EMI-2 Abstracts
Ingledew, D.K., Hardy, L. and de Sousa, K. (1995). Body shape dissatisfaction and exercise motivations. Journal of Sports Sciences, 13, 60.
Women generally experience more dissatisfaction with their body weight and shape than do men (Rolls et al., 1991, Health Psychology, 10, 133-142). There are some gender differences in exercise motivations (Markland and Hardy, 1993, Personality and Individual Differences, 15, 289-296). The objective of the present study was to examine the effects of body shape dissatisfaction on exercise motivations, including the possibility that the effects are different for men and women. Subjects were recruited at various circuit training sessions in the community. They reported their sex, age, height and weight. They then rated their current and ideal body shape on a figurative scale, appropriate to their gender, adapted from Fallon and Rozin (1985, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 94, 102-105). The discrepancy between current and ideal body shape was taken as a measure of an individual's body shape dissatisfaction. Subjects also completed an updated version of the Exercise Motivations Inventory (EMI) (Markland and Hardy, 1993). There were 50 men and 50 women, mean age 32.1 years (SD=9.9 years), with no significant difference in the mean ages of men and women (t90.5=-.64, P=.53). Whilst the men had higher body mass index than the women (t86.6=-3.82, P<.01), the women had higher body shape dissatisfaction than the men (Mann-Whitney U=885.0, Z=-2.60, P<.01). There was an overall difference between males and females on EMI scores (Hotelling's T¨=.32, F12,87=2.30, P=.01). The structure coefficients in follow-up discriminant function analysis suggested that the salient variables were Weight Management, Re-creation, and Affiliation, on all of which women were higher than men. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted, for men and women separately. The dependent variables were the EMI scale scores. Body mass index was entered first, followed by body shape dissatisfaction. For men, body mass index predicted Weight Management as a reason for exercise (R2 change=.21, P<.01), but body shape dissatisfaction did not account for additional variance. The beta coefficient in the final equation indicated that, as body mass index increased, so did Weight Management as a reason for exercising. Also for men, body mass index predicted exercising for Fitness reasons (R2 change=.09, P=.04), but, again, body shape dissatisfaction did not account for additional variance. As body mass index increased, Fitness as a reason for exercising decreased. For women, body mass index did not predict Weight Management as a reason for exercising, but body shape dissatisfaction did (R2 change=.11, P=.02). As body shape dissatisfaction increased, exercising for Weight Management reasons increased. Other EMI scale scores were not predicted. These results suggest that men are likely to exercise for weight management reasons consistent with how overweight they are in a clinical sense. Women, on the other hand, are likely to exercise for weight management reasons on the basis of how dissatisfied they are with their body shape, rather than how overweight they are in a clinical sense.
Ingledew, D.K. & Markland, D. (2008). The role of motives in exercise participation. Psychology and Health, 23, 807-828.
The aim was to better understand the role of motives in exercise participation. It was hypothesised that motives influence exercise participation by influencing behavioural regulation, and that motives are themselves influenced by personality traits. Data were from a cross-sectional questionnaire survey of 252 office workers, mean age 40 years. Analysis was by structural equation modelling. According to the final model, appearance/weight motive increased external regulation, thereby reducing participation, and also increased introjected regulation. Health/fitness motive increased identified regulation, thereby increasing participation. Social engagement motive increased intrinsic regulation. Neuroticism increased appearance/weight motive, openness increased health/fitness motive, and conscientiousness, without affecting motives, reduced external and introjected regulation. It is inferred that exercise promotion programmes, without denigrating appearance/weight motive, should encourage other motives more conducive to autonomous motivation.
Ingledew, D.K., Markland, D., & Ferguson, E. (2009). Three levels of exercise motivation. Applied Psychology: Health and Wellbeing, 1, 336-355.
The aim was to test a three-level model of motivation, derived from self-determination theory. According to the model, dispositional motives (represented by life goals) influence participatory motives (exercise participation motives), which influence regulatory motives (exercise behavioural regulations), which influence behaviour (exercise participation). The participants were 251 young adults. They completed the Aspirations Index, Exercise Motivations Inventory version 2, Behavioural Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire version 2, and a quantity-frequency measure of exercise participation. The model was tested using partial least squares latent variable modelling. Exercise participation was positively predicted by identified and intrinsic but not predicted by external or introjected behavioural regulations. Behavioural regulations were predicted by participation motives: intrinsic regulation by affiliation and challenge motives; identified regulation by health/fitness and stress management motives; introjected regulation by appearance/weight motive; external regulation by social recognition and appearance/weight motives; all positively. Participation motives were themselves predicted by corresponding life goals. The findings support the three-level model of motivation. Health promotion programmes need to take account of individuals’ participatory motives and underlying dispositional motives.
Ingledew, D.K.I., Markland, D. and Medley, A. (1998). Exercise motives and Stages of Change. Journal of Health Psychology, 3, 477-489.
Examined how exercise motives differ across stages of change. British government employees completed questionnaires measuring exercise motives and exercise stages of change at baseline (N = 425) and at 3-mo follow-up (247 of the original sample). Discriminant analysis was used to determine whether exercise motives (and age and gender) could collectively discriminate between baseline stages of change; and whether exercise motives could discriminate between those who stayed inactive, stayed active, became active or became inactive over the 3 mo. Taken as a whole, and with some qualifications, the results suggest that extrinsic (specifically bodily) motives dominate during the early stages of exercise adoption, but that intrinsic (specifically enjoyment) motives are important for progression to and maintenance of actual activity. This is consistent with E. L. Deci and R. M. Ryan's (1985) self-determination theory. The implications for exercise promotion are discussed.
Ingledew, D.K., Markland, D., & Strömmer, S.S. (2013). Elucidating the Roles of Motives and Gains in Exercise Participation. Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology, 3, 116-131.
Previous research into the role of exercise motives (what people want from exercise) has overlooked the possible role of gains (what people get) and hence the possible benefits of motive fulfillment (when people get what they want). To redress this imbalance, we examined the additive and interactive effects of motives and subjective gains on exercise-specific outcomes. Young adults (N=196) completed measures of exercise motives and gains, and exercise behavioral regulation, amount, satisfaction, and intention. Four representative motives/gains were selected: appearance, positive health, challenge, and affiliation. Path analysis was used to test the effects of motives, gains, and their products (the interactive effects) on behavioral regulations, and thereby exercise amount, satisfaction, and intention. Controlled regulation increased with appearance motive, unless appearance gain was high. Controlled regulation had a negative effect on exercise satisfaction. Autonomous regulation increased with positive health motive, provided positive health gain was high; with challenge motive and gain; and with affiliation motive. Autonomous regulation had positive effects on exercise amount, satisfaction, and intention. The study corroborates previous findings about the effects of motives. It establishes the value of also studying gains, as moderators of the effects of motives, and in their own right. The findings are interpretable in terms of self-determination theory. Exercise promotion could be more effective if it focused on gains in conjunction with motives.
Ingledew, D.K. & Sullivan, G. (2002). Effects of body mass and body image on exercise motives in adolescence.Psychology of Exercise and Sport, 3, 323-338.
Examined age and gender differences in the effects of body mass and body image on exercise motives in adolescents. It was specifically predicted that weight management motive would be explained by body mass index in males, and by body size discrepancy in females, but this pattern would be less pronounced in younger than in older adolescents. Participants were 180 younger (11-13 years) and older (17-19 years) males and females. They completed measures of exercise participation, exercise motives, and perceived and ideal body size. Height and weight were also measured. In each analysis, the dependent variable was an exercise motive, and the independent variables were, exercise level, body mass index, perceived body size, and ideal body size. Weight management motive was positively predicted by body mass index in older males, and by perceived and ideal body size in older females. Other, more intrinsic, motives were negatively predicted by body mass index or perceived body size in older males or females. Such relationships were not significant in younger adolescents. Effects of body mass and body image on exercise motives emerge in adolescence, with gender differences. Such effects may influence exercise adherence and should be taken into account in exercise promotion programmes.
Markland, D. (1999). Internally informational versus internally controlling exercise motives and exercise enjoyment: The mediating role of self-determination. In P. Parisi, F. Pigozzi, & G. Prinzi (Eds.) Sport Science '99 in Europe. Proceedings of the 4th Annual Congress of the European College of Sport Science. Rome: University Institute of Motor Sciences.
According to Deci and Ryan's (1985) cognitive evaluation theory, self-determination plays a key role in motivation to engage in an activity. When self-determining individuals are more intrinsically motivated, experiencing choice, an absence of pressure and greater enjoyment of the activity. External and intrapersonal events are held to influence perceptions of self-determination to the extent that they are perceived as controlling or informational. Controlling events undermine self-determination and intrinsic motivation by pressurising the individual into feeling that they have to engage in the activity for some reason rather than that they choose to participate. Informational events can enhance self-determination by providing effectance relevant feedback in the context of choice. A major class of intrapersonal events relevant to the initiation and regulation of behaviour is the person's participation motives or reasons for engaging in an activity. In the exercise context, it has been suggested that reasons for participation could be perceived as intrinsically or extrinsically oriented (Ingledew, Markland and Medley, 1998). Extrinsic motives, such as exercising for weight control or because of a doctor's exercise prescription, may be perceived as controlling, thereby undermining self-determination and leading to a lack of enjoyment of exercise. Intrinsic motives, such as exercising for enjoyment may be perceived as informational, enhancing perceptions of self-determination and leading to greater enjoyment. The present study used structural equation modelling with observed variables to test these relationships. 204 female aerobics class participants (mean age = 32.05; SD = 12.69) completed Markland & Hardy's (1993) Exercise Motivations Inventory (EMI) as a measure of exercise motives; Markland & Hardy's (1997) Locus of Causality for Exercise Scale as a measure of self-determination; and the interest-enjoyment subscale of McAuley, Wraith and Duncan's (1991) aerobics version of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory. The EMI subscales enjoyment and affiliation were selected to represent intrinsic motives whereas the subscales weight management, appearance and health pressures were selected to represent extrinsic motives. In the initial model tested, self determination was held to mediate the effects of the five exercise motives on interest-enjoyment. Modification indices were then examined to determine whether a better model would be obtained by allowing exercise motives to have direct effects on interest-enjoyment. Furthermore, it was hypothesised that the intrinsic motives would have positive relationships with self-determination whereas the effects of the extrinsic motives would be negative. The initial model did not fit the data well (Satorra-Bentler chi sq = 37.46, d.f. = 20, p < .05; RMSEA = .07; SRMR = .07; CFI = .91). Modification indices showed that the model could be significantly improved by allowing a direct path from the enjoyment motive to interest-enjoyment. The resulting model had an excellent fit to the data (Satorra-Bentler chi sq = 5.01, d.f. = 19, p > .95; RMSEA = .00; SRMR = .02; CFI = 1.0). Apart from the appearance motive, which proved to have no significant effect on self-determination, all path coefficients were significant (ps < .01) and in the hypothesised direction. Elimination of the enjoyment to self-determination path resulted in a significantly worse fitting model, demonstrating that enjoyment had both direct and indirect effects on interest-enjoyment. These findings support the proposition that some exercise participation motives may be perceived as internally controlling. Specifically, a focus on weight management and exercising because of perceived health pressures undermines self-determination which in turn leads to lower levels of exercise enjoyment. Conversely, internally informational reasons for exercising, specifically exercising for enjoyment and for social affiliation reasons enhances perceptions of self-determination and lead to greater exercise enjoyment. REFERENCES Deci, E.L., Ryan, R.M. (1985): Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. New York, Plenum. Ingledew, D.K.I., Markland, D. & Medley, A. (1998): J Hlth Psych. 3, 477-489. Markland, D. & Hardy, L. (1993): Pers Ind Diffs. 15, 3, 289-296. Markland, D. & Hardy, L. (1997): Res Q Exerc Sport. 68, 20-32.
Markland, D. and Hardy, L. (1993). The Exercise Motivations Inventory: Preliminary development and validity of a measure of individuals' reasons for participation in regular physical exercise. Personality & Individual Differences, 15, 289-296.
Developed the Exercise Motivations Inventory (EMI), a 44-item multidimensional instrument designed to test theoretically derived predictions concerning the influences of personal exercise goals on exercise participation. Items were generated from responses to an open-ended questionnaire and from an examination of the literature on exercise adherence. A 71-item version of the EMI was completed by 249 regular exercisers (aged 16-75 yrs). Principal components analysis with equamax rotation yielded 12 factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.0, accounting for 69.4% of the total variance. The internal consistency of the 12 subscales was generally acceptable, and test-retest reliability coefficients over a 4-5 wk period ranged from 0.59 to 0.88. None of the subscales suffered from a social desirability response bias. Preliminary evidence supports the discriminative and construct validity of the EMI.
Markland, D. & Ingledew, D.K. (1997). The measurement of exercise motives: Factorial validity and invariance across gender of a revised Exercise Motivations Inventory. British Journal of Health Psychology, 2, 361-376.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to further develop and refine the Exercise Motivations Inventory (EMI), a measure of individuals' reasons for exercising.
Design: Confirmatory factor analytic procedures using LISREL were employed to test the hypothesised fourteen factor structure of the revised instrument (the EMI-2) and the invariance of the factor structure across gender.
Methods: 425 civil servants completed the revised instrument. Analyses were conducted in three phases. Phase One involved detailed examination of the fit of the fourteen factors separately in order to detect and eliminate poor indicators. In Phase Two each factor was paired with every other factor in order to detect and eliminate ambiguous items. In Phase Three factors were grouped with conceptually related factors into five submodels and the fit and factorial invariance across gender of these submodels was tested.
Results: Item elimination at Phases One and Two led to the development of a set of internally consistent factors with strong indicators and good discriminant validity. Phase Three gave further evidence for the convergent and discriminant validity of the items and factors and strong support for the invariance of the factor structure across gender.
Conclusions: The EMI-2 is a factorially valid means of assessing a broad range of exercise participation motives in adult males and females, applicable to both exercisers and non-exercisers.
Markland, D., Ingledew, D.K., Hardy, L. and Grant, L. (1992). A comparison of the exercise motivations of aerobics participants and weight-watcher exercisers. Journal of Sports Sciences, 10, 609-610.
Individuals' motivations for exercise may be among the determinants of long-term participation in regular exercise (Duda, 1989: in M.L. Maehr & C. Ames, Eds, Advances in Motivation and Achievement, 6, 81-115). This study explores the differing motivations of aerobics participants and individuals taking part in aerobics classes as part of a Weight Watcher programme. It was predicted that the aerobics exercisers would report exercising for more reasons related to fitness, recreation, enjoyment and affiliation and that they would be more intrinsically motivated towards exercise, whereas the weight watcher exercisers would report exercising for weight management and ill-health avoidance, and be less intrinsically motivated. Altogether, 30 female members of aerobics classes who were not also weight watchers, and 30 female members of an aerobics class run for weight watchers, matched for age on a group basis, completed Markland and Hardy's (1991, Journal of Sports Sciences, 9, 445) Exercise Motivations Inventory (EMI), an aerobics version of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI: McAuley et al, 1991, Journal of Applied Social, 21, 139-155), and a Perceived Choice for Exercise scale (Markland, 1991, unpublished manuscript, UCNW, Bangor). A Hotelling's T2 test on the EMI revealed significant differences between the groups' motivations for exercise (T2 12, 47 = 1.189, P<.001). Follow-up discriminant structure coefficients showed that the aerobics group exercised more for recreational reasons, enjoyment, development of personal skills, fitness improvement, stress management and affiliational reasons than the weight watchers. There were no differences with respect to exercising for weight management or ill-health avoidance. Weight management was the most important incentive for exercise for both groups. A Hotelling's T2 test and follow-up discriminant function analysis on the IMI and Perceived Choice for Exercise scale showed the aerobics group to be significantly more intrinsically motivated to exercise than the weight watchers (T25,54 = 0.535, P<.001). The results were interpreted in terms of cognitive evaluation theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. New York: Plenum Press). One aspect of the theory concerns the motivational consequences of the internal standards, or goals, that individuals adopt. It is proposed that internally controlling standards (e.g. ' must I must exercise in order to lose weight') may lead to tension and pressure to perform, undermining intrinsic motivation. Internally informational standards, on the other hand (e.g., goals concerned with task mastery or personal performance improvement ) allow freedom from pressure, the experience of personal choice and competence, and can enhance intrinsic motivation. While the design of the study does not allow for causal inferences, the results suggest that one reason for the low level of intrinsic motivation among the weight watchers may be their focus on exercise as an activity undertaken for weight management and their relative lack of internally informational standards. This is unlikely to foster the best conditions for long-term participation in regular physical activity.