Study

Issue:

There are numerous findings, according to which exercise affects a variety of psychological variables in a positive way (Schulz et al., 2012). The majority of these studies considered physical activity in the sense of cardio or weight training. This understanding of health-promoting physical activity dominated the research over the years. But more recently a growing number of studies focuses on the concept of physical activity in everyday life. An active lifestyle significantly has an impact on the maintenance and rehabilitation of physical health (Abu-Omar & Rütten, 2006). However, there is little research on the impact of everyday life activity on mental health, for which well-being is of great importance.
Previous research has focused on the mood enhancing effects of exercise. In contrast, my bachelor thesis deals with the question of how a basic level of activity is associated with well-being using an Ecological Momentary Assessment approach.

Method:

For the momentary assessment of physical activity a conventional pedometer is used. To control a possible rise in motivation Müller et al. (2010) recommend a use for at least 7 days . To measure the basic dimensions of mood (valence, energetic arousal and calmness) in daily life a mood scale (Wilhelm & Schoebi, 2007) is used. Participants respond to the statement, “At this moment I feel:” on a Likert scale using 6 bipolar items.
Thus, the mood of subjects is assessed immediately during certain physically active or inactive episodes.

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