Routledge Handbook of Physical Activity and Mental Health

Panteleimon Ekkekakis, Panteleimon Ekkekakis

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136477799
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Medicina
• Categoria: Medicina dello sport

A growing body of evidence shows that physical activity can be a cost-effective and safe intervention for the prevention and treatment of a wide range of mental health problems. As researchers and clinicians around the world look for evidence-supported alternatives and complements to established forms of therapy (medication and psychotherapy), interest in physical activity mounts. The Routledge Handbook of Physical Activity and Mental Health offers the most comprehensive review of the research evidence on the effects of physical activity on multiple facets of mental health. Written by a team of world-leading international experts, the book covers ten thematic areas:

• physical activity and the 'feel good' effect
• anxiety disorders
• depression and mood disorders
• self-perceptions and self-evaluations
• cognitive function across the lifespan
• psychosocial stress
• pain
• energy and fatigue
• addictions
• quality of life in special populations.

This volume presents a balanced assessment of the research evidence, highlights important directions for future work, and draws clear links between theory, research, and clinical practice. As the most complete and authoritative resource on the topic of physical activity and mental health, this is essential reading for researchers, students and practitioners in a wide range of fields, including clinical and health psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, behavioural and preventive medicine, gerontology, nursing, public health and primary care.

PART 1

The physical activity “feel-good” effect

Edited by Panteleimon Ekkekakis

1

PLEASURE FROM THE EXERCISING BODY

Two centuries of changing outlooks in psychological thought

Panteleimon Ekkekakis

The mere exertion of the muscles after long rest or confinement is in itself a pleasure, as we ourselves feel, and as we see in the play of young animals.

(Darwin, 1872, p. 77)

Researchers working on the effects of physical activity on mental health often express puzzlement, even frustration, that physical activity is not recognized more widely as a bona fide mental health intervention in spite of mounting evidence. Attempts to probe the causes of this phenomenon typically reveal two contributing factors, namely a hypercritical treatment of the evidence (e.g., Mead et al., 2009) and, perhaps surprisingly, a lack of awareness of the evidence. For example, when Faulkner and Biddle (2001) asked directors of doctoral training programs in clinical psychology in England about their perceptions of the role of exercise in mental health, one striking finding was their “extremely limited” (p. 439) awareness of relevant studies. One program director remarked: “We might want to ask the question, if there's evidence for exercise, why is noone mentioning it? That would be a more interesting question to us, to be honest” (p. 439). Critiquing a research literature on conceptual and methodological grounds, and choosing to accept or reject its findings on that basis, is perfectly reasonable. In fact, it is the basis of responsible evidence-based practice. So, of the two contributing factors, the former is scientifically warranted and potentially fruitful, in that it can stimulate efforts to further improve the quality of the evidence base (Ekkekakis, 2008). The latter, however, is a different issue altogether. Choosing to ignore an entire literature, or claiming that it does not exist, cannot be construed as either helpful or healthy (Ekkekakis & Backhouse, 2009). Therefore, a contemplation of the historical processes that led to the current situation may prove enlightening.

Like most scientific disciplines, psychology is not immune to the problem of faltering memory (Watson, 1960). The frame of reference for past research and theorizing typically extends over a period of a few years, not decades or centuries. What probably drives this phenomenon is the assumption that the size of the evidence base and the sophistication of theories grow following a monotonic and more-or-less linear trajectory. In other words, there is a belief that there is no backtracking or looping in how scientific knowledge evolves over time. If this were so, being aware of only the latest empirical and theoretical literature would suffice, as that would encapsulate the accumulated experience of the past. In reality, however, the topics, the methods, and the interpretive frameworks that science utilizes at a particular historical juncture are dictated by Kuhnian paradigms, which are ephemeral and often non-cumulative (Kuhn, 1962/1996). Psychology is no exception (Robins, Gosling, & Craik, 1999).

This chapter traces the history of references to the exercise–pleasure relationship in psychological works since the mid-1800s. The goal of this review is to answer the intriguing question posed by the anonymous director of the clinical psychology program, namely “why is noone mentioning [exercise]”? The crucial role of shifting paradigmatic perspectives in shaping the attitudes toward exercise within the field of psychology should become apparent. In particular, readers should recognize the non-cumulative, even regressive and cyclical, nature of the knowledge development process, a phenomenon that can be attributed directly to the changing paradigms. Finally, a synopsis of what is presently known about the exercise–pleasure relationship is provided.

Alexander Bain (1818–1903)

In the second half of the nineteenth and the early part of the twentieth century, the nascent field of psychology fully embraced the idea of a close relationship between exercise and pleasure. Scottish philosopher Alexander Bain (1855), in his opus entitled “Senses and the Intellect,” published a remarkably detailed and insightful analysis of the “feelings of muscular exercise.” For Bain, a logician considered one of the forefathers of the scientific psychology of the twentieth century, this interest in exercise was not merely a fortuitous occurrence. He believed that demonstrating a close link between a physical act, such as bodily movement, and a sensory perception or an emotional response would safeguard psychology against critics eager to accuse it of dealing solely with immaterial or metaphysical phenomena.

According to Bain (1855), provided that someone is healthy and adequately rested, exercise induces “a feeling of vigor, strength, or intense vitality” (p. 92). Along with the overall state of good health that ensues from exercise, these feelings account “for a considerable portion of the sum of human pleasure” (p. 92). Echoing the hedonistic ideas of the British Utilitarians, such as Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806–1873), Bain believed strongly in the “deep-seated bond which connects feeling with action” (p. 102): “When we descend into the gymnastic arena to convert surplus energy into pleasure, the conscious state [the pleasure] is then the spur and guide of our action. We continue our exercise while the pleasure lasts, and cease when it ceases” (p. 98). In fact, Bain believed that human beings have an inherent propensity for exercise: “without any conscious end, in other words, without our willing it, action commences when the body is refreshed and invigorated” (p. 250). Moreover, if this spontaneous tendency is resisted, as in the case of a child not allowed to play or a person imprisoned in a cell, “intense uneasiness or craving is felt” (p. 251). Thus, Bain wrote of a “necessity of bodily exercise [which is] felt by everyone, and most of all by the young” (p. 78).

At the same time, Bain recognized that the pleasure of exercise is not universal but rather conditional. This feeling is at its highest when there is “concurrence of youth with high muscular energy, or the athletic constitution at its prime” (p. 99). Under these conditions, “the pleasure will be very great indeed, and the volitional promptings to keep it up equally great” (p. 99). On the other hand, “with the generality of men, however, the same strong terms cannot be applied to describe this species of emotion, which in them sinks down to a second or third-rate pleasure” (p. 99). In turn, this may explain “the utter neglect of physical exercise as a habitual element of life” (p. 95).

Furthermore, Bain pointed out that the nature of the feelings may change depending on the intensity of the activity. Under most circumstances, “we may derive the greatest amount of pleasurable sensibility, at the least cost of exertion, through the means of well-concerted slow movements”; this is because “the emotional state is not overwhelmed by the expenditure of active power, and hence the enjoyment is keen” (p. 101). The benefits of slow activity include “soothing down a morbid excitement,” “preparing the way for absolute repose,” and restoring tranquility after a bustling day (p. 102). However, “slow movements are entirely out of keeping with a fresh and active bodily tone”; they may even be “repugnant and intolerable in such a situation” (p. 102).

Fast or high-intensity movements, on the other hand, have the “tendency to excite and inflame the system into a still more intense condition, such as we term elation, animal spirits, with boisterous manifestations” (p. 103). For example, “in a rapid walk, still more in a run, the consciousness is excited, the gesticulations and speech are rapid, the features betray a high tension. The increase of emotional fervor must be attributed to an exalted condition of the nervous system, of the kind produced by intoxicating stimulants in general” (p. 104). A similar example is “the gleesome and joyous excitement of the young in the midst of their active sports” (p. 98); in this case, “the pleasurable stimulus of exertion diffuses itself over the whole system, lighting up the features with gaiety and mirth, and prompting the vocal organs to cries of delight” (p. 98).

Importantly, Bain, showing his sensitivity to “differences of individual character” (p. 95), pointed out that it is “easier in some temperaments than in others, to perform rapid movements with coolness” (p. 104). He noted that “it is one of the peculiarities of what is called the nervous temperament, or a nervous system naturally prone to vigorous exertion [. . .] to expend itself copiously in all its efforts” (p. 328). Although he recognized that physiological differences in the muscles can explain some of this proneness to vigorous exertion, he insisted that “the power of continuing the exercise without fatigue” (p. 328) is ultimately due to the nervous system: “I must account the quality of the muscle of far inferior importance, and indeed quite trifling in comparison with the quality of the nervous framework” (p. 329).

If intense effort is continued for too long, the pleasure “changes into pain” (p. 97), the “pain of fatigue” (p. 108). In contradistinction to “ordinary fatigue” which Bain considered pleasant, this “over-fatigue” produces “acute pains of various degrees of intensity, from the easily endurable up to severe suffering” (p. 91). As the function of pleasure was to encourage and sustain movement, the function of fatigue is to force its termination: “The peculiarity of the state being exhaustion consequent on exercise, it naturally follows that a cessation of activity should be one of the accompanying circumstances of the feeling. As a mere physical fact, fatigue would lead to inaction. Thus there would be a discouragement to new effort” (p. 93).

James Mark Baldwin (1861–1934)

Baldwin was one of the most prominent psychologists in North America around the turn of the twentieth century. He was a key figure in the establishment of the American Psychological Association (and its sixth president), co-founder (with James McKeen Cattell) of the Psychological Review, and the founding editor of the Psychological Bulletin (later passing the editorship to John B. Watson).

In the second volume of his highly acclaimed Handbook of Psychology, subtitled “Feeling and Will,” Baldwin (1891) addressed the relationship between exercise and pleasure, noting that “muscular sensations are pleasurable within the range of easy effort” (p. 120). This is based on the general principle that, when an activity is of moderate intensity and well matched to the properties of the muscles involved, it tends to be pleasant. If the intensity or duration of exercise exceeds the moderate range, then we experience “the pains of fatigue” (p. 121). Agreeing with Bain, Baldwin considered the pleasure associated with exercise among the most enthralling elements in human experience: “these pleasures of activity, such as pleasures of the chase, of sports, of general vigor, are more positive apparently than any other sensuous pleasures” (p. 120). Also in agreement with Bain, Baldwin accepted the notion of an inherent propensity for exercise:

After confining myself to my writing-table all the morning, my attention loses its elasticity and readiness of concentration: but my muscular system begins to feel an overabundance of energy, a pressing readiness for exercise. And when I give up my intellectual task and indulge my craving for exercise, I have a peculiar feeling of throwing off the mental weight, of getting rid of the thraldom of ideas, in the easy enjoyment of muscular activity.

(p. 287)

As was the case with most intellectuals of his time, Baldwin's thinking was greatly affected by the theory of evolution. His Mental Development in the Child and the Race, first published in 1894, reflects influences from Darwin's On the Origin of Species (published in 1859) and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (published in 1872), as well as the elaboration of the implications of evolutionary ideas for psychology in the revised edition of Herbert Spencer's Principles of Psychology (published in 1873). The framework of the theory of evolution enabled Baldwin to explore the broader significance of the effects of exercise on pleasure, in essence providing, for the first time, an answer to the “why” question: why is exercise pleasurable?

According to Baldwin (1894), organisms exhibit an innate “susceptibility to certain organic stimulations, such as food, oxygen, etc.” (p. 191). When the need for these “stimulations” is satisfied, pleasure occurs. Pleasure brings forth a “heightened central vitality” which, in turn, results in a “motor excess discharge,” manifested in “abundant and varied movements” (p. 191). Of those movements, however, there is a tendency to select those “which bring more of these vital stimulations again; and these finally keep up the vitality of the organism” (p. 191). Exercise, according to Baldwin, is pleasant because it is vitally beneficial for the organism: “In as far as the exercise of muscle in high organisms, or the mere fact of contractility itself in the lower, is vitally good, in so far as it also gives pleasure, and this pleasure serves to issue in excess discharge to the same regions again” (p. 191). Along the same line, Baldwin (1891) wrote in Feeling and Will: “Nature's design is that the heart should beat regular and strong. She secures this by my enjoyment of physical exercise” (p. 232). Therefore, exercise is pleasant because it is useful; the function of the pleasure exercise produces is to encourage more exercise.

William James (1842–1910)

In 1890, William James published his Principles of Psychology, which he had begun writing in 1878. The two-volume textbook became one of the most widely read psychological texts of all time. In 1892, James was encouraged by the administration of Harvard to organize seminars for teachers, highlighting the connection between psychology and education. Not surprisingly for someone of James’ charisma and intellectual renown, the lectures were hugely popular. The transcriptions were published as magazine articles and finally in book form in 1899 under the title Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals.

In one lecture to students, entitled “The Gospel o...