Habit formation and behaviour change

Within psychology, the term habit refers to a process whereby contexts prompt action automatically, through activation of mental context–action associations learned through prior performances. Habitual behavior is regulated by an impulsive process, and so can be elicited with minimal cognitive effort, awareness, control, or intention. When an initially goal-directed behavior becomes habitual, action initiation transfers from conscious motivational processes to context-cued impulse-driven mechanisms. Regulation of action becomes detached from motivational or volitional control. Upon encountering the associated context, the urge to enact the habitual behavior is spontaneously triggered and alternative behavioral responses become less cognitively accessible

Experimentally manipulated achievement goal state fluctuations regulate self-conscious emotional responses to feedback

Self-conscious emotions, such as pride and shame, have important implications for performance in competence pursuits. Emotions and motivation are strongly linked and it may be that achievement goals play a role in regulating self-conscious emotions. This study investigated the effects of between-person achievement goal orientations and within-person fluctuations in achievement goal states on pride and shame responses to feedback. Undergraduate students (N = 58) completed a 24-round game of Tetris. Before each round, scoring criteria prompts were provided to manipulate achievement goals and participants rated their goals. After each round, participants received experimentally manipulated feedback and rated their pride and shame. A set of hierarchical linear models revealed that performance achievement goal states moderated the effects of feedback on pride and shame at a within-person level. These results suggest coaches and teachers may be able to use contextual cues to influence motivation and selfconscious emotions of their athletes and students during competence pursuits

Progression of motivation models in exercise science: Where we have been and where we are heading

The aim of this chapter is to highlight four progressions in the theoretical approaches to motivational models in exercise science. Our aim is not to address the efficacy of any given theoretical approach, as the other chapters in this section of the book provide detail in that domain. Neither is the aim of this chapter to put forth a new model of physical activity motivation. Rather, our aim is to highlight how and why the field is changing. We start the chapter by describing that the theoretical perspective driving most physical activity motivation research has been expectancy‐value models originating from social, sport, and education psychology. Following that, we present our perspectives on how and why the field is being invigorated by “new” perspectives, which are really just a reinvigoration of old ideas that got lost in translation amongst exercise science across the years. These progressions of theory include consideration for how a person’s context can impact their motivation (ecological models), that motivation is not a static onceoff phenomenon (temporal dynamic models), that motivation encompasses automatic processes as well as deliberative beliefs and values (dual process models), and that there are processes and factors that determine whether intention translates into behavior (action control models)

Habit formation and behavior change

Within psychology, the term habit is most often used to refer to a process whereby situations prompt action automatically, through activation of mental situation-action associations acquired through prior performances. Unlike consciously intended behavior, which proceeds via a cognitively effortful reflective processing system, behavior that is directed by habit is regulated by an impulsive processing system, and so can be elicited with minimal cognitive effort, awareness, control, or intention. The habit formation process involves a gradual transferral of action initiation from the conscious attentional or motivational processes involved in reflective processing, to external cuing mechanisms characteristic of impulsive processing. Behavior thus becomes detached from motivational or volitional control, freeing finite cognitive resources for unfamiliar or otherwise more demanding tasks. Upon encountering associated situations, habitual tendencies dominate action regulation, and alternative actions become less readily accessible

Affective responses to a multi-day, charity cycling event of people with depression and anxiety symptoms

Introduction: The feelings experienced during exercise are a major contributor of exercise motivation. It may be that because of a deregulation of the brain’s reward system, feelings experienced during exercise are unique for people experiencing depression and/or anxiety

Physical activity and mental health; it is more than just a prescription

Most mental health and physical activity research describes unidirectional causes of physical activity on mental health, and as a result, a strong evidence base is being established for the effectiveness of physical activity as a treatment for mental health issues. Given that the efficacy of physical activity prescriptions are entirely reliant on individuals’ behavioral engagement, the aim of this special issue is to draw attention to translational evidence relevant to mental health and physical activity. This issue encompasses findings from a wide array of study designs (e.g., reviews, qualitative investigations, correlations studies, trial descriptions, pilot trial findings) of populations from high, middle, and low-income countries with clinical and non-clinical mental health issues. The evidence illustrates that people with mental health issues have unique facilitators and barriers to physical activity that are not accounted for within behavior change theories or interventions for the general population. Within this issue, you will find evidence of how mental health issues impact physical activity behavior change processes as well as examples of how context and person factors may moderate physical activity intervention efficacy amongst these populations. Informed by this evidence, we are calling for future research to investigate acceptability, maintenance, scalability, and generalizability of physical activity interventions for people with mental health issues. This future research will need to account for the unique barriers and facilitators of the population, be theoretically sound, apply to unique contexts, and adapt to dynamic change processes (including engagement and maintenance). © 2017 Elsevier Lt

Conceptualizing and defining the intention construct for future physical activity research

Intention has been an extremely important concept in physical activity theory and research but is complicated by a double-barreled definition of a decision to perform physical activity and the commitment to enact that decision. We put forth the hypothesis that these separate meanings have different measurement requirements, are situated in distinctly different intention-based models, and show discrete findings when explaining physical activity motives. © 2017 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

Physical activity habit: Complexities and controversies

The health benefits of regular physical activity participation among adults support a reliable dose–response relationship with risk reduction of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, stroke, hypertension, colon cancer, and breast cancer (Warburton, Charlesworth, Ivey, Nettlefold, & Bredin, 2010). Furthermore, regular physical activity has been linked to reduced mental health problems such as depression and anxiety symptoms (Rebar et al., 2015). The recommended dose of physical activity for optimal health benefits is 150 min of moderate intensity or 75 min of vigorous intensity activity for adults per week (World Health Organization, 2012). Unfortunately, few people meet these guidelines, particularly in higher income countries (Hallal et al., 2012). For example, less than 20% of North American adults are physically active at the recommended guidelines (Colley et al., 2011; Troiano et al., 2008). Thus, promotion of regular physical activity is paramount to public health and effective interventions are needed

Achievement motivation processes

The pursuit of competence is fundamental to physical activity, regardless of whether that activity occurs in organized competitive sport or in less structured leisure-time pursuits. People naturally strive to feel effective in their physical activities, but such competence can be pursued in a variety of ways with different consequences. Achievement motivation theories attempt to explain the processes that energize and orient these competence strivings. This chapter reviews the psychometric properties of measures used to assess the most common and relevant achievement motivation processes for people engaged in sport and exercise activities

Cognitive control and the non-conscious regulation of health behavior

We agree with Buckley et al.(2014) that self-control processes are one important aspect of physical activity and sedentary behavior regulation, and that self-control training is an important avenue for health behavior intervention research. However, we believe the role of non-conscious regulatory processes of health behaviors was understated in that the focus was mostly on how non-conscious temptations can bias one toward unhealthy behaviors. We take this opportunity to extend this discussion by highlighting that health behaviors are also regulated by non-conscious processes, and that cognitive control training may also work to regulate behavior through these regulatory pathways