ABSTRACT
Buckworth and Dishman (2002) pointed out that as long ago as 1899 William James said that ‘our muscular vigor will … always be needed to furnish the background of sanity, and cheerfulness to life, to give moral elasticity to our dispositions, to round o the wiry edge of our fretfulness, and make us good-humoured’ (p. 91). Perhaps now we are ready to listen to this message. A fundamental question in the psychology of physical activity is ‘does physical activity make you feel good?’ – healthy mind in a healthy body and all that. In this chapter, therefore, we review the evidence on the relationship between participation in physical activity and psychological well-being (PWB). Specically, we review the areas of mood and aect, enjoyment, and sleep, as well as psychological well-being for women. In addition, possible mental health outcomes of too much sedentary behaviour (sitting time) are discussed. Specically, in this chapter we aim to:
● introduce the concept of health-related quality of life and how it is typically measured; ● review the evidence linking physical activity with measures of mood and aect; ● highlight the construct of physical activity enjoyment and present three approaches to
understanding this construct; ● comment on the psychological eects of depriving people of physical activity; ● highlight results on the eect of physical activity on sleep; ● appraise the evidence on the association between sedentary behaviour (sitting) and
psychological well-being; ● explore the evidence for the existence of ‘exercise dependence’; ● discuss physical activity and psychological well-being for women.
