Abstract
The extent to which people expect to feel pleasure during exercise is proposed to influence an individual’s decision to be active. In order to identify the factors that shape this affective forecast for exercise, this study explored what people think about when creating their affective forecast for exercise. Thirty-one inactive participants provided an affective forecast for a moderate intensity exercise session using the global affective forecast questionnaire. Immediately after, they were asked a series of questions to verbally explain what they were thinking about in order to generate their forecast. Thematic analysis identified four themes relating to the exercise intensity, the exercise outcomes, the exercise environment, and the enjoyment of exercise that influenced affective forecast creation. Exercise practitioners should design strategies to manipulate these factors, and structure exercise environments to support a positive affective forecast and better motivate exercise participation.
Highlights
Physical inactivity levels are increasing and cost nearly 3.2 million people their lives each year [1].As a means of increasing motivation to be active, research has investigated the role of affect variables [2,3].Positive affect, a key component of psychological well-being, has been associated with exercise [4,5].One specific affect variable is the individual’s affective forecast
Results showed that how people think they are going to feel during exercise is influenced by the physical demands of the exercise intensity and their ability to meet those demands; the physiological and psychological benefits they expect to obtain from the exercise; the context in which exercise will take place; and the enjoyment associated with the exercise
Each theme reflected expectations gained from previous exercise experiences, or what would occur in the future exercise session
Summary
One specific affect variable is the individual’s affective forecast This is the valenced prediction people make for how they think they will feel in response to a future stimulus, be it a behavior, event, or situation [6,7,8]. These affective forecasts can elicit action tendencies to approach or avoid certain behaviors depending on whether they are framed as positive or negative, respectively [9]. Affective forecasts have been proposed to influence the decision to be active [10,11] and found to be associated with exercise intentions and behavior [12,13]. The factors that influence the creation of affective forecasts in the exercise context have not been investigated
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