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lazuras, Lambros A1 - Barkoukis, Vassilis A1 - Loukovitis, Andreas A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Hudson, Andy A1 - Mallia, Luca A1 - Michaelides, Michalis A1 - Muzi, Milena A1 - Petroczi, Andrea A1 - Zelli, Arnaldo T1 - "I Want It All, and I Want It Now": Lifetime Prevalence and Reasons for Using and Abstaining from Controlled Performance and Appearance Enhancing Substances (PAES) among Young Exercisers and Amateur Athletes in Five European Countries JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Doping use in recreational sports is an emerging issue that has received limited attention so far in the psychological literature. The present study assessed the lifetime prevalence of controlled performance and appearance enhancing substances ( PAES), and used behavioral reasoning theory to identify the reasons for using and for avoiding using controlled PAES in young exercisers across five European countries, in the context of the "SAFE YOU" Project. Participants were 915 young amateur athletes and exercisers (M = 21.62; SD = 2.62) from Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, and UK who completed an anonymous questionnaire that included measures of self-reported use of controlled PAES, as well as reasons for using and not using controlled PAES. The results of the descriptive analyses demonstrated that almost one out five exercisers in the sample had a previous experience with controlled PAES. Higher prevalence rates were found in Greece and Cyprus and lower in Italy. The most frequently reported reasons for using controlled PAES included achieving the desired results faster; pushing the self to the (physical) limits; and recovering faster after exercise/training. Furthermore, the most frequently reported reasons for not using controlled PAES involved worry about any possible adverse health effects; not feeling the need for using them; and wanting to see what can be achieved naturally without using any controlled PAES. The findings of the present study indicate that the use of controlled PAES is fast becoming a crisis in amateur sports and exercise settings and highlight the need for preventive action and concerted anti-doping education efforts. KW - doping KW - behavioral reasoning KW - exercise KW - fitness KW - recreational sport KW - young adults Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00717 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 8 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Petzold, Moritz B. A1 - Bischoff, Sophie A1 - Rogoll, Janina A1 - Plag, Jens A1 - Teran, Christina A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Ströhle, Andreas T1 - Physical activity in outpatients with mental disorders: status, measurement and social cognitive determinants of health behavior change JF - European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience : official organ of the German Society for Biological Psychiatry N2 - Physical activity (PA) can play an important role in improving the mental and physical health in patients with mental disorders but is not well studied in this population. The aim of this study was to assess the status of PA in outpatients with mental disorders, compare the convergence of self-rating and accelerometer measurement and examine the influence of social cognitive variables from the Motivation-Volition (MoVo) model and clinical measures on PA. Eighty-four patients were recruited from three psychiatric outpatient clinics and local psychiatrists (Distribution of ICD-10-Diagnoses: F3.x = 59.5%, F4.x = 20.2%, F2.x = 17.9%, F1.x = 2.4%). PA, Self-efficacy, Outcome-expectancies, Intention, Self-concordance, Action- and Coping-planning, Health-related Quality of Life (SF-12) and Psychiatric Symptoms (SCL-27) were assessed through questionnaires. PA was assessed objectively by accelerometers. Most of the participants did not reach PA recommendations. Subjective and objective measurement of PA showed good accordance for total PA on group level but lower accordance on individual level. Motivational and volitional determinants of health behavior change showed a similar pattern of correlations with PA as in populations without mental disorders. Outpatients with mental disorders have the ability and are willing to perform PA but a large proportion of our sample did not meet PA recommendations. To assess group levels of PA, subjective and objective measurement seem equally apt, for individual diagnostics, a combination of both should be considered. Social cognitive determinants of health behavior change seem to be as helpful for the design of PA interventions for patients with mental disorders as they are in other populations. KW - Physical activity KW - Mental disorders KW - Prevalence KW - Assessment KW - Health behavior change KW - MoVo Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-017-0772-3 SN - 0940-1334 SN - 1433-8491 VL - 267 SP - 639 EP - 650 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Elbe, Anne-Marie A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Attitudes Toward Doping JF - Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology N2 - This article examines whether a training program in ethical decision making can change young athletes’ doping attitudes. Fifty-two young elite athletes were randomly assigned to either an ethical decision-making training group or a standard-knowledge-based educational program group. Another 17 young elite athletes were recruited for no-treatment control purposes. The ethical decision-making training comprised six 30-min online sessions in which the participants had to work through 18 ethical dilemmas related to doping. The standard-knowledge-based educational program was also conducted in six online sessions of comparable length to that of the ethical training. A short version of the Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale was administered to measure the effects of the trainings on doping attitude. Prior to as well as after the intervention, the mean doping attitude scores of the young athletes were low to very low, indicating vehement rejections of doping. The results of our experiment showed that the ethical training led to an attenuation of these rejections. No intervention effect was found in the standard education group. The observed slight increase in the doping attitude score could be an indication that the ethical decision-making training was successful in breaking up the athletes’ stereotypical style of reasoning about doping. KW - youth sport KW - antidoping KW - training program KW - effect evaluation Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/10508422.2014.976864 SN - 1050-8422 SN - 1532-7019 VL - 26 SP - 32 EP - 44 PB - Springer CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Koch, Helen T1 - Using Caffeine Pills for Performance Enhancement. An Experimental Study Neuroenhancements JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Recent research has indicated that university students sometimes use caffeine pills for neuroenhancement (NE; non-medical use of psychoactive substances or technology to produce a subjective enhancement in psychological functioning and experience), especially during exam preparation. In our factorial survey experiment, we manipulated the evidence participants were given about the prevalence of NE amongst peers and measured the resulting effects on the psychological predictors included in the Prototype-Willingness Model of risk behavior. Two hundred and thirty-one university students were randomized to a high prevalence condition (read faked research results overstating usage of caffeine pills amongst peers by a factor of 5; 50%), low prevalence condition (half the estimated prevalence; 5%) or control condition (no information about peer prevalence). Structural equation modeling confirmed that our participants’ willingness and intention to use caffeine pills in the next exam period could be explained by their past use of neuroenhancers, attitude to NE and subjective norm about use of caffeine pills whilst image of the typical user was a much less important factor. Provision of inaccurate information about prevalence reduced the predictive power of attitude with respect to willingness by 40-45%. This may be because receiving information about peer prevalence which does not fit with their perception of the social norm causes people to question their attitude. Prevalence information might exert a deterrent effect on NE via the attitude-willingness association. We argue that research into NE and deterrence of associated risk behaviors should be informed by psychological theory. KW - attitude KW - prevalence information KW - prototype-willingness-model KW - social reactivity KW - doping Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00101 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 7 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Sandouqa, Yaser A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Using, the simple sample count to estimate the frequency of prescription drug neuroenhancement in a sample of Jordan employees JF - International journal of drug policy N2 - Background: Epidemiological research indicates that the use of prescription drugs to enhance cognitive functioning is prevalent in Western countries, however, research on this phenomenon in Arab countries is lacking. Our study aimed to investigate the frequency of neuroenhancement (NE) using prescription drugs in a sample of employees in Jordan. Methods: A sample of 1186 employees (37.11 +/- 8.37 years old, 495 female), of whom 723 (35.65 +/- 7.53 years old, 396 female) served as teachers, completed a paper-pencil questionnaire. The single sample count technique (SSC) was used in order to secure confidential, self-reporting of prescription drug NE. Results: The 12-month prevalence of NE, estimated with the SSC was 15.43%. At 26.16%, the prevalence estimate was markedly higher in the subsample of teachers compared to non-teachers, 0.29%. Surprisingly, 336 participants did not use the SSC and directly affirmed or denied prescription drug NE. These direct responses yielded a prevalence of 11.57% for the full sample, 9.73% for the teachers and 15.60% for the non-teachers. Conclusion: This is the first study of the frequency of NE in an Arab sample. Results indicate that the use of prescription drug NE is not limited to Western countries and that teachers in Jordan might constitute a high-risk population. Further, participants seem to differ in their use of indirect estimation methods for reporting prescription drug NE. For future research, it might be useful to triangulate standard self reports and indirect estimation methods to assess NE. Possible cultural differences and specific high-risk populations for NE should be investigated further. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Neuroenhancement KW - Jordan KW - Single sample count Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2015.12.014 SN - 0955-3959 SN - 1873-4758 VL - 31 SP - 51 EP - 55 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Schindler, Sebastian A1 - Englert, Christoph A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Kissler, Johanna T1 - Uninstructed BIAT faking when ego depleted or in normal state: differential effect on brain and behavior JF - BMC neuroscience N2 - Background: Deception can distort psychological tests on socially sensitive topics. Understanding the cerebral processes that are involved in such faking can be useful in detection and prevention of deception. Previous research shows that faking a brief implicit association test (BIAT) evokes a characteristic ERP response. It is not yet known whether temporarily available self-control resources moderate this response. We randomly assigned 22 participants (15 females, 24.23 +/- 2.91 years old) to a counterbalanced repeated-measurements design. Participants first completed a Brief-IAT (BIAT) on doping attitudes as a baseline measure and were then instructed to fake a negative doping attitude both when self-control resources were depleted and non-depleted. Cerebral activity during BIAT performance was assessed using high-density EEG. Conclusions: Results indicate that temporarily available self-control resources do not affect overt faking success on a BIAT. However, differences were found on an electrophysiological level. This indicates that while on a phenotypical level self-control resources play a negligible role in deliberate test faking the underlying cerebral processes are markedly different. KW - EEG/ERP KW - Implicit association test (IAT) KW - Faking KW - Deception KW - Ego depletion KW - Cognitive control Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12868-016-0249-8 SN - 1471-2202 VL - 17 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Antoniewicz, Franziska A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Dropping Out or Keeping Up? Early-Dropouts, Late-Dropouts, and Maintainers Differ in Their Automatic Evaluations of Exercise Already before a 14-Week Exercise Course JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - The aim of this study was to examine how automatic evaluations of exercising (AEE) varied according to adherence to an exercise program. Eighty-eight participants (24.98 years +/- 6.88; 51.1% female) completed a Brief-Implicit Association Task assessing their AEE, positive and negative associations to exercising at the beginning of a 3-month exercise program. Attendance data were collected for all participants and used in a cluster analysis of adherence patterns. Three different adherence patterns (52 maintainers, 16 early dropouts, 20 late dropouts; 40.91% overall dropouts) were detected using cluster analyses. Participants from these three clusters differed significantly with regard to their positive and negative associations to exercising before the first course meeting (eta(2)(p) = 0.07). Discriminant function analyses revealed that positive associations to exercising was a particularly good discriminating factor. This is the first study to provide evidence of the differential impact of positive and negative associations on exercise behavior over the medium term. The findings contribute to theoretical understanding of evaluative processes from a dual-process perspective and may provide a basis for targeted interventions. KW - exercise adherence KW - automatic evaluations KW - BIAT KW - dropout KW - associations KW - affect Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00838 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 7 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mallia, Luca A1 - Lazuras, Lambros A1 - Barkoukis, Vassilis A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Baumgarten, Franz A1 - Tsorbatzoudis, Haralambos A1 - Zelli, Arnaldo A1 - Lucidi, Fabio T1 - Doping use in sport teams: The development and validation of measures of team-based efficacy beliefs and moral disengagement from a cross-national perspective JF - Psychology of sport and exercise : PSE ; an official journal of the European Federation of Sport Psychology N2 - Method: The first study relied on focus group data collected from twenty-one team sport professionals (mean age = 34; SD = 11.65). Four hundred and fourteen adolescent athletes (mean age = 16.69; SD = 1.55) participated in the second study, whereas seven hundred forty-nine adolescent team athletes (mean age = 16.43; SD = 1.69) participated in the third study. For the latter two studies, team athletes were recruited across Italy, Germany and Greece and provided data on the new team measures. Only athletes participating in the third study provided data on doping intentions. Results: The findings of the three studies supported the empirical goals of the investigation and provided evidence for the factor structure, reliability and validity of the team instruments. Furthermore, multi group findings supported the hypothesis that the new instruments would have equivalent measurement and validity characteristics across the three European countries. The conclusions focus on the conceptual and practical implications of these findings. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Adolescents KW - Self-regulatory efficacy KW - Collective efficacy KW - Confirmative factor analysis KW - Item development KW - Social cognitive theory Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2016.04.005 SN - 1469-0292 SN - 1878-5476 VL - 25 SP - 78 EP - 88 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Ziegler, Matthias T1 - Drugs As Instruments: Describing and Testing a Behavioral Approach to the Study of Neuroenhancement JF - Frontiers in psychology KW - psychoactive drugs KW - non-addictive behavior KW - cognitive enhancement KW - drug instrumentalization KW - user types Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01226 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 7 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Timme, Sinika A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Affect and exertion during incremental physical exercise: Examining changes using automated facial action analysis and experiential self-report JF - PLoS ONE N2 - Recent research indicates that affective responses during exercise are an important determinant of future exercise and physical activity. Thus far these responses have been measured with standardized self-report scales, but this study used biometric software for automated facial action analysis to analyze the changes that occur during physical exercise. A sample of 132 young, healthy individuals performed an incremental test on a cycle ergometer. During that test the participants’ faces were video-recorded and the changes were algorithmically analyzed at frame rate (30 fps). Perceived exertion and affective valence were measured every two minutes with established psychometric scales. Taking into account anticipated inter-individual variability, multilevel regression analysis was used to model how affective valence and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) covaried with movement in 20 facial action areas. We found the expected quadratic decline in self-reported affective valence (more negative) as exercise intensity increased. Repeated measures correlation showed that the facial action mouth open was linked to changes in (highly intercorrelated) affective valence and RPE. Multilevel trend analyses were calculated to investigate whether facial actions were typically linked to either affective valence or RPE. These analyses showed that mouth open and jaw drop predicted RPE, whereas (additional) nose wrinkle was indicative for the decline in affective valence. Our results contribute to the view that negative affect, escalating with increasing exercise intensity, may be the body’s essential warning signal that physiological overload is imminent. We conclude that automated facial action analysis provides new options for researchers investigating feelings during exercise. In addition, our findings offer physical educators and coaches a new way of monitoring the affective state of exercisers, without interrupting and asking them. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228739 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 15 IS - 2 SP - 1 EP - 17 PB - PLOS ONE / Public Library of Science CY - San Francisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Ulrich, Lukas T1 - I Can See It in Your Face. BT - Affective Valuation of Exercise in More or Less Physically Active Individuals JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - The purpose of this study was to illustrate that people’s affective valuation of exercise can be identified in their faces. The study was conducted with a software for automatic facial expression analysis and it involved testing the hypothesis that positive or negative affective valuation occurs spontaneously when people are reminded of exercise. We created a task similar to an emotional Stroop task, in which participants responded to exercise-related and control stimuli with a positive or negative facial expression (smile or frown) depending on whether the photo was presented upright or tilted. We further asked participants how much time they would normally spend for physical exercise, because we assumed that the affective valuation of those who exercise more would be more positive. Based on the data of 86 participants, regression analysis revealed that those who reported less exercise and a more negative reflective evaluation of exercise initiated negative facial expressions on exercise-related stimuli significantly faster than those who reported exercising more often. No significant effect was observed for smile responses. We suspect that responding with a smile to exercise-related stimuli was the congruent response for the majority of our participants, so that for them no Stroop interference occurred in the exercise-related condition. This study suggests that immediate negative affective reactions to exercise-related stimuli result from a postconscious automatic process and can be detected in the study participants’ faces. It furthermore illustrates how methodological paradigms from social–cognition research (here: the emotional Stroop paradigm) can be adapted to collect and analyze biometric data for the investigation of exercisers’ and non-exercisers’ automatic valuations of exercise. KW - motivation KW - exercise KW - emotion KW - automatic facial expression analysis KW - Stroop effect Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02901 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 10 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schindler, Sebastian A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Kissler, Johanna M. A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Cerebral correlates of faking BT - evidence from a brief implicit association test on doping attitudes JF - Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience N2 - Direct assessment of attitudes toward socially sensitive topics can be affected by deception attempts. Reaction-time based indirect measures, such as the Implicit Association Test (IAT), are less susceptible to such biases. Neuroscientific evidence shows that deception can evoke characteristic ERP differences. However, the cerebral processes involved in faking an IAT are still unknown. We randomly assigned 20 university students (15 females, 24.65 +/- 3.50 years of age) to a counterbalanced repeated-measurements design, requesting them to complete a Brief-IAT (BIAT) on attitudes toward doping without deception instruction, and with the instruction to fake positive and negative doping attitudes. Cerebral activity during BIAT completion was assessed using high-density EEG. Event-related potentials during faking revealed enhanced frontal and reduced occipital negativity, starting around 150 ms after stimulus presentation. Further, a decrease in the P300 and LPP components was observed. Source analyses showed enhanced activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus between 150 and 200 ms during faking, thought to reflect the suppression of automatic responses. Further, more activity was found for faking in the bilateral middle occipital gyri and the bilateral temporoparietal junction. Results indicate that faking reaction-time based tests alter brain processes from early stages of processing and reveal the cortical sources of the effects. Analyzing the EEG helps to uncover response patterns in indirect attitude tests and broadens our understanding of the neural processes involved in such faking. This knowledge might be useful for uncovering faking in socially sensitive contexts, where attitudes are likely to be concealed. KW - EEG/ERP KW - implicit association test (IAT) KW - faking KW - deception KW - indirect tests KW - anti-doping KW - right inferior frontal gyrus Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00139 SN - 1662-5153 VL - 9 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Schweizer, Geoffrey T1 - Going to the Gym or to the Movies?: Situated Decisions as a Functional Link Connecting Automatic and Reflective Evaluations of Exercise With Exercising Behavior JF - Journal of sport & exercise psychology N2 - The goal of the present paper is to propose a model for the study of automatic cognition and affect in exercise. We have chosen a dual-system approach to social information processing to investigate the hypothesis that situated decisions between behavioral alternatives form a functional link between automatic and reflective evaluations and the time spent on exercise. A new questionnaire is introduced to operationalize this link. A reaction-time based evaluative priming task was used to test participants' automatic evaluations. Affective and cognitive reflective evaluations, as well as exercising time, were requested via self-report. Path analyses suggest that the affective reflective (beta =.71) and the automatic evaluation (beta =.15) independently explain situated decisions, which, in turn (beta =.60) explain time spent on exercise. Our findings highlight the concept of contextualized decisions. They can serve as a starting point from which the so far seldom investigations of automatic cognition and affect in exercise can be integrated with multitudinous results from studies on reflective psychological determinants of health behavior. KW - evaluative priming KW - attitudes KW - dual processing Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2014-0018 SN - 0895-2779 SN - 1543-2904 VL - 37 IS - 1 SP - 63 EP - 73 PB - Human Kinetics Publ. CY - Champaign ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Schindler, Sebastian A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - The Effect of Implicitly Incentivized Faking on Explicit and Implicit Measures of Doping Attitude: When Athletes Want to Pretend an Even More Negative Attitude to Doping JF - PLoS one N2 - The Implicit Association Test (IAT) aims to measure participants' automatic evaluation of an attitude object and is useful especially for the measurement of attitudes related to socially sensitive subjects, e.g. doping in sports. Several studies indicate that IAT scores can be faked on instruction. But fully or semi-instructed research scenarios might not properly reflect what happens in more realistic situations, when participants secretly decide to try faking the test. The present study is the first to investigate IAT faking when there is only an implicit incentive to do so. Sixty-five athletes (22.83 years +/- 2.45; 25 women) were randomly assigned to an incentive-to-fake condition or a control condition. Participants in the incentive-to-fake condition were manipulated to believe that athletes with lenient doping attitudes would be referred to a tedious 45-minute anti-doping program. Attitudes were measured with the pictorial doping brief IAT (BIAT) and with the Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS). A one-way MANOVA revealed significant differences between conditions after the manipulation in PEAS scores, but not in the doping BIAT. In the light of our hypothesis this suggests that participants successfully faked an exceedingly negative attitude to doping when completing the PEAS, but were unsuccessful in doing so on the reaction time-based test. This study assessed BIAT faking in a setting that aimed to resemble a situation in which participants want to hide their attempts to cheat. The two measures of attitude were differentially affected by the implicit incentive. Our findings provide evidence that the pictorial doping BIAT is relatively robust against spontaneous and naive faking attempts. (B) IATs might be less prone to faking than implied by previous studies. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118507 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 10 IS - 4 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Heck, Philipp A1 - Ziegler, Matthias T1 - Illegal performance enhancing drugs and doping in sport: a picture-based JF - Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy N2 - Method: Following a known-group differences validation strategy, the doping attitudes of 43 athletes from bodybuilding (representative for a highly doping prone sport) and handball (as a contrast group) were compared using the picture-based doping-BIAT. The Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS) was employed as a corresponding direct measure in order to additionally validate the results. Results: As expected, in the group of bodybuilders, indirectly measured doping attitudes as tested with the picture-based doping-BIAT were significantly less negative (eta(2) = .11). The doping-BIAT and PEAS scores correlated significantly at r = .50 for bodybuilders, and not significantly at r = .36 for handball players. There was a low error rate (7%) and a satisfactory internal consistency (r(dagger dagger) = .66) for the picture-based doping-BIAT. Conclusions: The picture-based doping-BIAT constitutes a psychometrically tested method, ready to be adopted by the international research community. The test can be administered via the internet. All test material is available "open source". The test might be implemented, for example, as a new effect-measure in the evaluation of prevention programs. KW - Doping attitude KW - Bodybuilding KW - Indirect test KW - Implicit attitude test (IAT) KW - Methodology Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-597X-9-7 SN - 1747-597X VL - 9 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Thieme, Detlef T1 - brief implicit attitude test identifies substance abuse in bodybuilders JF - Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy N2 - Methods: We approached a group of 61 male competitive bodybuilders and collected urine samples for biochemical testing. The pictorial doping Brief Implicit Association Test (BIAT) was used for attitude measurement. This test quantifies the difference in response latencies (in milliseconds) to stimuli representing related concepts (i.e. doping-dislike/like-[health food]). KW - Steroid use KW - Psychology KW - Doping tests KW - Biochemical profiles Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-597X-9-36 SN - 1747-597X VL - 9 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Antoniewicz, Franziska A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Automatic evaluations and exercise setting preference in frequent exercisers JF - Journal of sport & exercise psychology N2 - The goals of this study were to test whether exercise-related stimuli can elicit automatic evaluative responses and whether automatic evaluations reflect exercise setting preference in highly active exercisers. An adapted version of the Affect Misattribution Procedure was employed. Seventy-two highly active exercisers (26 years +/- 9.03; 43% female) were subliminally primed (7 ms) with pictures depicting typical fitness center scenarios or gray rectangles (control primes). After each prime, participants consciously evaluated the "pleasantness" of a Chinese symbol. Controlled evaluations were measured with a questionnaire and were more positive in participants who regularly visited fitness centers than in those who reported avoiding this exercise setting. Only center exercisers gave automatic positive evaluations of the fitness center setting (partial eta squared = .08). It is proposed that a subliminal Affect Misattribution Procedure paradigm can detect automatic evaluations to exercising and that, in highly active exercisers, these evaluations play a role in decisions about the exercise setting rather than the amounts of physical exercise. Findings are interpreted in terms of a dual systems theory of social information processing and behavior. KW - exercise KW - health KW - affect misattribution procedure Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2014-0033 SN - 0895-2779 SN - 1543-2904 VL - 36 IS - 6 SP - 631 EP - 636 PB - Human Kinetics Publ. CY - Champaign ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schweizer, Geoffrey A1 - Plessner, Henning A1 - Kahlert, Daniela A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - A Video-Based training method for improving soccer referees' intuitive decision-making skills JF - Journal of applied sport psychology N2 - We present a video-based online training-tool (SET, for Schiedsrichter-Entscheidungs-Training, in German) for improving soccer referees' decisions. We assume that referees' decision-making in contact situations mainly relies on intuitive processing. For improving intuitive decisions, feedback on the correctness of decisions is essential; explanations are not required (Hogarth, 2008). Referees participating in SET watch videos, make decisions, and receive feedback. Evidence of the training's effectiveness was obtained in two experiments with soccer players and expert referees. Immediate feedback on the correctness of decisions without further explanations was sufficient for increasing decision accuracy. Results illustrate that SET is a promising tool for complementing referees' training. Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2011.555346 SN - 1041-3200 VL - 23 IS - 4 SP - 429 EP - 442 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Melzer, Marcus A1 - Hagemann, Norbert T1 - Towards an implicit association test (IAT) for measuring doping attitudes in sports. Data-based recommendations developed from two recently published tests JF - Psychology of sport and exercise : PSE ; an official journal of the European Federation of Sport Psychology N2 - Objectives: Today, the doping attitudes of athletes can either be measured by asking athletes directly or with the help of indirect attitude measurement procedures as for example the implicit association test (IAT). Using indirect measures may be helpful for example when psychological effects of doping prevention programs shall be evaluated. In the present study we have analyzed and compared measurement properties of two recently published IATs. Design: The IATs "doping substance vs. tea blend" and "doping substance vs. legal nutritional supplement" were presented to two randomly assigned independent samples of 102 athletes (44 male, 58 female; mean age 23.6 years) from different sports. Both IATs were complemented by a control IAT "word vs. non-word". Methods: In order to test central measurement properties of both IATs, distributions of measured values, correlations with the control IAT, reliability analyses, and analyses of error rates were performed. Results: Results pointed to a rather negative doping attitude in most athletes. Especially the fact that in the "doping vs. supplement" IAT error rates (12%) and adaptational learning effects across test blocks were substantial (eta(2) = .22), indicating that participants had difficulties correctly assigning the word stimuli to the respective category, we see slight advantages for the "doping vs. tea" IAT (e.g. satisfactory internal scale consistency Cronbach's-alpha = .78 among athletes reporting to be regularly involved in competitions). Conclusion: The less satisfactory measurement properties of the "doping vs. supplement" IAT can possibly be explained by the fact that the boundaries between (legal) supplements and (illegal) doping substances have been shifted from time to time so that athletes were not sure whether substances were legal or not. KW - Doping KW - Attitude KW - Implicit association test (IAT) Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2011.01.002 SN - 1469-0292 VL - 12 IS - 3 SP - 250 EP - 256 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kanitz, Jenny Lena A1 - Pretzer, Kim A1 - Reif, Marcus A1 - Voss, Andreas A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Warschburger, Petra A1 - Laengler, Alfred A1 - Henze, Guenter A1 - Seifert, Georg T1 - The impact of eurythmy therapy on stress coping strategies and health-related quality of life in healthy, moderately stressed adults JF - Complementary therapies in medicine : the journal for all health care professionals. N2 - Background: 'Stress' and 'health-related quality of life' (HRQoL) are two important theoretical constructs for modern therapy evaluation with clinical relevance. Eurythmy therapy (EYT) is a mind-body-therapy derived from anthroposophic medicine with promising effects on heart rate variability (HRV), HRQoL and disease scores. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of EYT on stress coping strategies (SCS) and HRQoL in a controlled study with moderately stressed participants. Methods: 68 healthy, moderately stressed adults (mean age: 42.2; SD: 8.2) performed 10 h of EYT in a group setting over a period of six weeks. A non-randomised control group of 22 healthy adults (mean age: 43.6; SD: 13.7) received no intervention and did only complete the questionnaires at the same data points. Outcomes were measured before and after the intervention (AVEM & SF-36). Results: A significant impact on SCS was found in seven AVEM scales (MANOVA, F (1/74) = 4.59; p = .04). With regard to changes in risk pattern affiliation (AVEM), 24% of the participants receiving EYT (n = 55) changed over time from a risky stress coping pattern to a healthier pattern. Concerning the HRQoL four normally distributed scales of the SF-36 ('vitality', 'social functioning', 'mental health' and 'physical functioning') showed a significant group x time interaction favouring the EYT group (MANOVA, F (1/74) = 17.26; p < .001). Statistically and clinically relevant mean differences over time of at least eight scale points were found for 'role physical', 'bodily pain', 'vitality' and 'mental health', and of at least 15 scale points for 'role emotional' and 'social functioning'. Conclusions: A six-week period of EYT training can result in a significant reduction of stress and consequently improve QoL. Because a significant proportion of participants had high levels of stress at baseline the results suggest a health-enhancing benefit of EYT that may have clinical potential for prevention of stress and associated disorders in healthy individuals and possibly in patients with chronic diseases, for example. KW - Eurythmy therapy KW - Mind-body-therapy KW - Stress KW - Health related quality of life Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2011.06.008 SN - 0965-2299 VL - 19 IS - 5 SP - 247 EP - 255 PB - Churchill Livingstone CY - Edinburgh ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kanning, Martina A1 - Ebner-Priemer, Ulrich A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Autonomous Regulation Mode Moderates the Effect of Actual Physical Activity on Affective States: An Ambulant Assessment Approach to the Role of Self-Determination JF - JOURNAL OF SPORT & EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY N2 - Studies have shown that physical activity influences affective states. However, studies have seldom depicted these associations in ongoing real-life situations, and there is no investigation showing that motivational states (i.e., more or less autonomously regulated) would moderate these effects in situ. To investigate the interaction of autonomous regulation and actual physical activity (aPA) with affective states, we use an ambulatory assessment approach. The participants were 44 university students (mean age: 26.2 +/- 3.2 years). We assessed aPA through 24-hr accelerometry and affective states and autonomous regulation via electronic diaries. Palmtop devices prompted subjects every 45 min during a 14-hr daytime period. We performed hierarchical multilevel analyses. Both aPA and autonomous regulation significantly influenced affective states. The interaction was significant for two affects. The higher the volume of aPA and thereby the more autonomously regulated the preceding bout of aPA was, the more our participants felt energized (r = .16) but agitated (r = -.18). KW - ecological momentary assessment KW - feelings KW - activities of daily living Y1 - 2012 SN - 0895-2779 VL - 34 IS - 2 SP - 260 EP - 269 PB - HUMAN KINETICS PUBL INC CY - CHAMPAIGN ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Subjective stressors in school and their relation to neuroenhancement a behavioral perspective on students' everyday life "doping" JF - Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy N2 - Background: The use of psychoactive substances to neuroenhance cognitive performance is prevalent. Neuroenhancement (NE) in everyday life and doping in sport might rest on similar attitudinal representations, and both behaviors can be theoretically modeled by comparable means-to-end relations (substance-performance). A behavioral (not substance-based) definition of NE is proposed, with assumed functionality as its core component. It is empirically tested whether different NE variants (lifestyle drug, prescription drug, and illicit substance) can be regressed to school stressors. Findings: Participants were 519 students (25.8 +/- 8.4 years old, 73.1% female). Logistic regressions indicate that a modified doping attitude scale can predict all three NE variants. Multiple NE substance abuse was frequent. Overwhelming demands in school were associated with lifestyle and prescription drug NE. Conclusions: Researchers should be sensitive for probable structural similarities between enhancement in everyday life and sport and systematically explore where findings from one domain can be adapted for the other. Policy makers should be aware that students might misperceive NE as an acceptable means of coping with stress in school, and help to form societal sensitivity for the topic of NE among our younger ones in general. KW - Neuroenhancement KW - Stress KW - School KW - Doping Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-597X-8-23 SN - 1747-597X VL - 8 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schweizer, Geoffrey A1 - Plessner, Henning A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Establishing standards for Basketball Elite Referees' decisions JF - Journal of applied sport psychology N2 - Basketball referees' decisions in ambiguous situations are supposed to adhere to common standards. We propose that standards can be established by video training-programs. Thirty-three German elite basketball referees participated in an online experiment. Feedback during a learning phase influenced decisions (foul vs. no call) in a subsequent test phase. These results provide a starting point for further investigations into establishing standards for referees. They suggest that establishing standards for referees' decisions in ambiguous situations may be a worthwhile approach for improving the quality of referees' decisions. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200.2012.741090 SN - 1041-3200 VL - 25 IS - 3 SP - 370 EP - 375 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Hoyer, Jürgen T1 - Psychological Symptoms and Chronic Mood in Representative Samples of Elite Student-Athletes, Deselected Student-Athletes and Comparison Students JF - School mental health : a multidisciplinary research and practice journal N2 - Stress-levels experienced by school-aged elite athletes are pronounced, but data on their mental health status are widely lacking. In our study, we examined self-reported psychological symptoms and chronic mood. Data from a representative sample of 866 elite student-athletes (aged 12-15 years), enrolled in high-performance sport programming in German Elite Schools of Sport, were compared with data from 80 student-athletes from the same schools who have just been deselected from elite sport promotion, and from 432 age-and sex-matched non-sport students from regular schools (without such programming). Anxiety symptoms were least prevalent in female elite student-athletes. In male elite student-athletes, only symptoms of posttraumatic stress were less prevalent than in the other groups. Somatoform symptoms were generally more frequent in athletes, a trend that was significantly pronounced in deselected athletes. Deselected athletes showed an increased risk for psychological symptoms compared with both other groups. Regarding chronic mood, again deselected athletes showed less positive scores. While there was a trend toward high-performance sport being associated with better psychological health at least in girls, preventative programs should take into account that deselection from elite sport programming may be associated with specific risks for mental disorders. KW - School KW - Mental health KW - Mental disorders KW - Competitive sport KW - Forced drop-out Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-012-9095-8 SN - 1866-2625 SN - 1866-2633 VL - 5 IS - 3 SP - 166 EP - 174 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Baumgarten, Franz A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Reduced self-control leads to disregard of an unfamiliar behavioral option - an experimental approach to the study of neuroenhancement JF - Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy N2 - Background: Neuroenhancement (NE), the use of psychoactive substances in order to enhance a healthy individual's cognitive functioning from a proficient to an even higher level, is prevalent in student populations. According to the strength model of self-control, people fail to self-regulate and fall back on their dominant behavioral response when finite self-control resources are depleted. An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that ego-depletion will prevent students who are unfamiliar with NE from trying it. Findings: 130 undergraduates, who denied having tried NE before (43% female, mean age = 22.76 +/- 4.15 years old), were randomly assigned to either an ego-depletion or a control condition. The dependent variable was taking an "energy-stick" (a legal nutritional supplement, containing low doses of caffeine, taurine and vitamin B), offered as a potential means of enhancing performance on the bogus concentration task that followed. Logistic regression analysis showed that ego-depleted participants were three times less likely to take the substance, OR = 0.37, p = .01. Conclusion: This experiment found that trying NE for the first time was more likely if an individual's cognitive capacities were not depleted. This means that mental exhaustion is not predictive for NE in students for whom NE is not the dominant response. Trying NE for the first time is therefore more likely to occur as a thoughtful attempt at self-regulation than as an automatic behavioral response in stressful situations. We therefore recommend targeting interventions at this inter-individual difference. Students without previous reinforcing NE experience should be provided with information about the possible negative health outcomes of NE. Reconfiguring structural aspects in the academic environment (e.g. lessening workloads) might help to deter current users. KW - Neuroenhancement KW - Self-control KW - Ego-depletion KW - Prevention Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-597X-8-41 SN - 1747-597X VL - 8 IS - 23 PB - BioMed Central CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Baumgarten, Franz A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Reduced self-control leads to disregard of an unfamiliar behavioral option: an experimental approach to the study of neuroenhancement Y1 - 2013 UR - http://www.substanceabusepolicy.com/content/pdf/1747-597X-8-41.pdf U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-597X-8-41 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wolff, Wanja A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Subjective stressors in school and their relation to neuroenhancement: a behavioral perspective on students everyday life "doping" Y1 - 2013 UR - http://www.substanceabusepolicy.com/content/pdf/1747-597X-8-23.pdf U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-597X-8-23 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Strahler, Katharina A1 - Ehrlenspiel, Felix A1 - Heene, Moritz A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Competitive anxiety and cortisol awakening response in the week leading up to a competition N2 - Objectives: This study investigated the psychological as well as neuroendocrine stress response across one week before an important sport competition, introducing the cortisol awakening response (CAR) to sport psychological research. Methods: On three days in the week before the German Nationals, martial artists (N = 17) reported their competitive state anxiety and collected five samples of salivary cortisol during the first hour after awakening. Results: Hierarchic-linear models and multiple regressions were conducted. Despite a significant rise in "somatic anxiety" (p < .05), the increment of CAR across the week remained non-significant. A moderator function of competitive anxiety on the released amount of cortisol in the morning was not found significant. Results did not show any significant regression of changes in the neuroendocrine response on changes in state anxiety. Conclusion: Non- significant increments of CAR with a closer proximity to the competition may be interpreted as a possible habituation of basal hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal activity. Moreover, athletes appear to have a lower CAR than found in norm studies, which points to further investigation of interindividual and situational effects on the temporal pattern of the neuroendocrine response to sport competitions. Y1 - 2010 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/14690292 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2009.10.003 SN - 1469-0292 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heiss, Christian A1 - Engbert, Kai A1 - Groepel, Peter A1 - Ziegler, Matthias A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Self-leadership and volition : distinct and potentially supplemental constructs? N2 - Self-leadership and volition are conceptually similar concepts. Both propose self-influence strategies that aim to improve the motivation and self-direction necessary to perform well. The present study assesses whether self- leadership strategies maintain construct-specific variance when compared with the similar strategies of volition. Results from a questionnaire study (N=320) indicate that self-leadership and volitional strategies are distinguishable and only moderately (r=.33) correlated. Self-leadership, therefore, supplements volition during goal attainment. Findings are discussed in light of the Rubicon model of action phases. Y1 - 2010 UR - http://www.ammonsscientific.com/search/ U6 - https://doi.org/10.2466/01.03.07.14.Pr0.107.5.447-462 SN - 0033-2941 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ziegler, Matthias A1 - Ehrlenspiel, Felix A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Latent state-trait theory : an application in sport psychology N2 - Objective: Questionnaires are often applied in sports psychology to measure a person's trait or state. However, the extent to which the questionnaire captures differences because of trait or state influences is often unclear. The latent state-trait (LST) theory offers the opportunity to separate both variance sources. This separation allows estimating specific reliability coefficients. Design: The present paper gives a theoretical introduction to LST and its basic ideas. Using a real data set with N = 156 athletes we exemplify the steps necessary to derive the LST coefficients. All athletes filled out a comprehensive inventory assessing competitive anxiety on two occasions. Method: The data are analysed with structural equation models based on LST principles. Results: The results confirm the questionnaire's trait saturation. Conclusion: Finally, results are discussed in light of practical and theoretical implications. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/14690292 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2008.12.004 SN - 1469-0292 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Strahler, Katharina A1 - Ehrlenspiel, Felix A1 - Heene, Moritz A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Competitive anxiety and cortisol awakening response in the week leading up to a competition Y1 - 2010 SN - 1469-0292 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schweizer, Geoffrey A1 - Plessner, Henning A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Studying experts' intuitive decision making online using video stimuli Y1 - 2010 SN - 978-1-8487-2019-0 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Plessner, Henning A1 - Schweizer, Geoffrey A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - O'Hare, David T1 - A multiple-cue learning approach as the basis for understanding and improving soccer referees' decision making Y1 - 2009 SN - 978-0-444-53356-2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Schweizer, Geoffrey A1 - Plessner, Henning T1 - Conceptual considerations about the development of a decision-making training method for expert soccer referees Y1 - 2009 SN - 978-1-60692-390-0 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Antoniewicz, Franziska A1 - Brand, Ralf T1 - Dropping Out or Keeping Up? BT - Early-Dropouts, Late-Dropouts, and Maintainers Differ in Their Automatic Evaluations of Exercise Already before a 14-Week Exercise Course JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - The aim of this study was to examine how automatic evaluations of exercising (AEE) varied according to adherence to an exercise program. Eighty-eight participants (24.98 years ± 6.88; 51.1% female) completed a Brief-Implicit Association Task assessing their AEE, positive and negative associations to exercising at the beginning of a 3-month exercise program. Attendance data were collected for all participants and used in a cluster analysis of adherence patterns. Three different adherence patterns (52 maintainers, 16 early dropouts, 20 late dropouts; 40.91% overall dropouts) were detected using cluster analyses. Participants from these three clusters differed significantly with regard to their positive and negative associations to exercising before the first course meeting (η2p = 0.07). Discriminant function analyses revealed that positive associations to exercising was a particularly good discriminating factor. This is the first study to provide evidence of the differential impact of positive and negative associations on exercise behavior over the medium term. The findings contribute to theoretical understanding of evaluative processes from a dual-process perspective and may provide a basis for targeted interventions. KW - exercise adherence KW - automatic evaluations KW - BIAT KW - dropout KW - associations KW - affect Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00838 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 7 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Brand, Ralf A1 - Koch, Helen T1 - Using Caffeine Pills for Performance Enhancement BT - An Experimental Study on University Students’ Willingness and Their Intention to Try Neuroenhancements JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Recent research has indicated that university students sometimes use caffeine pills for neuroenhancement (NE; non-medical use of psychoactive substances or technology to produce a subjective enhancement in psychological functioning and experience), especially during exam preparation. In our factorial survey experiment, we manipulated the evidence participants were given about the prevalence of NE amongst peers and measured the resulting effects on the psychological predictors included in the Prototype-Willingness Model of risk behavior. Two hundred and thirty-one university students were randomized to a high prevalence condition (read faked research results overstating usage of caffeine pills amongst peers by a factor of 5; 50%), low prevalence condition (half the estimated prevalence; 5%) or control condition (no information about peer prevalence). Structural equation modeling confirmed that our participants’ willingness and intention to use caffeine pills in the next exam period could be explained by their past use of neuroenhancers, attitude to NE and subjective norm about use of caffeine pills whilst image of the typical user was a much less important factor. Provision of inaccurate information about prevalence reduced the predictive power of attitude with respect to willingness by 40-45%. This may be because receiving information about peer prevalence which does not fit with their perception of the social norm causes people to question their attitude. Prevalence information might exert a deterrent effect on NE via the attitude-willingness association. We argue that research into NE and deterrence of associated risk behaviors should be informed by psychological theory. KW - attitude KW - prevalence information KW - prototype-willingness-model KW - social reactivity KW - doping Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00101 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 7 SP - 1 EP - 11 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER -