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Adaptation, Psychological↗
Biomedical subjects
I M Cockerill
Publications and source records attributed to I M Cockerill.
Diagnostic criteria for exercise dependence in women.
OBJECTIVE: To formulate diagnostic criteria for exercise dependence. METHOD: Fifty six adult female exercisers were interviewed about their exercise behaviour and attitudes. The eating disorders examination, a semistructured clinical interview, was used to diagnose eating disorders. Interviews were taped, transcribed verbatim, and analysed from a social constructionist perspective using QSR NUD*IST. Participants also completed the exercise dependence questionnaire. RESULTS: Two diagnostic criteria emerged from analysis of the interview data: impaired functioning and withdrawal. Impaired functioning was manifest in four areas: psychological, social and occupational, physical, and behavioural. Impairment in at least two areas was considered necessary for diagnosis. Withdrawal was evident as either an adverse reaction to the interruption of exercise or unsuccessful attempts at exercise control. Either sufficed for diagnosis. The absence or presence of an eating disorder was used to distinguish between primary and secondary exercise dependence. Ten women met these criteria for exercise dependence. All 10 also exhibited eating disorders and, accordingly, should be regarded as showing secondary, rather than primary, exercise dependence. Exercise dependent women had significantly higher scores on the exercise dependence questionnaire than non-dependent women. CONCLUSION: These new diagnostic criteria should now be adopted and explored further, particularly among men and individuals with possible primary exercise dependence.
Adult↗
The pathological status of exercise dependence.
OBJECTIVES: This study was concerned with the concept of exercise dependence. Levels of psychological morbidity, personality profiles, and exercise beliefs were compared among subjects screened for exercise dependence and eating disorders. METHOD: Adult female exercisers were allocated on the basis of questionnaire screening to one of the following groups: primary exercise dependence (n = 43); secondary exercise dependence, where there was the coincidence of exercise dependence and an eating disorder (n = 27); eating disorder (n =14); control, where there was no evidence of either exercise dependence or eating disorder (n = 110). Questionnaire assessment was undertaken of psychological morbidity, self esteem, weight and body shape dissatisfaction, personality, and exercise beliefs. RESULTS: Aside from a higher incidence of reported menstrual abnormalities, the primary exercise dependence group was largely indistinguishable from the controls. In stark contrast, the secondary exercise dependence group reported higher levels of psychological morbidity, neuroticism, dispositional addictiveness, and impulsiveness, lower self esteem, greater concern with body shape and weight, as well as with the social, psychological, and aesthetic costs of not exercising than the controls, but differed little from the eating disorder group. CONCLUSIONS: In the absence of an eating disorder, women identified as being exercise dependent do not exhibit the sorts of personality characteristics and levels of psychological distress that warrant the construction of primary exercise dependence as a widespread pathology.
Adult↗
"It's exercise or nothing": a qualitative analysis of exercise dependence.
OBJECTIVES: To explore, using qualitative methods, the concept of exercise dependence. Semistructured interviews were undertaken with subjects screened for exercise dependence and eating disorders. METHODS: Female exercisers, four in each case, were allocated a priori to four groups: primary exercise dependent; secondary exercise dependent, where there was a coincidence of exercise dependence and an eating disorder; eating disordered; control, where there was no evidence of either exercise dependence or eating disorder. They were asked about their exercise and eating attitudes and behaviour, as well as about any history of psychological distress. Their narratives were taped, transcribed, and analysed from a social constructionist perspective using QSR NUD*IST. RESULTS: Participants classified as primary exercise dependent either showed no evidence of exercise dependent attitudes and behaviour or, if they exhibited features of exercise dependence, displayed symptoms of an eating disorder. Only the latter reported a history of psychological distress, similar to that exhibited by women classified as secondary exercise dependent or eating disordered. For secondary exercise dependent and eating disordered women, as well as for controls, the narratives largely confirmed the a priori classification. CONCLUSIONS: Where exercise dependence was manifest, it was always in the context of an eating disorder, and it was this comorbidity, in addition to eating disorders per se, that was associated with psychological distress. As such, these qualitative data support the concept of secondary, but not primary, exercise dependence.
Adult↗
Menstrual-cycle effects on mood and perceptual-motor performance.
Fifty-four participants took part in a study to evaluate the effects of the menstrual cycle on mood and the performance of a perceptual-motor task. The task involved tracking a randomly-moving circle on a computer screen with a joystick-controlled dot. Women were tested on three occasions, during the premenstrual, menstrual and ovulatory phases. Each testing session involved completing the Menstrual Distress Questionnaire, the monopolar Profile of Mood States questionnaire and performing five, timed trials on the task. A control group of male participants completed the Profile of Mood States questionnaire on three separate occasions over 28 days according to a pseudo-menstrual cycle experimental protocol. Results revealed that females experienced low energy and impaired cognitive function, both premenstrually and during menstruation. Task performance did not vary with menstrual-cycle phase, suggesting that they either tried to compensate for a lack of well being, or that negative mood was of insufficient magnitude to manifest a performance change. The findings suggest that when the purpose of an assessment is disguised, typically-reported menstrual-cycle and mood-related effects on performance are not observed reliably.
Adult↗
Mood, mileage and the menstrual cycle.
Forty women took part in a study to determine the effects of high-intensity training and the menstrual cycle on mood states. Half of the sample were competitive distance runners following a training load of between 50 km and 130 km running per week. Seven athletes were amenorrhoeic and 13 either eumenorrhoeic or oligomenorrhoeic. The remaining 20 subjects were inactive women who menstruated regularly. The mean age of all 40 subjects was 29 years. Each subject completed two identical Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaires. The 33 menstruating subjects completed both a premenstrual and a midcycle form and the amenorrhoeic athletes completed the questionnaires at a 3-week interval, which acted as a control for the potential effects of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) among the menstruating females. Results showed highly significant differences in mood profiles among amenorrhoeic athletes, non-amenorrhoeic athletes and inactive women. The greatest difference was between premenstrual and midcycle measures for the inactive group. PMS appears to cause marked negative mood swings among menstruating women which the POMS inventory is sensitive in detecting. While the lower-intensity-training runners appeared to benefit psychologically from a training distance of approximately 50 km week-1, high-intensity training had an adverse effect on mood.
Adult↗
Modelling mood states in athletic performance.
Because moods are transitory emotional states that can be influenced by a range of personality and environmental factors, the notion that elite athletes will always tend to produce a so-called iceberg profile of mood, and that less successful performers will not, is open to question. Evidence for such a claim is based principally upon descriptive studies. The present experiment used the POMS inventory as a predictor of cross-country running performance among a group of experienced male athletes. Race times from two competitive events were plotted against each of six mood factors. Using data from race 1, a multiple-regression model--incorporating the interdependence of tension, anger and depression--was able to predict rank order of finishing positions for race 2 with acceptable accuracy (rs = 0.74, P less than 0.01). The present approach differs from the traditional model of mood research in sport in that it provides a prescriptive, rather than a descriptive, focus. Although the model that has been developed appears promising, it is likely that in sports where demands on athletes are very different from those made upon cross-country runners, an alternative model may be required.
Affect↗