Leveraging socioemotional goals to increase physical activity in older adults
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Physical inactivity is prevalent among Americans, particularly in older citizens, so much so that it poses a major threat to public health. My research examined two potential reasons for low levels of activity in older adults grounded in motivation: first, older adults may be inactive because they do not accrue benefits in valued domains, and second, interventions may be ineffective because they do not align with older adults' goals. Reasoning from socioemotional selectivity theory, I predicted that older adults would be motivated to engage in physical activity to the extent that it was perceived and experienced as an emotionally meaningful or satisfying activity. I posited that if older adults do not experience meaningful benefits from physical activity in the short-term, they are unlikely to maintain physical activity. To examine this possibility, I designed Studies 1 and 2 to test how physical activity influences emotional experience and cognitive performance in younger and older adults, first in a controlled, experimental setting (Study 1), then in daily life (Study 2). Findings from both studies suggest that older and younger adults experience comparably potent benefits from physical activity. I reasoned from these findings that experiencing benefits from physical activity could support maintenance of physical activity in older adults, and, therefore, initiation of physical activity, rather than maintenance, may be a key barrier to increasing physical activity in older adults. Because interventions aimed at initiating physical activity have met with limited success, particularly in older adults, the second aim of this research was to test whether interventions could be tailored to motivate younger and older adults to be more active. In Studies 3 and 4, I approached this question using values affirmation (Study 3) and an incentives framework (Study 4), in order to test the effects of reducing threat surrounding physical activity participation through socioemotional goals, and the efficacy of incentivizing physical activity through socioemotional goals. Findings from Study 3 indicated that older and younger adults responded positively and comparably to an intervention that emphasized personal values to promote physical activity. Similarly, findings from Study 4 indicated that older adults were comparably responsive to goal-based incentives as younger adults, although, once initiated, older adults better maintained the increase in physical activity relative to younger adults. Together, findings from these four studies suggest that older adults may benefit from goals-based interventions aimed at promoting and maintaining physical activity.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2015 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Hogan, Candice L |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Psychology. |
| Primary advisor | Carstensen, Laura L |
| Thesis advisor | Carstensen, Laura L |
| Thesis advisor | Gotlib, Ian H |
| Thesis advisor | Tsai, Jeanne Ling |
| Advisor | Gotlib, Ian H |
| Advisor | Tsai, Jeanne Ling |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Candice L. Hogan. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Psychology. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2015. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2015 by Candice Lowdermilk Hogan
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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