| Summary: | Limited research has been conducted into Canadian gay males
and how they attempt to change their bodies by lifting weights.
Nine self-identifying gay males provided details of their
experience through in-depth interviews. Flanagan's (1954)
critical incident technique was used to investigate changes in
each participant's exercising behaviour. From these interviews,
11 helping categories emerged which were composed of 51 incidents
or events which assisted these individuals in changing their
exercising patterns. The most frequently reported incidents
included injury or illness, an attitude shift, participation in
other activities, changing workout plans or goals, switching gyms
or distance from gyms, and establishing a relationship with a
lover.
A prominent result of this research points to the
similarities of experiences. Six categories of critical incidents
were reported by more than 25% of the participants interviewed
while five categories of critical incidents had less than 25%
participation rate. The validity of the categories was checked by
two independent raters, by cross checking the categories with
most of the participants, by the exhaustiveness of the
participation rate and by identifying related literature to
support this study.
Counsellors will hopefully benefit from this research which
attempts to determine appropriate therapeutic techniques and interventions for this particular group.
The result of this research also contributes to the field of
Counselling Psychology by providing a system of categories or
themes that describe a particular group of self-identifying gay
males' perspective on what events or incidents influenced them to
bring about change to their exercising programs. === Education, Faculty of === Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of === Graduate
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