PSY 348 Lecture 15: PSY348 Lecture 15
Document Summary
Chapter 11: physical activity and exercise (part 2) Mental health benefits of exercise: buffers stress, reduces anxiety and depression, enhances psychological well-being, builds self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-efficacy. Short term: mood improvement after 10 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, reduction in anxiety lasting several hours. Long term: overall reduced negative mood and enhanced psychological well-being. *however: if exercise program is discontinued, mood effects are not sustained. Exercise has been tested as a treatment for a variety of clinical conditions* such as: Randomly assigned to one group: exercise (aerobic cardio, medication, combined exercise and medication. Randomly assigned to one group: exercising at home, exercising with a group, medication, placebo pill important control for expectancy effects. *groups 3 and 4 were unsure which pill they were going to take. Results: after 4 months: all 3 treatment groups showed a significant reduction in depression compared to the control group(s, effect of exercise was comparable to the effect of the medication.
