Exercisers’ perceptions of their fitness instructor's interacting style, perceived competence, and autonomy as a function of self-determined regulation to exercise, enjoyment, affect, and exercise frequency

Abstract

The primary purpose of the present investigation was to test the hypothesis, derived from Self-Determination Theory (SDT), that an individual's perceived competence and autonomy mediate the relationship between the exercisers' perception of their instructor's interaction style and the exercisers' motivation to exercise. A secondary purpose was to identify the affective and behavioral outcomes derived from self-determined regulation. It was hypothesized that SDT would significantly explain and predict exercise behavior. Participants consisted of 238 college students, 103 males and 135 females (M age = 20.4 years, SD = 2.16), who volunteered to participate in the study. They were asked to complete a battery of questionnaires measuring instructor's interacting style, self-regulation to exercise, perceived autonomy and competence, enjoyment, positive and negative affect, and exercise frequency. Using structural equation modeling with observed variables, the results showed that perceived competence and autonomy mediated the relationship between perceived instructor's interacting style and self-determined regulation. It was also found that self-determined regulation was significantly related to exercise enjoyment, positive affect, and exercise frequency. It was concluded that understanding the motivational factors and emotional and behavioral consequences of physical activity will partially explain an individual's motives to engage regularly in exercise.

Do exercise motives predict obligatory exercise?

“…Given that Pritchard et al (2011) found a relationship between drive for muscularity and obligatory exercise in men, and men tend to be more focused on building muscle than leaning out (Grieve, Jackson, Reece, Marklin, & Delaney, 2008), it is perhaps not surprising that exercising to tone up was the primary predictor of obligatory exercise in men in the present study. In addition, given that exercise frequency (Puente & Anshel, 2010), and hours spent exercising per week relate to exercising for enjoyment in men (Brown & Graham, 2008), it is also not surprising that exercising for enjoyment reasons relates to obligatory exercise in men in the present study. Although most studies (Furnham et al, 2002;Murcia et al, 2008) report that women tend to endorse exercising for appearance reasons more than do men, one study of collegiate athletes, found that both male and female obligatory exercisers cited appearance as a reason (Stodel, 1996).…”

Cognitive behavior therapy combined with exercise for adults with chronic diseases: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

“…Although factors such as support (e.g., therapeutic alliance), learning (e.g., changing expectations), and actions (e.g., success experience) are initially proposed to explain the equivalent outcomes between psychotherapies (Huibers & Cuijpers, 2014), they can also be applied in exercise. Furthermore, experimental investigations found that leadership, style of intervention, or group leadership in exercise professionals are associated with higher affective benefits (Turner, Rejeski, & Brawley, 1997), physical activity expectations (McAuley, Talbot, & Martinez, 1999), and motivation (Puente & Anshel, 2010;Waters, Reeves, Fjeldsoe, & Eakin, 2012).…”

An experience sampling study of physical activity and positive affect: investigating the role of situational motivation and perceived intensity across time

“…40 Research has supported that greater selfdetermined motivation for physical activity is associated with more vitality, higher levels general positive affect, and elevated positive affect following structured exercise. 21,22,41 Both IM and ID regulations have shown positive correlations with daily measures of exerciserelated affect. 42 In a similar study, Lepage and Crowther found that health and fitness motivation, 43 which can be theoretically linked with ID regulation, had a significant effect on positive affect following physical activity.…”

“…20,21 With respect to short-term associations specifically, several studies have revealed significant increases in positive affect post-physical activity. 22,23 However, opposite findings have also been shown, revealing some inconsistency in this relationship.…”