The Moderating Influence of Situational Motivation on the Relationship Between Preferred Exercise and Positive Affect

Eva Guérin and Michelle S. Fortier

SAGE Open, 2013, vol. 3, issue 4, 2158244013508416

Abstract: Despite convincing evidence supporting the association between exercise and positive affect, this complex relationship requires further theoretical and person-centered explanation. The nature of one’s motivation for exercise, as postulated by Self-Determination Theory (SDT), may supply a missing and understudied link. The primary aim of this experimental study was to examine the moderating influence of situational motivation from SDT on the relationship between an acute bout of preferred exercise, namely running (vs. control), and changes in positive affect. Forty-one active women attended two sessions to engage in (a) a 30-min moderate-intensity self-paced treadmill run and (b) a 30-min quiet activity (i.e., newspaper reading). Participants with high introjection versus those with low introjection reported a greater increase in positive affect from pre- to postrunning and a greater decrease in positive affect from pre- to postcontrol. A “relief from guilt†effect was postulated to explain these results. Motivational variables accounted for 7% of variance in postrun positive affect. Consistent with SDT, running because one values this behavior and its benefits (i.e., identified regulation) was significantly associated with postrun positive affect.

Keywords: exercise; positive affect; motivation; self-determination theory; women (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244013508416 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:3:y:2013:i:4:p:2158244013508416

DOI: 10.1177/2158244013508416

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in SAGE Open
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().