Date of Award

5-2013

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Kinesiology

First Advisor

Erik Lind, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

James Hokanson, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Joy L. Hendrick, Ph.D.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to: (a) investigate personality traits and motivation among an exercise dependent sample by using and examining theoretically based assessment tools and (b) measure feeling states under different types of physical activity among those who were considered to be exercise dependent. Four hundred twenty-three college students (54.4% male, 45.6% female) who met the inclusion criteria completed the Exercise Dependence Scale-Revised (EDS-R; Symons Downs, Hausenblas, & Nigg, 2004), Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI; Terry, Szabó, & Griffiths, 2004), Exercise Identity Scale (EIS; Anderson & Cychosz, 1994), Behavioral Regulations in Exercise Questionnaire-2 (BREQ-2; Markland & Tobin, 2004), and Preference for and Tolerance of Intensity of Exercise Questionnaire (PRETIE-Q; Ekkekakis, Hall, & Petruzzello, 2005). The results of the first part of the study indicated that there was an association between the categories provided by the EDS-R and the EAI; as well as an association between the subscales of the BREQ-2 and the EDS-R and the EAI. Results also indicated that the full model of scores on the EIS, BREQ-2, and PRETIE-Q significantly contributed to the prediction of category membership for both the EDS-R and the EAI. The follow up part of the study included a small sample (n = 5) of exercise dependent participants who engaged in a randomly assigned schedule of their preferred, an assigned, or no exercise modality over a one-week period. Participants completed the Exercise-induced Feeling Inventory (EFI; Gauvin & Rejeski, 1993) four times during each day. These results indicated that physical exhaustion did not change across the conditions, while positive feeling states were highest during their preferred exercise modality with no differences between the no workout and assigned workout conditions. The results provide iv support for (a) personality traits and motivational factors having an influence on a person becoming high risk for exercise dependency and for (b) the possibility of certain types of physical activity eliciting higher positive feeling responses compared to others.

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