Review and Reflection on Exercise Therapy in Psychology: A Forty-Years Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-954-4_8How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Exercise Therapy; Psychology; Bibliometric; Visualization

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the application of exercise therapy in the field of psychology. By systematically and comprehensively analyzing and synthesizing the research on exercise therapy since 1980, we aim to reveal the development of the field, the main research findings, the research hot-spots and the future development trend.Through bibliometrics and visual analyses of the relevant literature, we expect to provide a clear overview that will help researchers to better understand the importance of exercise therapy in psychology and its potential role in promoting mental health and well-being. A comprehensive search was conducted in the Web of Science Core Collection database using the keywords “exercise therapy” and “psychology.” The retrieved literature was then subjected to multidimensional visualization and analysis using the visualization analysis tools VOSviewer (version 1.6.20) and CiteSpace (version 6.4.R2). The present study comprehensively examined 1305 relevant publications. The study’s findings addressed the following aspects: (1) descriptive statistical analysis based on publications; (2) content analysis based on highly cited literature and keywords; and (3) author source and institution analysis based on highly cited literature. The bibliometric analysis of exercise therapy in psychology from 1980 to 2025 reveals a dynamic and rapidly evolving field, characterized by exponential growth in research output and expanding interdisciplisnary collaborations. The study identifies key research hotspots, including the application of exercise therapy in cardiovascular disease, obesity, geriatric care, and mental health interventions, with a notable shift toward personalized and multicomponent approaches in recent years. Despite these advancements, gaps remain, such as the need for long-term follow-up studies, cross-cultural validations, and comparative analyses of different exercise modalities. The dominance of Western countries in publication output underscores the importance of fostering global collaborations to enhance research diversity and inclusivity. Moving forward, future research should prioritize evidence-based protocols, innovative intervention designs, and the integration of exercise therapy into mainstream psychological treatment paradigms to optimize mental health outcomes

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Jiyixi Hua
AU  - Luyao Yang
AU  - Jie Song
AU  - Chengyang Lin
AU  - Xiangting Yang
AU  - Yaling Shang
AU  - Yunan Wu
AU  - Zheng Xu
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/29
TI  - Review and Reflection on Exercise Therapy in Psychology: A Forty-Years Bibliometric and Visualization Analysis
BT  - Proceedings of the Positive Psychology 2.0 International Conference 2025 (PP 2.0 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 101
EP  - 120
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-954-4_8
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-954-4_8
ID  - Hua2025
ER  -