Chapter 4

Activities

1. Visit a fitness center, gym, or exercise rehabilitation facility and identify situations in which reinforcement, punishment, negative reinforcement, and extinction occur.
2. Choose one stage in the transtheoretical model and develop an online resource that would provide useful exercise-related information for people currently in that stage.
3. Use the material in Exhibit 4.5 to conduct a survey of students in your class. Ask them to read the definition of regular exercise and then indicate which of the five items best describes their exercise patterns. Then complete the following:
   • Graph your results.
   • Write a short paragraph that describes your results.
   • Write a recommendation indicating where exercise-enhancing interventions are most needed (i.e., for people in which stage) and what immediate steps should be taken to help students who are in this stage to move to the next stage.
4. Imagine that you have been hired to increase physical activity within your community. You will be given all the money and resources that you need. Using a social ecological approach, develop a plan for increasing physical activity that will target multiple levels of influence.
5. Make a list of all of the constructs presented in the theories and models discussed in Chapters 3 and 4. Which constructs occur the most often? Which constructs occur the least often? Which constructs would you be most likely to include if you were to develop your own model or theory of exercise behavior, and why?
6. Conduct an Internet search for websites, videos, and apps that have been developed to encourage people to become more physically active. Using the list of constructs generated in Learning Activity 5 (above), select a website, video, and app and identify those constructs that are being targeted for change in each. Which constructs are targeted most often? Why do you think these are the most popular theoretical targets for change?

Vocabulary

Action stage - Transtheoretical model stage at which a person is exercising at recommended levels for health and fitness.

Antecedent cue - In classical conditioning, a cue that precedes a behavior.

Behavioral process - In the transtheoretical model, behaviors that a person undertakes in order to change aspects of the environment that can affect exercise participation.

Built environment - The human-made settings in which people live, work, and play, including buildings, parks, neighborhoods, cities, and their supporting infrastructure.

Classical conditioning - A theory holding that a reflexive behavior can be elicited through repeated pairings of the behavior with an antecedent cue.

Consciousness raising - Increasing one’s awareness and memory of the benefits of physical activity.

Consequent reinforcement - A reward that follows a behavior.

Contemplation stage - The stage in which a person intends to start exercising within the next six months.

Decisional balance - A model that reflects how people perceive the pros and cons of changing their behavior.

Descriptive study - Studies that simply describe characteristics of a sample or differences in variables within a sample.

Ecosystem - System formed by the interaction of a community of living things with one another and with their physical environment.

Exosystem - All of the external systems that influence a microsystem.

Experiential process - Techniques for increasing people’s awareness of, and changing their thoughts and feelings about, themselves and their exercise behaviors.

Extinction - Withholding a positive stimulus after a behavior in order to decrease the likelihood of that behavior happening in the future.

Extrinsic reinforcer - A behavioral reinforcer that comes from outside the individual, such as recognition or rewards.

Instrumental conditioning - The process of instilling or changing behavior by pairing that behavior with a consequence. A positive consequence will increase the likelihood of the behavior occurring again in the future; a negative consequence will decrease its probability of occurring in the future.

Intervention studies - In exercise psychology, research that examines the effectiveness of some type of intervention strategy to change people’s thoughts, feelings, or behaviors regarding physical activity.

Intrinsic reinforcer - A reward that comes from within the self, such as feeling good about one’s body, feeling a sense of accomplishment at the end of a workout, or simply experiencing the physical and emotional sense of well-being that accompanies exercise.

Macrosystem - The system that encompasses all other systems; it is the larger sociocultural context in which a person resides and includes cultural values, political philosophies, economic patterns, and social conditions.

Maintenance stage - The stage of a person who has been exercising at recommended levels for a prescribed period of time (e.g., six months).

Mesosystem - The location where interactions between microsystems take place.

Microsystem - The immediate systems in which people interact; in a physical activity context, these are environments where people might be physically active or where they might receive support for being physically active.

Negative reinforcer - An unpleasant or aversive stimulus that, when withdrawn after a behavior, will increase the frequency of that behavior in the future.

Policy environment - Rules, regulations, and practices that can impact physical activity through a variety of mechanisms, such as changing the built environment, providing incentives for exercising, or creating sports and recreation programs.

Positive reinforcer - Any intrinsic or extrinsic reward that increases the likelihood of a person repeating a behavior.

Precontemplation stage - The stage in which a person has no intention to start exercising in the foreseeable future.

Predictive studies - A study that attempts to predict future exercise behavior.

Preparation stage - The stage in which a person performs tasks (such as getting medical clearance or buying exercise equipment) that will prepare him or her for starting an exercise program.

Punishment - An unpleasant or uncomfortable stimulus occurring after a behavior, which serves to decrease the probability of that behavior happening in the future.

Reinforcement management - The development and use of strategies for rewarding or reinforcing oneself when exercise goals are met.

Self-liberation - Activities that strengthen one’s commitment to change and the belief that one can change.

Self-reevaluation - The process by which an individual considers how he or she feels about his or her own exercise behavior.

Social ecological model -

A model based on the view that individual-level factors make up only one of multiple levels of influence on behavior.

Stimulus control - The placing of cues in the environment that will remind people to be more physically active.

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