Self-talk and exercise behavior

This study examined the relationship between self-verbalization about exercise and actual exercise behavior. One hundred and seventy-four male and female undergraduate and graduate students at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville were the volunteer subjects for the study. Two questionnaires were designed especially for this study. Reliability was established for certain portions of these instruments. The Physical Activity Questionnaire provided information about the amount of time and effort spent in exercise during the warm and cold seasons of the year and made it possible to divide the sample into low, medium, and high exercisers. The Self-Talk and Exercise Questionnaire provided information about the frequency and influence of a variety of proexercise and antiexercise self-statements for these groups of exercisers.

One-way ANOVAs were performed to find out if significant differences existed between the groups of exercisers in their responses to the Self-Talk and Exercise Questionnaire. Scheffe was used to locate any differences. A relationship between self-verbalization and exercise behavior was demonstrated. Results demonstrated that there were differences in the frequency and influence of the self-statements of the groups of exercisers primarily during winter conditions. During winter conditions, high exercisers emitted more proexercise and fewer antiexercise self-statements than did the low exercisers and gave a higher rating to the influence of their proexercise self-statements; also, low exercisers emitted more antiexercise self-statements than did the middle and high groups. During the summer conditions, only one significant difference occurred between groups: the low exercisers emitted more antiexercise self-statements than did the middle and high groups.