Which type of motivation is capable of driving achievement behaviors such as exercise in different personalities?

Introduction/Aim: Physical inactivity has been cited as a leading cause of noncommunicable disease, disability, and hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths worldwide each year. It is imperative to recognize that factors related to physical activity and those encouraging exercise could help one understand what it is that brings about an increase in adherence rates. Specifically, the relationship between motivation, personality, and fidelity to behaviors such as exercise should be investigated. By understanding what motivates individual personalities, we can seek challenges that serve to satisfy one or more of the needs explained by the Self-Determination Theory and form a useful foundation for developing physical activity interventions. Here, personality and motivational factors that can promote exercise frequency were explored. Methods: Participants [N=108, females (n=64), males (n=44); average age, height, and weight of 19.39 ± 4.49 yrs, 169.29 ± 17.34 cm, and 67.82 ± 15.44 kg, respectively] completed a battery of online questionnaires assessing exercise behavior, personality, and exercise motivation. Results: Exercise frequency, a proxy measure of exercise adherence, was shown to be moderately correlated with both mastery and enjoyment components of the intrinsic motivation factor, with weaker relationships seen extrinsic motives (comprising psychological condition, physical condition, social motives). Personality factors were weakly related to exercise frequency. Conscientiousness was moderately correlated (r= .328, p<.01), whereas extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness and openness were not significantly related to exercise frequency. Intrinsic motivation (mastery, enjoyment) was moderately correlated with extraversion (rs = .366 & .316 respectively, ps< .01) and emotional stability (rs= .235 & .229 respectively, ps< .05). Agreeableness was associated with enjoyment (r= .217, p< .05) but not mastery (r= .122, p> .05), whereas openness was related to mastery (r= .216, p< .05) but not enjoyment component (r(106) = .167, p > .05). Conscientiousness was unrelated to either mastery or enjoyment. Conclusions: The findings highlight how motivational regulation can help to better understand individual personalities and could potentially form a useful foundation for developing physical activity interventions. Results add to the literature suggesting that motivation, whether the origin is intrinsic or extrinsic to the individual, can help to characterize fidelity to physical activity by considering specific personality characteristics.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Kinesiology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2018

Author dc:creator

• Amjod, Raja

Contributors dc:contributor

• Petruzzello, Steven J.

• Exercise
• Personality
• Motivation

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2017 Raja Amjod

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/99419

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F99419