Personality Correlates of Physical Activity in College Women KATHRYN E. WILSON 1 , BHIBHA M. DAS 2 , ELLEN M. EVANS 3 , and RODNEY K. DISHMAN 3 1 Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise, Virginia Polytechnic and State University, Blacksburg, VA; 2 Department of Kinesiology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC; and 3 Department of Kinesiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA ABSTRACT WILSON, K. E., B. M. DAS, E. M. EVANS, and R. K. DISHMAN. Personality Correlates of Physical Activity in College Women. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 47, No. 8 pp. 1691–1697, 2015. Commonly reported relationships of the broad personality traits of extraversion and neuroticism with self-reports of physical activity (PA) have not been elaborated within motivational theory that posits how func- tioning of the behavioral inhibition (BIS) and activation (BAS) systems can explain or modify the influence of personality on PA. Whether personality predicts physical activity when it is measured objectively has not been established. Purpose: The study was aimed to test direct, indirect, and interactive relations between extraversion, neuroticism, BIS and BAS, and PA measured by validated self- report and accelerometry. Methods: Two samples of female undergraduates completed personality questionnaires. Sample 2 also completed three PA self-reports and wore an accelerometer for 7 d. Factor structure and measurement equivalence of personality measures, structural equivalence of relationships between personality factors, and multivariate prediction of self-reported and objectively measured PA by personality were tested using structural equation modeling. Results: Equivalence between samples for personality models was confirmed. Behavioral activation system predicted self-reported PA. Neuroticism and BIS predicted objectively measured PA. Conclusions: The relationship between personality and PA may differ according to method used to measure PA. Behavioral inhibition system seems to protect against inactivity among young women high in neuroticism. Key Words: ACCELEROMETER, BEHAVIORAL ACTIVATION AND INHIBITION, EXTRAVERSION, NEUROTICISM P hysical activity in the United States is below recom- mended levels and is a target of public health interven- tions, which often have modest success (20). Evidence from observational studies (31,40) indicates that personality explains some of the natural variation in physical activity, might help explain genetic influence on physical activity (6,34), and could modify the success of interventions to in- crease physical activity (10). Studies consistently report that extraversion and neuroti- cism, broad personality traits, are related to physical activity (31,40), but explanations for these relationship have only begun to be elaborated within motivational theory (24). Re- inforcement sensitivity theory (17,18) conceptualizes two orthogonal personality dimensions representing differences in the intensity of functioning of the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and the behavioral approach system (BAS), which offer trait descriptions that are reflective of reinforce- ment history and operate within the same conceptual space as extraversion and neuroticism (13). Trait level function- ing of the BIS corresponds to trait anxiety, whereas trait level functioning of the BAS corresponds to a propensity for behavior motivated by positive reinforcement and to accom- panying positive affective experience (17,18). Specific hy- potheses regarding the relationship between these two sets of orthogonal dimensions indicate that BIS should correlate negatively with extraversion and positively with neuroticism, and BAS should correlate positively with extraversion and neuroticism (17,18). The acute behavioral outputs of BIS and BAS suggest that their respective personality traits could plausibly be related to physical activity level (17,18). Nonetheless, there is a paucity of evidence regarding BIS/BAS and physical activity behavior. A cross-sectional study reported a small, positive relationship between BIS and a measure of inactivity, or sedentary behavior (38) and a small, negative relationship between inactivity and drive (a psychometric subfactor of BAS; (8) among 1014 undergraduates from four universities. Other authors have reported on the effects of BIS/BAS on subjective responses to acute exercise in a college-age sam- ple (19) and adolescents (33), their relation to exercise de- pendence in adults with unhealthy body change behaviors (27), and the role of punishment sensitivity (i.e., BIS) in the personality profile of adults involved in high-risk sports (14). It is unclear whether relationships reported are confounded by broader personality dimensions, such as extraversion and neuroticism, as there are currently no studies testing their interrelations relative to physical activity using multivariate analyses. Address for correspondence: Rodney K. Dishman, Ph.D., 330 River Rd, Athens, GA 30602; E-mail: rdishman@uga.edu. Submitted for publication August 2014. Accepted for publication November 2014. Supplemental digital content is available for this article. Direct URL cita- tions appear in the printed text and are provided in the HTML and PDF versions of this article on the journal_s Web site (www.acsm-msse.org). 0195-9131/15/4708-1691/0 MEDICINE & SCIENCE IN SPORTS & EXERCISE Ò Copyright Ó 2014 by the American College of Sports Medicine DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000000570 1691 APPLIED SCIENCES Copyright © 2015 by the American College of Sports Medicine. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.