19.1: Introduction to the Field

The psychological components of sport have been something of interest for people dating back to the late 19^th century. Understanding how people perform in unique sport situations, exploring athletes’ state- and trait-like psychological factors, and helping coaches be effective in their techniques are all areas of early focus for the field. Sport psychology is defined as the scientific study of people and their behaviors in sport settings and the application of that knowledge (Gill et al., 2017). This definition is noticeably broad and does not put the academic discipline of sport psychology into a narrow area. It is worth noting in the definition that sport psychology involves both people (and all that is nested within people) and the behaviors that people engage in during sport participation.

Previous scholars have noted that there are two main objectives for studying sport psychology. The first objective is to understand how psychological factors might impact sport performance (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). An example research project for the first objective might be concerned with how anxiety affects an athlete before a game or how motivation affects the practice habits of elite athletes. Both of these example projects frame a psychological mechanism as a potential antecedent to the sport experience. In both cases, a researcher might hypothesize that the antecedent affects sport performance. The second objective of sport psychology is understanding how being an active participant in sport might affect an individuals’ psychological well-being or health (Weinberg & Gould, 2019). Researchers who study this objective could be concerned with issues like how sport participation might influence character development in athletes. Researchers could also be interested in examining if high levels of sport participation lead to burnout in athletes. In this case, sport participation is the antecedent and the various psychological consequences can be viewed as the outcomes.

Many subfields have developed in sport psychology over the decades the field has been in existence. Overall, the subfields still fit the guiding definition of sport psychology but are more refined in the research questions that might be studied. We present the subfields below not as exclusive categories, but as general guiding groupings.

19.1.1. Social Aspects of Sport Psychology

Sport rarely happens in a social vacuum. Even individual sports have coaches, officials, training partners, and competitors. This constant social impact is something that researchers have studied and continue to explore today. Some examples of research in the social aspects of sport psychology includeworking to understand under which social conditions athletes in relay teams work harder or have effort losses in elite competition (Hüffmeier et al., 2017). Researchers interested in social psychology of sport could also be focused on how the social ties between members of sports teams affect the social identity that individual athletes experience (Graupensperger et al., 2020). There are many exciting topics in this text that cover the social aspects of sport participation in Chapter 25 (Cotterill & Fransen, 2021), Chapter 26 (Kim et al., 2021), and Chapter 30 (Rumbold & Didymus, 2021).

19.1.2. Motivation in Sport Psychology

The attempt to understand sport motivation has been one of the driving factors behind the development of sport psychology as a field. Entire textbooks are dedicated to understanding the motivation of athletes under the unique condition of sport (see Roberts & Treasure, 2012). Motivation research is often rooted in theoretical perspectives such as social cognitive theory(Bandura, 1986), self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2002), achievement goal theory (Nicholls, 1984), and many others. There is some cross-theoretical research that is conducted, but it is less common than studies that focus on extensions of existing research paradigms. Motivation could be viewed as an outcome of other individual and group level processes as Pacewicz and colleagues (2020) demonstrated with their recent work. Motivation can also be examined as an antecedent to other variables related to sport participation. Motivation also has negative components like perfectionism and burnout that are often studied from the sporting lens. See Chapters 27 (Hepler et al., 2021) and Chapter 28 (Madigan, 2021) for more information about motivation in sport psychology.

19.1.3. Individual Differences in Sport Psychology

There are a variety of individual differences that could affect sports performance. Some of the key variables to consider could be self-presentation anxiety, core self-perceptions (e.g., self-confidence, personality constructs, or self-esteem), or perfectionism. Some of the listed variables and concepts overlap with material in the applied sport psychology section, clinical sports psychology section, and the motivation in sport psychology section. However, some researchers might view these variables as stand-alone research concepts that are nested within individuals. For example, Hill and colleagues (2018) conducted a meta-analytic review evaluating the multidimensional perfectionism model in sport. In this text, individual differences are covered in Chapter 22 (Englert et al., 2021) and Chapter 29 (Didymus et al., 2021).

19.1.4. Psychological Skills in Sport Psychology (Applied Sport Psychology)

There are many journals and books that are dedicated to the understanding of psychological skills that athletes use to maximize their sport performance. Research in this area focuses on skills such as self-talk, imagery, goal setting, arousal management, and a host of others. The field typically conceptualizes these skills as foundational for performing well in a sporting context. The Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, The Sport Psychologist, Case Studies in Sport and Exercise Psychology, and the Journal of Sport Psychology in Action are all popular peer-reviewed journals where new research in applied sport psychology is published. There are many books that are focused on applied issues in sport psychology, however, the most impressive is likely Applied Sport Psychology: Personal Growth to Peak Performance by Jean Williams and Vikki Krane (2021). In this text, Chapter 20 (Rymal et al., 2021), Chapter 22 (Englert et al., 2021), Chapter 23 (Karageorghis et al., 2021), and Chapter 33 (Moyle, 2021) deal with applied issues in sport psychology.

19.1.5. Youth Development and Sport Psychology

Youth sport is a common area of interest for sport psychology researchers. In the United States alone, an estimated 45 million children participate in youth sports each year. Therefore, scholars should spend time researching the impacts that youth sport has on participants due to the broad reach of sport in society. In sport psychology, there has been research that focuses on early youth sport specialization, the development of leadership skills in youth, youth sport dropout, and positive youth development in sport. A great example of research in this area comes from DiSanti and Erickson (2020) who took a critical look at youth sport specialization. Positive youth development is another common research interest for researchers who study the role that sport has in the development of youth sport participants (Camiré et al., 2012; Gould & Carson, 2008). Some chapters in this text that cover issues related to youth physical activity and development include Chapter 8 (Peyer, 2021), Chapter 24 (Mills et al., 2021) and Chapter 25 (Cotterill & Fransen, 2021).

19.1.6. Clinical Sport Psychology

An increasing number of jobs in the area of sport psychology are requiring that you be a licensed mental health professional. Due to the increase in clinical issues in sport focused on athlete mental health, there is also an increasing amount of research published on clinical issues in sport psychology. The Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology and Case Studies in Sport and Exercise Psychology are two journals that are often read by clinical professionals. These journals focus heavily on the practical recommendations, psychological skills training, substance abuse, depression, and therapeutic strategies that can be used by mental health professionals working in a sports domain. See Chapters 29 and 30 for issues related to stress (Didymus et al., 2021; Rumbold & Didymus, 2021).

Table 19.1. Common Academic Journals Focused on Sport Psychology Topics

Case Studies in Sport and Exercise Psychology	Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology
Frontiers in Psychology: Movement Science and Sport Psychology	Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology
International Journal of Sport Psychology	Journal of Sport Psychology in Action
International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology	Psychology of Sport and Exercise
International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology	Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology
Journal of Applied Sport Psychology	The Sport Psychologist

Note. This is not an exhaustive list, but a good primer for those interested in seeing the newest developments in sport psychology.