Mood Responses to Recreational Sport and

Exercise in a Korean Sample

David L. Rudolph
Department of Exercise and Sport Science, 237-L HHP Building
University of North Carolina-Greensboro
Greensboro, NC 27412-5001

Jin Gu Kim
Research Institute for Physical Education and Sport Science
Kyung-Pook University, Taegu, South Korea 702-701
It is well documented that aerobic exercise produces mood benefits.
However, research examining the potential mood benefits of competitive sport at the recreational level is lacking (Berger, 1994). Therefore,
the primary purpose of the present study was to compare the mood
responses of four activity groups; (1) aerobic dance, (2) soccer, (3)
tennis, and (4) bowling. A second purpose was to examine the utility of
a recently developed measure of exercise-related mood in a Korean
sample of 108 male and female physical education students. Mood was
assessed immediately pre- and post-activity with the Subjective Exercise
Experiences Scale (SEES: McAuley & Coumeya, 1994). Aerobic dance
and soccer participants reported enhanced positive mood pre- to postactivityip < .05). Tennis players atid howlers reported no change. None
of the activities reduced feelings of negative mood as assessed by the
SEES. These preliminary results suggest that recreational soccer produces mood benefits similar to aerobic dance. Furthermore, although
the subscales of the SEES were intercorrelated similarly to previous
research, the ability of the measure to tap changes in negative mood
warrants further examination.

It is well documented that acute exercise produces mood benefits

(See Petruzzello, Landers, Hatfield, Kubitz, & Salazar, 1991; North,
McCullagh, & Tran, 1990; McAuley & Rudolph, 1995 for reviews).
However, the potential psychological benefits of participating in recreational sport activities has been largely ignored (Berger, 1994),
In the face of losing, competitive sport has the potential to generate
psychological detriments such as increased anxiety, depression, and
Authors' Note: The authors would like to extend their appreciation to the editor and three
anonymous reviewers who made helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.
Conespondence should be addressed to the first author(e-mail: dlnidolp@homans.uncg.edu).
Journal ofSocial Behavior and Personality, 1996, Vol. 11, No. 4, 841-849.
1996 Select Press, Corte Madera, CA, 415/924-1612.

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JOURNAL OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY

hostility (Hackfort & Speilberger, 1989). Clearly, serious competitive

sport has limited potential for reducing stress and anxiety because the
importance of winning probably overrides any potential affective benefits
to be gained from the physical activity that occurs during sport. Furthermore, Berger (1994) has suggested that "If stress reduction is a primary
goal of participating in physical exercise, competition should probably be
avoided" (p. 104), Berger has also stated that research examining the
potential mood benefits of competitive sport at the recreational level is
lacking. For instance, whether a friendly game of tennis or pick-up
basketball produce enhanced moods is unknown. Moreover, are the mood
responses to these types of physical activities different from those of
jogging and other aerobic activities that are typically employed to examine mood changes associated with exercise?
Berger and Owen (1988) have outlined a stress reduction taxonomy
which specifies that for exercise to reduce stress it must be (1) aerobic, (2)
non-competitive, (3) predictable, and (4) rhythmical/repetitive. According to their taxonomy, other parameters that influence the effects of
exercise on psychological well-being include exercise frequency, duration, and intensity. Moreover, the degree to which an individual enjoys a
specific physical activity plays an important role in the potential for mood
benefits to accrue,
Berger and Owen's (1988) rationale for developing this classification system is based in its predictive value for health professionals.
Instead of testing the mood benefits of an infinite number of physical
activities, the classification system identifies those characteristics of the
activity that are most likely to produce mood benefits. Therefore, exercise
prescription for mood benefits is based on the degree to which an activity
fulfills each taxonomy parameter. This taxonomy provides a potentially
useful framework for comparison of the mood changes associated with
recreational sport and aerobic exercise.
According to Berger and Owen's (1988) classification system, exercise must occur 2-3 times per week for 20 minutes at a moderate intensity
level to generate psychological benefits. As the activity groups in the
current study met 2 times per week for 50 minutes, the guidelines of at
least 20 minutes 2-3 times per week were surpassed. Moreover, although
participant's exertion levels were not assessed, the fact that these groups
were elective physical education classes suggests that the intensity of the
activities in the present study were probably moderate. Also, participants
exercised at preferred intensities which one might argue are most appropriate when examining the potential psychological benefits of exercise;
We set out to examine the predictive value of Berger and Owen's
taxonomy by contrasting activities that differed in the degree to which

Rudolph & Kim

TABLE 1

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND MOOD

Each Group's Fulfillment of the Exercise Taxonomy

Taxonomy Parameters

Group
Aerobic Dance
Soccer
Tennis
Bowling

Aerobic

Competition Absent

Predictable

Repetitive

yes

yes
no
no
no

yes
no
no
no

yes
no
no
no

yes*
yes*

no

*aerobic component weaker than aerobic dance.

they met the four mode criteria of the taxonomy. In the current study, we
compared participant's mood responses to four types of physical activities. As shown in Table 1, aerobic dance satisfied all of the mode
requirements for Berger & Owen's taxonomy. Bowling was the control
activity because it does not fulfill any of the classification requirements.
Soccer and Tennis provided infonnation about the effects of competition,
predictability, and to a lesser extent repetitiveness and rhythm.
To our knowledge, only one previous study has contrasted the effects
of aerobic exercise and recreational sport on mood states, Bosscher
(1993) compared the effects of 8 weeks of running and recreational sport
on depression and self-esteem in depressed psychiatric patients. Depression levels were significantly reduced in the running condition, whereas
no change occurred for the recreational sport group. Self-esteem increased in both conditions, although the increase was greater for psychiatric patients in the running condition. This preliminary study suggests
that recreational sport may produce mood benefits in clinically depressed
individuals. However, the potential for steady-state aerobic exercise to
produce psychological benefits appears to be greater than for that of
recreational sport. It should be noted that the psychological measures in
Bosscher's study were global assessments and would not be appropriate
to include in an examination of state responses to acute exercise, therefore
meaningful coniparisons to the current investigation are limited.
Data used for the development and validation of the Subjective
Exercise Experiences Scale (SEES: McAuley & Courneya, 1994) showed
that stationary cycling produces decreases in negative mood and .increases in positive mood as assessed by the SEES in a sample of middleaged males and females, McAuley and Coumeya (1994) called for future
research to examine the effectiveness of the SEES in diverse exercise
settings and across different populations. In a follow-up study investigating the validity of the scale, Lox and Rudolph (1994) reported that 35

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minutes of aerobic dance produced increases in positive mood and

decreases in negative mood in a sample of 163 college females. Although
the SEES appears to be a valid and reliable measure of exercise-related
mood across different age groups and exercise modes, its utility as a
measure of exercise-related mood in other cultures remains to be determined.
The purpose of the current study was to compare the effects of aerobic
dance and recreational sports on mood responses to acute exercise. Specifically, we contrasted the effects of aerobic dance, soccer, tennis, and
a control activity (bowling) on multidimensional exercise-related mood.
As Berger and Owen (1988) have suggested that the absence of competition
will enhance the mood benefits associated with physical activity, we
hypothesized that aerobic dance will generate greater increases in positive mood compared to soccer and tennis. Moreover, we expected aerobic
dance to produce greater decreases in negative mood compared to recreational sport. Finally, as bowling fulfills none of the taxonomy requirements described by Berger and Owen (1988), we expected no mood
changes as assessed by the SEES for the bowling control group,
A secondary purpose was to examine the utility of a recently developed measure of exercise-related mood in a Korean sample,
METHOD
Participants
108 male and female undergraduates (mean age 24,1 years) enrolled
in physical education courses at a Korean University participated in the
study. The sample consisted of four separate activity classes including
aerobic dance (N = 27,19M 8F), soccer (N = 24,24M OF), tennis (N = 28,
21M 7F), and bowling (N = 29, 26M 3F), All participants signed informed consent forms prior to participating in the study and no student
refused to participate.
Measures
Mood was assessed with the Subjective Exercise Experiences Scale
(SEES) (McAuley & Courneya, 1994), a 12-item three dimensional scale
assessing; (1) positive well-being, (2) psychological distress, and (3)
fatigue. The main question asks "How do you feel right now?" and each
adjective item of the 12-item scale is accompanied by a 7-point Likert
scale ranging from I = "Not at all" to 7 := "Very much so". Scoring the
SEES consists of summing the four items of each dimension providing a
range of 4-28. The SEES has been demonstrated to be a valid and reliable
measure of mood in various exercise settings and populations (Lox &
Rudolph, 1994; McAuley & Courneya, 1994), For the present study, the

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PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND MOOD

845

SEES was translated into Korean by a bilingual sport and exercise

psychologist,
PROCEDURE
Activity classes met twice a week for one semester. All four groups
were taught by the same instructor. The aerobic dance class consisted of
five minutes of warm-up stretching followed by 45 minutes of high
impact aerobic exercise to music. The soccer, tennis, and bowling classes
comprised a five minute instruction review period followed by 45 minutes of playing. Classes were in their 10th week of the semester so the
participants were spending the majority of class time doing the activity
rather than receiving instruction. No participant was enrolled in more
than one group. In each of the four activity classes, the SEES was
administered immediately before and following the class. Prior to the
administration of the scale, participants were given instructions on the
format of the measure and were also asked to respond honestly to each of
the items on the SEES,
RESULTS
Preliminary Analyses
Analyses of variance were conducted to examine pre-existing differences between the activity groups in each of the affective dimensions on
the SEES. The results revealed no significant differences between the
activity groups in positive well-being, psychological distress, or fatigue
prior to the activity class. Group means and standard deviations for
positive well-being, psychological distress, and fatigue are shown in
Table 2, To examine the pre- and post-activity internal consistency of the
subscales on the SEES, coefficient alphas were calculated. The results
indicated adequate internal consistencies for positive well-being (a >
,89), psychological distress (a > ,87), and fatigue (a > .86).
Mood Responses to Exercise
A repeated measures MANOVA was conducted to examine the
effects of exercise on mood. The results indicated significant (4) group X
(3) mood [F (8, 190) = 2,68, p < ,016] and (4) group X (2) time [F (4,99)
= 3,19, p < ,027] interactions. Follow-up univariate analyses revealed a
significant group by time interaction for the positive well-being dimension of the SEES [F (4, 102) = 4,98, p < ,003], The interaction for
psychological distress approached significance [F (4, 99) = 2,30, p <
,082], Univariate analysis for fatigue revealed no interactions or main
effects, Scheffe post-hoc analyses showed that feelings of positive wellbeing increased pre- to post-activity in both the aerobic dance and soccer

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TABLE 2

Group Means and Standard Deviations for Positive Wellbeing, Psychological Distress, and Fatigue Responses
Positive Well-being

Activity
Aerobic Dance
Soccer
Tennis
Bowling

Post

Pre

17,6(4,4)
17,1 (3,4)
17,2(4,8)
16,8(3,9)

21,4(3.9)*
21,5(2,9)*
17,5(3,8)
17,8(3,8)

Psychological Distress
Aerobic Dance
Soccer
Tennis
Bowling

Pre

Post

10,7(4,3)
11,6(3,8)
10,4 (4,7)
10,7(4,8)

9,0 (3,6)
9,7 (4,6)
11,7(4,3)
10,4 (4,5)
Fatigue

Pre

Aerobic Dance
Soccer
Tennis
Bowling

11,8(5,5)
12,1 (5,1)
12,7(5,7)
13,5(6,0)

Post

13,4(5,1)
13,1(5,1)
15,3 (5,0)
13,6(5,6)

*p < .05.

groups (p < .05), No effect for positive well-being emerged for either the
tennis players or the bowlers. Furthermore, the comparison analyses in
Table 2 show that none of the activity groups demonstrated significant
changes in levels of psychological distress or fatigue.
Relationships Among the Dimensions of the SEES
Pearson correlations were calculated to examine the relationships
among the dimensions of the SEES and compare them to previous work
employing the SEES (Lox & Rudolph, 1994). In the present sample, the
correlations between positive well-being and psychological distress ranged
from -.56 to -.62, These and all subsequent correlations were significant
at p < ,001, Positive well-being was also inversely related to fatigue (r =
-,25 to -.44), Furthermore, psychological distress was positively related to
fatigue (r = ,54 to ,66), These correlations are similar to those reported by
Lox and Rudolph (1994), In a sample of 163 aerobic dance participants,
they reported positive well-being to be inversely associated with psycho-

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PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND MOOD

847

logical distress (r^^, = -,58; r^,^, = -,48) and fatigue (r^,^, = -,57; r^,^, = -,39),
Moreover, psychological distress and fatigue were directly related (r^^, =
,68; r = .60), Therefore, in both studies high levels of positive wellpt>Sl

being were moderately related to lower levels of psychological distress

and fatigue, and psychological distress and fatigue were positively related,
DISCUSSION
Adopting Berger and Owen's (1988) taxonomy for stress reduction
and enhanced psychological well-being through exercise participation,
we set out to contrast the effects aerobic dance, soccer, tennis, and
bowling physical education classes on exercise-related mood. We were
also interested in the utility of the SEES, a recently developed measure of
exercise-related mood, in a Korean sample of university students.
We found partial support for the hypothesis that acute exercise in the
form of aerobic dance would produce greater increases in positive wellbeing compared to soccer and tennis. Aerobic dancers reported increases
in positive well-being and tennis players reported no changes. However,
soccer player's and aerobic dancer's increases in positive well-being
were equivalent. With respect to the psychological distress and fatigue
dimensions of the SEES, our hypotheses were not supported as no
significant reductions were found in any of the groups. The finding that a
competitive recreational team sport (soccer) generated increases in positive well-being does not appear to be supportive of Berger and Owen's
taxonomy. In fairness, Berger often characterizes her taxonomy as a
stress reduction model which predicts the effects of exercise on the
reduction of negative psychological symptomology. However, in much
of her work she has employed the Profile of Mood States (McNair, Lorr,
& Droppleman, 1971) which possesses both positive and negative subscales.
Whether increases in positive mood represent reductions in stress is
debatable. In the current study, the correlational analyses of thp dimensions of the SEES clearly indicate that variance in positive and negative
feelings are at least moderately dependent upon each other. Conversely,
our finding that positive mood increased while negative mood remained
unchanged supports the contention of numerous social psychologists that
the two constructs are orthogonal (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988),
Nevertheless, our finding that competitive physical activity in the form of
recreational soccer generates improvements in psychological well-being
does not support the suggestions of Berger and Owen (1988) that competitiveness reduces the potential affective benefits of exercise.
It is encouraging that both aerobic dance and soccer increased

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JOURNAL OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY

positive mood, as much less is known about the effects of exercise on

positive feelings. The vast majority of research examining the relationship between exercise participation and psychological health has focused
on the reduction of negative symptoms such as anxiety and depression
(McAuley & Courneya, 1994).
It is not clear why soccer produced increases in positive well-being
and tennis did not. Perhaps there is something about the team atmosphere
that is more conducive to producing enhanced positive feelings that is
absent from the individual sport environment. It may be the case that
winning or losing is more salient in the individual sport environment than
in the team situation which increases the chances of the competitive
outcome overriding any potential mood benefits gained from the activity.
Also, using Berger and Owen's (1988) taxonomy as a framework, one
could speculate that the energy demand of a typical soccer game has a
larger aerobic component than the average singles tennis match and that
this caused the group differences in positive well-being. In any case, more
research is required to further examine differences in mood responses to
team and individual sport.
We were surprised that neither the aerobic dance or competitive sport
conditions generated reductions in psychological distress as assessed on
the SEES, This contradicts the large body of literature demonstrating that
exercise reduces negative psychological constructs such as anxiety and
depression (North et al,, 1990; Petruzzello et al,, 1991), Also, these
findings are contradictory to previous research employing the SEES, At
least two previous studies have shown that acute exercise reduces psychological distress and fatigue as assessed by the SEES (McAuley & Coumeya,
1994; Lox & Rudolph, 1994), To examine whether the baseline levels of
psychological distress and fatigue in the current sample differed from
previous research, we compared the present findings to data reported by
Lox and Rudolph (1994) and found equivalent values. Therefore, no floor
effects were preventing significant reductions in psychological distress or
fatigue.
Another possible explanation might be that the translation of the
SEES into Korean resulted in reductions in the sensitivity of the psychological distress and fatigue dimensions in a physical activity setting.
However, the correlational analyses suggest that the pre- and post-task
relationships among the dimensions of the SEES are in a Korean sample
are very similar to those generated in North American samples. Clearly,
more research is needed to determine the ability of the SEES to tap
changes in negative affect across populations and physical activity settings. Interestingly, the baseline levels of positive well-being in Lox and
Rudolph's study were higher (21,1) than in the current study (17,2),

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PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND MOOD

849

However, the increase in positive well-being in aerobic dancers and

soccer players in the current study were equivalent to Lox and Rudolph's
sample of aerobic dancers.
It should be noted that the current study was limited by the employment of intact groups. Future research might extend this study by randomly assigning participants to traditional aerobic exercise groups and
recreational sport groups to further examine mood responses to these
different physical activities. These preliminary findings are encouraging
and possess practical relevance. They suggest that the psychological
benefits of participating in recreational team sports are equivalent to that
of more traditional aerobic exercise.
This is particularly valuable information for those individuals who
dislike monotonous repetitive physical activities and are looking for
alternatives that generate similar mental health benefits,
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