While the evidence accumulates in support of the benefits of exercise to physical and mental health, a growing body of research suggests that in spite of these benefits the majority of people who begin an exercise program will stop, often within the first few months. The present series of six studies attempted to identify behavioral and cognitive procedures that would enhance adherence to a 3-dayper-week exercise (walking/jogging) program in apparently healthy sedentary adults. Procedures evaluated included feedback and praise during exercise, various goal-setting strategies, lottery reinforcement, cognitive strategies during the exercise, and relapse prevention training. Class attendance, exercise program adherence, and fitness data were collected across each 3-month program. Self-reported 3month follow-up data were also obtained. Results suggest the importance of social support, feedback, and praise during exercise; flexibility in exercise goal setting; and distraction-based cognitive strategies. The various findings are integrated and discussed in terms of the importance and difficulties of shaping and maintaining exercise behaviors. Finally, directions and cautions for future research are noted.Exercise appears to play an important role the improvement of physical and mental "'^ (Martin & Dubbert, 1982a). Even in health

No abstract

Although most clinicians would readily agree that there is a need for Spanish translations and normative samples of major psychological tests because of the large number of individuals within the United States whose primary language is Spanish, there are in fact few well normed tests applicable to the Spanish-speaking client in the U.S. As a result, many clinicians administer cognitive tests normed on English-speaking American populations translated into Spanish, then interpret the test results using the standard American norms. The argument is generally made that such a procedure is a reasonable approximation and when cautiously interpreted can be useful. The present study investigated the impact of this practice by using the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) on Spanish-speaking adults. A group of 50 normal Hispanic Americans aged 25 to 34 years were administered the WMS-R translated into Spanish. Results showed that using English-language standard norms resulted in Spanish-speaking normal individuals getting scores an average of 1 standard deviation below "average." These findings were present not only for verbal but for nonverbal tests as well. Based on these results we strongly argue against the clinical practice of using translations of English language tests without renorming and running new validity tests.

Four studies involving over 1300 workers were conducted to develop a psychometrically adequate Work Stress Inventory. Its final form has 40 items, each rated on a 5-point scale for intensity and frequency of stress. Items cover organizational stress and job risk, shown to be factorially distinct. Intensity, frequency, and composite (I x F) indices for these two scales were found to have high internal consistency and good test-retest reliability. As predicted, frequency of organizational stress was moderately related to anxiety, satisfaction with supervision and work, and organizational commitment. Frequency of job risk was related only to anxiety and satisfaction with work. Intensity, although highly correlated with frequency, had lower correlations with other measures.

No abstract