Work & Walk. Effects of the activity schedule on cognitive and psychological scales

Academic Paper , 2022 , 9 Pages , Grade: 1,0

Psychology - Work, Business, Organisation

In this paper, the question is asked whether the time of day of physical activity in the form of walking or otherwise during a typical workweek influences peoples responses to cognitive and psychological scales differently?

To get to the bottom of this question, an observational study was conducted with six participants (n = 6). The participants work full-time from Monday to Friday and were sent a questionnaire to their test smartphone at 8pm every day. The questionnaire contains different scales to measure three different dependent variables: well-being in the form of the MDMQ scale (Wilhelm and Schoebi 2007) - work engagement in the form of the UWES scale (Schaufeli et al. 2019) - attention vigilance in the form of the cognitive SART (Manly and Robertson 2005). It was found that subjective well-being increased significantly (.025) when participants were active at that day.

The rest of the paper is structured as follows. In part two, the theoretical foundations and literature on well-being and physical activity are presented. The hypothesis derived from the literature is stated and elaborated. In part three, the methodology underlying the study is explained in detail. In addition, the results of the well-being dimension are presented. In part four, the methodology of the study is discussed. Within part four, limitations of the study are presented and an outlook on possible future research areas is given.

1 Introduction

Many studies show that physical activity, in whatever form, has a positive influence on our lives and increases our well-being (Fox 1999). Also, new forms of therapy, which are suitable for everyday use, are gaining access to the field of medicine and healthcare. One of these, for example, is forest bathing, which invites people to actively engage with the forest and nature. The literature shows that well-being can be increased and stress, which is omnipresent in today's age, can be reduced through forest bathing (Hansen, Jones, and Tocchini 2017). Two studies show that nature walks have a positive effect on stress reduction and subjective well-being - moreover, they show that the more stressed the person, the greater the effect (Pasanen et al. 2018). These examples tell us that walking and activity in general have a positive impact on individuals. However, what often plays no or a very minor role in the various studies is the time of day at which the various activities (e.g. walking, jogging, gym workouts) are performed. With our mini study, we address this gap in research and try to fill it. Therefore, we ask the question, whether the time of day of physical activity in the form of walking or otherwise during a typical workweek influences peoples responses to cognitive and psychological scales differently?

To get to the bottom of this question, we conducted an observational study with six participants (n = 6). The participants work full-time from Monday to Friday and were sent a questionnaire to their test smartphone at 8pm every day. The questionnaire contains different scales to measure three different dependent variables:well-beingin the form of the MDMQ scale (Wilhelm and Schoebi 2007) -work engagementin the form of the UWES scale (Schaufeli et al. 2019) -attention vigilancein the form of the cognitive SART (Manly and Robertson 2005). We found that the subjective well-being increased significantly (.025) when participants were active at that day.

The rest of the paper is structured as follows. In part two, the theoretical foundations and literature on well-being and physical activity are presented. The hypothesis derived from the literature is stated and elaborated. In part three, the methodology underlying our study is explained in detail. In addition, the results of the well-being dimension are presented. In part four, the methodology of our study is discussed. Within part four, limitations of the study are presented and an outlook on possible future research areas is given.

2 Theoretical Foundations

2.1 Subjective well-being

The dimension of well-being is a very complex field of research and depends on the subjective perception of an individual. Different people assess their personal state very differently, which therefore makes it hard to bring the concept of well-being down to a common level. Most scientists define subjective well-being as the feeling of a high level of positive affect, a feeling of as little negative affect as possible, and an individual's satisfaction with his or her own life (Deci and Ryan 2008). The concepts of subjective well-being and happiness are strongly correlated - research suggests that maximizing subjective well-being also maximizes a person's sense of happiness (Deci and Ryan 2008).

In order to approach the complex concept of well-being, we must also make a distinction between emotion and mood. Moods influence our behavior only subtly and cannot be assigned to a specific trigger or event - the intensity of moods can be classified as low to medium and they can last from hours to a few days (Wilhelm and Schoebi 2007). In contrast to that, "most researchers would agree that emotions are short-term reactions to events or stimuli that manifest themselves in different subsystems of the organism (expression and behavior, physiology, subjective experience, and cognitions)" (Wilhelm and Schoebi 2007, 259).

Research provides a vast number of different dimensions within the concept of well-being: to name only a few, mental, social, economic, physical and spiritual well-being can be distinguished (Linton, Dieppe, and Medina-Lara 2016). Due to the scope of the paper, no attention will be paid to the individual dimensions in the remainder of the text. Instead, well­being will be understood as a general construct of a person's sense of ease and satisfaction.

2.2 Physical activity

In order to ensure that the variables within our study are formulated and discussed in an understandable way, it is necessary to define what we mean by physical activity. Physical activity is understood as any kind of movement produced by muscles that results in an output of energy within a body (Caspersen, Powell, and Christenson 1985). Every living being is physically active during its lifetime. Physical activity can be divided into different categories. A common and simple method of subdivision is the time when physical activity is performed: physical activity during sleep, during work and during leisure time (Caspersen et al. 1985). In the remainder of this paper, the focus lies on the dimension of physical activity during leisure time (e.g. walking, running, biking, gym-workout, others, not at all).

2.3 Relationship of physical activity and well-being

Many scientific studies have looked at the effects of physical activity on our health. There is much evidence that physical activity positively influences a person's overall well-being, including the various dimensions of well-being mentioned above (Fox 1999). Therefore, exercise is even used in treatment within the clinical setting, for example for treating patients suffering from depression or other mental diseases. In addition, physical activity reduces the chance of obesity and consequently suffering from diseases such as diabetes or various heart diseases (Fox 1999).

In a systematic literature review by Janssen et al. 2022, the authors go one step further and compare whether the timing of physical activity has an impact on a person's health condition. About one-third (n = 11) of the studies reviewed showed that physical activity in the morning provided greater health benefits than physical activity in the afternoon or evening. The second- third (n = 12) showed that the health benefits of physical activity in the morning were smaller compared to exercise in the afternoon or evening. The third-third (n = 12) of the papers studied showed that there was no difference in the time of day that physical activity occurred. Considering the current literature on the effect of physical activity on well-being and in order to get to the bottom of this ambiguity regarding timing of the day, we hypothesize thatphysical activity at different times during the day in relation to work shows a significant difference in well-being (H2).

3 Methods

The sample was recruited within the circle of acquaintances (friends and family of the authors). Some participants were provided with a test smartphone, others used their own android smartphone for the daily questionnaire. Since we do not carry out permanent physiological monitoring and therefore cannot measure physical activity during sleep, for example, we restrict ourselves exclusively to physical activity during leisure time. This also serves to be able to make a more precise statement. The sample consists exclusively of participants who perform their work mainly in a sitting position (office/home office) and do not perform any physical work during working hours. The initial demographic questionnaire, which had to be completed at the beginning of the study, asked about gender, age group, average frequency of physical activity (5-point-Likert-scale ranging from ‘never’ to ‘daily’) and contained a SART test run, to get familiar with the task for the following days. Due to some technical difficulties, we were ultimately able to recruit a total of six participants for the study (n = 6) - five of the participants were male and one was female. The age structure can be seen in table 1 and the frequency of physical activity can be seen in table 2. The study was conducted with movisensXS in German language and data was gathered over two weeks (Monday to Friday).

The questionnaire to be completed daily at 8pm by the sample included the following questions: Today's working hours (in hours); Today's work time spent sitting (in hours); Form of physical activity (walking, running, biking, gym-workout, others, not at all); Time of activity (pre work, during work in the lunch break, post work, not at all); Duration of activity (in hours); Two items on stress at work (7-point Likert-scale); SART cognitive test (Manly and Robertson 2005); UWES three items on work engagement (Schaufeli et al. 2019).

Well-being was measured with MDMQ, that accounts for valence (V), energetic arousal (E) and calmness (C): "At this moment I feel:" by means of six bipolar items, which were presented in the following order on one display: tired-awake (E+), content-discontent (V-), agitated-calm (C+), full of energy-without energy (E-), unwell-well (V+), relaxed-tense (C-). " (Wilhelm and Schoebi 2007). A clear overview of the different questions contained in the daily questionnaire can be found in appendix I.

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Tab. 2: Participant’s frequency of physical activity

As dependent variables we therefore identified well-being, work engagement and attention vigilance. Independent variables were working time (in hours), time spent sitting (in hours), physical activities (‘yes + duration’ or ‘no’) and the period of activity (before work, during work or after work). In the further course of the paper, only the dependent variable well-being will be considered.

3.1 Results

The results show that participants who engaged in physical activity were significantly (.005) more content and felt more comfortable (valance). In addition, the results show that participants who engaged in physical activity felt significantly (.017) calmer and more relaxed afterwards (calmness). Participants who engaged in physical activity were not significantly (.637) less energetic than participants who did not engage in physical activity (energetic arousal). Overall, participants who engaged in physical activity reported a significant (.025) improvement in well­being. The results are consistent with common findings from other studies. Still, our hypothesis that physical activity at different times during the day in relation to work shows a significant difference in well-being (H2) had to be rejected. There was no evidence found that the time of the day when physical activity was performed had any impact on the outcome of well-being. An overview of the results regarding the dependent variable well-being can be found in appendix II.

4 Discussion

That there was no evidence found that the time of the day when physical activity was performed has any impact on the outcome of well-being, might be due to the fact that participants did not engage with any physical activity pre or during work in our study. When performing physical activity, the participants did that after work. This lack of data makes it impossible to derive valid results in this regard. Nevertheless, the study clearly shows that physical activity has a positive impact on a person's well-being. Physical activity should be integrated into everyone's daily routine. It also pays off for companies to invest in such preventive measures and offers - as the literature shows, too little physical activity can lead to various diseases (Fox 1999). These can then have an impact on sick days and thus on costs within a company.

The results of our study should be treated with caution due to the size and homogeneity of the sample (n = 6; female = 1). Because it was an observational study design, there was no intervention. However, a well-designed intervention could also lead to an increase in well-being among participants, so future studies should integrate interventions. What must always be taken into account with self-reported data are biases and the general subjective perception of an individual. These influence a study and must therefore be regarded as a limitation. With the help of a comparison between self-report and, for example, a third-party report or objective measurements (e.g. HRV or stress level), these measurement inaccuracies could be eliminated.

In addition, the strength of the effect of the different physical activities (walking, running, biking, gym-workout, others) would be interesting to observe for future studies. These were not considered in our study, but could vary in magnitude.

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• Grade: 1,0
• Author: Alexander Mai (Author)
• Publication Year: 2022
• Pages: 9
• Catalog Number: V1297686
• ISBN (PDF): 9783346764027
• Language: English
• Tags: work, walk, effects