Zoey Sailer
Research Mentor(s): Celina Furman
Mentor Department: Psychology
Authors: Zoey Sailer, Jimmy Xiao, Celina Furman
Session: Session 4 (1:00pm – 1:50pm)
Presentation Type: Poster 84
Abstract
People have limited time to allocate toward various interests and demands in daily life. Often, more immediate demands are prioritized over those associated with longer-term health outcomes, such as exercise. Thus, understanding when exercise will be performed over competing demands is critical for promoting general health and well-being. Expectancy-value theory suggests that a behavior is increasingly likely to be performed if it has a higher subjective value; determined by its intrinsic, attainment, utility, and cost values in a given moment. Despite being conceptualized as a dynamic construct, a measurement scale that captures fluctuations in subjective value has yet to be developed. Thus, this research (1) developed a situated expectancy-value scale (SEVS) for exercise and (2) used a narrative approach to test how subjective value differed on days when people did vs. did not exercise. A subset of data were analyzed from undergraduate participants (n = 72) who intended to exercise in the prior week and had days when they both did and did not fulfill their intention. Latent profile analyses based on responses to the SEVS for each event type (did vs. did not exercise) revealed two classes of responding. Class 1 and 2 had similar ratings of several value components: utility and intrinsic values were higher and cost value was lower on days when exercise did vs. did not occur. However, Class 1 displayed unique maladaptive valuation tendencies (e.g., perceiving consequences of inaction, feeling dread, requiring high intensity) found by prior research to undermine behavioral engagement. In light of this observation, no significant difference in self-reported exercise was found between the two classes. Together, findings provide support for the SEVS’ ability to capture differences in subjective value within-person and across contexts. Follow-up research using time-intensive assessments of the SEVS will explore real-time fluctuations in subjective value and its association with subsequent exercise engagement.
