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Mental Health Enhancement Using Physical Activity on Real and Virtual Environment

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Digital Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 March 2021) | Viewed by 12806

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
College of Medicine, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea
Interests: Mental health, Physical activity, Sports Psychiatry, Internet game, Digital therapeutics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Physical activity is thought to be a good tool for managing and improving mental health. Accordingly, having a healthy and strong mental status can enhance the performance of an elite athlete. Recently developed digital techniques may provide a safe physical activity program for disabled and senior people in virtual environments.

Current events present opportunities for research suggesting the relationship between physical activity and mental health improvement in real environments; formulating updated and creative environments for providing physical activity to improve mental health; and assessing mixed environments for examining improving mental health using physical activity. We invite you to submit papers on these topics to our Special Issue, titled “Mental health enhancement using physical activity in real and virtual environments.”

Prof. Dr. Doug Hyun Han
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • mental health
  • physical activity
  • rehabilitation
  • sports therapy
  • virtual gym
  • serious game

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 1201 KiB  
Article
A Phenomenological Study of Mental Health Enhancement in Taekwondo Training: Application of Catharsis Theory
by Won-Chul Bing and Soo-Jung Kim
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(8), 4082; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18084082 - 13 Apr 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 7766
Abstract
In modern society, catharsis is often understood as the relieving of stress, and the psychological and medical effects of catharsis are well known even to ordinary people. There are many studies showing that physical activity is a good tool for managing and promoting [...] Read more.
In modern society, catharsis is often understood as the relieving of stress, and the psychological and medical effects of catharsis are well known even to ordinary people. There are many studies showing that physical activity is a good tool for managing and promoting mental health. However, there are not many studies on Taekwondo training and catharsis. Therefore, we conducted a study explaining catharsis as mental health promotion in Taekwondo training. This study explores mental health enhancement of Taekwondo training by using a phenomenological methodology. Phenomenology is a theory that seeks to understand an individual’s recognition of their own subjectivity rather than explaining objective factors about an individual. We collected data from interviews with 12 students who had been members of a university Taekwondo demonstration team. The phenomenological results were expressed as six themes: (1) vicarious purgation of repressed emotions, (2) emotional catharsis through pity and fear, (3) catharsis from ethics, (4) catharsis through mimesis, (5) catharsis from vicarious satisfaction through teammates, (6) catharsis from being the object of envy. Taekwondo, a traditional Korean martial art, is a physical activity that allows people to experience catharsis, which is a mental health effect of sports. Full article
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13 pages, 718 KiB  
Article
Comparison of Psychological and Cognitive Characteristics between Professional Internet Game Players and Professional Baseball Players
by Jin Oh Kang, Kyoung Doo Kang, Jea Woog Lee, Jae Jun Nam and Doug Hyun Han
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(13), 4797; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17134797 - 3 Jul 2020
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4170
Abstract
The esports industry is increasing in popularity and is now played at the professional level. We hypothesized that esports players may have a significant advantage over the general population in terms of psychological and cognitive characteristics, which may be similar to that of [...] Read more.
The esports industry is increasing in popularity and is now played at the professional level. We hypothesized that esports players may have a significant advantage over the general population in terms of psychological and cognitive characteristics, which may be similar to that of professional baseball players. We recruited three participant groups: esports players (n = 55), pro-baseball players (n = 57), and age- and sex-matched healthy comparison subjects (n = 60). We assessed psychological status using the Korean versions of Temperament and Character Inventory and State and Trait Anxiety Inventory and cognitive functions using the modified Tower of London, Emotional Perception, and Mental Rotation tests. Esports players had similar psychological characteristics to pro-baseball players (higher novelty seeking [p < 0.01 *, ŋ = 0.818], self-directedness [p < 0.01 *, ŋ = 0.757], and self-transcendence scores [p < 0.01 *, ŋ = 0.853], and decreased state anxiety scores [p < 0.01 *, ŋ = 0.808]), which differed from those of the general population. However, esports players showed higher working memory [p < 0.01 *, ŋ = 0.823] and slower emotional perception than pro-baseball players [p < 0.01 *, ŋ = 0.812]. In conclusion, esports and pro-baseball players had similar psychological but different cognitive characteristics. Full article
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