Self-presentation has become an increasingly popular topic in exercise and sport psychology, yet few instruments exist to measure this construct. This paper describes two validation studies conducted on the Self-Presentation in Exercise Questionnaire (SPEQ), a paper-and-pencil instrument based on Leary and Kowalski’s (1990) two-component model of impression management. The SPEQ was designed to assess impression motivation (IM) and impression construction (IC) in exercise environments. The first study employed exploratory factor analysis to reduce a pool of 125 content-representative items to a subset of 41 items forming the hypothesized two-factor model of IM and IC. In the second study, the 41 items were further reduced using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in separate samples, and the reduced SPEQ also conformed to the IM and IC factor structure. The second study also provided initial evidence to support the convergent and discriminant validity of the SPEQ with theoretically salient constructs such as body surveillance, perceived physical ability, physical self-presentation confidence, social desirability, and social physique anxiety.
The present investigation was conducted to test empirically possible gender differences between athletes and nonathletes on measures of perceived intensity and affect of pain. Athletes were 7 male and 7 female NCAA Division I track athletes. The nonathletes, 7 men and 7 women, were randomly selected from undergraduate classes in physical activities. Responses on visual analogue scales for perceived pain intensity and pain affect were recorded for a cold-water pressor test. Significant group differences examined by Bonferroni contrasts indicated differences between nonathletic women and the other 3 groups on intensity of pain and for male and female athletes on pain affect, as well as for male athletes and nonathletes on pain affect. Univariate analyses of variance indicated significant differences on intensity and affect associated with pain. Research must explore whether differences are related to socialization or personality.
Two experiments are reported that investigate the mediational role of social influence in the self-perception of exertion. In Experiment 1, subjects performed three 15-min trials on a cycle ergometer at 25%, 50%, and 75% VO2max, both in the presence of another performer (a coactor) and alone. The results indicated that subjects reported lower RPEs when performing with another, particularly at the moderate (50%) intensity. In Experiment 2, subjects performed one 15-min trial at 50% of VO2max, both alone and in the presence of another performer (coactor) exhibiting nonverbal "cues" that the work was either extremely easy or extremely difficult. The results indicated that subjects exposed to the low-intensity cue information reported lower RPEs than when performing alone. Mo significant differences were noted for those subjects exposed to the high-intensity cue information. These findings are discussed in terms of a self-presentational analysis. That such effects were evidenced without physiological responses (VO2, VE, HR) accompanying them supports the notion that psychological variables can play a significant role in the self-perception of exertion. These results, however, are limited to untrained individuals exercising at moderate intensities.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.