Original articles  SPORT PSYCHOLOGY 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2004 March;44(1):77-86

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

The characteristics and effects of motivational music in exercise settings: the possible influence of gender, age, frequency of attendance, and time of attendance

Priest D. L., Karageorghis C. I., Sharp N. C. C.

Department of Sport Sciences Brunel University, West London, UK

Aim. The pur­pose of the ­present ­study was to inves­ti­gate the char­ac­ter­is­tics and ­effects of moti­va­tional ­music in ­British gym­nasia. The sec­on­dary pur­pose was to deter­mine ­whether the char­ac­ter­is­tics and ­effects of moti­va­tional ­music ­were invar­iant in rela­tion to ­gender, age, fre­quency of gym­na­sium atten­dance, and the ­time of day at ­which exer­cise par­tic­i­pants ­attended gym­nasia.
­Methods. Par­tic­i­pants (n=532) ­from 29 ­David ­Lloyd Leisure exer­cise facil­ities ­across ­Britain ­responded to a ques­tion­naire ­that was ­designed to ­assess ­music pref­er­ences ­during exer­cise via 2 ­open-­ended ques­tions and 1 ­scaled-­response ­item.
­Results. A con­tent anal­ysis of the ques­tion­naire ­data ­yielded 45 ana­lytic prop­er­ties ­that ­were ­grouped ­into the fol­lowing cat­e­go­ries: spe­cific ­music fac­tors, gen­eral ­music fac­tors, ­music pro­gramme fac­tors, ­delivery fac­tors, tele­visual fac­tors, per­sonal fac­tors, con­tex­tual fac­tors, and psy­cho­phys­ical ­response fac­tors. The rel­a­tive inci­dence of ­these ana­lytic prop­er­ties ­across ­gender ­groups (­male/­female), age ­groups (16-26 y, 27-34 y, 35-45 y, 46+ y), fre­quency of atten­dance ­groups (low, ­medium, ­high), and ­time of atten­dance ­groups (­morning, after­noon, eve­ning) was ­tested by use of χ2 anal­yses. Of the per­sonal var­i­ables ­tested, age ­exerted the ­greatest influ­ence on ­musical pref­er­ence ­during exer­cise; ­older par­tic­i­pants ­expressed a pref­er­ence for ­quieter, ­slower, and gen­er­ally ­less ­overtly stim­u­la­tive ­music.
Con­clu­sion. ­Music pro­grammes ­that are pre­scribed to accom­pany exer­cise ­should be ­varied in ­terms of ­musical ­idiom and ­date of ­release. ­Such pro­grammes ­will ­account for the pref­er­ences of dif­ferent ­groups of exer­cise par­tic­i­pants ­that ­attend gym­nasia at dif­ferent ­times of the day. Fur­ther, the ­music ­chosen ­should be char­ac­ter­ised by a ­strong rhyth­mical com­po­nent.