Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the potential of chronic exercise in promoting psychological and emotional well-being. Numerous review articles clearly support the position that chronic exercise involvement has beneficial psychological effects. While these articles are undoubtedly thorough and informative, they do not provide us with the objective evidence necessary to support their claims. For this reason, the present paper focuses on empirical research investigating the relationship between psychological and emotional well-being and chronic exercise. A computer search spanning the past decade revealed 81 data-based studies directly related to psychological aspects of excercise involvement. Each of these studies is critically reviewed in terms of research design, psychological focus of the study, subject description, use of controls, the psychological assessment instruments, documented fitness changes (as measured by VO2-Max, cycle ergometry, aerobic points, etc.), and the outcome of the study. The paper concludes by summarizing the status of research in this important area. Verf.-Referat