Dataset Information

Stress, Mindsets, and Success in Navy SEALs Special Warfare Training.

ABSTRACT: Mindsets can impact an individual's performance in stressful experiences such as public speaking or receiving negative feedback. Yet we know little about the boundary conditions of where these mindsets predict success, and where they may become irrelevant or even maladaptive. The current research asks whether mindsets are beneficial in environments of extreme physical and mental stress using participants undergoing the notoriously challenging Navy SEALs training. We hypothesized that participants with stress-is-enhancing mindsets - who believe stress enhances their health, performance and wellbeing - will outperform those with stress-is-debilitating mindsets. In addition, we explore whether other mindsets about willpower and failure predict success in a similar manner. Following 174 Navy SEALs candidates, we find that, even in this extreme setting, stress-is-enhancing mindsets predict greater persistence through training, faster obstacle course times, and fewer negative evaluations from peers and instructors. We also find evidence that failure-is-enhancing mindsets may be detrimental to candidates' success, and non-limited willpower mindsets prompt negative evaluations from others. Multiverse analyses were conducted to test for the robustness of these effects across researcher analytical decisions, which produced consistent results. We discuss how findings in this unique environment can provide insight into the importance of mindsets in other organizations and propose future avenues of research to further understand the causal role of mindsets in diverse workplace contexts.

SUBMITTER: Smith EN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6974804 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Stress, Mindsets, and Success in Navy SEALs Special Warfare Training.

Smith Eric N EN Young Michael D MD Crum Alia J AJ

Frontiers in psychology 20200115

Mindsets can impact an individual's performance in stressful experiences such as public speaking or receiving negative feedback. Yet we know little about the boundary conditions of where these mindsets predict success, and where they may become irrelevant or even maladaptive. The current research asks whether mindsets are beneficial in environments of extreme physical and mental stress using participants undergoing the notoriously challenging Navy SEALs training. We hypothesized that participant ...[more]

PMID: 32010023

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Project description:The efficiency with which individuals extract energy from their environment defines their survival and reproductive success, and thus their selective contribution to the population. Individuals that forage more efficiently (i.e., when energy gained exceeds energy expended) are likely to be more successful at raising viable offspring than individuals that forage less efficiently. Our goal was to test this prediction in large long-lived mammals under free-ranging conditions. To do so, we equipped 20 lactating Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) breeding on Kerguelen Island in the Southern Ocean with tags that recorded GPS locations, depth and tri-axial acceleration to determine at-sea behaviours and detailed time-activity budgets during their foraging trips. We also simultaneously measured energy spent at sea using the doubly-labeled water (DLW) method, and estimated the energy acquired while foraging from 1) type and energy content of prey species present in scat remains, and 2) numbers of prey capture attempts determined from head acceleration. Finally, we followed the growth of 36 pups from birth until weaning (of which 20 were the offspring of our 20 tracked mothers), and used the relative differences in body mass of pups at weaning as an index of first year survival and thus the reproductive success of their mothers. Our results show that females with greater foraging efficiencies produced relatively bigger pups at weaning. These mothers achieved greater foraging efficiency by extracting more energy per minute of diving rather than by reducing energy expenditure. This strategy also resulted in the females spending less time diving and less time overall at sea, which allowed them to deliver higher quality milk to their pups, or allowed their pups to suckle more frequently, or both. The linkage we demonstrate between reproductive success and the quality of individuals as foragers provides an individual-based quantitative framework to investigate how changes in the availability and accessibility of prey can affect fitness of animals.

Project description:IntroductionThe metabolomic profiles of Soldiers entering the U.S. Special Forces Assessment and Selection course (SFAS) have not been evaluated.ObjectivesTo compare pre-SFAS blood metabolomes of Soldiers selected during SFAS versus those not selected, and explore the relationships between the metabolome, physical performance, and diet quality.MethodsFasted blood samples and food frequency questionnaires were collected from 761 Soldiers prior to entering SFAS to assess metabolomic profiles and diet quality, respectively. Physical performance was assessed throughout SFAS.ResultsBetween-group differences (False Discovery Rate < 0.05) in 108 metabolites were detected. Selected candidates had higher levels of compounds within xenobiotic, pentose phosphate, and corticosteroid metabolic pathways, while non-selected candidates had higher levels of compounds potentially indicative of oxidative stress (i.e., sphingomyelins, acylcarnitines, glutathione, amino acids). Multiple compounds higher in non-selected versus selected candidates included: 1-carboxyethylphenylalanine; 4-hydroxy-nonenal-glutathione; α-hydroxyisocaproate; hexanoylcarnitine; sphingomyelin and were associated with lower diet quality and worse physical performance. CONCLUSION: Candidates selected during SFAS had higher pre-SFAS levels of circulating metabolites that were associated with resistance to oxidative stress, higher physical performance and higher diet quality. In contrast, non-selected candidates had higher levels of metabolites potentially indicating elevated oxidative stress. These findings indicate that Soldiers who were selected for continued Special Forces training enter the SFAS course with metabolites associated with healthier diets and better physical performance. Additionally, the non-selected candidates had higher levels of metabolites that may indicate elevated oxidative stress, which could result from poor nutrition, non-functional overreaching/overtraining, or incomplete recovery from previous physical activity.

Dataset Information

Stress, Mindsets, and Success in Navy SEALs Special Warfare Training.

Publications

Stress, Mindsets, and Success in Navy SEALs Special Warfare Training.

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