Not What, but How One Feels: The Measurement of Affect during Exercise

Three experiments are presented that evaluate the feeling scale (FS) as a measure of affect during exercise. In Experiment 1,.subjects were instructed to check adjectives on the MAACL-R that they would associate with either a "good" or a "bad" feeling during exercise. As predicted, discriminant function analysis indicated that the good/bad dimension of the FS appears to represent a core of emotional expression. In Experiment 2, subjects rated how they felt during exercise at a rate of perceived exertion (RPE) of 11, 15, and 19. There was considerable heterogeneity in FS for each given RPE. Moreover, RPEs and FS ratings were only moderately correlated, r= - .56, suggesting that phenomenologically the two constructs are not isomorphic. Experiment 3 involved three 4-min bouts of exercise at 30, 60, and 90% V0 2 max. Assessed were pre- and post-exercise affect as. .well as RPEs, responses to the FS, V e , RR, and VO 2 . Results revealed that RPE and the FS were moderately related, but only at easy and hard workloads. FS ratings evidenced greater variability as metabolic demands increased, and RPEs consistently had stronger ties to physiologic cues than responses to the FS. The theoretical and pragmatic implications of these data are discussed.