Exercise and mood: A selective review and synthesis of research employing the profile of mood states

Abstract

This paper highlights the use of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) in physical activity research by reviewing and synthesizing literature generated in exercise settings. The results of many studies using the POMS have supported the relationships between exercise and acute mood changes in normal populations and between exercise and chronic mood changes in clinical populations. Based on the multitude of studies utilizing the POMS, Berger and colleagues developed a preliminary taxonomy containing enjoyment, mode, and practice guidelines to help maximize the mood benefits associated with exercise. The POMS also has been employed to identify underlying mechanisms that may promote mood alteration. Unfortunately, there is no conclusive evidence that identifies a single mechanism or group of mechanisms as consistently influencing the exercise-mood relationship. Although knowledge of the relationship between exercise and mood alteration is substantial, much remains to be studied. Promising avenues for future investigation of exercise include mood changes in specific populations, environmental influences on mood alteration, and personal characteristics impacting mood alteration.     

A confirmatory evaluation of the profile of mood states: Convergent and discriminant item validity

The Profile of Mood States was administered to samples of 182 college males, 179 college females, and 257 prison inmates. College males and females did not differ significantly from each other in terms of scale elevation but differed from prison inmates on all scales except Fatigue-Inertia. The college samples differed from the published normative college samples, suggesting the importance of using local norms. A confirmatory item factor analysis suggested convergent item validity with the scoring key and similarity of structure across samples. Discriminant item validity, however, suggested that a smaller number of mood scales would offer a more justifiable interpretation of this inventory.This study was supported by the Alberta Hospital Edmonton, the Solicitor General of Canada, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Grant 410-80-0576-XI.     

The Concept Shifting Test: adult normative data

The Concept Shifting Test (CST) is a newly developed Trail Making Type test that measures concept shifting and executive functioning. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether CST performance was affected by age, gender, educational level, or handedness and to establish the normal range of test performance. The CST was administered to a large sample (N = 1,794) of cognitively intact adults (age range 24 to 81 years). The results showed that CST performance was superior in women, decreased with age, and increased with level of education. Handedness did not affect CST performance. Normative data that are corrected for the influences of these demographical variables were established with a regression-based normative approach.     

The epistemic benefits of trait-consistent mood states: an analysis of extraversion and mood

One must consider both trait and state affect to predict individual differences in emotional processing. The present results document a novel trait-state interaction that is consistent with proposals concerning the epistemic functions of affect (A. R. Damasio, 1994). Four studies tested the effects of extraversion and mood on motivation-relevant processing. Study 1 measured naturally occurring mood, whereas Studies 2-4 manipulated mood. Extraverts were faster to link events to their personal motivations when in a positive mood state, whereas introverts were faster to do so in a neutral or negative mood state. Further findings indicate that this interaction affects attitude accessibility rather than event elaboration. Overall, the authors suggest that there are pragmatic benefits to trait-consistent moods, particularly for processing motivation-relevant stimuli.     

The Boston Naming Test in Swedish: normative data

The purpose of the present study was to introduce a Swedish version of the Boston Naming Test and to offer normative data based on a sample of native Swedish-speaking healthy adults stratified concerning age, gender, and length of education. The subjects were assessed with other lexical tests and half of the group also performed tests of global cognitive function. A semantic analysis of the responses was performed and the typical Swedish naming of the pictures of BNT was investigated. The results showed that long education, high performance on tests of global cognitive ability (FSIQ), verbal fluency, and other lexical tests had a significant positive association to a good performance on BNT whereas age and gender had a minor influence. The response analysis showed that the more difficult an item was, the more variations in the response pattern. To conclude, the Boston Naming Test is appropriate for use in a Swedish-speaking context and an effective test for assessment of naming ability.     

The style of processing scale: normative and reliability data.

Three student samples (ns=624, 653, and 566) yielded normative data for the Style of Processing scale. Analysis of subsamples found acceptable internal reliability (overall r=.78) and good test-retest reliability (overall r=.81, 6-mo. interval). The scale appears to have satisfactory reliability for assessing verbal-visual cognitive style, but further work is needed to test the scale's validity.     

Reliability of the bipolar form of the profile of mood states using an alternative test protocol

The bipolar version of Profile of Mood States was completed by 124 participants (58 women and 66 men, M age 26.5, SD=3.9 yr.) on two occasions--once when the measure was self-administered according to that test protocol and once when POMS-BI items were projected onto a screen with participants being asked to provide oral responses to items. Data from both modes of administration provided similar support for the internal consistency of the measure (alpha values ranged from .78 to .90).     

Profile of Mood States: Australian normative data

The Profile of Mood States was administered to 90 Australian women, 30 depressed, 30 anxious, and 30 nonpsychiatric controls. Both clinical groups scored higher than the McNair, Lorr, and Droppleman (1971) normative samples on the negative mood states and scored lower on Vigor. The means for these groups are presented and compared with the 1971 normative data of McNair, Lorr, and Droppleman.     

Assessment of mood states: Biases in single-administration assessments

Rasmussen, Jeffrey, Willingham, and Glover (1994) demonstrated that single-administration values derived from the Profile of Mood States (POMS) were biased estimates oftypical mood state. Like the previous study, the present study investigated whether single-administration POMS scores would be similar to average POMS scores derived from multiple administrations. In addition, in this investigation, single-administration instructions directed respondents to estimatetypical mood over a period of time that coincided with the time and duration of the multiple administrations. Subjects rated mood states during two single-administration settings, one before and one just after a multiple administration period. For both single-administration assessments, subjects rated mood relative to “How you have felt for the past 3 days, including today?” During the multiple-administration assessment, subjects rated mood six times a day for 3 days as prompted by preprogrammed wrist monitors. Results were consistent with earlier findings by identifying the bias in single-administration assessments. Initial single-administration values were significantly higher than both the averaged multiple-administration values and the second single-administration scores. These results support the contention that single-administration values from the POMS may provide biased estimates oftypical mood states.     

A review of the profile of mood states (POMS) in the prediction of athletic success

Abstract

The Profile of Mood States (POMS) is a self-report inventory that has been used by numerous researchers attempting to identify the personality states that reliably differentiate athletes of differing levels of ability. The paper began by reviewing the studies by Nagle, Morgan, Hellichn, serfass, and Alexander (1975). Morgan and Pollock (1977), and Morgan and Johnson (1978). These studies popularized the use of the POMS in the sport setting The review highlighted the fact that the POMS was orighally employed as one of several psychological inventories desighed to assess an athlete's state of mental health. Specifically, these studies hypothesized that successfid athletes would possess more positive emotional and mental health than unsuccessfid athletes. With respect to the POMS this would be reflected by successful athletes scoring lower than unsuccessfid athletes on the scales of depression, tension, anger, fatigue, and confusion and higher than unsuccessful athletes on the scale of vigor. The POMS was found to be of limited value in diffkreutiating the successll from unsuccessful athlete. Despite this fact, studies Continued to be published that examined the POMS' ability to diffrrentiate athletes of diffenhg levels of ability. This misunderstanding is attributed to researchers' Mure to distinguish between two common approaches to the study of entiate a) the athlete from the nonathlete and, b) athletes of differing levels of ability. The Profile of Mood States (POMS) is a self-report inventory that has been used by numerous researchers attempting to identify the personality states that reliably differentiate athletes of differing levels of ability.     

Relation of game location and experience on mood states

The study investigated relationships between game location, performers' experience, and mood states. 31 experienced collegiate soccer players completed the Brunel Mood Scale to assess anger, calmness, confusion, depression, fatigue, happiness, tension, and vigor before eight competitive games (four home and four away). Participants were categorized into Experienced and Less Experienced groups, based on the level of performance at which they played. Repeated-measures multivariate analyses of variance compared mean mood scores across location and experience, and follow-up univariate analyses suggested the increase in mood scores on Tension and decrease in scores on Calmness, Happiness, and Vigor between playing away and at home were significantly greater for Less experienced soccer players than Experienced players. Implications of these findings for the applied practitioner are discussed.     

Racial bias in prediction with the MMPI for a juvenile delinquent population

Relationships between MMPI scales and criteria were evaluated to determine if the MMPI is racially biased with a juvenile delinquent population. The MMPI was administered to 333 white and 107 black male juvenile delinquents, and criterion data were collected. The regression equations developed for Blacks and whites resulted in similar accuracies. However, the weights of the regression equations tended to differ for the two races. How they differed depended on the criterion predicted by the equations. Consequently, it was impossible to state unconditionally that the use of the MMPI with Black delinquents will have an adverse impact. In fact, one interpretation of the results suggested that the MMPI may not be racially biased for predictions with juvenile delinquents because the amount of constant error in prediction for a racial group decreased toward zero as the apparent objectivity of the criteria increased.     

Behavior rating scales: need for refining normative data

The purpose of this study was to generate normative data by grade and sex to accompany behavior rating scales. Teachers rate 483 boys and girls in Grades 1 through 4. The findings suggest rating scales be re-examined since norms by grade level and sex may be desirable attributes.     

Koppitz errors on the Bender-Gestalt for adult retardates: normative data.

Normative data on the Koppitz developmental scoring system for the Bender-Gestalt test were derived from a sample which included 510 protocols of adult resident retardates. Percentile norms are presented on Koppitz error scores for three AAMD ranges of retardation based on WAIS IQs and two AAMD ranges of retardation based on Stanford-Binet IQs.