Invited Guest Editorial: Envisioning the next fifty years of research on the exercise–affect relationship

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2013.04.007Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The study of the exercise–affect link has made great strides over the last 50 years.

  • Affective responses to exercise have implications for mental health and exercise prescriptions.

  • Goals include understanding exercise motivation, the treatment of addictions, and fatigue.

Abstract

Objectives

To summarize the major accomplishments of research on the relationship between exercise and affect over the past five decades and to outline an expanded research agenda for the future.

Design

Literature review.

Method

Illustrative and historically significant publications on the exercise–affect link were examined.

Results

The main accomplishments over the past fifty years include (a) a growing recognition that exercise can have a positive and clinically meaningful influence on affect, with possible implications for the treatment of mental health problems, and (b) the incorporation of affect in exercise prescription guidelines as a method of monitoring exercise intensity and a possible determinant of adherence. Emerging research directions include efforts to understand (a) the role of affect in exercise behavior, (b) the cognitive and biological mechanisms of affective responses, (c) individual differences in affective responses, including the contribution of genetic polymorphisms, (d) the application of exercise in the treatment of addictions through the process of “hedonic substitution,” (e) the possible connection between affective responses and cognitive function, and (f) the processes underlying the sense of fatigue.

Conclusions

The study of the exercise–affect relationship remains one of the most vibrant and prolific areas of research within exercise psychology. The last few years, in particular, have witnessed a dramatic expansion of the research agenda, addressing questions of great societal importance, increased interdisciplinary interest, and direct implications for practice.

Section snippets

Landmark achievements

The main focus of research on affective responses to exercise until the last decade or so was on mental health. Findings of a “feel-better” effect resulting from bouts of exercise were seen as having possible implications for the application of exercise in the treatment of such mental health problems as psychosocial stress, anxiety, and mood disorders (e.g., depression). The importance of this research remains self-evident. Particularly given the incorporation of physical activity in clinical

Envisioning an expanded research agenda

Nearly 30 years after his initial call to the nascent field of exercise psychology to make affective responses to exercise one of its focal issues, Morgan (1997) reassessed the state of the research, stating that “there is no need for further research or reviews dealing with the question of whether or not physical activity results in improved mood… There are, however, many questions that remain unanswered, and these questions will hopefully be addressed in the decade ahead” (p. 230). More than

Conclusion

A lot has happened since Morgan's (1968) call to the nascent field of exercise psychology to examine the influence of exercise on the affective domain. Although a lot certainly remains to be done, researchers should heed Morgan's (1997) advice, issued thirty years later, that “there is no need for further research or reviews dealing with the question of whether or not physical activity results in improved mood” (p. 230). As demonstrated in this review, research has since moved in several new

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