Chapter 1: An Introduction to Exercise Psychology
Chapter Overview
Approaches to Studying Exercise Psychology
Figure 1.1
Affective Perspective
Biological Perspective
Cognitive Perspective
Personality Perspective
Social Perspective
Importance of Integration
Learning Exercises
An Introduction to Exercise Psychology
Chapter Overview
This chapter attempts to:
Differentiate exercise and sport psychology
Provide an overview of the themes of exercise psychology
Introduce the various scientific approaches to studying exercise psychology and their unique contributions
Emphasize the importance of considering various perspectives in order to fully understand physical activity behavior
An Introduction to Exercise Psychology
- Exercise and Sport Psychology, while appearing to be a single area of study by title, are actually considered two distinct content areas
- Exercise Psychology is concerned with the antecedents and consequences of physical activity behavior.
- Sport Psychology is concerned with psychological principles as they relate to athletes and athletic performance.
Research and study in Exercise Psychology is generally divided into three, broad themes:
- Exercise Behavior Promotion
- Priority is given to the influence of internal and external variables as constraints and facilitators to the initiation of, and lifelong adherence to, physical activity behavior
- Dynamic Exercise Psychology
- The basic science of psychological phenomena that occur while engaged in physical activity, or the “state of the mind” and its relation to the body during physical activity.
- Exercise and Health Psychology
- Considers the effects of physical activity on psychological development and health. Areas of interest include mental disorders, cognitive performance, emotion regulation, social engagement, and other areas including and beyond physical health.
Approaches to Studying Exercise Psychology
- The field of Exercise Psychology makes use of several perspectives (i.e., affective, biological, cognitive, personality, sociological) in order to understand the various psychological phenomena of physical activity.
- Mind-body connection: The mind and body are so intimately intertwined that a change in psychological state will occur with a change in physical state, and vice versa.
Figure 1.1
The Human Gear Train
Affective Perspective
- Affective science is the broad study of feeling states.
- A person is motivated, at least to some degree, to engage (or not) in physical activity because of their current and expected feeling states.
- Accumulated evidence suggests acute and long-term physical activity behavior can reduce anxiety, depressive states, and has a stress-buffering effect in healthy individuals as well as in those diagnosed with Anxiety, Depressive, and stress disorders (Biddle, 2016; Landers & Arent, 2007; Scully et al., 1998).
Biological Perspective
- The biological perspective attempts to understand the mind–body connection, investigates physical states as facilitators of and barriers to behavior, and explores the complexities of a broad range of psychological phenomena, including mental disorders/diseases.
- Several methods and techniques (e.g., electrophysiology, endocrinology, genetics, neuroscience) are used to explore relationships between physical and psychological states.
- While the biological perspective is interesting and informative, it does not provide a full understanding of the antecedents or consequences of physical activity behavior by itself, therefore, it cannot and should not stand alone.
Cognitive Perspective
- Cognitive science encompasses a large, interdisciplinary field broadly concerned with understanding the mind and its processes.
- Research has demonstrated physical activity can both influence, and be influenced by, cognitive processes (i.e., attention, memory, language, perception, and executive functioning).
- Within the physical activity context, the focus has been primarily on the cognitive process referred to as executive functioning, which has three primary components: updating, inhibiting, and shifting (Miyake & Friedman, 2012).
- Some theorists suggest a regulatory process occurs between the components of executive functioning and physical activity behavior such that greater executive functioning leads to more physical activity engagement, and more physical activity engagement improves executive functioning (Hall & Fong, 2007).
Personality Perspective
- The personality perspective in Exercise Psychology seeks to understand whether particular personality traits are commonly related to physical activity engagement either by facilitating or inhibiting engagement in physical activity or the extent to which physical activity might influence such traits
- Of “The Big Five traits”, the constellation of higher extraversion, greater conscientiousness, and less neuroticism (or more emotional stability) has been most consistently linked with greater likelihood of physical activity engagement (Wilson & Dishman, 2015).
- The personality perspective considers how the individual, with their own set of personality characteristics, typically responds to and interacts with the environment.
Social Perspective
The social perspective in Exercise Psychology is primarily interested in understanding (a) how social relationships and interaction promote or hinder the likelihood of physical activity behavior, and (b) how social relationships mediate the influence of physical activity on an individual’s well-being and quality of life.
- Evidence supports the notion that social networks and perceptions of support are associated with greater physical activity behavior (Anderson et al., 2006; Hawkley et al., 2009; Watt et al., 2014).
- Like the other perspectives, the social perspective alone fails to provide a full understanding of the natural complexity of human behavior.
Importance of Integration
- Understanding human behavior, such as engaging (or not) in physical activity, is undeniably complex.
- Because of such complexity, Exercise Psychology is often studied in comprehensible “chunks” through the various perspectives described in this chapter.
- It is imperative in the exploration of the intricacies of human behavior, even within the context of physical activity, to keep in mind each perspective “zooms” into a single component of a much more complex entity.
Learning Exercises
- How does Exercise Psychology differ from Sport Psychology?
- What are the three main themes typically studied within Exercise Psychology?
- What were the different scientific approaches discussed? Briefly explain each.
- Can physical activity behavior be fully and reliably explained by a single perspective?
Glossary terms
- Physical Activity: Any bodily movement that results in a substantial increase in caloric (energy) expenditure beyond resting values (ACSM, 2018).
- Exercise Psychology is concerned with the antecedents and consequences of physical activity behavior (including, but not limited to, exercise).
- Sport Psychology is concerned with psychological principles as they relate to athletes and athletic performance.
- Monism: The mind and body are components of a single unit, not separate entities
- Introspection: Generally referred to as the examination or observation of one’s own mental (feeling) states.
- Interoception: The brain’s representation of all sensations from your internal organs and tissues, which provides one’s basic feeling of pleasantness or unpleasantness and wakefulness.