You can't always get what you want: A self-determination based examination of the difference between implicit and explicit outcome expectations and their influence on exercise adherence.

When people begin exercise they do so for a variety of reasons. Some of the reasons they are willing to make public, some they are not. We are interested in finding out if the motivational characteristics of the 'public' or 'explicit' expectations of exercise are different from the 'private' or 'implicit' expectations of exercise. In fact, we specifically posit that the 'explicit' reasons will display more desireable motivational characteristics whereas the 'implicit' expectations will display more controlling characteristics that are likely to undermine exercise adherence. We further believe that the non-acheivement of the implicit outcomes will have a negative influence on exercise persistence. Finally, we plan to develop imagery based interventions that will enhance the motivational characteristics of all the outcome expectations and so improve exercise adherence by reducing the negative effects of not getting what we want.