Social Identity Theory in Campus Recreation: Examining Organizational and Exercise Identification Among Recreation Center Users

Social identity theory is often used in commercial settings to provide a basis for psychographic market segmentation. This usage has led to the development of organization identification in traditional business settings. Campus recreation is unique in that the primary product of consumption is exercise. In describing exercise behavior, social identity theory has been applied to explain the unique psychological attachments exercisers have to their exercise behavior. This application of social identity theory created the exercise identity construct. The purpose of this study was to examine social identity theory in campus recreation. Specifically, this study investigated the correlation between frequency of cardio exercise, group fitness, informal recreation, intramurals, and weight exercise and organization and exercise identification in a recreation center. One hundred ninety-three student recreation center users were surveyed using Anderson and Cychosz\u27s (1994) exercise identity scale, Mael and Ashforth\u27s (1992) organizational identity scale and various demographic and exercise behavior questions. It was hypothesized that increased frequency of participation in the five areas of the recreation center would correlate with an individual\u27s level of recreation and exercise identification. The results of this study revealed that more frequent use of cardio exercise and informal recreation lead to the highest levels of recreation identification. While, higher frequency of participation in cardio exercise, intramurals and weight exercise lead to higher levels of exercise identification. It was also discovered that exercise identity did not relate to recreation identity. Finally, it was found that individuals that visited the recreation center with other people were more likely to identify themselves as exercisers. These results suggest that recreation center users have two types of social identity that influence their future behaviors with respect to recreation center use. Furthermore, these two types of identification are uniquely influenced by recreation center programming