Exercise Psychology

KINE 6323 (UTPB)

KINO 6323 (TeleCampus)

Course Syllabus

Welcome to the Exercise Psychology course:

I’d like to start off by letting you know what I hope our time together will be like.  Although I don’t know you personally and we can’t see each other, I hope that we will come to know each other very well.  You will find out about me through what I say, and I will get to know you through your writings and responses.

I know that you bring a great deal of experience to our mutual inquiry.  That experience will be a valuable asset to you as you progress through the course.  The experience of others in the class, your classmates, will also be valuable to you.  I hope that you will find the course one that is challenging and relevant and that it will provide you with insights into the world of applied sport psychology.    

General Nature of the Course:

Exercise psychology is the study of psychological processes and behaviors related to exercise participation.  The major purpose of this course is to provide fitness and exercise professionals with essential theoretical and research information related to exercise adherence.  Theory and research provide practical suggestions for the design of wellness and health promotion programs in all settings – educational, corporate, and commercial.

One of the responsibilities of a professional is to help individuals adopt and adhere to exercise programs.  Unless the practitioner can attract clients to exercise programs, help them maintain their participation over time and meet their individual exercise needs, and assure them of an enjoyable, beneficial experience, the practitioner will not be successful.  The statistics are actually quite discouraging.

In a typical, supervised exercise setting, about 50% of the clients will drop out of the program within the first six months.  Currently, approximately 40% of American are sedentary, 40% - 50% are active at levels too low and infrequent to improve or maintain physical fitness, while at most 20% exercise at the appropriate frequency, intensity, and duration to meet current ACSM guidelines for fitness or reduced risk for several chronic diseases.  Remember that these are averages.  Individual exercise programs differ greatly in their ability to attract and maintain client participation.  What makes some programs successful?  Which program intervention techniques have a positive impact on client exercise behavior?  Why do some people exercise and others not? What are the determinants of exercise adherence?  Much of this course is designed to address these questions.

The second purpose of this course is to explore the relationship between exercise and mental health. What is the effect of exercise on psychological and emotional well-being?  What exercise guidelines should a professional follow when prescribing exercise for individuals who are depressed, anxious, etc.?  While considerable evidence exists supporting the view that habitual physical activity is associated with improved physical health and increased longevity, there is less evidence to advocate the idea that physical activity can serve to develop and maintain mental health.  During this part of the course, we will examine existing research dealing with the influence of physical activity on mental health, as well as the potential mechanisms underlying beneficial psychological effects.

The psychology of exercise is a relatively new and very exciting field of study.  I hope you will enjoy this course and benefit both professionally and personally from the experience.

Brief Course Outline:

Here is a list of the modules you will complete in this course.

Module 1           Introduction to Exercise Psychology

Module 2           Physical Activity Epidemiology

Module 3           Theories and Models of Exercise Behavior

Module 4           Physical Activity Interventions

Module 5           Depression, Anxiety, Stress and Exercise

Module 6           Emotional Well-Being and Health-Related Quality of Life

Module 7           Self-Concept, Self-Esteem, Body-Image and Exercise

Module 8           Social Influences on Exercise

Course Prerequisites:

Besides graduate standing, there are no prerequisites for this course.

Course Objectives:

·         Students will demonstrate an understanding of psychological theories of exercise and rehabilitation adoption and adherence.

·         Students will describe appropriate applications of psychological theories to individual and group-based exercise and rehabilitation adoption and adherence. 

·         Students will demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between physical activity and various mental health states such as depression, anxiety, emotional well-being, self-esteem/self-concept, and health-related quality of life.

·         Students will critically analyze published research studies related to particular topics in exercise psychology.

·         Students will complete literature reviews of exercise psychology and/or rehabilitation topics.

·         Students will monitor their own exercise habits by keeping a log of their actual physical activity and their thoughts related to that activity.

·         Students will work with individuals of their choosing using exercise psychology concepts to change their exercise or rehabilitation behavior.

·         Student will apply exercise psychology concepts to plan an exercise program or a rehabilitation program.

Course Format:
 

The Modules

The course is divided into eight Modules.  Since the Modules vary in length, it is important to refer to the course calendar for beginning and ending dates. 

Each Module involves reading though the information on the course website.  Besides the exercise psychology content on the website, there are textbook, journal, and website readings for most modules.  

Course activities within the Modules include participating in discussions, as well as independent work. In most cases, the independent work is shared with other classmates so that they may provide feedback and learn from your work, too.  Interaction among students is a very important component of this online course.   

 
Essay Examinations
 

There are four essay examinations spread out throughout the semester. There is no comprehensive final examination. Please refer to the course calendar for the dates of these exams. Examinations are sent via email. Usually you will have several days to complete them.

Exercise Log

How about your own exercise habits?  Do you exercise?  If so, do you adhere to a structured program or do you simply exercise when you feel like it or have the time?  How would you describe the frequency, intensity, duration, and mode of exercise in which you engage?  Are there times when you stick to your plan, when you do what you intended to do, and other times when you miss an entire week (or semester)? 

Something that interests me is what people say to themselves when they are talking themselves into (or out of) exercising.  As part of this course, I require that you to keep a log of the “conversations” that you have with yourself about exercising.  Toward the end of the semester, I will ask you to look over your log.  Since I will ask to see the actual log or journal, give some thought about how you want to keep it. Then, in a short paper, you will summarize any insights that you gain about your own exercise behavior.  Again, I am specifically interested in what you say to yourself when your contemplate exercising - particularly planned exercise.

Working with a Client

Throughout the course, you will have a number of assignments where you will be asked to work with another individual. For example, you might be asked to give the person a survey, to help the person to establish physical activity goals, or to help them design a physical activity program. In these activities, you are the professional and the other person is your client. In order to do these activities, you will need to find someone who is willing to work with you throughout the course. Anyone is fine. However, it would be desirable if the person was easily accessible and who didn’t already engage in a well developed and well established exercise program. I has been my experience that members of your immediate family may not be your best choice, J but you be the judge.

The Self-Evaluation

The “final examination” is actually a Self-Evaluation of Learning.  During the last week of the course, you will be asked to self-evaluate your learning. The purpose of the activity is to integrate and assess your learning by identifying the outcomes most important to your professional development.  Here is a preview to help you to be prepared or to record your thoughts from week-to-week in preparation for this activity.  Your response should cover the following:

1.       Identify outcomes: What were five important things you learned in this course and why?
Select five concepts, principles, ideas, or experiences that were relevant to you, and discuss why they were important in terms of any one of the following:

o        Changes in knowledge

o        Changes in attitudes, beliefs, or appreciations

o        Changes in skills or applications in your own work

2.       Assess goals:  Did you achieve your goals for the course; why or why not?
Revisit the goals you posted at the start of the course. Think about the overall outcomes of what you learned.  Did the outcomes meet your goals; why or why not?  Did you gain important outcomes that were not among your initial goals?
 

3.       Identify overall value:  What is the overall value for your professional or personal development? 
Briefly summarize, in one paragraph, the value of this course. The summary should draw a conclusion or state a general theme about the overall value for your development professionally or personally.
 

Completion Requirements:

So how will you know when you’ve finished the course (besides the fact that it’s the last day of the semester)?

There are six categories of course requirements.  The maximum number of points you can earn in this course is 1200.  This is how those points are distributed:
 

1. Examinations:
   Four essay examinations. Each is valued at 100 points.
   Total possible points equal 400 points.
    
2. Discussion Activities:
   Each module includes at least one discussion activity. An overall discussion grade is given for each module – 20 points maximum.
   Total possible points equal 160 points.
    
3. Exercise Log:
   This activity continues throughout the course.
   Total possible points equal 50 points.
    
4. Working with a Client:
   In another setting, these activities would be homework assignments.  Most modules require written work as a result of your work with your client. Sometimes these activities are part of the discussion activities.
   Total possible points equal 150 points.
    
5. Target Population Project:
   Although you will work on the project all semester long, you will receive two grades: one for the review of literature and one for the program you design. Each paper is worth 200 points.
   Total possible points for the entire target population project equal 400 points.
    
6. Self-Evaluation of Learning:
   This is your “final exam.”
   Total possible points equal 40 points.

The maximum number of points is 1200. Your grade for the course is based on the number of points you accumulate:  A (1080-1200 points), B (960-1079 points), and C (840-959 points).

Expectations:

The expectations in courses differ considerably from course to course, professor to professor. I have always found it helpful to let my students know what my expectations are of them as graduate students. Below I have attempted to share with you what you can expect of me and, conversely, what I expect of you.

Neither list is exhaustive, but I think they will get us off in the right direction at the beginning of this semester together. Please feel free to share with me any questions or concerns you have about either list.

What you can expect of me:

• I will respond to email within 24 hours, usually much quicker.
• I will interact online in Discussion Board daily.
• I will return Learning Experiences and other written assignments with feedback within a week.
• I will return examinations graded within two weeks.
• I will understand periodically missed deadlines, but will express concern if the behavior moves from acute to chronic and if it impedes the progress of other students in the course.
• I will treat you with respect.

What I will expect of you:

• I expect that you have found or will find 12-15 hours per week to devote to this course.
• I expect that you will adhere to the pacing of the various activities – the timeline for each module.
• Once in a while you may get behind on assignments. If and when that happens, I expect that you will first tend to those activities that others are depending on you to complete and then catch up on those assignments that you are doing solo.
• I expect that each partner or small group activity will be positively influenced by the contribution that you make to the completed project. That is,
• I expect that you will not submit anything with your name on it for which your contribution was trivial and/or not something that advanced the project.
• Because I treat you with respect, you will feel free to seek clarification, ask questions and express concerns throughout the course.

If you think of anything that I should add to my list or to your list, please feel free to let me know. The lists are a work in progress.

Faculty Information:

Contacting Dr. Hale

Dr. Hale’s e-mail address is Hale_L@utpb.edu.

In addition to e-mail, you can phone me at my office 432-552-2334.  That’s a direct line to my office, and I do have voice mail. 

If you were going to mail something to me, the postal address would be:

 

            Dr. Lois Hale

            College of Arts and Sciences

            U.T. Permian Basin

            4901 East University Blvd.

            Odessa, TX 79762

Phone: 432-552-2334

Fax: 432-552-3325

Textbooks and Other Course Materials:          

The textbooks and other course materials are available from the bookstore at The University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

If it is not possible for you to stop by the bookstore, you may call 432-552-0220. You may order by phone with a credit card, and they will send your books right away. You may also order by phone and then send a check, but then they will wait from your check to arrive (and clear) before mailing the books.

The UT Permian Basin Bookstore also has an Internet presence (yeah!). You can order your textbooks online. Simply follow the instructions when you arrive at the website: http://shop.efollett.com/htmlroot/storehome/universityoftexasofthepermianbasin601.html

Required Textbooks

APA Reference Manual

The faculty members involved in the online Kinesiology Master’s program have agreed to use the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) as the official style manual.  Papers that you write for this course as well as others will need to follow APA style.  If you haven’t already, you will need to purchase the APA publication manual for this course.

Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5^th ed.).  (2001). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

The manual is available through the UTPB Bookstore.  You may purchase it at the same time you purchase your textbook.

Microsoft Deal

Through an agreement between the University of Texas System and Microsoft, you can obtain selected Microsoft software at very low cost. 

UTTC Digital Library

Communicating with Each Other:

The primary communication channels are basic e-mail and the course conferencing tool.  Because we will rely so much on electronic exchange of information, we must all be very careful to keep our own systems virus-free so as not to infect others.  Please be sure the machine you use has a virus checker with an up-to-date database of known viruses. There is some information about virus checkers provided by REACH, UTPB’s distance education department.  Click here to learn about virus checkers.
 

You may, of course, use phone and fax, but e-mail and the threaded discussions in our conference room are more efficient.  I promise to look at the conference posts at least once a day and to respond to e-mail within 24 hours.  If I know I will be unable to meet these promises (as when I am traveling), I will post a note to that effect to the announcements section of the discussion room or send out a mass e-mail.

Conferencing or Discussions

Okay, so what is this conferencing thing? You may have used threaded discussions in other courses.  If so, I hope you will be willing to tutor others.  Blackboard has both a threaded discussion board and chat or collaboration rooms.  Threaded discussion is, actually, an e-mail system with an organizer to help keep conversations separate.  Here’s the idea.  You post a question or comment on a new topic to the board.  It then starts a thread on the topic and whenever someone replies to your question or comment, that reply is placed under your original question or comment. That way, if you want to see what people have been saying on the topic, you just read the postings in that thread.  The system also shows you which messages are new (by listing them when you log into Blackboad).   

Chatting or Collaboration

In addition to these discussions, the chat facility is available for you to use among yourselves.  Just arrange a time to “meet” and chat away.  In Blackboard, the chat function is called collaboration. I do not recommend chat for either long sessions on a wide variety of topics (too hard to keep track) or for groups larger than about four or five (too many people trying to “speak” at once). Here is a kicker you must be aware of.  If you are using a public school computer to access this course, you may be blocked from your course because it has a chat facility.  Many schools and districts use filtering software to prevent access to material on the Web deemed by someone to be inappropriate.  In some cases, this software will block access to any chat facility.

If blocking software is a problem for you, you might ask your tech person to either:

·         Let you use a computer with dial-up capability so you do not have to depend on the local area network for connecting to the Internet. You would then need a dial-up Internet access point outside your local network. Then any LAN-based blocking software will not affect you, or

·         Take the blocking software off of the computer you are using. This is a less likely situation, since the software is probably not on the individual machines, anyway. But if it is, removing it should solve the problem.

If neither of these approaches will work, you will need to find another machine from which to access the course, discussion board, and chat.

Rules of the Road:

Scholastic Dishonesty

Examples of scholastic dishonesty include: (1) copying the answers to another student's examination and submitting all or part of it as if it were your own (cheating); (2) obtaining any other person's work and submitting all or part of it as if it were your own (plagiarism); (3) collaborating with another person in preparing a test or an assignment (cheating).

Scholastic dishonesty will result in a grade penalty and may result in a grade of "F" in the course. The instructor files scholastic dishonesty charges with the Vice President of Student Services.  For questions concerning the Academic Dishonesty policy at UTPB, please see the Student Guide at http://www.utpb.edu/utpb_student/Students/StudentGuide/sg3_index_frame.htm

That's it for now. If you have any questions about the course, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Hale directly. Remember, UT Permian Basin courses start Monday, August 27, 2007. If you register for this course, you will have access to the actual course at the UTTC TeleCampus website (Blackboard) the morning of the 27th.