Though exercise is relatively easy to do, its influence on our physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being is complex. Even those who are aware of its positive effects are sometimes reluctant to begin. Why do some people maintain a regular exercise regimen while others quit after a few weeks? How does exercise influence mental health? If medical, health, fitness, psychology, and athletic professionals are to help their clients, they must understand the issues that surround the psychology of exercise. Foundations of Exercise Psychology presents a summary of the information to date on the psychology of exercise and offers lucid suggestions for practice and future research. Foundations of Exercise Psychology will help shape the direction of the field of exercise psychology for many years to come, and it will do much to encourage young professionals to enter the field and to pursue further study. Students moving toward the exercise professions will gain a solid background in key issues surrounding exercise and health and make great strides forward in becoming competent and compassionate practitioners.
The contents of the book go well beyond past texts in the field and include some innovative and thought-provoking chapters on little discussed topics in exercise psychology such as the meaning of exercise and the psychological and physical dangers when exercise goes awry. The text spends considerable time exploring the relationship between exercise and personality, self-esteem, self-concept, mood alteration and motivation—concepts and features of being human that are all intimately related. The range of populations examined includes women, children, dependent and habitual exercisers, and participants throughout the life span.
Three founders of the field of exercise psychology, Bonnie Berger, David Pargman, and Robert Weinberg have provided the foundational text in this quickly expanding field of scholarship and practice.
Bonnie Berger is professor and director of the School of Human Movement, Sport and Leisure Studies at Bowling Green State University; and has been a professor and active researcher in exercise and sport psychology for more than 30 years. She has published two books, and more than 75 journal articles and book chapters. She is the founding member of the Exercise and Sport Psychology Division (Division 47) of the American Psychological Association; a charter member, fellow, and certified consultant of the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology; and a charter member of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity, from which she received the Outstanding Dissertation Award in 1971.
David Pargman is professor and coordinator of Sport and Exercise Psychology at Florida State University's Department of Educational Research, where he also holds an appointment as an adjunct professor in the School of Music. Pargman has published five books, more than 70 book chapters, and has been a visiting professor in Thailand, Peru, and Venezuela. He is a past chairman of the Sport Psychology Academy/AAHPERD; a fellow and certified consultant of American Association of Applied Sport Psychology; a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine; and is listed on the Sport Psychology Registry of the United States Olympic Commitee.
Robert Weinberg is a professor in the Department of Physical Education, Health, and Sport Studies at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He was voted was one of the top ten sport psychology specialists in North America by his peers. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate sport and exercise psychology for more than 20 years, he has published six books, over 135 referenced journal articles, and 20 book chapters. Weinberg served as president of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity; the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology, and the Sport Psychology Academy. He is the current editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, The Sport Psychologist, International Journal of Sport Psychology, and Psychology of Sport and Exercise. He is a member of the United States Olympic Committee Sport Psychology Registry, and a fellow in the prestigious American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education.
