Psychobiology of Physical Activity : Integration at Last !

P is defined here as the integrative study of behavior from the social, cognitive, and biological levels of analysis. This is a broad scientific field that encompasses psychophysiol­ ogy, psychoneuroendocrinology, psychoneuroim­ munology, physiological psychology, behavioral genetics, and several areas of neuroscience. The struggle for integration between mind­ focused and body-focused approaches within all branches of psychology has been long and arduous. It could be argued that, when examined from a historical perspective, the integrative psychobiological approach has enjoyed modest popularity within psychology and exercise sci­ ence and has not yet lived up to its full potential for informational yield. This appears to be the result of an interesting paradox, with consider­ ably more researchers seemingly willing to extol the wondrous advantages of integrative research than to undertake truly integrative and systematic psychobiological research. In his presidential address, delivered during the first meeting of the Society for Psychophysiologi­ cal Research on September 5,1961, and later pub­ lished in the inaugural issue of the journal Psycho­ physiology, Chester Darrow (1964) acknowledged that psychophysiology had not had the impact that the psychophysiologists themselves had envisioned. Nevertheless, he expressed the hope that, one day, "psychophysiology will be able to define so-called 'mental mechanisms' in psycho­ neurophysiological terms" (p. 7). He continued by stating that "then no longer as in decades past, will indulgent 'pure' psychologists supercil­ iously inquire 'what has neurology or physiology revealed of importance regarding the working of the mind? ''' (p. 7). In the same issue and along similar lines, Albert Ax (1964) admitted that "few of the physiological referents for psychological concepts are known in detail" (p. 9). Expressing a similar sentiment a few years later, in his presi­ dential address to the American Psychosomatic Society on March 21, 1970, John Mason (1970) stated that "realistically, we must face the fact that the psychosomatic approach has not as yet had the sweeping, revolutionary impact on medicine of which it appears capable" (p. 427). In contrast to these earlier views, however, contemporary assessments seem to reflect the substantial progress that has taken place in the interim. Taking stock of the achievements of modern psychophysiology, for example, Cacioppo, Tassinary, and Berntson (2000) noted that, although "there are undoubtedly psychologi­ cal, social, and cultural phenomena whose secrets are not yet amenable to physiological analyses" (p. 4), "psychophysiological research has provided insights into almost every facet of human nature" (p.5). Arguably, progress also has been made in the integrative psychobiological study of human func­ tioning within the contexts of exercise and sport. In the first comprehensive proposal for a psycho­ physiological orientation in sport psychology, Hatfield and Landers (1983) noted that "very few problem areas within sport and motor behavior have seen . psychophysiological approaches systematically applied" (p. 243). More than a