Abstract des Autors

The primary purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that perceived exercise intensity, as opposed to actual exercise intensity would be a more meaningful predictor of affective change following a single bout of exercise. A secondary goal of the study was to explore the role of initial affect in predicting post-exercise changes in affect. We hypothesized that systematic changes in positive affect (PA), would only be associated with subjects' subjective ratings of perceived exercise intensity, but would not be related to objective exercise workload. We further hypothesized that the systematic changes in PA would follow the principles proposed by the theory of optimal stimulation. Sixty-five male and female university students were randomly assigned to 30 minutes of exercise on a motorized treadmill at 25, 50, or 75 percent of estimated VO2max, or to a no-exercise control group. These grouping constituted the objective measure of exercise intensity. Subjects also provided ratings of perceived exertion during the exercise, which permitted a separate categorization of subjects according to whether they perceived the exercise to be light, moderate or intense. These groupings constituted the subjective measure of exercise intensity. Positive affect was assessed using the PASS subscale of the MAACL-R (Zuckerman 6 Lubin, 1985), which subjects completed prior to and at three points following exercise. As predicted, significant prepost changes in PA emerged only for data associated with the perceived definition of exercise intensity, and moreover, the pattern of affective change was in line with our hypotheses regarding the theory of optimal stimulation as qualified by pre-exercise affect. Implications of this psychological approach to understanding the exercise-affect link are discussed. Verf.-Referat