SULTAN IDRIS EDUCATION UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
BACHELOR OF PSYCHOLOGY WITH HONOURS
SEMESTER 2 SESSION 2023/2024
LAB REPORT EXPERMENT 2
COURSE KSX3623 BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE EXPERIMENT
LECTURE’S
DR. SALAMI MUTIU OLAGOKE
NAME
GROUP 1
NO. STUDENT’S NAME STUDENT ID
1 IBRAHIM BIN ZAMHURI D20202096155
2 NOR ALYAA NAJWA BINTI RASMAN D20201092158
NUR ALEEYA SHAFIQAH ABDUL
3 D20201094495
LATIFF
4 SITI NUR DIDNI BINTI JEFFRI D20202097574
5 NURUL ASYIQIN BINTI NOOR AZNI D20202097572
6 WU WEI D20201095871
Running Head: PSYCHOEDUCATION AND PHYSICAL EXERCISE ON BODY WEIGHT
PSYCHOEDUCATION AND PHYSICAL EXERCISE ON BODY WEIGHT
NUR ALEEYA SHAFIQAH ABDUL LATIFF
NURUL ASYIQIN NOOR AZNI
NOR ALYA NAJWA RASMAN
SITI NUR DINI JEFFRI
IBRAHIM ZAMHURI
WU WEI
UPSI
2
Abstract
This experiment aimed to investigate the effect of psychoeducation and physical exercise on
students' body weight. Psychoeducation refers to an educational and therapeutic approach that
provides individuals with comprehensive information or strategies related to specific
behavioral issues. In this experiment, a lecturer psycho-educate the participants regarding
neuro-emotional, physical exercise and role of brain and hormone. Physical exercise encompasses
all movement, whether for recreation, transportation to and from places. In this experiment, the
participant needed to undergo brisk walk for their physical exercise. Therefore, the independent
variable is psychoeducation which includes discussions about the importance of exercises and
their mechanisms and physical exercise which is brisk walk. Dependent variable was measure
through body weight being calculated before and after exercises. In this experiment, hypotheses
include that psychoeducation and physical exercise has no significant impact on body weight.
Convenience sampling is used where 6 participants agreed to be part of this experiment for 10
days using a weight scale to measure their body weight. Procedures include psychoeducation
conducted by a lecturer in charge for Behavioural Science Experiment discussing importance
of exercises and participants need to do brisk walk as their type of exercise for an hour each
day. Their body weight is measured before the exercise and calculated again after completing
exercise for 10 days using a weight scale. From the experiment’s results, participants were
able to reduce their body weight efficiently. Hence, our hypothesis that saying psychoeducation
and physical exercise brings no significant impact on body weight is rejected.
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Psychoeducation and physical exercise on body weight
Everybody has a different weight and height that would affect their body mass index (BMI),
and for a normal BMI, it will range from 18.5 to 22.9 (Ministry of Health Malaysia, 2023, p.
24). Lifestyle activity, food consumption, and genetics will affect the body weight. The aim of
this experiment is to examine if psychoeducation and physical exercise would help in weight
reduction for seven days by exercising. The independent variables for this experiment are
psychoeducation and physical exercise, and the dependent variable is the body weight changes
before and after the experiment. Psychoeducation is defined as "systematic, structured, didactic
information on the illness and its treatment, including the integration of emotional aspects to
enable patients and family members to cope with the illness (Srivastava & Panday, 2016)." The
operational definition of psychoeducation that has been share by a lecturer can also mean
teaching the participant specific coping skills to do physical exercise that can be used to manage
weight. Also, we were required to get the weight before and after the experiment has been
conducted to see the difference in weight loss within those seven days. Physical exercise is
define by WHO (World Health Organization, 2018) as any body movement produced by
skeletal muscles that involves energy expenditure. Physical exercise encompasses all
movement, whether for recreation, transportation to and from places, or as part of a person's
job. The operational definition of physical exercise means that we follow the new routine
actively by exercising for at least 40 minutes a day.
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For many psychiatric diseases, psychoeducation is a well-established, evidence-based
intervention. Psychoeducation programmes, regardless of their form, are very cost-effective
and significantly reduce relapse, improve individual outcomes and the course of illness, and
improve family functioning and other social relationships (Oldham et al., 2014). The practice
will provide individuals with information and expertise about a certain psychological or
behavioral topic in order to increase understanding and empower them to make informed
decisions. Psychoeducation and physical exercise affect body weight by educating individuals
about the importance of physical exercise and its impact on body weight management. In this
context, psychoeducation may include information on the relationship between physical
exercise and weight control, the advantages of regular physical exercise, strategies for
incorporating exercise into daily routines, and advice on setting realistic goals. Its goal is to
provide people with the knowledge and skills they need to adopt and maintain a physically
active lifestyle for optimal weight management that can empower people to make healthier
choices and engage in regular physical exercise to help them achieve their weight-loss
objectives.
It is important to be mindful of how physical exercise and psychoeducation can affect
one in motivating one to a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Study proved that combining
components such as physical exercise and psychoeducation can help people in a positive way.
Therefore, a study conducted by Sofie and her colleague in 2021 using these two components
in their study shows positive results especially in helping people with early dementia. Around
44 participants were involved and were asked to join an exercise prepared for one hour and a
half together with participating in a group therapy for an hour which aims to educate them
about dementia diseases. The participants gave positive feedback by expressing that
psychoeducation helps them gain deeper understanding of their root illness and is able to obtain
much benefit from the session (Sophie, et.al 2021). Besides, physical exercises also help in
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terms of fitness and give much strength to carry daily tasks. Thus, interventions like this not
only helps in addressing one to be aware of their condition state but also encourages one to
change their perspective and move forward to maintain a well-balanced style.
The study of “Long-term psychoeducation in limiting body mass gain in patients treated
with atypical antipsychotics” from Więckiewicz and Jaworska (2021) was to assess efficacy of
psychoeducation in limiting body mass gain in patients with schizophrenia undergoing atypical
antipsychotics monotherapy treatment. Patients with schizophrenia were enrolled in the
teaching programme Caring for Health and Silhouette, which was commissioned by Moneo
Pharma Group. The study shows that patients who were overweight and on atypical
antipsychotics saw a reduction in their body mass index after participating in an education
programme. During the teaching programme, individuals with a body mass index (BMI) of 30
or above were more likely to see a decrease in their weight than other patients. One way to
estimate how much weight will change during the course of an education programme is to look
at how well participants cooperated during the first two visits. The clinical setting is well-suited
to this form of instruction (Więckiewicz & Jaworska, 2021) .
The study conducted by Sanaeinasab et al. examines the efficacy of a psycho-educational
intervention in managing weight among obese military personnel. The sample comprised 75
male military personnel. The psycho-educational intervention in the experiment was based on
the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) and consisted of ten educational sessions. These sessions
focused on various elements of modifying behaviour, including self-confidence, societal
empowerment, and reward control. The main objective of the intervention was to facilitate
individuals' progression through the various stages of change, starting from pre-contemplation
and ultimately reaching maintenance. Information was gathered at the initial stage, 2 months
later, and 4 months later following the intervention. The findings demonstrated substantial
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enhancements in weight, waist circumference, and BMI from the initial measurement to the
final evaluation. There was a notable shift from the initial stages of preparation to the
subsequent stages of taking action in the assessments. Nevertheless, there were no significant
alterations observed in the individual components of the change construct process from the
initial assessment to the 2-month follow-up. The study indicates that implementing a psycho-
educational intervention grounded in the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) can effectively address
weight management among obese military personnel.
A study done by Kamila C., Anna B. and Anna S. in 2020 examines the effect of a web-
based psychoeducation on emotional functioning, eating behaviors, and body image among
premenopausal women with excess body weight. This study aims to find the effectiveness of
web-based psychoeducation for emotional functioning, eating behaviours, and body image
among premenopausal women with excess body weight and to compare the efficacy of two
types of web-based psychoeducation. The participants of this study are 129 premenopausal
women with tha range age between 18 to 48 years old. The participants were recruited by
convenience sampling and were selected by including inclusion criteria to select the
participants. The study was carried out in Poland. The materials used were 5 questionnaires;
the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, the
Mindful Eating Scale, the Three-factor Eating Questionnaire and the Body Attitude Test and 3
psychoeducation modules; Emotional Functioning Module, Eating Behaviors Module and
Body Image Module. The study used randomized group experimental design. The procedure
of this study includes giving the baseline questionnaire, giving intervention by
psychoeducation, and a measurement of weight and other factors in the last day of the
experiment (Day 76). The results showed that there was a significant increase in emotion
regulation and mindful eating, as well as a decrease in emotional eating, uncontrolled eating,
negative appreciation of body size, lack of familiarity with one’s body, and the experiencing of
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negative emotions in both experimental groups (Kamila et. al.. 2020).
Previous research has demonstrated that psychoeducation and physical exercise have a
significant impact on physical weight changes characterized by a healthier and more active
lifestyle in a day and conditions that are influence by levels of cognitive function, such as
excitement to do the physical exercise repeatedly. Consequently, the results of this experiment
provide substantial support for the assumption posited, which aimed to investigate the impact
of psychoeducation and physical exercise on an individual's physical weight. The prevailing
hypothesis in the literature is that psychoeducation and physical exercise do not have a
significant impact on an individual's body weight.
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Method
Participants
The participants consisted of two male and four female undergraduate students ranging from
age 21 to 24 years old from UPSI from Faculty of Human Development. Convenience
sampling techniques used to select the participants around the campus and commit to undergo
the experiment within seven days. We approached the students on the availability to take part
in the experiment, which was held at the participant’s hometown area that is suitable for
physical exercise. Experiment Lab 3, Human Development Faculty on the Sultan Azlan Shah
Campus. The only exception to consider in participating is they should not have taken this
experiment before. They gave their full cooperation willingly in this experiment.
Material
The material used in this experiment is weighing scales. The weighing scale was used to
measure the participant weight before and after the brisk walk exercise being conducted.
Experimental Condition
The research consisted of participants engaging in brisk walking exercises within their
designated residential areas, which were selected based on their appropriateness for such
physical activities. A few of the participants opt for playgrounds that are equipped with run-
tracks, while others choose the vicinity of small roads within their residential areas. The
WhatsApp group placed significant emphasis on the imperative of maintaining the safety and
well-being of participants throughout the duration of the experiment.
Protocol
To conduct this experiment, psychoeducation was given by the lecturer in Psychology. The
lecturer provided instruction to the participants regarding the interplay between neuro-
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emotional and physical exercise, with a particular focus on the role of the amygdala and frontal
lobe. He indicates that emotional states play a significant role in influencing the behaviour and
decision-making process related to engaging in physical exercise. Moreover, it is important to
note that the brain's reward system plays a significant role in influencing the behaviour of
individuals participating in physical exercise within the context of this experiment. After the
psychoeducation was given, participants measured their body weight before engaging in brisk
walking exercise. Then, participants have the opportunity to start their brisk walk exercise
within the confines of their residential areas. To meet the requirements of the study,
participants are instructed to engage in a brisk walking exercise for a duration of one hour per
day, consistently for a period of seven consecutive days. Subsequently, the weight is
reassessed after the end of the brisk walk exercise.
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Results
Table 1 shows the data of the participants weight before the experiment begins and after the
experiment is done. The differences column indicates how much weight the participant lost
after the experiment. The least differences– or weight loss was 0.5kg while the most weight
loss was 1.8kg, showing a huge difference between these two participants' weight loss in a
week. The average difference of weight by all participants is 1.18kg.
Participant Gender Pre-Weight (kg) Post-Weight (kg) Difference
(kg)
Participant A Female 99.1 97.3 1.8
Participant B Male 55.7 54.1 1.6
Participant C Female 76.5 75.1 1.4
Participant D Female 49.9 49.0 0.9
Participant E Female 38.2 37.3 0.9
Participant F Male 66.0 65.5 0.5
Table 1
Data collection on the pre-weight and post-weight of the participants
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Discussions
It has reached the stage where student’s health is being negatively impacted by the amount of
time they devote to academic work, extracurricular activities, and other commitments as
students. When they were not engaged in physical exercise, they favoured spending their leisure
time recuperating. As a consequence, a significant number of them struggle with their weight
and are perpetually restless as a result of their inactivity. Therefore, our experiment aims to
examine the effect of psychoeducation and physical exercise on body weight that we believe
would help students to maintain their fitness. Physical exercise involves any kind of movement
that causes muscle tension and sweats. Our teammates decided to do a brisk walk for around
an hour a day for about 10 days during the holiday. From the experiment that we did earlier, it
is proven that even a simple activity like brisk walk has brought such benefits to our health in
shaping our fitness.
Before the experiment started by doing exercises, psychoeducation had been conducted
by Dr.Salami, our lecturer in charge of the Behavioural Science Experiment course.
Psychoeducation is a type of intervention that focuses on strategies that can help to improve
one’s quality of life by educating about the causes, benefits, coping styles and guidance to
handle them (Prashant & Rishi,2016). There are two types of psychoeducation which are active
models, the intervention involves engaging with psychotherapy such as Cognitive Behavioural
Therapy (CBT) in which they would be exposed to homework and relaxation exercises. Passive
psychoeducation involves educating and spreading awareness through lectures or notes. In the
experiment earlier, our type of psychoeducation is a passive model to which our classmates
have been lectured by Dr. Salami about the importance of exercise to which can help one based
on biological and psychological explanation.
From the results above, we can see that most of us managed to reduce our body weight
when engaging with brisk walking for about 10 days for around an hour. Therefore, we can
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conclude that the biggest impact that exercise can do is to help in reducing body weight. When
one does exercise as a way to reduce body weight, people find that they are able to achieve
their goal in getting their desired body image which in turn makes them feel attractive and
confident in their new image (Mohammed Abou,2016). This mechanism can also be explained
to which people feel much more control of their behaviour and makes them feel good as they
are doing something nice for their physical and mental health. Moreover, according to Jill
Cressy (2011), students that engage with moderate exercise have low levels of tension and are
more active compared to who doesn’t. Hence, physical exercise is positively associated with
health factors which can help in increasing brain activity and hormones, lower stress and
anxiety level as well as improve one’s concentration.
As mentioned earlier, exercise can help in increasing one’s hormones, to be specific, it
can increase the level of dopamine. Dopamine is a beneficial hormone which can give pleasure
and reward thus can motivate one to engage in a specific behaviour and be able to carry out
tasks more energetically (Yumeng, et.al.,2021). The release of dopamine also helps to regulate
one’s emotion thus can help to promote a positive mood . Most of the students struggle with
feeling motivated during the class and always restless due to lack of dopamine level. As a result,
they easily lose concentration and could not give their best potential during the class. Indeed,
increases in dopamine are beneficial to students. According to Jill Cressy (2011), students that
engage with moderate exercise are more active compared to who doesn’t. Other physiological
benefits also involve hormones such as increasing testosterone level and endorphins level, that
help in metabolism to function properly.
There are several limitations identified throughout this experiment, among them is the
weather factor. Unpredictable weather conditions, such as rain, pose challenges for our group
participants in engaging in physical exercise due to the resulting damp and wet surroundings.
Regrettably, we were unable to carry out the exercise as usual on sunny days. Furthermore, one
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of our teammates was in a deteriorating physical condition due to the presence of a persistent
cough and a common cold. The factor of insufficient food intake caused by the disease can also
lead to a reduced body weight that is less influenced by physical exercise. He did the exercise
but might not be in his full potential form.
Our experiment presents evidence that a comprehensive strategy involving
psychoeducation and physical exercise produces favorable results for the management of body
weight. This comprehensive strategy shows potential for persons looking for a thorough and
enduring method to enhance both their mental and physical well-being. Hence, our hypothesis
for this experiment was being rejected as both psychoeducation and physical exercise
influenced to reduce body weight. In conclusion, further research study needs to be explored
in the long-term of physical exercise and long-term of psychoeducation intervention to study
the body weight of an individual.
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Appendix
