Emotion and exercise

This article aims to introduce exercise psychologists to a psychobiological approach to the study of human emotion and to stimulate research concernin g the effects of exercise on the emotions. Distinctions are made between th e measurement of emotional responses and the measurement of emotion-related constructs, such as mood A contemporary view of the motivational basis of emotion is described which has characterized all emotions as variations in orthogonal dimensions of affective valence and arousal. Techniques employed to measure emotional responses, such as electroencephalographic and electr omyographic indices of emotion, as well as measures of facial expression, a re briefly discussed. Early research is then described that has examined pr ovoked aggressive responses after brief moderately intense cycling exercise , as well as move recent studies that have employed psychophysiological ind ices of emotion-related constructs before and after sustained bouts of exer cise. Researchers are urged to make clear distinctions regarding the percep tion of emotional stimuli, the experience of emotion, the expression of emo tion, and most importantly, to distinguish these features of emotion from o ther emotion-related constructs such as mood.