Does Social Physique Anxiety Affect Women’s Motivation to Exercise?

It can be argued that physique related perceptions both encourage and discourage physical exercise. The role of social physique anxiety as related to exercise motivation was examined in a sample of 94 female undergraduate students. Participants assessed their social physique anxiety, and were then presented with a video of an aerobics class with its members dressed in attire that either emphasized or deemphasized the physique. Upon conclusion of the video, participants rated their motivation to exercise. Results indicated that low social physique anxiety participants reported higher levels of health-related exercise motivation, while high social physique anxiety participants reported higher levels of appearance-related exercise motivation. Interestingly, participants with high social physique anxiety who viewed the physique-emphasized video had the highest scores in appearance-related exercise motivation. Further research may focus on the factors, such as body composition or exercise behavior, that mediate the relationship between these variables. What motivates a person to exercise? It can be argued that physique related perceptions both encourage and discourage physical exercise or activity. Dissatisfaction or self-consciousness about one’s physique can be a strong motivator of exercise behavior (Leary, 1992). However, it can also be said that dissatisfaction with one’s physique may cause a person to shy away from participation in fitness programs where they perceive others to be evaluating their bodies. The proposed study will examine the role of social physique anxiety as related to exercise motivation and attitude toward exercise setting. Many studies have examined the attention that an individual places on one’s own body, but seemingly little consideration has been given to self-perceptions of how others evaluate our bodies. The anxiety associated with perceived social evaluation of one’s body or physical appearance has been labeled social physique anxiety. Social physique anxiety (SPA) has been studied within the realm of exercise psychology and has been related to self-presentation (Crawford & Eklund, 1994), exercise motivation (Smith, Handley, & Eldredge, 1998), and eating attitudes (Haase & Prapavessis, 1998; Frederick & Morrison, 1998). Recently, efforts to examine how people present themselves in social settings have been studied in the area of exercise psychology. Since exercise often occurs in a social context, it seems logical that self-presentational concerns should be considered. Self-presentation is the attempt by an individual to present a desired image to themselves and others by actively selecting and/or omitting aspects of themselves in effort to create a desired impression (Leary, 1992). Because physique is an important part of the self-concept, approval is desired. It has been suggested that many of the reasons commonly given for participating in exercise reflect self-presentational motives (Crawford & Eklund, 1994; Leary, 1992; Smith, Handley,