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The importance of flourishing in everyday life
The world flourish originally comes from the Latin word flor (flower) and is synonymous to growth and development (Hefferon, 2013). The concept of flourishing defines « a state of positive mental health; to thrive, to prosper, and to fare well in endeavours free of mental illness, filed with emotional vitality and function positively in private and social realms » (Michalec, Keyes, & Nalkur, 2009). The concept of flourishing has been developed in the field of positive psychology that is concerned with the « scientific study of virtue, meaning, resilience and wellbeing, as well as the evidence based applications to improve the life of individuals and society in the totally of life » (Wong, 2011, p. 72). From this perspective, the absence of mental illness does not imply the presence of mental health (Hefferon, 2013) and the key for moving more into the « flourishing » state could be achieved by reducing the mean number of stress-related symptoms within the normal population (Huppert, 2005) by looking at our strengths rather than our weaknesses (Hefferon, 2013). More specifically, conducting activities that enhance our strengths would allow us to experience positive emotions, a core feature of the flourishing state (Huppert, 2005; 2009); enabling us to widen our thought process by creating a «protective reservoir » upon which we can draw from during unpleasant or distressing times (Hefferon & Boniwell, 2011); leading to explain why flourishing activities are positively correlated with academic achievement, mastery, goal setting, higher levels of control and continued perseverance (Hefferon, 2013) as well as fewer days off work (Keyes, 2002). Conversely, conducting activities with the aim to decrease or suppress our weaknesses would lead to the experience of negative emotions the creation of a negative reservoir biaising the most of our thoughts and leading possibly to psychological diseases, anxiety or depression (Hefferon, 2013). Interestingly, when assessing the environmental conditions enabling individuals to thrive and prosper, the regular practice of a physical exercise is one of them (Mutrie & Faulkner, 2004).
Flourishing through physical exercise
In positive psychology, the positive effects of exercising on both mental and physical health is based on the fact that “the body is more than simply another machine, indistinguishable from the artificial objects of the world” (Gardner, 1993, 235-6). “It is also the vessel of the individual’s sense of self, his most personal feelings and aspiration, as well as that entity to which others respond in a special way because of their uniquely human qualities” (Gardner, 1993, 235-6). Thus, sometimes, the best way to fight, change, or influence negative thoughts is not through the same mechanisms, but by taking a more somatic approach (Hefferon, 2013). The key role of the body in the improvement of well-being would also work by enhancing clinical populations’ body awareness by bringing them to « make friends » with their somatic sensations and reconnecting patients to their body (Bradt, Goodill, & Dileo, 2011; Strassel, Cherkin, Steuten, Sherman, & Vrijhoef, 2011) instead of ignoring it (Hefferon, 2013). As such, in psychotherapy, physical exercise can be used for several issues to improve coping strategies. In particular, to create a sense of self and positive body image; to increase locus of control and to improve self-efficacy (Hefferon, 2013).
Nonetheless, even if exercising regularly enables individuals and communities to prosper thanks to both physical and psychological benefits (Mutrie & Faulkner, 2004), 30 to 60% of the world population do not practice enough physical activity (Hallal et al., 2012). In Europe, 60 % of adults admit not to engage in any physical exercise at all (Eurobarometer, 2010). In the United States, less than 50% of adults is considered physically active (Haskell et al., 2007) and in Canada only 15% of adults follow national guidelines (Colley et al., 2011). Contrary to an active lifestyle, being physically inactive increases the occurrence of metabolic syndromes such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, insulin resistance and cancers (Oja & Borms, 2004) independently of the traditional risk factors such as smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol, waist circumference, dietary balance (Slattery & Jacobs, 1988) or sedentary behaviours (Reimers et al., 2012). Hence, because of the now demonstrated positive effects of regular exercising and the negative effects of physical inactivity, the physical inactivity is considered as « the biggest public health issue of the 21st century » (Blair, 2009) and a predominant concern in public health (Hall & Fong, 2015). The question now is: How to get individuals to engage voluntarily in regular exercise?
Placing the individuals’ characteristics and the pleasantness of a physical exercise at the core of the physical exercise framework
Until now, significant research has been conducted to understand both the individual and the environmental factors responsible for the initiation and the maintenance of exercising health behaviours (Schutzer & Graves, 2004; Trost, Owen, Bauman, Sallis, & Brown, 2002; Wang & Zhang, 2016). Thus, the long-lasting adherence to physical exercise can be explained, to some extent, by the theory of planned behaviour, the social-cognitive theory or the trans-theoretical model (Shumaker, Ockene, & Riekert, 2008). Nonetheless, promoting exercising behaviour is more difficult than promoting other health behaviours such as brushing teeth, eating 5 fruits and vegetables per day, or having safe sex practices (Dishman & Buckworth, 1996). In fact, in comparison to deciding to eat more fruits and vegetables or to brush teeth, engaging in a regular exercise requires to daily negotiating with everyday outcomes and to take time for exercising whatever the environmental changes and constraints (Mullen & Hall, 2015). Thus, even if the experimental interventions are successful, the ecological interventions conducted do not always have the desired effect on individuals’ adherence. More specifically, despite increasing intention in participants to become physically more active (Milne, Orbell, & Sheeran, 2002), the non-enough sufficient ecological interventions lead 40 to 65 % of individuals initiating exercise programs are predicted to dropout within 3 to 6 months (Annesi, 2003).
Rationally informing individuals about the benefits of regular practice seems to allow them to be motivated extrinsically to enrol in a sports club or gym (Herring, Sailors, & Bray, 2014). On the other hand, studies suggest that the intrinsic motivation (Teixeira, Carraça, Markland, Silva, & Ryan, 2012) and the pleasure experienced during the session (Jekauc, 2015; Zenko, Ekkekakis, & Ariely, 2016) are particularly important for physical exercise adherence. Such empiricalobservations were confirmed by the work conducted by Mohiyeddini, Pauli and Bauer (2009). More specifically, authors reported that considering the emotional appraisal of a physical exercise in addition to individuals’ intention in a predictive model increases the quality of the prediction of a future practice; suggesting that promoting efficiently the regular physical exercise means considering humans’ affective responses in addition to humans’ rational mind (Ekkekakis, Parfitt, & Petruzzello, 2011). Nevertheless, we should note that even though the adage « exercise makes people feel better » (Fox, 1999) is spread and « universally accepted » (Morgan, 1981, p.306 – as cited in Ekkekakis, 2013), all individuals are not equal for experiencing positively a given exercise session. More specifically, in a given context, while some experience positively the session, others do not (Backhouse, Ekkekakis, Bidle, Foskett, & Williams, 2007; Van Landuyt et al., 2000). Since the affective states experienced during physical exercise may contribute to the formation of a positive or negative memory trace for exercising, the more the experience is positive, the more the memory trace is positive and the more individuals want to engage (Ekkekakis et al., 2011). Otherwise, the more the experience is negative, the more the memory trace is negative and the more individuals want to drop out. Hence, because affective states would depend on an individuals’ physical competences and psychological characteristics, understanding the psychological mechanisms underlying the affective responses to physically exercise can be a way forward more efficient promotions of exercising health behaviours (Ekkekakis, Thome, Petruzzello, & Hall, 2008; Wienke & Jekauc, 2016).
Table of contents :
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
PART 1: THEORETICAL INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: REGULARLY EXERCISE, A WAY TO FLOURISH
CHAPTER 2: THE COGNITIVE WINDOW INTO PHYSICAL EXERCISE
CHAPTER 3: THE ESSENTIAL ROLE OF AFFECTIVE STATES AND TOLERANCE TO EFFORT TO REVEAL
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
PART 2: EMPIRICAL STUDIES
STUDY I:THE PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE PREFERENCE FOR AND TOLERANCE OF EXERCISE
INTENSITY QUESTIONNAIRE (PRETIE-Q) IN FRENCH-SPEAKING INDIVIDUALS WHAT’S NEXT?
STUDY II: THE COGNITIVE LOAD OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE: EFFECTS OF TASK COMPLEXITY AND TOLERANCE TO EFFORT.
WHAT’S NEXT?
STUDY III: A NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF TOLERANCE TO EFFORT AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE SELF-REGULATION MODEL OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE PHYSICAL EXERCISE?
EXPERIMENT 2: WHAT IS TOLERANCE OF EXERCISE INTENSITY?
WHAT’S NEXT?
STUDY IV: TOLERANCE TO EXERCISE INTENSITY MODULATES PLEASURE WHEN EXERCISING IN MUSIC: THE UPSIDES OF ACOUSTIC ENERGY FOR HIGH TOLERANT INDIVIDUALS.
PART 3: GENERAL DISCUSSION
CURRICULUM VITAE
REFERENCES
