Images of exercising: Exploring the links between exercise imagery use, autonomous and controlled motivation to exercise, and exercise intention and behavior
Highlights
► We test a model of exercise imagery use, exercise motivation, intention and behavior. ► The first cross-sectional study to investigate exercisers’ use of enjoyment imagery. ► Technique and enjoyment imagery were positively related to autonomous motivation. ► Appearance imagery was positively associated with controlled motivation. ► Strategies to enhance exercise motivation and behavior via imagery use are described.
Section snippets
Participants
Three hundred and fifty participants were recruited to take part in the study, of whom 193 were female (55%) and 157 were male (45%). The age range of the sample was 18–65 years (M = 40.29; SD = 13.29). The participants reported engaging in a variety of exercise activities including aerobics classes (n = 14), weight training (n = 17), cardio machines (n = 17), running outdoors (n = 36), swimming (n = 12), cycling outdoors (n = 6), martial arts (n = 10), yoga/pilates (n = 6), racquet sports (n = 14), team sports (n =
Data screening and cleaning
Multivariate outliers were determined by analyzing Mahalanobis distance values. Following the recommendations of Tabachnick and Fidell (2007) these values were evaluated as the χ2 with degrees of freedom equal to the number of variables in the full data set. Any cases (in this instance, 24) with Mahalanobis distance values greater than the critical value shown in a chi-square critical value table were removed from further analyses. Eight further cases were deleted due to missing data in a
Discussion
The purpose of this study was to test a structural model based on past findings applying SDT (Ryan & Deci, 2000) in the exercise domain, drawing from the findings of Wilson, Rodgers, Hall, et al. (2003), to examine the relationships between different types of exercise imagery and autonomous and controlled motivation, and to determine whether these relationships were linked to intention to exercise and self-reported exercise behavior. Based on past research findings in the area (e.g., Wilson,
References (42)
- et al.
Are we having fun yet? Testing the effects of imagery use on the affective and enjoyment responses to acute moderate exercise
Psychology of Sport and Exercise
(2010) - et al.
Acute affective response to a moderate-intensity exercise stimulus predicts physical activity participation 6 and 12 months later
Psychology of Sport and Exercise
(2008) - et al.
The relationship between perceived autonomy support, exercise regulations and behavioral intentions in women
Psychology of Sport and Exercise
(2004) - et al.
Structural equation modeling in practice: a review and recommended two-step approach
Psychological Bulletin
(1988) AMOS
(2005)- et al.
A path-analytic model of self-determination theory in a physical activity context
Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research
(2009) Structural equation modeling with AMOS: Basic concepts, applications and programming
(2001)- et al.
A self-determination theory approach to the study of intentions and the intention–behavior relationship in children’s physical activity
British Journal of Health Psychology
(1997) - et al.
Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance
Structural Equation Modeling
(2002) - et al.
Predicting physical activity from intention: conceptual and methodological issues
Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology
(1993)
Self-determination theory: a macrotheory of human motivation, development, and health
Canadian Psychology
Choosing activity: A physical activity action plan
Exercise adherence research: future directions
American Journal of Health Promotion
A test of self-determination theory in the exercise domain
Journal of Applied Social Psychology
More about exercise imagery
The Sport Psychologist
Further refinements in the measurement of exercise imagery: the exercise imagery inventory
Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science
A simple method to assess exercise behavior in the community
Canadian Journal of Applied Sport Sciences
Coping with the less interesting aspects of training: toward a model of interest and motivation enhancement in individual sports
Basic and Applied Social Psychology
The processes by which perceived autonomy support in physical education promotes leisure-time physical activity intentions and behavior: a trans-contextual model
Journal of Educational Psychology
Multivariate data analysis
The motivational function of mental imagery for participation in sport and exercise
Cited by (30)
Perceived Behavior Analysis to Boost Physical Fitness and Lifestyle Wellness for Sustainability among Gen Z Filipinos
2023, Sustainability (Switzerland)Emotional, motivational and attitudinal consequences of autonomous prosocial behaviour
2023, European Journal of Social PsychologyHow Best to Imagine: Comparing the Effectiveness of Physical Activity Imagery, Possible Self and Combined Interventions on Physical Activity and Related Outcomes
2023, Imagination, Cognition and PersonalityPhysical activity intention-behavior gap during the COVID-19 pandemic: the moderating role of motivation and health-belief
2023, International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology