Measuring Attitudes Toward Physical Activities - Assignment Example

Results Inter-correlation of the 10 items This study used 10 items in measuring the attitude of respondents towards physical exercise in relation to health. The inter-correlation mean and standard deviation of the ten items is as summarized in table 1. From the table it can be seen that some of the items had negative inter-correlation while others had positive inter-correlation. The strongest positive correlation it can be seen from the table it was between item 4 and item 2 with a correlation of 0.532 which was statistically significant at 0.05. Item 4 involved respondents responding to the statement that poor physical health is a serious societal problem while item 2 needed response to a statement that being physically healthy could translate to reduction in health complications in ones future. The high correlation could be attributed to the fact that the statements could be regarded as common knowledge to many people and thus majority of respondent were in agreement. The strongest negative correlation was between item 8 and item 4 with a correlation of -0.496. The negative correlation between the two variables can be attributed to the fact that the two statement can be taken as being the opposite sense of each other. As it has been seen earlier item 4 recognized the importance of physical health while item 8 in contrast belittles the need of physical health and that there are far greater things that should be worried about other than physical health. This means that those in agreement with item 4 are likely to be in disagreement of item 8. Item 7 and item 3 are also negatively correlated with a correlation -0.471. Table 1: Summary of Inter-correlations between the 10 items used to measures attitudes to physical activities. Correlations Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Item 4 Item 5 Item 6 Item 7 Item 8 Item 9 Item 10 M SD 1 Item 1 - 3.93 .594 2 Item 2 .076 - 4.47 .743 3 Item 3 .232 -.023 - 3.60 .828 4 Item 4 .018 .532* .264 - 4.07 .458 5 Item 5 -.105 .201 -.105 .137 - 4.13 .990 6 Item 6 .281 .276 -.059 .165 .071 - 4.07 .884 7 Item 7 -.303 .072 -.471 -.109 .189 .203 - 1.87 1.246 8 Item 8 .201 -.248 -.052 -.496 -.459 -.012 .017 - 3.20 1.320 9 Item 9 -.214 -.305 -.135 -.231 .116 .091 -.055 .430 - 2.27 1.534 10 Item 10 -.341 .109 .294 -.089 -.020 .092 .211 -.092 -.106 - 3.67 1.175 *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). Inter-correlations of IPIP-NEO items The summary of inter-correlation of the IPIP-NEO of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism with the total attitude scores are as summarized in table 2. From the table it can be seen that the strongest correlation is between extraversion and openness with a correlation of 0.732 which is statistically significant at 0.01. There is also statistically significant positive correlation between agreeableness and conscientiousness with a correlation of 0.577 (p0.05). This is an indication that a high score in neuroticism means a lower score in extraversion and vice versa. It is also noted from the table that the total attitude scale (Total) is not significantly correlated to any of the IPTIP-NEO items even though the strongest correlation of 0.357 is seen with Neuroticism. In terms of means the highest mean for the IPIP-NEO is for extraversion with 54.07 (SD=22.638) mean closely followed by a mean of 49.47 for agreeableness. The smallest mean was 35.40 for neuroticism (SD=22.077) Table 2 Summary of Intercorrelations, Means, and Standard Deviations for Scores University Students on the IPIP-NEO Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism Scales, with the Total Attitude Scale. Correlations 1 2 3 4 5 6 M SD 1 Total - 35.27 3.240 2 Openness -.247 - 41.87 32.401 3 Conscientiousness .114 .233 - 47.00 29.272 4 Extraversion -.039 .732** .464 - 54.07 22.638 5 Agreeableness .299 .358 .577* .430 - 49.47 30.734 6 Neuroticism .357 -.107 -.226 -.393 -.345 - 35.40 22.077 *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Discussion In this study it was expected that there would be positive correlation between conscientiousness and Neuroticism and favourable attitudes towards physical health. In both cases it was found that there was a positive correlation but the correlations were not strong and were also not statistically significant. It was seen that while for neuroticism the correlation was 0.357 that for conscientiousness was found to be very weak at 0.114. The expectation that conscientiousness and favourable attitudes towards physical health is backed by meta-analysis which was presented by Bogg and Rodgers (2004) where it was reported hat conscientiousness was to have positive correlation with many behaviours that are health related and this was also confirmed by Raynor and Levine (2009) on college students study. Further support of this relationship was from Parks and Guay (2009) who established that people with high conscientiousness score would have tendency to put high value on their safety and security. This could lead to such people having concern on the effect of their physical health and so positive attitude towards the need of undertaking physical exercises. Positive correlation between neuroticism and attitudes towards physical health is predicted from the evidence given by Watson, Gameza, and Simm (2005) with his findings that scores on neuroticism train had a correlation with having excessive concern for cleanliness and general fears on health. In this study we have seen that the correlations are very weak more so for the case between the total attitude score and conscientiousness. This means that there is need to have a close scrutiny of the attitudes scores. In the 10 items used in coming up with the total scores it was seen that we had items which were positively phrased and those that were negatively phrased. A positively phrased item would yield a high score for those who have positive attitude towards promotion of physical health while the negatively phrased will have a lower score for the same case where one has a positive attitude towards physical health promotion. In this case the total score was made not putting into consideration the manner in which the questions were phrased and this could have led to the distortion of the true total score. This in short requires the reversing of the scores in the negatively phrased items. The type of questions that the researcher used could have also failed to obtain the desired information from the respondents. When the respondents were asked to respond to the statement that they were angry with people who are not in good physical health it was expected that those with positive attitude would have a high score on this item. But a close scrutiny of the statement and the responses given seem to disagree with the initial assumption. This is because being angry with another person may be considered by some people to be a personal weakness and thus some of the responded who have positive attitude to physical health could have been in disagreement with this statement. Having a statement like “ I sympathize with people who are not physically healthy” could have been agreeable with many respondents with positive attitude towards physical health. Another statement that could have not brought out the intended result is about the gyms not being expensive and the government introducing “fat tax”. About the expensiveness of the gym, one need to be sure that the sample being dealt with may find gym expenses being unaffordable. The respondent may well be having access to exercising facilities and thus gym cost reduction to them does not relate to increasing the number of people who will keep fit. Having ‘fat tax’ may be found by many to be ridiculous even those who have positive attitude toward physical fitness. The sample size is also important in achieving the desired results. With sample of only 15 the outcome could have been affected negatively and thus any future similar study should have a higher number of respondents. References Bogg, T., & Roberts, B. W. (2004). Conscientiousness and health-related behaviours: A meta-analysis of the leading behavioural contributors to mortality. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 887–919. doi: 00006823-200411000-00003 Raynor, D. A., & Levine, H. (2009). Associations between the Five-Factor Model of personality and health behaviors among college students. Journal of American College Health, 58, 73-81. doi: 19592356 Parks, L., & Guay, R.P. (2009). Personality, values, and motivation. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 675-684. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.06.002 Watson, D., Gameza, W., & Simm, L. J. (2005). Basic dimensions of temperament and their relation to anxiety and depression: A symptom-based perspective. Journal of Research in Personality, 39, 46–66. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2004.09.006 Read More