Ralf Brand

Universität Potsdam · Sport and Exercise Psychology

This article introduces a new theory, the Affective–Reflective Theory (ART) of physical inactivity and exercise. ART aims to explain and predict behavior in situations in which people either remain in a state of physical inactivity or initiate action (exercise). It is a dual-process model and assumes that exercise-related stimuli trigger automatic...

Exercising can be theorized as the result of choosing one behavior over alternative behaviors. The Decisional Preferences in Exercising (DPEX) test is a computerized, easy-to-use, publicly available (open source Python code and demo version of the test on: https://osf.io/ahbjr/) and highly adaptive research tool based on this rationale. In the DPEX...

Objective Individuals’ decisions to engage in exercise are often the result of in-the-moment choices between exercise and a competing behavioral alternative. The purpose of this study was to investigate processes that occur in-the-moment (i.e., situated processes) when individuals are faced with the choice between exercise and a behavioral alternat...

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness in improving affect during moderate-intensity exercise and to test the hypothesis that this intervention is particularly beneficial for those who are already sufficiently active. Two groups of sufficiently and insufficiently active participants were recruited to complete a 20-min mode...

Affective exercise experiences comprise a spectrum of memories, capturing both unpleasant and pleasant episodes. These can be assessed using the Affective Exercise Experience Questionnaire (AFFEXX, Ekkekakis et al., 2021), which examines three separate aspects: 1) antecedent cognitive appraisals (e.g., “incompetence vs. competence”), 2) core affect...

The Game Management Framework for Sports Refereeing (GMFSR) provides a comprehensive and novel approach to understanding the performance of on-field interactor referees in competitive sports. It highlights key performance factors and focuses on the holistic integration of essential elements. According to the GMFSR, officiating performance is based...

Evidence for the effectiveness of physical activity (PA) in the treatment of depression prevails for outpatients with mild and moderate symptom levels. For inpatient treatment of severe depression, evidence-based effectiveness exists only for structured and supervised group PA interventions. The Step Away from Depression (SAD) study investigated th...

This study compared the effects of an increasing-intensity (UP) and a decreasing-intensity (DOWN) resistance training protocol on affective responses across six training sessions. Novice participants ( M age 43.5 ± 13.7 years) were randomly assigned to UP ( n = 18) or DOWN ( n = 17) resistance training groups. Linear mixed-effects models showed tha...

We would like to thank our esteemed colleagues Stuart Biddle, Nikos Ntoumanis, Ryan Rhodes, and Ralf Schwarzer very much for taking the time to read the Target Article “What is needed to promote physical activity?” and to provide such important reflections and further insights into the topic. In the present commentary, the authors of the Target Art...

Mehr Informationen finden Sie unter: https://osf.io/29jhe/ *** Der Affective Exercise Experiences Questionnaire (AFFEXX) ist ein Fragebogen zur Beschreibung von affektiven Erfahrungen und Erlebnissen mit Bewegung und Sport. Die englische Originalversion des Fragebogens geht auf die in der Zeitschrift Psychology of Sport and Exercise publizierte Ar...

Despite the health-related benefits and published evidence-based physical activity (PA) guidelines, global PA levels have been stagnating since the 2000s, with around 80% of adolescents and 28% of adults not achieving the recommendations. As a result, a pandemic of physical inactivity is occurring, with far-reaching health consequences along with a...

The affective response during exercise is an important factor for long-term exercise adherence. Pottratz et al. suggested affective priming as a behavioral intervention for the enhancement of exercise-related affect. The present paper aims to replicate and extend upon these findings. We conducted a close replication with 53 participants completing...

There is an ongoing debate about how to test and operationalize self-control. This limited understanding is in large part due to a variety of different tests and measures used to assess self-control, as well as the lack of empirical studies examining the temporal dynamics during the exertion of self-control. In order to track changes that occur ove...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of scientific endeavors. The goal of this systematic review is to evaluate the quality of the research on physical activity (PA) behavior change and its potential to contribute to policy-making processes in the early days of COVID-19 related restrictions. Methods: We conducted a sy...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of scientific endeavors. The goal of this systematic review is to evaluate the quality of the research on physical activity (PA) behavior change and its potential to contribute to policy-making processes in the early days of COVID-19 related restrictions. Methods: We conducted a syste...

Development of a task that measures Decisional Preferences in Exercising

The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated governmental restrictions suddenly changed everyday life and potentially affected exercise behavior. The aim of this study was to explore whether individuals changed their preference for certain types of physical exercise during the pandemic and to identify risk factors for inactivity. An international onlin...

Das Kapitel trägt Erkenntnisse zusammen, die das vermeintliche Allgemeinwissen relativieren, dass Sporttreiben der Gesundheit schon allein deshalb zuträglich sei, weil man sich durch Sport besser fühle: Richtig ist, dass sich die meisten Menschen bei niedrig-intensiver Bewegungsaktivität wohl fühlen. Jedoch fühlen sich viele Menschen schon bei mode...

Involvement in sport and exercise not only provides participants with health benefits but can be an important aspect of living a meaningful life. The COVID-19 pandemic and the temporary cessation of public life in March/April/May 2020 came with restrictions, which probably also made it difficult, if not impossible, to participate in certain types o...

Objectives Increasing the number of daily steps by using a pedometer and a diary leads to an activity increase and improved health outcomes in a variety of somatic disorders. Hence, for the inpatient treatment of depression, supervised exercise interventions are more widespread. We aim to examine if a self‐managed pedometer intervention (PI) with t...

The governmental lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic have forced people to change their behavior in many ways including changes in exercise. We used the brief window of global lockdown in the months of March/April/May 2020 as an opportunity to investigate the effects of externally imposed restrictions on exercise-related routines and related...

The decision to exercise is not only bound to rational considerations but also automatic affective processes. The affective–reflective theory of physical inactivity and exercise (ART) proposes a theoretical framework for explaining how the automatic affective process (type‑1 process) will influence exercise behavior, i.e., through the automatic act...

The decision to exercise is not only bound to rational considerations but also automatic affective processes. The affective–reflective theory of physical inactivity and exercise (ART) proposes a theoretical framework for explaining how the automatic affective process (type‑1 process) will influence exercise behavior, i.e., through the automatic act...

This chapter presents the foundations of a research area that has attracted great interest in social psychology and social cognition. It discusses the general psychological concept of automaticity, explaining its relevance to exercise motivation, and presenting related theoretical concepts (automatic evaluation, automatic facilitation of behavior,...

The purpose of this study was to illustrate that people’s affective valuation of exercise can be identified in their faces. The study was conducted with a software for automatic facial expression analysis and it involved testing the hypothesis that positive or negative affective valuation occurs spontaneously when people are reminded of exercise. W...

Recent research indicates that affective responses during exercise are an important determinant of future exercise and physical activity. Thus far these responses have been measured with standardized self-report scales, but this study used biometric software for automated facial action analysis to analyze the changes that occur during physical exer...

The purpose of this study was to illustrate that people’s affective valuation of exercise can be identified in their faces. The study was conducted with a software for automatic facial expression analysis and it involved testing the hypothesis that positive or negative affective valuation occurs spontaneously when people are reminded of exercise. W...

In diesem Kapitel werden einige zentrale Konzepte zu Forschungsmethoden und zur Statistik eingeführt. Die Darstellung hier ersetzt in keiner Weise das Nachlesen in spezieller Literatur! Hier an dieser Stelle soll lediglich einen Grundstein dafür gelegt werden, dass Anfängerinnen und Anfänger in Sportpsychologie sportpsychologische Studien besser ve...

In diesem Kapitel geht es um ein paar grundlegende wissenschaftstheoretische Konzepte. Erklärt wird, welche Rolle Theorien für den wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisprozess (natürlich auch) in der Sportpsychologie spielen und warum Überprüfbarkeit ein zentrales Kriterium für wissenschaftliche Theorien ist.

In diesem Kapitel geben wir noch einige nützliche Hilfestellungen zum Lernen. Das Fach Sportpsychologie stellt Studierende nämlich vor ganz eigene Herausforderungen. Wir gehen hier darauf ein, wie man diese meistern kann.

Sportpsychologinnen und Sportpsychologen arbeiten vor allem in der Praxis des Leistungssports direkt mit Sportlerinnen und Sportlern, Trainerinnen und Trainern zusammen. Dieses wahrscheinlich ur-eigenste sportpsychologische Betätigungsfeld hat in den vergangenen Jahren noch einmal an Aufschwung gewonnen. Jedoch sind wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen...

Zur Beschreibung und Erklärung menschlichen Erlebens und Verhaltens braucht es grundlegendes psychologisches Fachvokabular. Wer weiß, was mit Begriffen wie Aktuelles Geschehen, Innere Vorgänge, Situationsfaktoren, Persönliche Merkmale und Veränderung im Einzelnen gemeint ist, kann loslegen auch sportpsychologisch zu denken.

Sportpsychologie wird von vielen Menschen, vor allem solchen, die sich weniger gut auskennen, zuerst einmal mit Themen wie Wettkampf, Leistung und Leistungssport assoziiert. In den vergangenen Jahrzehnten hat sich neben diesem Themenkomplex jedoch noch ein zweiter entwickelt, zu dem inzwischen fast genauso viel geforscht und publiziert wird. Sportp...

Sportpsychologisches Wissen spielt auch im Kontext von Sportunterricht eine Rolle. Wir stellen drei ausgewählte sportpsychologische Faktoren vor, denen im Sportunterricht eine zentrale Bedeutung zukommt: Motivation, Attribution und Selbstkonzept. Danach gehen wir vertiefend auf die Frage ein, wie man beim Bewegungslernen effektiv mit Instruktionen...

Für eine treffsichere Einordnung darüber, was Sportpsychologie ist und ausmacht, muss man sich zumindest grob in den beiden Bezugswissenschaften Psychologie und Sportwissenschaft auskennen. Außerdem muss man erklären können, was man mit Bewegung und Sport meint, wenn man davon redet. Wenn man dann noch weiß, wie und dass man wissenschaftliche und p...

Dieses Kapitel dient der Einleitung. Dargestellt wird, weshalb wir für das Buch diese Inhalte und keine anderen ausgewählt haben. Außerdem sagen wir was, zur ja durchaus speziellen Darstellungsform. Eben weshalb wir so und nicht anders formulieren.

Details kann man sich besser merken, wenn man weiß, wo sie im Gesamtbild hingehören. In diesem Kapitel verdeutlichen wir deshalb vorab den „roten Faden“ des Buches, fassen wesentliche Dinge schon einmal sehr kurz und prägnant zusammen. Denn Sportpsychologie ist ein weites Feld und ein wenig Überblick am Anfang schadet nicht.

In diesem Kapitel werden sportpsychologische Faktoren vorgestellt, die entweder in einem Zusammenhang mit der sportlichen Leistung stehen oder diese beeinflussen. Wir geben zunächst einen Überblick, der sich am Grundmodell der psychologischen Verhaltenserklärung orientiert. Danach illustrieren wir diese Perspektive von Sportpsychologie, indem wir n...

Recent research indicates that affective responses during exercise are an important determinant of future exercise and physical activity. Thus far these responses have been measured with standardized self-report scales, but this study used biometric software for automated facial action analysis to analyze the changes that occur during physical exer...

Ego-depletion (i.e., incapacity to use effortful inhibition after previous use) is a widely discussed phenomenon on psychology because of its lack of replicability. It could be due to 1) inappropriate tasks used in previous studies and 2) probably inadequate dual-task paradigm because ego-depletionm could present no carry-over effect. We hypothesiz...

Introduction While physical activity (PA) can play an important role in the treatment of mental disorders (MD), large proportions of patients with MD do not meet PA recommendations. The aim of this trial was to evaluate whether structured psychological intervention (MoVo-LISA) is effective in helping outpatients with MD to increase their level of P...

Objective The affective-reflective theory of physical inactivity and exercise suggests that the mere thought of exercise can lead to an immediate somato-affective response which, if negative, will drive a physically inactive person to maintain his or her current exercise-avoidant behavior. This study aimed to test the assumption that the somatic co...

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01147/full

The development of cynical attitudes towards elite sport is a core symptom of athlete burnout and has been associated with dropout from elite sport. To date, this phenomenon has mainly been studied by investigating explicit attitudes towards sport, whereas athletes’ automatic evaluations (i.e. implicit attitudes) that have been shown to influence b...

Das Kapitel trägt Erkenntnisse zusammen, die das vermeintliche Allgemeinwissen relativieren, dass Sporttreiben der Gesundheit schon allein deshalb zuträglich sei, weil man sich durch Sport besser fühle: Richtig ist, dass sich die meisten Menschen bei niedrig-intensiver Bewegungsaktivität wohl fühlen. Jedoch fühlen sich viele Menschen schon bei mode...

The purpose of the present article was to evaluate statistically and validate a German version of the Referee Self-Efficacy Scale (REFS). The English REFS assesses referee self-efficacy and consists of the scales Game Knowledge, Decision-Making, Pressure, and Communication. Data from 265 soccer referees was used to evaluate the structure and psycho...

Dieses Lehrbuch der Sportpsychologie ist anders als andere: Es liefert einen einführenden Fachüberblick, will aber vor allem Verständnisgrundlagen aufbauen. Vermittelt wird, was das thematisch sehr breitgefasste Fach Sportpsychologie im Innersten zusammenhält. Studierende in sportwissenschaftlichen Studiengängen werden mit grundlegenden Konzepten v...

Objective: The affective-reflective theory of physical inactivity and exercise suggests that the mere thought of exercise can lead to an immediate somato-affective response which, if negative, will drive a physically inactive person to maintain his or her current exercise-avoidant behavior. This study aimed to test the assumption that the somatic c...

Objective To critically review developments over the first fifty years of research (1967–2017) on (a) how people feel when they participate in exercise and physical activity, and (b) the implications of these responses for their willingness to become and remain active. Design Non-systematic narrative review. Method Representative sources were sel...

Mange moralske og etiske værdier er tillagt sport fordi det er regelbaseret (e.g., Anderson & Crutchley, 1990). Som en konsekvens af dette bliver sport ofte set som en slags kropsliggørelse af etisk opførsel (McFee, 1998). Denne idealistiske tilskrivelse af moralsk mening til sport hedder sport ethos (Kuchler, 1969). Ofte bliver termerne ”moral” og...

The current body of evidence suggests that in healthy participants, implicit attitudes towards physical activity explain variance in exercise behaviour beyond explicit cognitive processes. However, such relationships have not been examined in psychiatric patients, although this may contribute to a better understanding of the motivational and voliti...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00717.].

Physical exercise has to be performed regularly in order to achieve long-term health benefits. However, many people do not maintain it over the long run because negative events, such as muscle ache or negative affect after having exercised, may occur. The goal of this study was to analyse whether the way people explain these events (explanatory sty...

Doping use in recreational sports is an emerging issue that has received limited attention so far in the psychological literature. The present study assessed the lifetime prevalence of controlled performance and appearance enhancing substances (PAES), and used behavioral reasoning theory to identify the reasons for using and for avoiding using cont...

Objectives Anticipated affective responses influence decision-making processes in profound ways. The present study emphasized the role of anticipated regret and assessed the additive and interactive effects of anticipated regret in predicting doping intentions among adolescent athletes. Design Survey-based, correlational. Method Two hundred and six...

Introduction: Physical activity (PA) can play an important role in improving the mental and physical health in patients with mental disorders but is not well studied in this population. The aim of this study was to assess the status of PA in outpatients with mental disorders, compare the convergence of self-rating and accelerometer measurement and...

Neuroenhancement (NE) is a behavior conceptualized as the use of a potentially psychoactive substance to enhance ones’ already proficient cognitive capacities. Depending on the specific definitions used, prevalence estimates vary greatly between very low 0.3% (for illicit substances) to astonishingly high 89% (for freely available lifestyle substan...

Physical activity (PA) can play an important role in improving the mental and physical health in patients with mental disorders but is not well studied in this population. The aim of this study was to assess the status of PA in outpatients with mental disorders, compare the convergence of self-rating and accelerometer measurement and examine the in...

Sometimes our automatic evaluations do not correspond well with those we can reflect on and articulate. We present a novel approach to the assessment of automatic and reflective affective evaluations of exercising. Based on the assumptions of the APE model, we measured participants' automatic evaluations of exercise, then shared this information wi...

Within the scientific community and among the general public there exists a lively debate regarding the use of drugs for the enhancement of cognitive performance. The defining feature of this type of functional substance (ab)use behavior is the assumed functionality a user ascribes to a chosen substance for the intended goal (e.g., Wolff and Brand,...

Neuroenhancement (NE) is the non-medical use of psychoactive substances to produce a subjective enhancement in psychological functioning and experience. So far empirical investigations of individuals' motivation for NE however have been hampered by the lack of theoretical foundation. This study aimed to apply drug instrumentalization theory to user...

This multi-study report used an experimental approach to alter automatic evaluations of exercise (AEE). First, we investigated the plasticity of AEE (study 1). A computerized evaluative conditioning task was developed that altered the AEE of participants in two experimental groups (acquisition of positive/negative associations involving exercising)...

Good self-control has been linked to adaptive outcomes such as better health, cohesive personal relationships, success in the workplace and at school, and less susceptibility to crime and addictions. In contrast, self-control failure is linked to maladaptive outcomes. Understanding the mechanisms by which self-control predicts behavior may assist i...

The aim of this study was to examine how automatic evaluations of exercising (AEE) varied according to adherence to an exercise program. Eighty-eight participants (24.98 years ± 6.88; 51.1% female) completed a Brief-Implicit Association Task assessing their AEE, positive and negative associations to exercising at the beginning of a 3-month exercise...

Background Deception can distort psychological tests on socially sensitive topics. Understanding the cerebral processes that are involved in such faking can be useful in detection and prevention of deception. Previous research shows that faking a brief implicit association test (BIAT) evokes a characteristic ERP response. It is not yet known whethe...

Objectives: The main goal of this research focused on the development and validation of three instruments designed to assess athletes' self-regulatory efficacy in team contexts, team collective efficacy and team moral disengagement with relevance for doping use across three European countries. Design: The research relied on three distinct studies....

Introducing a dual-process approach, this study extends research on the psychology of doping by considering discrepancies between athletes’ explicit and implicit evaluations of doping and the way they are cognitively resolved. Framing our hypotheses in terms of the associative-propositional evaluation model, we tested the mediating role of an exemp...

Recent research has indicated that university students sometimes use caffeine pills for neuroenhancement (NE; non-medical use of psychoactive substances or technology to produce a subjective enhancement in psychological functioning and experience), especially during exam preparation. In our factorial survey experiment, we manipulated the evidence p...

This article examines whether a training program in ethical decision making can change young athletes’ doping attitudes. Fifty-two young elite athletes were randomly assigned to either an ethical decision-making training group or a standard-knowledge-based educational program group. Another 17 young elite athletes were recruited for no-treatment co...

Background: Epidemiological research indicates that the use of prescription drugs to enhance cognitive functioning is prevalent in Western countries, however, research on this phenomenon in Arab countries is lacking. Our study aimed to investigate the frequency of neuroenhancement (NE) using prescription drugs in a sample of employees in Jordan....

The goals of this study were to test whether exercise-related stimuli can elicit automatic evaluative responses and whether automatic evaluations reflect exercise setting preference in highly active exercisers. An adapted version of the Affect Misattribution Procedure was employed. Seventy-two highly active exercisers (26 years ± 9.03; 43% female)...

Direct assessment of attitudes toward socially sensitive topics can be affected by deception attempts. Reaction-time based indirect measures, such as the Implicit Association Test (IAT), are less susceptible to such biases. Neuroscientific evidence shows that deception can evoke characteristic ERP differences. However, the cerebral processes involv...

Schülerathleten an Eliteschulen des Sports (EdS) sind mit dem täglichen Problem der Vereinbarkeit schulischer und sportlicher Anforderungen konfrontiert (Borggrefe & Cachay, 2014). In diesem Zusammenhang rücken vor allem die Unter-stützungsquellen in den Fokus. Die Bedeutsamkeit der subjektiv wahrgenommenen sozialen Unterstützung für die dualen Kar...

One of the fundamental challenges in anti-doping is identifying athletes who use, or are at risk of using, prohibited performance enhancing substances. The growing trend to employ a forensic approach to doping control aims to integrate information from social sciences (e.g., psychology of doping) into organised intelligence to protect clean sport....

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) aims to measure participants’ automatic evaluation of an attitude object and is useful especially for the measurement of attitudes related to socially sensitive subjects, e.g. doping in sports. Several studies indicate that IAT scores can be faked on instruction. But fully or semi-instructed research scenarios mi...