The Therapeutic Effect of Physical Fitness on Measures of Personality: A Literature Review

Abstract

The authors review the literature concerning the effects of physical fitness on various measures of personality and offer specific suggestions for future research in this area.

Aerobic exercise and the placebo effect: a controlled study.

“…Until now, the most spectacular psychological benefits of exercise have been reported primarily for people who are clinically anxious or depressed whereas inconsistent and mitigated results have generally been found with nonclinical populations (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). A possible explanation for the discrepancy in results is that clinically anxious or depressed persons are particularly receptive to a placebo effect because they generally hold higher expectations for psychological benefits (e.g., this treatment is going to cure me) from a specific intervention than nonclinical popuPsychosomatic Medicine 55:149-154 (1993) lations (32).…”

“…It is equally important, indeed, it is imperative, that a placebo group or sham strategy be routinely employed" (p. 300). Unfortunately, most of the studies reviewed have not relied upon such a design strategy (1)(2). This is especially true of earlier studies which were, for the most part, of a preexperimental nature (3).…”

“…Different physiological, biochemical, and psychological hypotheses have been proposed but at the present time, because of conceptual as well as methodological inadequacies, no single theory has received substantial empirical support (2)(3)(4)(5). Difficulties in reaching a clear consensus around those proposed mechanisms have given additional impetus to the provocative hypothesis that exercise enhances psychological well-being via a strong placebo effect (6).…”

Providing Physical Fitness Programs to At-Risk Youth

“…Increased self-esteem and self-concept (Collingwood, 1972;Doan & Schernan, 1987;Folkins & Sime, 1981) Increased feelings of well-being (Collingwood, 1992, L996b;Collingwood et al, 1994;Norris et al, 1990) Increased emotional stability (Blumenthal et al, 1982;Folkins & Sime, 1981) Increased school attendance (Collingwood, 1996a(Collingwood, , 1996b., 1994) Increased academic/vocational training performance (Collingwood, 1972(Collingwood, , 1996bCollingwood et al, 1994) Increased positive parental relationships (Collingwood et al, 1994) Increased responsibility (Collingwood, 1996b;Compagnone, 1985;DeBusk & Hellison, 1989) Increased levels of life skills (Collingwood et al 1979;Collingwood & Genthner, 1980;Collingwood et al, 1994) Decreased depression (Doan & Schernan, 1987;Folkins & Sime, 1981;Kugler et al, 1994;Martinsen, 1990) Decreased anxiety (Blumenthal et al, 1982;Kugler et al, 1994;Steptoe & Fox, 1988) Decreased perception of stress (Brown & Siegel, 1988;Noms et al, 1990) These results support that there are many potential advantages to applying physical exercise to other areas of psychological and social functioning that relate to the at-risk youth's problems beyond just physical fitness and health.…”

The use of aerobic exercise as an occupational therapy intervention for post traumatic stress disorder patients

“…Much research has been conducted on the effect of aerobic exercise on depression, anxiety and other psychological disorders (Morgan & Goldston, 1987;Doan & Scherman, 1987;Folkins & Sime, 1981). Currently, aerobic exercise is being used as part of numerous treatment intervention programs.…”