Purpose. The aim of the study was: (1) to investigate changes in mood and chosen personality traits in women participating in a 12-week exercise program; (2) to establish relationships between mood and personality traits; (3) to find personality factors predicting mood changes. Basic procedures. Subjects included 39 healthy female volunteers, aged 18-43, participating in a 12-week aerobic exercise program. The aerobics classes lasted 50 min each, including warm-up and cool-down, three times a week. Assessments of mood (UMACL by Matthews, Chamberlain & Jones), trait anxiety (STAI by Spielberger et al.), self-efficacy (GSES by Schwarzer, Jerusalem & Juczyński) and dispositional optimism (LOT-R by Scheier, Carver & Bridges) were obtained in the first and last weeks of the program. Main findings. The obtained results showed that (1) subjects' mood improved following the 12-week aerobic exercise program - tense arousal decreased, whereas hedonic tone and energetic arousal increased; (2) personality traits changed toward better personal adjustment: trait anxiety decreased, self-efficacy and optimism increased; (3) there were no significant relationships between changes in positive mood dimensions (hedonic tone and energetic arousal) and the negative one (tense arousal); (4) there were no correlations between mood changes and personality changes, but mood correlated with trait anxiety, self-efficacy and optimism in both measurements. Conclusions. Mood of healthy adult women improves significantly following a three-month aerobic exercise program, irrespective of positive changes in personality traits.
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