There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
This study identifies the relative importance of psychological dimensions that discriminate
between habitually physically active and sedentary men. The data support the notion
that physical activity has psychological benefits. Subjects (N = 22) were normal,
medically healthy middle-aged men (40-60 years of age). Data were collected on selected
physiological (treadmill) and psychological (MMPI) variables and replicated within
four months. The Student's t-test and discriminant function analysis were used in
the statistical analysis. Physically active men (n = 11) have lower depression (scale
2) and lower social introversion (scale 10) than the sedentary men (n = 11). The physically
active men may exhibit MMPI scale differences in 'neurotic' tendencies from the sedentary
men, but there is no apparent difference in scales suggestive of 'psychotic' tendencies.
Depression (scale 2) is the most powerful discriminator between physically active
and sedentary men, followed by hysteria (scale 3) and social introversion (scale 10).
In conclusion, our data identify depression as the most important MMPI scale that
discriminates between physically active and sedentary men.