Why/How of Exercise Psychology Flashcards
_______ leads to outcomes.
Exposures
theories
provide frameworks for understanding human behavior
How do we approach behavior change?
- Why do people do what they do?
- Why don’t people do things?
Was the Healthy People Act of 2020 successful?
No!
What were the results of the Healthy People 2020 act?
4 goals:
1. attain high quality longer disease-free life & injury
2. improve health
3. social and physical environments that promote health
4. improve quality of life
- physical activity was the focus!
What are the main questions exercise psychology attempts to answer?
- What predicts exercise engagement?
- What does exercise engagement lead to?
What predicts exercise engagement?
antecedents
What does exercise engagement lead to?
consequences
physical activity
any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure
exercise
subset of physical activity that is planned, structured, and repetitive that has a final or intermediate objective the improvement or maintenance of physical fitness
sedentary behavior
any waking behavior that is characterize by a sitting or reclining position and low energy expenditure
exercise psychology
focused on antecedents and consequences of movement
- applies to a larger population!
sport psychology
concerned with psychological principles as they relate to athletes and a focus on athletic performance
What are the three broad areas of exercise psych?
- exercise behavior promotion
- dynamic exercise psychology
- exercise and health psychology
exercise behavior promotion
focus on constraints/facilitators to the initiation and adherence to lifelong physical activity
dynamic exercise psychology
basic science of psychological phenomena related to engagement in physical activity
- as soon as you start moving, what is that doing to your body and brain
exercise and health psychology
considers effects of physical activity on psychological development and health
dualism
foundational assumption that what happens in the body is unrelated to what happens in the brain
monism
foundational assumption that there is a mind-body connection (brain + body works together)
- body receives info + processes
What are the 5 perspectives?
- affective
- biological
- cognitive
- personality
- social
affect
the study of feeling states, with core affect how one feels at any given moment
- how you are feeling at any instance in time
- based on assumption that humans pursue pleasure and avoid displeasure
- exercise induces changes in core affect
- based on if your activated/unpleasant/pleasant wheel
biological perspective
focus on physiological movements related to movement in living organisms
- ex. EEG
cognitive perspective
understanding the mind and its processes
- executive function predicts exercise
- exercise improves executive function
personality perspective
exploration of various psychological characteristics and traits with the goal of understanding how these traits relate to behavior; focused on individual variability
- consider “the Big Five”
What are the Big Five?
openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism
social perspective
study of the social interaction and societies; stronger social networks and perceptions of support = greater physical activity behavior
- How do relationships/interaction alter likelihood of physical activity?
Out of the 5 perspectives, which is the most important?
biological perspective
psychobiology
mixture of both biological and psychological; combines all other approaches
- future integration will require people trained across different disciplines
Psychologically, what are the benefits of exercise?
- improved cognition
- reduced risk of dementia
- improved quality of life
- reduced anxiety
- reduced risk of depression
- improved sleep
Socially, what are the benefits of exercise? (absent in the US PA guidelines)
- provides opportunities to develop social contacts/relationships
- improves social functioning
- increases social inclusion and participation
- facilitates integration of the exerciser in their peer groups
What are some trends in activity over time?
- decreasing occupational and commuting activity
- increasing leisure-time physical activity
What happens as people age? Why?
physical activity levels go down! physical inactivity increases
Why:
- medically gets tougher; injuries take longer to heal
- family/occupation time increases
What is the biopsychosocial approach?
this is an update from the psychobiological approach that includes social constructs
Will people who start exercising keep doing it?
- 50% of people stop within 6 months
- 80-90% drop out after 12 months
What are the problems with keeping people to exercise?
Starting:
- large barrier to entry
- not specific enough exercise programs
- not immediate gratification
Keeping up w/ it:
- not meeting goals
- plateau/soreness
- self-motivation
- lack of support
- etc!
initation
beginning a new behavior when that behavior was previously absent
- focus: approaching a favorable end state, reducing the uncomfortable discrepancy between the current state and the desired end state
self-regulatory focus
approach a more favorable health state
maintenance/adherance
continuing a behavior at a similar/identical frequency and intensity over time
- focus: avoiding a less favorable alternative state, sustaining the comfortable discrepancy
volition
making a conscious choice or decision
