Aerobic fitness is associated with numerous physiological adaptations which permit physical stress to be coped with more efficiently. The present experiment examined whether aerobic fitness influences emotional response. Heart rate, biochemical measures (catecholamines, cortisol, prolactin, lactic acid), and self-reported arousal and anxiety were monitored in 15 highly trained and 15 untrained subjects at various points before, during and following exposure to a series of psychosocial stressors. Heart rate and subjective arousal level increased markedly during the stressors in both groups. Trained subjects showed higher levels of norepinephrine and prolactin early in the stress period, more rapid heart rate recovery following the stressors, and lower levels of anxiety at the conclusion of the session. This more rapid heart rate and subjective recovery from psychosocial stress, suggests that aerobically trained individuals may be capable of faster recovery in both physiological and subjective dimensions of emotionality. The differences in reactivity profiles between the aerobically trained and untrained were discussed in light of models that have dealt with the adaptiveness of emotional response.

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Three experiments show that the motivational effects of regulatory fit (consistency between regulatory state and strategic means) are context dependent. With no explicit decision rule about when to stop (Experiment 1) or an explicit enjoyment stop rule (Experiments 2 and 3), participants exerted more effort on tasks when experiencing regulatory fit than when experiencing regulatory nonfit. With an explicit sufficiency stop rule (Experiments 2 and 3), participants exerted less effort when experiencing regulatory fit than when experiencing regulatory nonfit. The interactive effect of regulatory fit and stop rules can be explained by misattribution of rightness feelings from regulatory fit; the effect was eliminated by drawing participants' attention to an earlier event as a source of rightness feelings (Experiments 1 and 3).

The potential of physical exertion to enhance anxiety reduction was investigated by combining acute exercise with an imaginal exposure treatment for public speaking anxiety. Self-report, behavioural, and psychophysiological outcome measures all indicated that groups that received imaginal exposure improved more than those that received control procedures. The addition of acute exercise increased the treatment effect on two self-report measures (one for females only), although there was an indication of interference with change on one behavioural index. Multiple measures of process effects indicated that greater responding and greater habituation during treatment were associated with better outcome. Additional process measures indicated that enhanced imagery, altered attribution for arousal, and reduced energy were all associated with the addition of acute exercise to the exposure intervention. These findings support the value of imaginal exposure for reduction of speech anxiety, suggest that acute exercise may be of circumscribed value as an adjunct to such exposure, and offer possible directions for the study of the mechanisms responsible for exposure-based anxiety reduction.

Subjects were asked to evaluate one of four types of communications-statements about Negroes, statements about social issues, cartoons, or photographs. The evaluations were investigated as a function of the quality of the communications that preceded them, whether the communications in the series originated from one source or from different sources, the logical consistency of the communications in the series, and incentive to perform well on the rating task. Results generally support the hypothesis that source effects on communication evaluations are predictable from congruity theory only to the extent that the communication is contradictory to previous communications from the source that form the basis for the evaluation of that source. When the degree of contradiction is low, the tendency to resolve incongruities may be offset by a more general tendency to evaluate communications in relation to a comparison level, the value of which increases with the quality of the communications previously experienced. The effect of this latter tendency is opposite to that predicted by congruity theory. The influence of shift in comparison level appears to increase with incentive to perform well when all messages are attributed to the same source, but to decrease with incentive when the communications ostensibly come from different sources, Implications of results for congruity theory (Osgood & Tannenbaum, 1955) and exchange theory (Thibaut & Kelley, 1959) are discussed.