Abstract

Existing research on exercise habits typically focuses on the physical health benefits. However, this research tends to neglect the potential psychological benefits of exercise. The present research adopts a different perspective by investigating the relationship between exercise and different symptom types of depression. By establishing the amount of physical activity participants consider to constitute exercising on a regular basis, participants were separated into self-reported high and low-exercise groups and completed the Zung-Self Rating Depression Scale. By employing a factor analysis of the Zung SDS, the results were analyzed assessing each symptom type of depression: Cognitive, affective, and somatic. Results suggest that not all dimensions of depression are equally related to exercise. The present thesis establishes that only the cognitive symptoms of depression are significantly related to level of physical activity.

Date of publication

Fall 12-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Language

english

Persistent identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10950/47

Included in

Psychology Commons

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