Research on Intervention Strategies and Neural Mechanisms for Competence Frustration: A Case of Fire Rescue Personnel

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-4830740/v1

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Research on Intervention Strategies and Neural Mechanisms for Competence Frustration: A Case of Fire Rescue Personnel

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4830740/v1

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Background

With the rapid development of knowledge economy society and the sudden increase of social pressure, people in all walks of life generally suffer competency need frustration. Fire rescue personnel as a typical high-load, high-pressure, high-risk occupation, are easily suffering competence need frustrated. Therefore, this study chooses fire rescue personnel as the research object, aims to accurately measure the level of competence frustration and what measures to take to alleviate the negative effects of competence frustration.

(2) Methods: 20 graduate students were selected to verify the effect of frontal lobe α asymmetry (FAA) as a judgement of the competence frustration level using an EEG experimental method. On this basis, through two stopwatch stopping experiments, 72 fire rescue personnel were selected to conduct the experiments to investigate the intervention effects of developmental feedback and compassion-focused therapy.

(3) Results: Frontal α asymmetry could be used as an EEG indicator for judging competence frustration, and the compassion-focused therapy intervention reduced the level of competence frustration of the participants, while the developmental feedback intervention improved the level of competence frustration of the participants.

(4) Conclusions: The difference in the effects of the two intervention methods indicates that when intervening in competence frustration, it is easier to reduce competence frustration by focusing on the subjects themselves than by focusing on the completion of the task.

Competence frustration

Frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA)

EEG

Neuropsychology

With the rapid development of social informatization, digitalization and intelligence, all walks of life have put forward higher requirements for employees, at the same time, information overload, technological change brought about by AI, economic recession and other reasons have caused a high level of pressure and anxiety among employees, making them often encounter various setbacks in the process of work, resulting in frustration of competence. The research shows that the frustration of employees' competence needs has become a common social psychological phenomenon, and has gradually attracted the attention of researchers. Competence need is considered a basic, innate psychological need of the individual, and competence frustration refers to the individual's perceived lack of competence and feelings of some kind of failure in the task or work, etc. (Bartholomew et al., 2014). Research has shown that job stress, emotional exhaustion, negative feedback, and demanding management are all important triggers for competence need frustration (Deci et al., 2017; Vansteenkiste et al., 2020; Trepanier et al., 2016). The creation and spread of competence need frustration can have numerous negative consequences for individuals and organizations. For individuals, competence need frustration can lead to negative emotions (Bartholomew et al., 2014; Gunnell et al., 2013; Unanue et al., 2017), depressive symptom (Van den Broeck et al., 2014), unhealthy state (Chen et al., 2015) and unhappiness (Gillet et al., 2012) et al. For organizations, competence frustration reduces individuals' autonomous motivation and will to fight, thereby negatively affecting the innovation ability and organizational performance.

Fire rescue personnel as a typical high-load, high-pressure, high-risk occupation, due to the particularity of firefighting and rescue work, i.e., exposing to extreme working environments, high-intensity workload pressure, and potential life risks are easy to have adverse effects on physical and mental health, leading to anxiety stemming from feelings of inadequacy in meeting job demands. Competence frustration induced health problems have become a significant factor in the combat effectiveness of the fire brigades. (Ma Chunpeng et al., 2007). Therefore, this study chose fire rescue personnel as the research object, it is necessary to study intervention methods and explore effective strategies to eliminate the competence need frustration.

1.1 Measurement of Competence Need Frustration

The established research has primarily used scales to assess the measurement of competence need frustration. For example, Bartholomew et al. (2014) developed a basic psychological frustration scale for American athletes, consisting of three main dimensions: autonomy need frustration, competence need frustration, and belonging need frustration; Chen, C et al. (2015) developed the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Basic Psychological Frustration Scales in the Work Field for corporate employees;Chen, L et al. (2020) developed the Basic Psychological Frustration Scale for Teachers based on the Chinese educational context, and all the above scales have been confirmed to have good reliability and validity. However, as an intrinsic psychological response, traditional measures (e.g., questionnaires or free-choice methods) have shortcomings such as reliance on retrospectives, subjective biases, and large errors. With the rapid development of cognitive neuroscience, brain science and other technologies, we can now use cognitive neuroscience techniques to monitor the cognitive processing activities of the brain in real time(Liu Siqi, Mai Xiaoqin, 2021), revealing the “black box” of the neural level of mental activity to provide a more accurate and objective measurement of the level of individual's frustration of the need for competence. At present, no scholars at home and abroad have proposed specific EEG indicators for the psychological condition of competence frustration.

Frontal Alpha Asymmetry (FAA) refers to the difference between left and right brain alpha wave activity in the frontal regions of the brain during EEG recordings. After decades of developmental research, frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) has been recognized as a biomarker of depression and anxiety and has been evaluated in many studies(Gao Min et al, 2021). Liu Zhaoxia et al. (2022) compared the differences in FAA between patients with depression and healthy control subjects and found that the right frontal lobe of depressed patients had a stronger intensity of activity than that of the left frontal lobe, and their frontal asymmetry showed a pattern opposite to that of healthy individuals. This opposite pattern is believed to be one of the potential neurophysiological hallmarks of patients with depression. Meanwhile, FAA has also been used as an indicator to measure anxiety (Feldmann et al., 2018), subjective well-being (Wutzl et al., 2023), negative emotions (Barros et al., 2022), and negative self-perception (Millis et al., 2022), and corresponding research has been conducted. Considering that individuals suffering from competence need frustration often experience negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, and outward manifestations of depression, this paper attempts to use FAA as an electroencephalographic indicator for measuring competence need frustration. Some studies have also showed that changing the frontal alpha wave asymmetry index through neurofeedback methods can improve depressive symptoms, which is highly important for the diagnosis and treatment of depression (Mennella et al., 2017; Zotev et al., 2020). This finding also suggested that FAA indicators can be used not only to assess the level of competence need frustration, but also to assess the intervention effect of competence need frustration. Based on the above research, this paper chooses frontal alpha asymmetry as an EEG indicator to measure the level of competence need frustration and to judge the effect of a high or low level of competence need frustration.

1.2 Interventions for Competence Needs Thwarting

Currently, the research on competence need frustration focuses on two aspects: first, it is committed to accurately measuring the level of competence need frustration, and has developed the Competence Need Frustration Scale, which has been modified according to the actual situation; second, it aims to explore the antecedent and consequent variables of competence need frustration. Few scholars have examined intervention measures after individuals suffer from competence need frustration; therefore, the research on competence need frustration lacks a final link. This study explored the intervention strategies for competence need frustration in terms of both organizational-level factors (developmental feedback) and individual-level factors (empathy-focused therapy).

Developmental feedback refers to the directional provision of useful or valuable information that enables people to learn, develop and improve in their work (Zhou, 2003). Developmental feedback emphasizes concerns and expectations for employees' future career development, enhances employees' beliefs, and improves individuals' psychological resilience and recovery (Yao Yanhong et al., 2014). At the same time, developmental feedback can help employees feel encouraged and supported, and believe that they are respected and cared for, which is conducive to promoting the quality of interpersonal relationships and enhancing psychological resilience (Meng Yishuang et al.,2024; Yin Jing, Zheng Xingshan,2011). Developmental feedback, can stimulate employees to generate intrinsic motivation such as self-innovation expectations (Song Meng, Wang Zhen,2015) and innovation capabilities (Su Weilin, Lin Xinqi, 2018), increase their work dedication (Eva et al.,2019), and promote the quality of interpersonal interactions (Sommer &Kulkarni, 2012), which in turn effectively reduces employees' emotional exhaustion (Yaru Liao, Guobin Wu, 2020). On the other hand, developmental feedback as a kind of positive informational feedback, can promote employees' work skill improvement and competence, thereby increasing theirs satisfaction and sense of accomplishment (Fangyuan Li et al., 2022). Both of these aspects have a significant effect on the individual's level of competence need frustration.

Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) trains individuals to feel compassion by empathizing with their own past and current feelings toward people or events, and to focus external sympathy on themselves from different perspectives. This training method can effectively increase self-compassion while reducing negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, and shame (Gilbert &Procter, 2006). Scholars at home and abroad have utilized the technique of empathy-focused therapy to treat a variety of psychological problems. Studies have shown that empathy-focused therapy has a good effect in reducing a series of psychological problems and symptoms such as depression, anxiety, shame, and self-criticism in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder and eating disorders. For example, Bowyer (2014) et al. conducted compassion-focused therapy intervention on 32 adolescents who had experienced early interpersonal trauma and found that their depression, shame, and self-harm levels were significantly reduced. Kari Anne et al. (2019) conducted a randomly- controlled trial on 144 subjects who had experienced early trauma and found that compassion-focused therapy can significantly reduce subjects' post-traumatic related symptoms and improve their life satisfaction. Compassion-focused therapy is a relatively novel form of psychotherapy, and in recent years, an increasing number of scholars have begun to pay attention to compassion-focused therapy and conduct experimental studies on a variety of populations, proving the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of compassion-focused therapy in alleviating the symptoms associated with a range of problems and conditions such as depression, anxiety, shame, and self-criticism (Sommers et al., 2018).

Based on this, this paper selected the frontal alpha asymmetry EEG index to measure the level of competence need frustration, and designed Experiment 1: to verify the effect of frontal alpha asymmetry as a judgment of the level of competence need frustration. Design of Experiment 2: to verify the effects and differences of the two intervention measures of developmental feedback and empathy-focused therapy on competence need frustration and explain their neural mechanisms. This study proposes to address two problems: the first is to investigate the experimental EEG measure of competence need frustration in fire and rescue personnel; the second is to investigate effective interventions for fire rescue personnel after they have suffered from competence need frustration.

1.3 Theory construction

Scholars are increasingly concerned about the phenomenon of individuals suffering from competence need frustration. They have carried out preliminary discussions on the measurement, causes and negative outcomes of competence need frustration and have achieved a series of results, but there are still some deficiencies in the related research. First, as a psychological feeling or emotion, competence frustration is mainly measured by free-choice and self-report methods, which have certain deviations. With cognitive neuroscience technology, real-time monitoring of cognitive processing activities in the brain can be realized so that the level of competence frustration suffered by individuals can be measured accurately and objectively. Second, the research subjects of scholars on competence frustration are mainly teenagers, athletes and corporate employees, and few people in other industries are involved. This study attempted to use firefighters and rescue personnel as the research subjects. Third, the existing studies mainly focus on the antecedents and consequences of competence need frustration and rarely explore the intervention strategies for individuals who suffer from competence need frustration. This study attempts to select firefighters and rescue personnel as the research subjects from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience, measure the level of competence need frustration using EEG technology, and guide firefighters and rescue personnel to eliminate the intervention strategies of competence need frustration to maintain and improve their competence. Based on this, the theoretical construction of the study is shown in Fig. 1.

2.1 Competence frustration induction experiments

2.1.1 Subjects and experimental materials

The G*Power tool was used in this study to calculate the required sample size for the study (Faul et al., 2009), and the ideal statistical test power and effect size were both higher than 0.8. Using this as a criterion, the total sample required in a one-way, two-level within-groups design was 15 subjects (significance level α = 0.05, test validity 1-β = 80%). Twenty current graduate students were recruited to participate in this experiment to meet the experimental sample size requirements, and all the subjects met the requirements of right-handedness, normal vision or corrected vision, no history of neurology or mental illness, and were between the ages of 23 and 27 years, with a mean age of 25.31 years (SD = 1.53 years). Informed consent was obtained from all subjects.

Drawing on the experimental methods used by scholars to induce frustration of the need for competence, a stopwatch task was proposed as the experimental material (Meng & Ma, 2015; Murayama et al., 2010). In the stopwatch task, subjects were required to estimate the duration of 3 seconds as accurately as possible without the help of external tools. Specifically, a stopwatch icon appeared in the center of the screen to indicate the start of the task. If the subjects felt that 3 seconds had elapsed since the start of the task, they was asked to confirm it by clicking the mouse immediately. If the stopwatch stopped within the success interval, it was regarded as a success, and the exact time of the keystroke would be fed back to the subject through the green box and green font; if the stopwatch stopped outside the success interval, it was regarded as a failure, and the exact time of the keystroke would be fed back to the subject through the red box and red font. The experiment lasted for a total of forty rounds, after which the screen would display the number of successes and the success rate of the subjects. In addition, in order to validate the experiment, the Competence Needs Frustration Scale developed by Fang et al. (2018) was used, which consists of a four-question Likert-7 scale for scoring, ranging from 1 (Strongly Disapprove) to 7 (Strongly Approve) was used. The higher the score, the greater the degree of competence need frustration.

2.1.2 Experimental procedures

Prior to the start of the experiment, after the subjects arrived at the EEG laboratory, the experimenter introduced the precautions for the EEG experiment and the subjects signed an informed consent form. Subsequently, the subjects were given EEG equipment and prepared to start the experiment. The experiment was divided into two stages. The first stage required the subjects to rest for two minutes with their eyes closed to calm down, and EEG data were collected in the resting state. In the second stage, the subjects were required to complete the stopwatch task according to the on-screen instructions. At the beginning of each round of the task, a “+” will randomly appear in the center of the screen, with a duration of 800-1200ms, the subjects will be reminded to focus their attention, followed by the stopwatch task starting at 0s. The subject's goal was to try their best to stop the stopwatch at around 3s. Drawing on the reference settings of previous scholars, the success interval was set to [2.93 ~ 3.07s] (Murayama et al., 2015), and the experiment lasted for 40 rounds. The flow chart of the experiment is shown in Fig. 2. At the end of the experiment, the researchers asked the subjects to fill out a questionnaire on “Competence needs frustration” to validate the analysis.

2.1.3 Data collection

In this study, EEG data were collected using an Ergo LAB EEG wearable electroencephalogram with a sampling rate of 500 Hz. Each subject wore an Ergo LAB 32-conductivity electrode cap, and the cap electrodes were based on the International 10–20 System. The default electrode was used as the reference electrode for EEG data collection, and the resistance on each electrode was controlled to not exceed 5 kΩ to ensure data quality. During the EEG experiments, the Ergo LAB human-computer environment synchronization platform was used to collect EEG data from the subjects throughout the process.

2.1.4 Data processing

The quality of the acquired EEG data was checked, and the subject data with large artifacts were removed. The EEG data were pre-processed, the CZ point was set as the reference electrode, and the T7 and T8 points were selected as the reference values for the re-referencing method for the bilateral mastoid process; the re-referenced data were band-pass filtered from 0.1 to 30 Hz, and the data were segmented in a segment of 1,000 data points (1 s). Artifacts such as ophthalmoscopes and electromyograms were removed using the independent component analysis method. The pre-processed EEG data were divided into two segments. The first segment was the resting EEG data, i.e., the EEG data of the subjects when they were resting with eyes closed; the second segment was the EEG data of the subjects when they completed the stopwatch experiment. Then, the power spectral density value was used to assess the intensity of frontal lobe activity. The band frequency of the α-wave selected in this paper was 8 ~ 13 Hz, and the electrode points were mainly selected from the prefrontal lobe region of FP1, FP2, AF3, AF4, F3, F4, F7, and F8, for a total of 8 electrode points (FP1, AF3, F3, and F7 belong to the left frontal lobe, and FP2, AF4, F4, and F8 belong to the right frontal lobe). The specific electrode point locations are shown in Fig. 3. The FAA (ln[right PSD]-ln[left PSD]) was used to assess the difference in the intensity of activity between the left and right frontal lobes. If FAA > 0, indicates that the subject is currently in a good state and has not developed competence frustration; if FAA < 0, indicates that the subject has experienced a competence frustration.

2.2 Experiments on the Effectiveness of Interventions for Competence Thwarting

This study included two EEG experiments that have the same experimental materials, data acquisition and preprocessing methods as those in Experiment 1, but with a more complex experimental procedure.

2.2.1 Subject

Using the G*Power tool, the minimum sample size required for a one-way two-level within-subjects ANOVA was calculated to be 34 (taking a medium effect size of f = 0.5, probability of making an error of α = 0.05, and test validity of 1 - β = 80%). Seventy-two in-service firefighters and rescue personnel were recruited to participate in the experiment; all subjects met the requirements of being right-handed, having normal visual acuity or corrected vision, and having no history of neurological or psychiatric disorders; the age ranged from 23 to 37 years, with an average age of 28.75 years (SD = 3.25 years); the 40 firefighters were randomly divided into two groups of 20, with one group employing the intervention of developmental feedback and the other group using the intervention method of compassion focused therapy. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects for this study.

2.2.2 Experimental procedure

The experiment was divided into four phases, and the first two stages were the same as those in Experiment 1, including resting for two minutes with eyes closed (resting state) and stopping the stopwatch task to trigger competence need frustration. Considering that firefighters were more responsive than the students in the previous experiment, the task success interval in this stage was set to [2.95 s ~ 3.05 s], so that the firefighters could be better triggered competence need frustrate. The third stage was divided into two groups according to the different intervention methods for fire rescue personnel, namely the use of developmental feedback or compassion-focused therapy. Specifically, in developmental feedback intervention method, the participants were informed of the techniques and methods of completing the stopwatch stopping task in advance to improve the success rate of the task. The specific operation of the compassion -focused therapy intervention method is to help the individual develop and cultivate a warm, safe, and soothing inner experience by making the subject feel empathy and self-compassion through verbal guidance to reduce the individual's frustration of competence needs. The specific words used were “You have done a good job; do not be too harsh on yourself”, “Give yourself some encouragement and affirmation, no matter what you do, you are the best version of yourself”, “Believe in yourself, you are capable of doing better!”, etc., In the fourth stage, the subjects were required to complete the stopwatch task again to test the effects of the developmental feedback and empathy-focused therapy intervention method. To reduce the impact of subjects' proficiency in performing the same experiment twice, the success interval of the task in this stage was set as [2.96 s ~ 3.04 s].

2.2.3 Data processing

The processing of EEG data is equally capable of competence frustration induction experiments, with the difference being that it was divided into three segments. The first two segments are the same as in Experiment 1, and the third segment is the EEG data from the second stopwatch task.

3.1 Results of experimental on competence need frustration induction

The EEG results of the subject's level of competence frustration are shown in Table 1. In the resting state, the subject's left frontal PSD value is smaller than the right frontal PSD value, and its FAA = 0.037 > 0, indicating that the subject did not suffer from competence need frustration at this time. After the stopwatch stopping experiments, the FAA=-0.012 < 0, indicating that the subject suffered from competence need frustration at this time and that frontal α-asymmetry can reflect the competence need frustration level of the subject, proving the effectiveness of FAA. The experimental results were analyzed using a paired t-test, which revealed a significant main effect of game-induced competence frustration, t (20) = 3.438, p = 0.004, Cohen' d = 0.92.

The results of the competence need frustration scale are shown in Table 2, with Cronbach's α of the questionnaire = 0.732 (α > 0.7), KMO = 0.877 (> 0.5), p < 0.01; after completing the stopwatch stopping experiment, the mean value of the subjects' competence need frustration was M = 4.475 (SD = 1.460), and M > 4, indicating that the subjects also experienced competence need frustration in their subjective cognition, which also verified the experimental results of the EEG data.

Table 1 Power spectral density values and frontal α-asymmetry indices(M ± SD)
indicators	resting state(M ± SD)	frustrated state(M ± SD)
Left PSD (µV2/Hz)	27.78 ± 4.80	32.35 ± 0.51
Right PSD (µV2/Hz)	28.83 ± 6.58	31.97 ± 1.07
FAA	0.037	-0.012

Table 2 Results of Subjective Ratings of Subjects' Competence Needs Frustration Scale

title	mean	standard deviation	Cronbach 's α	KMO	P
1. I do not think I can finish the stopwatch stopping time game better	4.23	1.61	0.732	0.877	<0.001
2. I was disappointed with my performance in the stopwatch stopping time mini-game	4.56	1.73
3. I lack confidence in my ability to do well in the stopwatch stopping time mini-game	4.12	1.17
4. I felt like a failure when completing the stopwatch stop time game because I made so many mistakes	4.90	1.33

3.2 Experimental Results of the Competence Need Frustration Intervention

The results of the EEG experiments of the fire rescue personnel are shown in Table 3. After the first stopwatch stopping experiment was conducted, both groups of fire rescue personnel entered into the competence needs frustration state, but the different intervention methods achieved different effects. After the fire rescue personnel adopted the developmental feedback intervention method, the percentage of correct answers in their experiment increased from 22.1–31.8%, but FAA value changed from − 0.050 to -0.135, indicating that the developmental feedback improved their skill level but did not reduce their frustration. Under the intervention of compassion-focused therapy, the value of FAA for the level of competence need frustration changed from − 0.066 before to 0.062 after the intervention, indicating that the intervention method of compassion-focused therapy achieved results and reduced the level of competence need frustration. Paired t-test of the two groups before and after frustrations showed a significant main effect of the developmental feedback intervention method, t (36) = 2.229, p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.73, and a significant main effect of the compassion -focused therapy intervention method, t (36) =-2.687, p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.76.

Table 3

Intervention effects of developmental feedback and compassion-focused therapy (M ± SD)
Intervention methods		resting state	frustrated state	Second frustrated state
Developmental feedback	left PSD(µV2/Hz)	43.77 ± 13.01	43.25 ± 9.73	49.62 ± 10.44
	Right PSD(µV2/Hz)	46.97 ± 15.03	41.29 ± 7.09	43.36 ± 8.20
	FAA	0.070	-0.050	-0.135
Compassion-focused therapy	Left PSD(µV2/Hz)	47.21 ± 13.53	43.47 ± 13.56	43.70 ± 14.22
	Right PSD(µV2/Hz)	49.34 ± 13.91	40.96 ± 9.54	46.50 ± 14.31
	FAA	0.044	-0.066	0.062

In the field of neurophysiology, alpha waves (8 ~ 13 Hz) can be used to respond to emotional processing information. Among alpha waves, 10 Hz is the most typical frequency, and it is also one of the most commonly used frequencies for plotting brain topography in MATLAB. This study used 10 Hz as an example to construst and analyze the frequency domain topographic maps of fire rescue personnel in the resting state, frustration state, and second frustration state during the experiment. Different firefighters and rescue personnel have consistent brain area activities in the same experimental task, and the brain topographic map of one of the firefighters is shown in Fig. 4, where the different shades of color in different areas represent the EEG power levels of the brain regions.

4.1 Developmental Feedback Intervention Outcome Discussion

Self-efficacy refers to the level of confidence people have in their ability to perform specific work behaviors using the skills they possess, which is related to a specific domain. The greater their self-efficacy is, the more likely they are to excel in a particular area of work and the more motivated they are to do so (Wang Fuqin, 2024). The main factors influencing the formation of self-efficacy are the experience of success or failure of one's own behavior, alternative experience or imitation, verbal persuasion, emotional arousal, and situational conditions. When subjects from fire rescue personnel undergo developmental feedback interventions, they focus their attention more on skills and task completion; After mastering experimental skills, their self-efficacy increases, and they will have greater expectations of their own ability and correctness, but with this, they experience greater task stress. Therefore, their correctness rate subsequently increased in the stopwatch stopping time task, but the failed rounds triggered more intense frustration, leading to an increase instead of a decrease in the level of competence need frustration.

4.2 Compassion Focused Therapy Intervention Outcome Discussion

Evolutionary and neuroscientific models of emotion regulation (Evolutionary and Neuroscientific Models of Emotion Regulation) suggest that individuals have three main emotion regulation systems, namely, the threat and self-defense system, the drive and reward system, and the affinity or comfort system. When regulatory systems are imbalanced, especially when the threat system is not regulated, a number of mental health problems will occur (Gilbert, 2014). In the experiment, the empathy-focused therapy required subjects to focus more on themselves, allowing themselves to feel social connection and comfort from others or themselves, and balanced the relationships among the three by stimulating the comfort system, reducing both the task stress on fire rescue personnel and their levels of competence frustration.

In fact, there are many reasons why fire rescue personnel suffer from competence need frustration. Managers should develop appropriate intervention methods based on the specific situation and different triggers of competence need frustration to reduce the negative effects of competence need frustration.

4.3 Research Implications and Prospects

This paper adopts EEG experiments to explore intervention measures for fire rescue personnel who suffer from competence need frustration, expands the research content on competence need frustration, and promotes the development of neuropsychology as an emerging discipline. At the same time, managers should pay more attention to fire rescue personnel's need for competence and help the construction of a mental health system for fire rescue personnel.

This study has the following limitations. First, this study examined the effects of two intervention methods in a laboratory scenario, and in the future, VR technology and other simulation methods can be used to simulate the real work scenarios of fire rescue personnel to improve the reliability of the data. Second, there are differences between laboratory scenarios and real-life situations, and it is necessary to study the effectiveness of the two intervention methods for competence need frustration in real-life management. Third, this study did not consider the influence of many factors, such as subjects' personality, rescue experience, etc., and the influencing factors of the effectiveness of competence-defeating interventions should be further explored in the future.

(1)Alpha asymmetry in the frontal lobe can be used as an EEG indicator for judging the level of competence frustration; (2) The difference in the effects of the two intervention methods indicates that when intervening in competence frustration, it is more likely to be reduced by focusing on the subjects themselves than by focusing on the completion of the task.

Authors contributions: Conceptualization, Z.R.Y. and W.Y.R.; Methodology, Z.R.Y.; software, Z.R.Y.; validation, Z.R.Y. and R.J.; formal analysis, W.Y.R.; investigation, Z.R.Y. and L.Y.; resources, W.Y.R. and R.J.; data curation, Z.R.Y.; writing—original draft preparation, Z.R.Y.; writing—review and editing, W.Y.R.; visualization, L.Y.; supervision, W.Y.R.; project administration, Z.R.Y.; funding acquisition, W.Y.R. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding: This work was supported by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Key Research base of humanities and social sciences [grant numbers KFSM-KDSK0207].

Institutional Review Board Statement: The procedures of this study were approved by the Medical Ethical Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Baotou Medical College, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, and were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants signed in an informed consent after understanding the purpose of our research.

Informed Consent Statement: Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Availability of data and materials: The data are available for any scientific use from the corresponding author on

reasonable request.

Acknowledgements: The author thanks the various fire stations in Baotou, Inner Mongolia for their help.

Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

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Research on Intervention Strategies and Neural Mechanisms for Competence Frustration: A Case of Fire Rescue Personnel

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Abstract

Figures

1. Introduction

1.1 Measurement of Competence Need Frustration

1.2 Interventions for Competence Needs Thwarting

1.3 Theory construction

2. Materials and Methods

2.1 Competence frustration induction experiments

2.1.1 Subjects and experimental materials

2.1.2 Experimental procedures

2.1.3 Data collection

2.1.4 Data processing

2.2 Experiments on the Effectiveness of Interventions for Competence Thwarting

2.2.1 Subject

2.2.2 Experimental procedure

2.2.3 Data processing

3. Results and analysis

3.1 Results of experimental on competence need frustration induction

3.2 Experimental Results of the Competence Need Frustration Intervention

4. Discussion

4.1 Developmental Feedback Intervention Outcome Discussion

4.2 Compassion Focused Therapy Intervention Outcome Discussion

4.3 Research Implications and Prospects

5. Conclusions

Declarations

References

Additional Declarations

Status:

Version 1