research topics sports psychology

50 Best Sports Psychology Research Topics

When it comes to selecting sports psychology research topics, it might seem like a challenging task in the eyes of many students. But once you choose a topic from our list and master the tricks of writing a professional research paper, you present yourself as an expert researcher in no time.

What makes a sports psychologist proficient? Sports psychology requires a proficient application of psychological knowledge and skills to address athletes’ most favorable performance and well-being. When studying psychology, your lecturers require you to be skilled and creative in writing and presenting research findings.

At HelpForHomework, we help you deliver your findings like a pro by guiding you through your research process. After choosing the best topics, we connect you to a team of professional writers who explain the step-by-step processes of writing top-notch research papers. Our support staff is available 24/7 to assist you. Alternatively, you can order research paper writing services by clicking the contact us button.

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At HelpForHomework, we generate sports psychology topics that are interesting to write and appealing to your audience. If you are looking for fascinating ideas, check out the list below.

Expert Tip: After finding relevant sports psychology research topics, ensure you confirm and ask for guidance from your professor at an early stage. Also, it would be helpful if you contact our support department after selecting a topic.

Best Sports Psychology Topics

Are you looking for the best sports psychology research topics? We have some recommendations for you.

Historical and modern perspective of sports psychology
How to utilize and improve sports psychology for better customer experience in a sports merchandise store
Importance of employing sports psychologists in elite sports
Role of sports psychology and nutrition in musculoskeletal injuries in professional rugby
Scientific application in sports psychology in sports
Sports psychology and health: Strategies for creating a healthy and high-performance workplace
Sports psychology in your local football or soccer league
Sports psychology perspective on the importance of motivation in increases success
Sports psychology: An essential aspect for athletes success
Sports psychology: how to deal with fatigue

Excellent Sports Psychology Research Topics

Finding excellent sports psychology research topics can be a hassle. That is why we have generated top ideas to help you in your next project.

Application of Artificial Intelligence in sports psychology
Application of psychophysiology in sports psychology
Personality dimensions in sports psychology
Psychological factors affecting physical performance and sports
Role of sports psychology in individual development in sports
Sports psychology in police training: Building understanding across all police disciplines
Sports psychology in your country: Review of sports psychology journals
Sports psychology perspective of anxiety
Sports psychology perspective of electronic sports
The role of sports psychology in controlling obesity

Interesting Sports Psychology Research Topics

If you are looking for exciting sports psychology research topics, you are on the right platform. Check them out and contact the support for more guidance.

Analysis and visualization of anxiety in final football matches
Case study: Relationship between competitive anxiety and mental toughness
Effects of temperament and anxiety on sports performance
How do anxiety and ego depletion affect sports performance?
Impact of spectator behavior on individual player’s psychology
Impact of spectator behavior on team performance
Managing anxiety levels in sports performance
Sports psychology perspective: Measuring anxiety in sports
Understanding fear and anxiety management in extreme sports
Use of music in mental training

Expert Sports Psychology Research Topics

When you select expert-generated sports psychology research topics, you will for sure impress your audience. We hope you find the best topic from the list below:

Challenges of gender studies in sport psychology
Compare and contrast anxiety and self-confidence between a team and individual sports at your college
Controlling fans aggression
Dealing with negative stereotypes in sports: Women soccer
Mental toughness and sports competition anxiety for male and female MMA fighters
Psychological and physiological impacts of doping in sports
Relationship between arousal-anxiety and sports behavior
Sports psychology: Children anxiety in sports
Sports psychology: Effects of racial abuse on athletes
Volitional regulation and motivation of young boxers

Exciting Sports Psychology Research Topics

Although looking for sports psychology topics can be mind-boggling, we have cut the hassle and generated fascinating topics for you.

Application of sports psychology in goal setting
Effectiveness of psychological intervention during a long-term sports injury rehabilitation
Literature review: Impacts of physical activity in the treatment of depression
Neuropsychology of sports rehabilitation
Organizations support mechanisms for soccer players in major leagues. How does league organization affect performance?
Social factors affecting sports performance in your country
Sports psychology: Anxiety and emotions of women in sports
Systematic review: How do skiers manage stress and anxiety before a competition?
The role of imagery in sports performance
Theoretical aspects of motivation in sports rehabilitation

Final Verdict

Have you found top-quality sports psychology research topics? If not, contact our support team and let us share other ideas. You can be sure we will offer you reliable psychology research writing services. So bring all the questions and let us help you in the best way as we always do. Press the contact button and consult us. also check out Neuropsychology Research topics.

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Sports Psychology Dissertation Topics & Ideas

Published by Carmen Troy at January 2nd, 2023 , Revised On October 10, 2023

If you are a psychology or sports sciences student, you might be looking for unique and interesting sports psychology dissertation topics for your thesis research. If that is the case, you have landed on the right place because this article provides a list of several trending and focused sports psychology dissertation topics that you can consider for your dissertation project.

Make sure to base your research on a topic that you find interesting. Sport psychology covers a wide range of topics, including visualisation, choking, pressure handling, fame management and players’ mental health.

The modern world places a strong emphasis on promoting good mental health and developing strategies to help athletes develop “mental toughness”. Choose the sport you are most interested in.

Some other free dissertation topic resource pages you might be interested in include

Neuropsychology dissertation topics
Sports management dissertation topics
Sports marketing dissertation topics
Mental health dissertation topics
C onsumer psychology dissertation topics
Cognitive psychology dissertation topics
Sports law dissertation topics

List of Sports Psychology Dissertation Topics & Ideas

Examining the link between depressive symptoms in semi-pro athletes who participate in team sports and long-term sports injuries.
What impact does racism in organized sports have on professional athletes of color?
The pressure and choke experienced by skilled golfers during competitions are examined in “the pressure shot.”
Olympic athletes and performance-enhancing substances: is using peds worth a chance at the big stage?
A case study of the psychological effects of career-ending injuries in Spanish football academies is presented in this section on career transition in sports.
Parenting and exercise: An investigation of the difficulties faced by young athletes practicing with their parents.
A research to see how kid football players’ egos and complexes in sports academies affect their performance.
Football player animosity: A study of the conflicts between players on the same football team.
A conflict between the player and the coach: An investigation of the causes of such disputes.
Football players who abuse drugs: An investigation on such footballers in Africa.
Understanding the feelings and thoughts of homosexuality among professional sports, both male and female.
What effects do recurrent sports injuries have on professional players’ mental health?
How parents use their children to relive their sporting fantasies is known as living sporting dreams through children.
How does elite athletes’ mental health affect their performance?
Recognizing the relationship between culture and racial attitudes among English football supporters.
Quality of life variations among semi-pro athletes in team sports.
A research to determine whether a good sports player’s mental toughness is weakened by repeated injuries among football players.
A study was conducted to determine what mental illness causes athletes to become drug addicts.
Football player depression: A study to comprehend how depression affects a football player who is rarely used on the field.
How are an athlete’s identity and performance impacted by the level of celebrity? What are the key metrics that famous athletes pay attention to?
What effects can interval training methods that include positive reinforcement have on enhancing competitive performance in professional matches?
What impact do team chants have on a team’s performance before a game? What do the statistics say about each player’s degree of chant participation?

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Any topic for a dissertation in sports psychology should be chosen carefully, keeping in mind the reader’s and your own interests, the availability of credible sources, and the effect the issue will have on the field.

Look at several sources for unique ideas, and always think about hiring a professional proposal writing service or dissertation writing service to help you write, examine, edit, and proofread your work as you go.

You may also employ an experienced thesis writer to assist you with the entire dissertation writing process , and forget about running into any difficulties. Hopefully, the aforementioned sports psychology dissertation ideas help you develop an interesting topic.

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What We’ve Learned Through Sports Psychology Research

Scientists are probing the head games that influence athletic performance, from coaching to coping with pressure

Tom Siegfried, Knowable Magazine

Since the early years of this century, it has been commonplace for computerized analyses of athletic statistics to guide a baseball manager’s choice of pinch hitter, a football coach’s decision to punt or pass, or a basketball team’s debate over whether to trade a star player for a draft pick.

But many sports experts who actually watch the games know that the secret to success is not solely in computer databases, but also inside the players’ heads. So perhaps psychologists can offer as much insight into athletic achievement as statistics gurus do.

Sports psychology has, after all, been around a lot longer than computer analytics. Psychological studies of sports appeared as early as the late 19th century. During the 1970s and ’80s, sports psychology became a fertile research field. And within the last decade or so, sports psychology research has exploded as scientists have explored the nuances of everything from the pursuit of perfection to the harms of abusive coaching.

“Sport pervades cultures, continents and indeed many facets of daily life,” write Mark Beauchamp, Alan Kingstone and Nikos Ntoumanis, authors of an overview of sports psychology research in the 2023 Annual Review of Psychology .

Their review surveys findings from nearly 150 papers investigating various psychological influences on athletic performance and success. “This body of work sheds light on the diverse ways in which psychological processes contribute to athletic strivings,” the authors write. Such research has the potential not only to enhance athletic performance, they say, but also to provide insights into psychological influences on success in other realms, from education to the military. Psychological knowledge can aid competitive performance under pressure, help evaluate the benefit of pursuing perfection and assess the pluses and minuses of high self-confidence.

Confidence and choking

In sports, high self-confidence (technical term: elevated self-efficacy belief) is generally considered to be a plus. As baseball pitcher Nolan Ryan once said, “You have to have a lot of confidence to be successful in this game.” Many a baseball manager would agree that a batter who lacks confidence against a given pitcher is unlikely to get to first base.

And a lot of psychological research actually supports that view, suggesting that encouraging self-confidence is a beneficial strategy. Yet while confident athletes do seem to perform better than those afflicted with self-doubt, some studies hint that for a given player, excessive confidence can be detrimental. Artificially inflated confidence, unchecked by honest feedback, may cause players to “fail to allocate sufficient resources based on their overestimated sense of their capabilities,” Beauchamp and colleagues write. In other words, overconfidence may result in underachievement.

Other work shows that high confidence is usually most useful in the most challenging situations (such as attempting a 60-yard field goal), while not helping as much for simpler tasks (like kicking an extra point).

Of course, the ease of kicking either a long field goal or an extra point depends a lot on the stress of the situation. With time running out and the game on the line, a routine play can become an anxiety-inducing trial by fire. Psychological research, Beauchamp and co-authors report, has clearly established that athletes often exhibit “impaired performance under pressure-invoking situations” (technical term: “choking”).

In general, stress impairs not only the guidance of movements but also perceptual ability and decision-making. On the other hand, it’s also true that certain elite athletes perform best under high stress. “There is also insightful evidence that some of the most successful performers actually seek out, and thrive on, anxiety-invoking contexts offered by high-pressure sport,” the authors note. Just ask Michael Jordan or LeBron James.

Many studies have investigated the psychological coping strategies that athletes use to maintain focus and ignore distractions in high-pressure situations. One popular method is a technique known as the “quiet eye.” A basketball player attempting a free throw is typically more likely to make it by maintaining “a longer and steadier gaze” at the basket before shooting, studies have demonstrated.

“In a recent systematic review of interventions designed to alleviate so-called choking, quiet-eye training was identified as being among the most effective approaches,” Beauchamp and co-authors write.

Another common stress-coping method is “self-talk,” in which players utter instructional or motivational phrases to themselves in order to boost performance. Saying “I can do it” or “I feel good” can self-motivate a marathon runner, for example. Saying “eye on the ball” might help a baseball batter get a hit.

Researchers have found moderate benefits of self-talk strategies for both novices and experienced athletes, Beauchamp and colleagues report. Various studies suggest that self-talk can increase confidence, enhance focus, control emotions and initiate effective actions.

Moderate performance benefits have also been reported for other techniques for countering stress, such as biofeedback, and possibly meditation and relaxation training.

“It appears that stress regulation interventions represent a promising means of supporting athletes when confronted with performance-related stressors,” Beauchamp and co-authors conclude.

Pursuing athletic perfection

Of course, sports psychology encompasses many other issues besides influencing confidence and coping with pressure. Many athletes set a goal of attaining perfection, for example, but such striving can induce detrimental psychological pressures. One analysis found that athletes pursuing purely personal high standards generally achieved superior performance. But when perfectionism was motivated by fear of criticism from others, performance suffered.

Similarly, while some coaching strategies can aid a player’s performance, several studies have shown that abusive coaching can detract from performance, even for the rest of an athlete’s career.

Beauchamp and his collaborators conclude that a large suite of psychological factors and strategies can aid athletic success. And these factors may well be applicable to other areas of human endeavor where choking can impair performance (say, while performing brain surgery or flying a fighter jet).

But the authors also point out that researchers shouldn’t neglect the need to consider that in sports, performance is also affected by the adversarial nature of competition. A pitcher’s psychological strategies that are effective against most hitters might not fare so well against Shohei Ohtani, for instance.

Besides that, sports psychology studies (much like computer-based analytics ) rely on statistics. As Adolphe Quetelet, a pioneer of social statistics, emphasized in the 19th century, statistics do not define any individual—average life expectancy cannot tell you when any given person will die. On the other hand, he noted, no single exceptional case invalidates the general conclusions from sound statistical analysis.

Sports are, in fact, all about the quest of the individual (or a team) to defeat the opposition. Success often requires defying the odds—which is why gambling on athletic events is such a big business. Sports consist of contests between the averages and the exceptions, and neither computer analytics nor psychological science can tell you in advance who is going to win. That’s why they play the games.

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Center for Sport Psychology and Athlete Mental Health

Current Projects

The UNT Center for Sport Psychology and Athlete Mental Health's faculty and graduate students maintain active research programs.

Past Projects

In conducting research, our purpose is to (a) add new knowledge and understanding to specific areas of study, and (b) translate what we learn into new and more effective ways of providing services to the athletes, coaches and parents with whom we work.

Publications

Along with maintaining active research programs, the Center's faculty and graduate students seek to publish their findings in scientific journals and popular magazines to share what they have learned with other sport psychology professionals, students, and sport participants.

Presentations

Presentations provide us with the opportunity to share our research findings and ideas with (a) other professionals in order to stimulate new thinking and (b) athletes, coaches, parents, and other sport personnel to help them learn new information and improve their performances.

COVID and College Student Athlete Health and Well-Being Study

Impact of COVID-19 on College Student Athletes' Health, Performance, and Psychological Well-Being - Released July 8, 2020

Return to Sport: Athletes’ Confidence and Mindset Post-ACL Surgery

Physical therapy is standard for post-ACL surgical rehabilitation, though such protocols normally do NOT address directly athletes' psychological responses to the injury, surgery, and recovery.

NCAA Coaches' Perceptions of Transgender Athletes Inclusion

Coaches hold particular responsibility in developing sport environments and team cultures and have critical and often personal relationships with athletes; therefore, coaches have a direct role in athlete wellbeing and personal development.

Current Grants

The Center for Sport Psychology and Athlete Mental Health supports much of its research program through grants from a variety of external agencies and organizations. The Center has received multiple grants from the NCAA and AASP, as well as funding from NASPE.

Past Grants

The Relationship Between Psychosocial Correlates and Bulimic Symptomatology in Retired Female Athletes Researchers : Stephanie Barrett, M.S., Trent A. Petrie, PhD -Supported by a Grant from the National Collegiate Athletic Association

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What We’ve Learned Through Sports Psychology Research

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Sport Psychology

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Articles on Sports psychology

Displaying 1 - 20 of 35 articles.

Cricket commentators love to talk about the ‘nervous nineties’ – but our new research suggests there’s no such thing

Leo Roberts , The University of Melbourne ; Daniel R. Little , The University of Melbourne ; Matthew J. Spittal , The University of Melbourne , and Mervyn Jackson , RMIT University

The secret of Novak Djokovic’s record-breaking tennis success is his mental resilience – expert explains

Sahen Gupta , University of Portsmouth

Plastic rats and playoff beards: Superstitious behaviours in hockey fans and players increase during the playoffs

Terry Eddy , University of Windsor

Why athletes’ skills fail them – and how focusing on memory can help professionals and amateurs perform better

Ray Bobrownicki , The University of Edinburgh and Howie Carson , The University of Edinburgh

Cricket: what happens when an elite player like England’s Jonny Bairstow is ‘in the zone’

Andy M Morley , University of Central Lancashire and Paul John Taylor , University of Central Lancashire

Tokyo 2020: Simone Biles’ withdrawal is a sign of resilience and strength

Jonathan Rhodes , University of Plymouth

Tokyo Olympics: what are the limits of human performance? Podcast

Gemma Ware , The Conversation and Daniel Merino, The Conversation

Cricket: Rishabh Pant’s historic innings against Australia can be explained with psychology

Matthew Smith , University of Winchester and Matt Jewiss , University of Hertfordshire

Self-entitled prima donnas or do they have a point? Why Australian Open tennis players find hard lockdown so tough

Peter Terry , University of Southern Queensland

Let it happen or make it happen? There’s more than one way to get in the zone

Christian Swann , Southern Cross University and Scott Goddard , Southern Cross University

Marcus Rashford: finding purpose off-field can improve sporting performance

Martin J Turner , Manchester Metropolitan University

Coronavirus: why self-isolation brings mental health strain for elite athletes

Jo Batey , University of Winchester and Keith Parry , University of Winchester

How portrayals of the NFL are shaping criminal justice reform

Matt Ventresca , University of Calgary and Kathryn Henne , Australian National University

Why your New Year’s resolution to go to the gym will fail

William Clark , Binghamton University, State University of New York

Running: not so much a liberating hobby as a cult

Carys Egan-Wyer , Lund University

Cori Gauff: the support network behind 15-year -old who beat Venus Williams at Wimbledon

Candice Lingam-Willgoss , The Open University

Sport is full of conspiracy theories – Chris Froome’s horrific cycling crash is just the latest example

Mathew Marques , La Trobe University

Christmas Day: to be a winning host, prep like a sports pro

Nadine Sammy , University of Exeter

A psychological theory to explain how music helps footballers prepare for the pitch

Costas Karageorghis , Brunel University London ; Dr Marcelo Bigliassi , Brunel University London , and Jonathan Bird , Brunel University London

Why football teams who sing their national anthem with passion are more likely to win

Matthew Slater , Staffordshire University

Top contributors

Assistant Professor, School of Media, Toronto Metropolitan University

Senior Lecturer in Sport & Fitness, The Open University

Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology, La Trobe University

Senior Lecturer in Sport and Fitness, The Open University

Emeritus Professor, Institute for the Psychology of Elite Performance, Bangor University

Lecturer in Sport and Fitness, The Open University

Professor of Psychology, University of Southern Queensland

Associate Professor in Sport and Exercise Psychology, Edinburgh Napier University

Clinical Assistant Professor of Counseling Psychology and Applied Human Development, Boston University

Professor and Head of the School of Sport, Health and Exercise Sciences, Bangor University

Head Of Department in Department of Sport & Event Management, Bournemouth University

Post-Doc Researcher in Sport Psychology, Bangor University

Lecturer, The Open University

Professor of Sports Performance Education, The Open University

Lecturer in Sport Psychology, University of the Sunshine Coast

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What Is Sports Psychology? 9 Scientific Theories & Examples

And maintaining focus when your team is behind and heading into the final few minutes of the game requires mental toughness.

Sports are played by the body and won in the mind, says sports psychologist Aidan Moran (2012).

To provide an athlete with the mental support they need, a sports psychologist considers the individual’s feelings, thoughts, perceived obstacles, and behavior in training, competition, and their lives beyond.

This article introduces some of the key concepts, research, and theory behind sports psychology and its ability to optimize performance.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients create actionable goals and master techniques to create lasting behavior change.

This Article Contains:

What is sports psychology, 4 real-life examples, 5 theories and facts of sports psychology, why is sports psychology important, brief history of sports psychology, top 4 sports psychology podcasts, positivepsychology.com’s helpful resources, a take-home message.

“Sport psychology is about understanding the performance, mental processes, and wellbeing of people in sporting settings, taking into account psychological theory and methods.”

Meijen, 2019

Sports psychology is now widely accepted as offering a crucial edge over competitors. And while essential for continuing high performance in elite athletes, it also provides insights into optimizing functioning in areas of our lives beyond sports.

As a result, psychological processes and mental wellbeing have become increasingly recognized as vital to consistently high degrees of sporting performance for athletes at all levels where the individual is serious about pushing their limits.

Indeed, as cognitive scientist Massimiliano Cappuccio (2018) writes, “physical training and exercise are not sufficient to excel in competition.” Instead, key elements of the athlete’s mental preparation must be “perfectly tuned for the challenge.”

For example, in recent research attempting to understand endurance limits , psychological variables have been confirmed as the deciding factor in ceasing effort rather than muscular fatigue (Meijen, 2019). The brain literally limits the body.

Beyond endurance, mental processes are equally crucial in other aspects of sporting success, such as maintaining focus, overcoming injury, dealing with failure, and handling success.

As psychologists, we can help competitors enhance their performance by “providing advice on how to be their best when it matters most” (Moran, 2012).

Pushing from within

As long ago as 2008, Tiger Woods confirmed the importance of his mental strength and ability to push himself from within (Moran, 2012):

“It’s not about what other people think and what other people say. It’s about what you want to accomplish and do you want to go out there and be prepared to beat everyone you play or face?”

And golf experts agree. While Tiger Woods’s natural gifts are self-evident, you can never count him out when he is losing, because of his robust mindset. He is always prepared and always has a plan (Bastable, 2020).

Vision and the right mindset will overcome

When sports scientist and motivational expert Greg Whyte met Eddie Izzard, the British comedian didn’t even own a pair of running shoes. Yet Whyte had six weeks to prepare her for the monumental challenge of running 43 consecutive marathons.

Vision, belief, science-led training, psychological support, and Izzard’s epic degree of determination were the essential ingredients that resulted in success (Whyte, 2015).

Reframing arousal

When sports psychologist John Kremer was approached by an international sprinter complaining that pre-race anxiety was impacting his races, he took time to understand what he was experiencing and how it felt.

Kremer helped reframe the athlete’s perception of his pounding heart from stress negatively affecting his performance to being primed and ready for competition (Kremer, Moran, & Kearney, 2019).

Visualizing success

Diver Laura Wilkinson broke three bones in her foot in the lead-up to the U.S. trials for the 2000 Olympics.

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Sports psychology is not one theory, but the combination of many overlapping ideas and concepts that attempt to understand what it takes to be a successful athlete.

Indeed, in many sports, endurance in particular, there has been a move toward more multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, looking at the interactions between psychological, biomechanical, physiological, genetic, and training aspects of performance (Meijen, 2019).

With that in mind, and considering the many psychological constructs affecting performance in sports, the following areas are some of the most widely studied:

Mental toughness
Goal setting
Anxiety and arousal

1. Mental toughness

Coaches and athletes recognize mental toughness as a psychological construct vital for performance success in training and competition (Gucciardi, Peeling, Ducker, & Dawson, 2016).

Mental toughness helps maintain consistency in determination, focus, and perceived control while under competitive pressure (Jones, Hanton, & Connaughton, 2002).

While much of the early work on mental toughness relied on the conceptual understanding of the related concepts of resilience and hardiness, reaching an agreed upon definition has proven difficult (Sutton, 2019).

Mentally tough athletes are highly competitive, committed, self-motivated , and able to cope effectively and maintain concentration in high-pressure situations. They retain a high degree of self-belief even after setbacks and persist when the going gets tough (Crust & Clough, 2005; Clough & Strycharczyk, 2015).

After interviewing sports professionals competing at an international level, Jones et al. (2002) found that being mentally tough takes an unshakeable self-belief in the ability to achieve goals and the capacity and determination to bounce back from performance setbacks.

Mental toughness determines “how people deal effectively with challenges, stressors, and pressure… irrespective of circumstances” (Crust & Clough, 2005). It is made up of four components, known to psychologists as the “four Cs”:

Feeling in control when confronted with obstacles and difficult situations
Commitment to goals
Confidence in abilities and interpersonal skills
Seeing challenges as opportunities

For athletes and sportspeople, mental toughness provides an advantage over opponents, enabling them to cope better with the demands of physical activity.

Beyond that, mental toughness allows individuals to manage stress better, overcome challenges, and perform optimally in everyday life.

2. Motivation

Motivation has been described as what maintains, sustains, directs, and channels behavior over an extended amount of time (Ryan & Deci, 2017). While it applies in all areas of life requiring commitment, it is particularly relevant in sports.

Not only does motivation impact an athlete’s ability to focus and achieve sporting excellence, but it is essential for the initial adoption and ongoing continuance of training (Sutton, 2019).

While there are several theories of motivation, the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) has proven one of the most popular (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2017).

Based on our inherent tendency toward growth, SDT suggests that activity is most likely when an individual feels intrinsically motivated, has a sense of volition over their behavior, and the activity feels inherently interesting and appealing.

Optimal performance in sports and elsewhere occurs when three basic needs are met: relatedness, competence, and autonomy (Ryan & Deci, 2017).

3. Goal setting and focus

Setting goals is an effective way to focus on the right activities, increase commitment, and energize the individual (Clough & Strycharczyk, 2015).

Goal setting is also “associated with increased wellbeing and represents an individual’s striving to achieve personal self-change, enhanced meaning, and purpose in life” (Sheard, 2013).

A well-constructed goal can provide a mechanism to motivate the individual toward that goal. And something big can be broken down into a set of smaller, more manageable tasks that take us nearer to achieving the overall goal (Clough & Strycharczyk, 2015).

Athletes can use goals to focus and direct attention toward actions that will lead to specific improvements; for example, a swimmer improves their kick to take 0.5 seconds off a 100-meter butterfly time or a runner increases their speed out of the blocks in a 100 meter sprint.

Goal setting can define challenging but achievable outcomes, whatever your sporting level or skills.

A specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound (SMART) goal should be clear, realistic, and possible. For example, a runner may set the following goal:

Next year, I want to run the New York City Marathon in three hours by completing a six-month training schedule provided by a coach .

4. Anxiety and arousal

Under extreme pressure and in situations perceived as important, athletes may perform worse than expected. This is known as choking and is typically caused by being overly anxious (Kremer et al., 2019).

Such anxiety can have cognitive (erratic thinking), physical (sweating, over-breathing), and behavioral (pacing, tensing, rapid speech) outcomes. It typically concerns something that is not currently happening, such as an upcoming race (Moran, 2012).

It is important to distinguish anxiety from arousal . The latter refers to a type of bodily energy that prepares us for action. It involves deep psychological and physiological activation, and is valuable in sports.

Therefore, if psychological and physiological activation is on a continuum from deep sleep to intense excitement , the sportsperson must aim for a perceived sweet spot to perform at their best. It will differ wildly between competitors; for one, it may be perceived as unpleasant anxiety, for another, nervous excitement.

The degree of anxiety is influenced by (Moran, 2012):

Perceived importance of the event
Trait anxiety
Attributing outcomes to internal or external factors
Perfectionism – setting impossibly high standards
Fear of failure
Lack of confidence

While the competitor needs a degree of pressure (or arousal) and nervous energy to perform at their best, too much may cause them to crumble. Sports psychologists work with sportspeople to better understand the pressure and help manage it through several techniques including:

Visualization
Breathing and slowing down
Sticking to pre-performance routines

Ultimately, it may not be the amount of arousal that affects performance, but its interpretation.

5. Confidence

While lack of confidence is an essential factor in competition anxiety, it also plays a crucial role in mental toughness.

As Gaelic footballer Michael Nolan says, “it’s not who we are that holds us back; it’s who we think we’re not” (Clough & Strycharczyk, 2015).

Confidence is ultimately a measure of how much self-belief we have to see through to the end something beset with setbacks.

Those with a high degree of self-confidence will recognize that obstacles are part of life and take them in stride. Those less confident may believe the world is set against them and feel defeated or prevented from completing their task (Clough & Strycharczyk, 2015).

Self-confidence also taps into other, similar self-regulatory beliefs such as staying positive and maintaining self-belief (Sheard, 2013). An athlete high in self-confidence will harness their degree of self-belief and meet the challenge head on.

However, there are risks associated with being too self-confident. Overconfidence in abilities can lead to taking on too much, intolerance, and the inability to see underdeveloped skills.

And yet, that can only ever be part of the success story.

Sports place tremendous pressure on the competitor’s mind in competition and in training, and that pressure must be supported by robust and reliable psychological constructs (Kumar & Shirotriya, 2010).

The abilities to maintain focus under such pressure and also control actions during extreme circumstances of uncertainty can be strengthened by the mental training and skills a sports psychologist provides.

Mental preparation helps ready the individual and team for competition and offers an edge over an adversary while optimizing performance.

Not only that, but the skills learned in sports psychology are transferable; we can take them to other domains such as education and the workplace.

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz (2018) recognized the parallels between achieving “sustained high performance in the face of ever-increasing pressure and rapid change” in the workplace and on the sports field.

Perhaps the earliest known formal study of the mental processes involved in sports can be attributed to Triplett in 1898.

Triplett explored the positive effect of having other competitors to race against in the new sport of cycling. He found that the presence of others enhances the performance of well-learned skills.

In the decades that followed, the focus turned to a range of sports, including archery and baseball, with the first dedicated psychology research center called the Athletic Research Laboratory set up at the University of Illinois in 1925.

It wasn’t until the 1960s that sports psychology formally emerged as a distinct discipline from psychology, specifically with the International Society of Sport Psychology in 1965. However, it wasn’t until 1986 that sports psychology had its own division in the American Psychology Association (Moran, 2012).

The following recommendations all engage with professional psychologists, coaches, and competitors to provide psychological theory and practical guidance:

Mental Preparation Secrets of Top Athletes, Entertainers, and Surgeons In this episode of Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast, Dan McGinn talks about how top performers in sports and the world of business “prepare for their big moments.”
Science of Ultra A podcast that explores the psychology and physiology of endurance through fascinating conversations with scientists, psychologists, trainers, coaches, and athletes.
The Sport Psych Show‬‬‬ Sports psychologist Dan Adams takes listeners on a journey to demystify the psychological tools and techniques available to drive sporting participation and performance.
Sports Psychology Podcast by Peaksports.com‬‬‬ Patrick Cohn helps athletes, coaches, and sports parents understand how to adopt the right mindset to improve confidence and boost performance.

17 Tools To Increase Motivation and Goal Achievement

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Sports Psychology Books Another great way to get a better understanding of Sports Psychology, is to read recommended books. Our article listing the top 20 Sports Psychology Books is the perfect place to start.
Sports Psychology Techniques & Tips Explore these Sports Psychology techniques and tips that can help athletes up their game, overcome obstacles, and deliver peak performances.
Sports Psychology Courses Last but not least, to find out where you can study Sports Psychology, this article shares 17 of the best Sports Psychology Degrees, Courses, & Programs .

Becoming an elite performer results from years of careful planning and hard work. The winners get to the top by identifying, defining, and achieving a series of smaller goals along the way to reaching the podium.

But being at that level takes sustainable motivation and the ability to remain calm under considerable pressure. Successful performance requires the right mindset and psychological tools to allow the sportsperson to overcome both defeat and success. Neither of which is easy.

Modern athletes (professional and amateur), coaches, and team managers recognize the challenges within their sport and the competitive edge gained from seeking sports psychologists’ help.

Time-crunched athletes require focused, pragmatic support and solutions that allow them to deliver a consistent high-quality performance.

Even in the world outside the sporting arena, we are all competing. Understanding the psychological mechanisms involved in overcoming obstacles, hitting our goals, and achieving success is invaluable.

As academic philosopher David Papineau writes, many have come to realize that “sporting prowess has much to teach us about the workings of our minds” (Cappuccio, 2018).

Review the examples, theories, and approaches introduced in this article, and consider how they can benefit performance at any level of competition and be applied to manage stress, overcome obstacles, and improve performance.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free .

Afremow, J. A. (2014). The champion’s mind: How great athletes think, train, and thrive . Rodale.
Bastable, A. (2020). Secret to Tiger Woods’ success was revealed in these 2 remarkable hours. Golf. Retrieved March 5, 2021, from https://golf.com/news/secret-tiger-woods-success-revealed-2-hours/
Cappuccio, M. (2018). Handbook of embodied cognition and sport psychology . MIT Press.
Clough, P., & Strycharczyk, D. (2015). Developing mental toughness: Coaching strategies to improve performance, resilience and wellbeing . Kogan Page.
Crust, L., & Clough, P. J. (2005). Relationship between mental toughness and physical endurance. Perceptual and Motor Skills , 100 , 192–194.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). The general causality orientations scale: Self-determination in personality. Journal of Research in Personality , 19 , 109–134.
Gucciardi, D. F., Peeling, P., Ducker, K. J., & Dawson, B. (2016). When the going gets tough: Mental toughness and its relationship with behavioural perseverance. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport , 19 (1), 81–86.
Jones, G., Hanton, S., & Connaughton, D (2002). What is this thing called mental toughness? An investigation with elite performers. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology , 14 , 211–224.
Kremer, J., Moran, A. P., & Kearney, C. J. (2019). Pure sport: Practical sport psychology . Routledge.
Kumar, P., & Shirotriya, A. K. (2010). ‘Sports psychology’ a crucial ingredient for athletes success: Conceptual view. British Journal of Sports Medicine , 44 (Suppl_1), i55–i56.
Loehr, J., & Schwartz, T. (2018). The making of a corporate athlete. In HBR’s 10 must reads: On mental toughness . Harvard Business Review Press.
Meijen, C. (2019). Endurance performance in sport: Psychological theory and interventions . Routledge.
Moran, A. P. (2012). Sport and exercise psychology: A critical introduction . Psychology Press.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness . Guilford Press.
Sheard, M. (2013). Mental toughness: The mindset behind sporting achievement . Routledge.
Sutton, J. (2019). Psychological and physiological factors that affect success in ultra-marathoners (Doctoral thesis, Ulster University). Retrieved from https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/psychological-and-physiological-factors-that-affect-success-in-ul
Triplett, N. (1898). The dynamogenic factors in pacemaking and competition. The American Journal of Psychology , 9 (4), 507–533.
Whyte, G. P. (2015). Achieve the impossible: How to overcome challenges and gain success in life, work and sport . Bantam Press.

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What our readers think.

Hello, my name is Ali, and I have a question about something. I graduated last year from the Faculty of Physical Education in my country, Egypt, Helwan University, and I got a bachelor’s degree with excellent grades. I was majoring in sports psychology. I am really interested and very passionate about this field. The articles I read helped me in fact. On this site about this specialization, it increases my desire to stick to work in this field, but I am currently facing a problem, which is I do not know where to start specifically, should I complete postgraduate academic studies in this specialty until I get at least a master’s degree in order to work in clubs As a sports psychologist? Or do I apply directly to one of the clubs and ask to work as a sports psychologist in it? And with which team, in particular, or in what sport? What are the required conditions and qualifications that allow me to work in this field? What are the types of books that I should read in order to improve my cognitive, scientific and applied skills in this field? Thank you very much

Yes, if you want to become a registered psychologist in any discipline, you will need to complete a Master’s degree. You’ll need to do this before you can work as a psychologist in the field. You can learn more about the process in this article , and also in our digital guidebook on becoming a therapist (which also covers what’s involved in becoming a psychologist).

We also have a dedicated blog post full of sport psychology book recommendations here . I imagine once you’ve gone through a sports psychology Master’s program and done further reading, you may discover which specific sports and teams you are most likely to enjoy working with — ultimately that decision is up to you!

Hope these materials help.

– Nicole | Community Manager

Do you think this translates to a 1:1 with digital athletes (like in esports)? Or do you think the physical athlete’s connection with physical exercise during competition may change the way this type of anxiety is dealtwith?

That’s a great question! I can’t give you a clear answer as research in this space is still very much new and emerging. However, at face value, I think many of the components here do equally apply to esports. For instance, it is just as important to set effective goals and manage anxiety/arousal in esports as it is in traditional sports.

As you note, however, mechanisms for effective goal-setting, management of anxiety, etc. may be different from traditional sports, as they may not rely on the mind-body connection in the same way, or draw more on cognitive resources and capabilities.

For a review that sets the stage for research in this space, definitely check out Pedraza-Ramirez et al. (2020) .

Hope this helps a little!

Hi am a Nigerian students of physical and health education my question is what are d criteria to work as a physiotherapist after study physical and health education

Hi Abigial,

The laws re: practicing as a physiotherapist will vary depending on country and state, so could you please let me know where you were hoping to practice? Then I can point you in the direction of some advice.

How can we use sports psychology to motivate people to get moving again outside, especially because of Covid-19? Can the answer/s also encourage society to create new gender neutral sports that keeps players separate without hands or head touching shared equipment? Can the lack of exercise be a big contributing factor why some students are not doing so well with Covid-19 forced remote learning?

Sounds like this post inspired some big questions for you! And I’ve no doubt the nature of sports around the world is likely to change in the wake of the pandemic. Early thinking seems to suggest that the impact of COVID on people’s exercise habits (and flow-on effects to things like study and mental health) depends somewhat on people’s preferred sports. E.g., this article suggests that, due to the nature of restrictions, cyclists, runners, etc. are well catered for, but those used to doing other sports may not be. A search for ‘exercise covid’ in Google Scholar will reveal some other interesting and emerging research in this space if you’d like to read more.

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Psychological Skills Training for Athletes in Sports: Web of Science Bibliometric Analysis

Associated data.

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to WoS policy.

Psychological Skill Training (PST) for optimal performance in sports has received extensive attention from athletes, coaches, and experts, and numerous studies have been conducted, but despite this interest, it has not been the subject of any bibliographic analysis. The analysis covered 405 articles and reviews that were located in the Thomson Reuters Web of Science (Core CollectionTM) between 1992 and 2021. These papers were published by 1048 authors from 543 different universities across 54 countries in 107 different journals. The fundamental bibliometric calculations and co-word networks were completed. As a result, the following thematic elements were grouped into four clusters: (1) PST for stress, mental toughness, and coping, (2) PST for anxiety, motivation, self-confidence, and self-efficacy, (3) PST for flow and mindfulness, and (4) PST for emotions. From the results of this study, it was confirmed that the topic of PST is converging toward the best performance, with various approaches, such as stress management, anxiety control, and coping as techniques for PST. Furthermore, mindfulness and positive psychology studies emphasize athletes’ quality of life, so coaches and experts should pay more attention to improving athletes’ quality of life in future research.

1. Introduction

In today’s Olympics and international level competitions, the physical, technical, and strategic gaps between top athletes are progressively shrinking. It was amazing to witness that certain athletes performed better than athletes who were more physically talented. Conversely, it was disappointing that some athletes would perform flawlessly during the semi-final and then perform tragically in the final. The massive pressure from this increased performance density has been directly linked to the extensive attention to psychological skills training (PST) in recent. In the early days, coaches and athletes recognized the importance of mental states for optimal performance, but the field of sports psychological training was not flourished because of the misunderstanding that psychological skills are innate properties and lack of knowledge to train these abilities [ 1 , 2 ].

Initially, sport psychology or mental training with athletes emerged in the United States during the late 1970s. Although one of the first works in sport psychology was published in the 1920s by Coleman Griffith [ 3 ], it went through a long hibernation until the 1960s and early 1970s, when systematic studies on sports psychology began [ 1 , 4 ]. In the late 1980s, Vealey suggested that future directions in PST include expanding the target population, refining specific implementation procedures, and differentiating between psychological skills and methods [ 1 ]. During the first 7 years of the 1980s, the premier scientific publications, such as the Journal of Sport Psychology, mainly focused on theoretically based research that emphasized various psychological approaches and research methodologies [ 4 , 5 ]. While several experts acknowledged that applied sport psychology interventions could be effective through their reviews [ 6 , 7 ], they urged greater attention must be given to program evaluation and professional accountability. With these accountability concerns, research evolved and concentrated mainly on evaluating the effectiveness of psychological services to athletes and coaches [ 8 , 9 ]. The Consultant Evaluation Form (CEF) by Partington and Orlick [ 10 ] was the first valid and reliable instrument to evaluate the qualification of psychological consultants and their services. With the efforts to identify the effective sport psychology consultant characteristics [ 8 , 11 ] and the publication of psychological consultant guidelines for athletes [ 12 ], recent studies have focused primarily on interventional research [ 13 , 14 ].

Although the field of PST covering all sports events has produced a copious number of publications, the attempts to gather bibliometric data in a systematic manner to identify research trends and highlight publications that have led to the progress of the field have not been done yet. During the 1980s and early 1990s, there have been few bibliometric studies in sports and exercise science, such as the International Society of Sport Psychology [ 15 ], the Journal of Sport Psychology [ 4 ], and Sport & Exercise Psychology [ 16 ]. However, it was analyzed only within a specific journal and did not include all journals in the related field.

The bibliometric analysis provides information including highly cited authors, publications, the most productive institutions, and countries through the analysis of citation indices. Bibliographic studies emphasize trend-driven authors in the research field and provide information on the current topics; they have been widely applied to a variety of other research areas and have provided valuable insights [ 17 , 18 ]. Thus, it allows researchers to determine the scope of research topics and assists them in planning their research direction and predicting research trends. Several bibliometric studies have investigated the publication trend of sport and exercise science concerning the research output of particular countries or areas [ 19 , 20 ], sub-specialized fields [ 21 , 22 ], or the production of a selection of sport science journals [ 23 ]. To the best of our knowledge, there are no bibliometric analyses that have investigated research regarding PST. This study used bibliometric tools to analyze PST articles retrieved on the Web of Science (Thomson Reuters Company, Toronto, ON, Canada) database and provides a better understanding of how PST research was initiated, organized, progressed, and interrelated throughout the world. In addition, it aims not only to provide insights into future research for experts in the academic field but also to provide practical help in the development of PST programs for coaches and athletes in the sports field.

2. Materials and Methods

The Thomson Reuters Web of Science (WoS) database’s bibliometric data for this study was obtained on 10 November 2021. Prior to data collection, five researchers in the field of sport and exercise psychology were asked to indicate search terms they would use to retrieve publications on PST and elite athletes. For the search, the terms “mental skill*,” “Psychological skill*,” “mental skill training*,” and “psychological skill training*” were used in the topic search field without limitation on the publication year of the documents. In order to retrieve publications that specifically focused on athletes or elite athletes, we refined our search with the following search terms “sport*,” “athlete*,” “elite*,” and “elite athlete*.” The topic field searches the title, abstracts, author’s keywords, and KeyWords Plus ® for the terms provided (keywords automatically assigned by WoS). Boolean operators (AND-OR) were also utilized to enhance the search for associated publications. Only journal articles and reviews were used for the analysis because they attributed the majority of document types and consisted of complete research ideas and results; therefore, 19 meeting abstracts, 14 early access articles, 4 book reviews, 4 proceedings papers, 3 editorial materials, and 2 book chapters were excluded. In the end, a total of 405 related articles and reviews were analyzed in the current research.

For analysis, the data were downloaded from WoS in “Full record and cited references” and “plain text” formats. First, to identify the authors, countries, journals, and institutions with the largest number of articles and citations, HISTCITE 12.3.17 (Thomson Reuters, Philadelphia, PA, USA) software tool was used to analyze the data. Qualitative indexes [global citation score (GCS) and local citation score (LCS)] were considered in this study [ 24 ]. The GCS and LCS metrics quantify the number of citations over the whole Web of Science Core Collection and the identical collection, respectively [ 25 ]. The co-word networks between the keywords were then examined using VOSviewer’s methodology [ 26 ]. The linkages and networks between the keywords were found and analyzed using this program.

To create a visualized map for the bibliographic analysis, we imported the downloaded data into VOSviewer. It enables us to select and adjust settings in accordance with various analytic objectives and data sources, as data cleaning is frequently required when producing maps based on web data. As a result, the following criteria are established for this study. (a) It is possible to combine or ignore certain terms when creating mappings based on text data by using the thesaurus files supplied by VOSviewer. For instance, for a more precise clustering analysis, the terms “coping,” “coping skill,” and “coping skills” were combined using the thesaurus file, while terms irrelevant to this study that were not explicitly filtered out, such as “coping skill therapist,” were not omitted. (b) The strength of the connection between normative items was determined using the association strength method [ 26 ], which was deemed to be the most consistent with the normalized technique. (c) Following testing, the layout with the parameter of attraction set to 2 and the parameter of repulsion set to 0 (producing a map of the co-word network) produced the best visual results. Additionally, the default settings for the other options.

Figure 1 denotes the step-by-step processes of this study: (Step 1) The topics and keywords related to PST/mental skill training and athlete/elite were identified, and then the search was defined. (Step 2) We refined the searched items and eliminated the irrelevant items. Finally, 405 articles were included. (Step 3) We sorted the papers into categories according to the year, author, number of citations, journal, country, and institution. (Step 4) The co-word map was generated. The information in the networks was examined in Step 5 to determine the outcomes.

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Schematic process of the bibliometric analysis.

After the data were refined for this analysis, a total of 405 papers from 107 different journals between 1992 and 2021 were examined. As seen in Figure 2 , publications increased steadily between 2007 and the present, with 83.45% ( n = 338) of the total papers appearing in the previous fifteen years (2007–2021), while only 67 articles (16.54%) had been published from 1992 to 2006. In some research fields, the era of an extremely low number of articles (Since 1992, five articles on average have been published per year) might cause it to be regarded as a “niche” academic field [ 27 ]. The number of publications peaked in 2019, while the number of published articles in 2020 decreased by 35% compared to the previous year ( Figure 2 ).

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Number of articles published per year (1992–2021).

Based on the results, PST in sports has recently drawn the interest of academics and professionals; however, it is impossible to tell for sure whether this trend will continue in the future. According to Price’s law [ 28 ], the research process, however, goes through four stages: (i) pioneers begin publishing on a specific research field, (ii) due to the interest of many academics in the study topic, there is exponential development, (iii) a concentration of information and research on the subject, and (iv) a decrease in publications. It may be argued that PST is now a topic of interest for academics and professionals due to the aforementioned procedure. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced coaches and athletes to train remotely and restrict the chance to meet a sport psychologist and practitioner, may have contributed to the decrease in publications in recent years, despite the fact that the number of related publications has decreased compared to 2019. The data acquired demonstrate that the number of publications in 2021 increased compared to the previous year, and the topics of PST-related research are becoming more diverse [ 29 , 30 ].

3.1. Authors and Number of Citations

There were a total of 1048 authors across the 405 publications that this study examined, hailing from 54 countries and 543 different institutions. Table 1 lists the authors who have published the most on PST in the sports area. The maximum number of publications to identify an author’s output in the topic area was the criteria used to rank the entries in Table 1 and Table 2 , and (ii) the highest number of citations, which are widely used to evaluate the significance [ 31 ] of articles and researchers.

Authors with the highest number of citations (>350).

No.: number of articles, LCS: local citation score, GCL: global citation score.

Authors with the highest number of publications (>5).

As a result, Andrew M. Lane, who has thirteen papers and a total of 411 citations in WoS, was named the most productive author (GCS). This author has published articles mainly related to emotion regulation and emotional intelligence for athletes in sports: develop a questionnaire and intervention regarding emotion regulation for the performance of endurance athletes. Second, Dave Collins has published ten articles with a total of 295 citations in WoS. The author developed the Psychological Characteristics of Developing Excellence Questionnaire. Finally, Tracey J. Devonport has published nine articles with a total of 294 citations and also explored the emotional regulation of athletes.

Even though some authors are more productive than others, this field of study can be considered fragmented because there is no clear “reference author”. Thus, Table 2 presents the most prominent authors, taking into account the number of citations, with publications related to PST in sports partially consistent with the highest number of authors. Despite the relatively small number of publications, Patrick R. Thomas recorded a high citation score and developed the Test of Performance Strategies to evaluate the strategies and psychological skills used by athletes [ 32 ]. Daniel Gould’s Studies examining the influences of mental skills and strategies on Olympic performance are also listed because they have a large number of citations.

3.2. Institutions

PST has been covered in articles by 543 different institutions. The institution is the one to which the researcher is affiliated at the time the article is published. More than 88% (481 out of 543) of the institutions have published only one or two articles. Moreover, institutions that published more than three articles but fewer than seven accounted for less than 2% (53 out of 543) of the total. The nine institutions that are presented in Table 3 have published more than seven articles.

Number of publications by Institutions.

Secondly, the University of Wales Institute Cardiff stands out in first place among institutions with the most citations across the whole WoS (GCS = 472), followed by Wolverhampton University (GCS = 432). Interestingly, although it did not list in Table 4 because of a small number of articles, Griffith University (GCS = 457) and the University of Western Ontario (GCS = 323) published four papers that recorded a high citation score and took second and fourth place, respectively. As confirmed by the number of citations and authors, research institutes in the UK are actively conducting research related to PST.

Journals by the Number of Publications and Citation Received (LCS and GCS) and Impact Factor (JCR).

3.3. Journals

At least one paper on this subject has been published in 107 different journals. Journals accounting for more than 56% (60 out of 107) of the total have only published one paper, whereas journals making up more than 20% (22 out of 107) of the total have published two or three. Table 4 . lists journals that have published more than 10 articles. Sport Psychologist, the most traditional journal in the PST field, published 58 articles and recorded the highest number of publications and GCS scores, but the recently reported impact factor was low at 1.45 (Q4). On the other hand, despite the small number of articles and low GCS scores, the Frontiers in Psychology and Journal of Sports Science and Medicine were reported as high-impact factors, which reflects the latest publishing trend that shows the option of open-access and a broad aim and scope of the journal.

3.4. Co-Word Analysis

In the field of research, keywords play a crucial role since they can be used to track the development of a specific area of knowledge. [ 33 ]. In the current study, 1076 keywords (both those chosen by the authors and by ISI WoS) were found, although only 428 (39.77%) of them co-occurred or showed up more than once. Of these, 60.22 % (or 648) were repeated just once. The term “co-word analysis” denotes a close association between the ideas and is defined as “a content analysis approach that employs the words in documents to identify relationships and develop a conceptual structure of the domain” [ 34 ]. Figure 2 shows the main co-occurrence connections found in the articles under investigation.

The most cited keywords are listed in Table 5 ; the most cited keyword was performance (GCS = 3333), followed by psychological (GCS = 2298), sport (GCS = 2157), and skill (GCS = 2121; Table 5 ). The keywords in Table 5 were chosen based on the following criteria: global citations in WoS (GCS) equal to or higher than 1000 citations for the most cited keywords and a frequency of presence in the search collection equal to or greater than 50 times for the most common keywords. However, compared to the most frequently used keywords, the keywords that receive more citations are slightly different.

Most frequent keywords.

f : frequency; LCS: local citation score; GCL: global citation score.

Currently, powerful analytic tools such as VOSviewer allow for the systematic identification, analysis, and representation of keywords. Based on bibliographic information, a map was made to display a co-word network. The “association strength” method, the “Visualization of Similarities” (VOS) approach, was used to graphically organize each term on the map after the “association strength” method was used to standardize the association values of the keywords [ 35 , 36 ]. Finally, the VOSviewer method offers the option to incorporate several resolution settings in order to detect the various clusters. The keywords picked by the authors and those picked by the ISI WoS, as well as every other term in the whole list of keywords, were taken into consideration while conducting the thematic analysis. The cut-off point was established in 10 or more occurrences of these keywords. In this study, we ultimately settled on 45 keywords, and we assessed the overall strength of the co-occurrence links with other keywords. According to the analysis, the leading four different clusters of keywords were found. Figure 3 displays a graphical depiction of the co-occurrence of keywords or co-words.

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Co-word network created by VOSviewer.

This provides a generalized description of the knowledge or concepts found in previous works of literature [ 37 ]. Various sizes and colors of circles serve as representations for the analysis of the terms. A given keyword’s frequency is determined by the size of the circles; the larger the circle, the more times the term appears in the titles and abstracts of the publications under examination [ 38 ]. The clusters identified by the study correspond to the circles that can be distinguished by color. The distance between the circles (keywords) provides crucial information about how they are related; the weaker the relationship, the further apart the circles are. This connection is established by the frequency with the terms co-occur in the titles and abstracts [ 39 ]. According to the subject area, the VOSviewer identified four distinct clusters that could be differentiated by four distinct colors:

Red cluster—“PST for stress, mental toughness, and coping”: This cluster is the largest and is composed of sixteen items as follows; stress, mental toughness, self-regulation, coping, and achievement. This cluster is associated with interventions regarding stress and coping skills and includes a perception of mental toughness for performance enhancement and questionnaire development;
Green cluster—“PST for anxiety, motivation, self-confidence, and self-efficacy”: This cluster is the second largest and consists of fourteen items as follows; anxiety, athletic performance, motivation, attitude, self-confidence, and strategies. This cluster relates to a mental training program for anxiety and self-confidence of athletes in a variety of sports fields and a motivational climate for athletic performance;
Blue cluster—“PST for flow and mindfulness”: the third cluster includes 11 keywords as follows; flow, imagery, intervention, mindfulness, and performance enhancement. This cluster refers to the implementation of mindfulness intervention for performance enhancement and the study of the relationship between flow, mindfulness, and PST;
Yellow cluster—“PST for emotions”: the last cluster is composed of four items as follows; competition, emotions, model, and sports. This cluster mainly relates to emotional regulation and emotional intelligence in sports and athletic performance.

3.4.1. Cluster 1—Red: PST for Stress, Mental Toughness, and Coping

Primarily, this cluster accumulates publications related to the major role of PST, stress management, or developing mental toughness for peak performance. Nevertheless, we found three key approaches in this cluster. First, categorized studies that include the process of identifying the source of stress and measuring it through the development of a questionnaire [ 40 , 41 , 42 ]. The second academic approach identified in this cluster is coping strategies and responses to the various sports settings and populations (e.g., soccer, volleyball, CrossFit, football, etc.) [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ]. The last approach of the analyzed studies related to the development and maintenance of mental toughness for performance enhancement [ 47 , 48 ] and examining the relationship between mental toughness and other psychological skill in a variety of elite athletes [ 49 , 50 ].

Sources of stress in the sports setting are diverse. Specifically, Kroll [ 51 ] categorized five psychological stress that was encountered by adult athletes; fear of failure, feelings of inadequacy, loss of internal control, guilt, and current physical state. Whilst sources of stress are considerably different across individuals, related studies of a variety of populations have confirmed the generalizability of Kroll’s idea. Studies focused on soccer players [ 52 ] and basketball teams [ 42 ] consistently reported sources of stress include fear of failure, concern about the expectations of others, making mistakes, the media, and unforeseen events. The most apparent application of these results seems to be that in order for performers to have any chance of putting on a relatively stress-free performance, they must have complete confidence in their goals, their organization’s system, and their event preparation.

Although stress can be viewed as both demanding and anxiety-inducing, the approach of PST literature on stress and performance has mostly concentrated on the use of coping strategies in various events. A study investigating the strategies for table tennis players coping with their anxiety level reported that the coping strategies include PST techniques such as positive self-talk, breathing techniques, and visualization to enhance their performance [ 53 ]. In the same year, Vidic and colleagues [ 42 ] published a mixed methodology study investigating the PST intervention effect on women’s NCAA division basketball player’s perceived stress and athletic coping skills. Both quantitative and qualitative results showed a progressive decrease in stress and an increase in athletic coping skills across the study. Moreover, their study opened up new possibilities for future research by incorporating mindfulness into the PST program.

Since the early 2000s, this area of knowledge has attracted the interest of sports psychologists, coaches, and professionals, as mental toughness is an essential aspect of success in sports. In the early stage of the mental toughness research, based on the studies that identify the mental toughness of athletes in various sports events [ 48 , 54 ], the development and validation of inventory to measure and maintain mental toughness continued [ 55 , 56 ]. Currently, mental toughness is a frequently studied topic, along with other topics such as anxiety, psychological skills, and mindfulness. For instance, a prior study in our search collection examined the psychological skills, mental toughness, and degree of anxiety of female football players in relation to their skill level [ 57 ]. The psychological skills of the athletes did not differ according to skill level, but in terms of mental toughness and anxiety, the national team scored highest and lowest, respectively. Similarly to this, Wu and colleagues [ 58 ] explored the connection between psychological skills, dispositional mindfulness, and mental toughness among collegiate athletes. The authors discovered a beneficial relationship between mindfulness, mental toughness, and psychological skills in relation to sports performance, and they offered potential directions for future studies to improve both athletic performance and quality of life.

3.4.2. Cluster 2—Green: PST for Anxiety, Motivation, Self-Confidence, and Self-Efficacy

Cluster 2, represented by the green color, includes 14 keywords. This cluster consisted of publications related to the PST interventions that athlete’s anxiety and motivation climate in various sports events. The papers that fit into our cluster can be classified into two distinct groups: (i) influence or relationship between anxiety and self-confidence in athletic performance and (ii) motivational climate and self-efficacy in athletes.

Goal setting, self-talk, pre-shot routine, relaxation, and imagery are the most popular mental techniques employed by professional athletes to improve their performance [ 59 ]. In terms of the techniques employed by the coaches to promote their players’ self-efficacy beliefs, according to Weinberg and Jackson [ 60 ], they were promoting positive self-talk, acting as a role model for confidence, and verbal praise and persuading. Ultimately, these techniques are based on the basic hypothesis that PST modulates anxiety and confidence to a certain degree in athletes. However, regarding the extent to which these programs can be successful in assisting athletes in controlling their anxiety and confidence, there was a lack of empirical evidence. Since then, through the two decades, numerous study has presented scientific evidence on the effect of PST on the control of self-confidence and anxiety. As a representative study, Terry, Coakley, and Karageorghis [ 61 ] studied the relevance of matching hypotheses for anxiety interventions in junior tennis players. The finding rejected the matching hypothesis and demonstrated that, while all techniques were effective in decreasing cognitive anxiety and increasing self-confidence, centering was the most effective treatment for lowering cognitive anxiety, while mental rehearsal was more successful in decreasing somatic anxiety. The only trait for which the combined intervention outperformed either centering or mental rehearsal alone was self-confidence. Furthermore, Thomas et al. [ 62 ] asserted that anxiety symptoms vary depending on personal interpretation. They measured the associated anxiety symptoms of facilitators (i.e., a performer with a positive interpretation of both cognitive and somatic symptoms) and debilitators across the dimensions of intensity, direction, and frequency throughout the 7-day competition cycle. The results showed that facilitators, interpreting their anxiety symptoms as positive toward performance, experienced higher self-confidence throughout the pre-competition period.

In general, the term “motivational climate” refers to the psychological environment that coaches, parents, and teammates primarily create for their athletes when they train and compete. Most studies on the motivational climate in sports settings have emphasized the importance of the coach in creating a positive sports environment [ 63 ]. Young athletes may improve their skill level, increase performance efficiency in competition, and develop not just as athletes but as people in a positive motivational environment [ 64 ]. According to athletes’ perceptions of the accomplishment environment, which are based on the Achievement Goal Theory (AGT), a related study confirmed two main motivational climates. The task- and ego-involving environments described by AGT can coexist or be combined [ 65 ]. Ames claims that the term “motivational climate” refers to how athletes understand the context-specific cues, rules, and expectations that enable the dissemination of task- and ego-involving motivational cues that support the formation of certain goal orientations.

On the other hand, the impact of various motivational climates on emotional, cognitive, and motivational processes has received a lot of scientific attention. Improvements in enjoyment, effort, perceived competence, and self-efficacy were connected to adaptive cognitive and emotional processes in a mastery setting. A performance climate, on the other hand, was linked to less adaptive behavior, including increased performance anxiety and concern [ 66 ]. In one of the earliest investigations into the relationship between motivational climate and self-efficacy, Wood and Bandura [ 67 ] found that a task-involving climate was linked to higher levels of self-efficacy and performance when people encountered difficulty as opposed to an ego-involving climate.

3.4.3. Cluster 3—Blue: PST for Flow and Mindfulness

In cluster 3, represented by the color green, there are eleven keywords, such as flow, mindfulness, and performance enhancement. This cluster included papers that examine specific links between psychological skills and strategies, mental state of flow, and optimal performance, as well as the relationship between flow and mindfulness. The investigation of these relationships serves the aims of expanding the research of antecedent of flow state in sports, as well as examining the relationship between mindfulness and quality of athletic performance.

Research on flow in sports increased in the early 1990s [ 68 , 69 ], and Csikszentmihalyi [ 70 ] encouraged the application of flow theory to sports settings, where some of his early flow research began. Theoretically, flow, as an optimal mental state, is expected to be related to optimal athletic performance, as well as delivering an optimal experience. A preliminary study that examines the conditions or factors that are positively associated with athletes being able to attain flow failed to identify the relationship between psychological constructs and attainment of flow in recreational sports settings [ 71 ]. However, more recently, Jackson et al. found positive and negative associations between flow and intrinsic motivation, perceived ability, and cognitive anxiety, respectively [ 72 ]. Flow is typically viewed as a peak performance state, and there is some evidence to support this assumption [ 68 ]. Nonetheless, further study is required to investigate the link between flow and performance in sports.

There has been little research investigating the relationship between mindfulness and the adoption of mental skills in sports. In the initiation of mindfulness study among athletes, Gardner and Moore [ 73 ] reported two case studies illustrating the potential efficacy of their mindfulness-based intervention program, which they named the Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment approach. The author claim that planned self-regulation of present-moment awareness training that includes mindfulness awareness of breath and bodily movements enhanced participants’ athletic performance and enjoyment. In particular, the acceptance of negative thoughts reduced worrying, improved enjoyment, concentration, and persistence are some of the beneficial results of Gardner and Moore’s mindfulness-based intervention program. Starting with Gardner and Moore’s study, theoretical and methodological considerations regarding mindfulness have been made, and the scope of research is expanding to strength training [ 74 ], the sports field [ 42 ], and brain science [ 75 ]. More recently, efforts to increase mental toughness and psychological well-being through mindfulness programs have continued [ 76 ], and mindfulness programs are being used as a way to protect athletes from psychological distress, especially during COVID-19 [ 77 ]. Unfortunately, there is also a lack of research examining the relationship between flow and mindfulness. Although Clark [ 78 ] examined the impact of mindfulness training on the time spent in flow based on a non-athlete sample, there is only one study conducted on an athlete sample in this search collection.

3.4.4. Cluster 4—Yellow: PST for Emotions

This area of study is mainly related to emotional regulation or emotional intelligence during sports performance and emotional regulation strategies. Research on emotion in the field of sports was initiated in the late 2000s, and vigorous research has been conducted since 2010.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) indicates individual responses to intrapersonal or interpersonal emotional information and includes the recognition, expression, comprehension, and modulation of personal and other’s emotions [ 79 ]. There is a growing body of research that suggests that EI has a crucial role in athletic performance and physical activity [ 80 ]. To enhance sports performance or exercise adherence, a critical understanding of EI constructs is especially important to practicing consultants targeting the implementation of evidence-based intervention. Specifically, two studies that had investigated EI as it relates to psychological skill usage [ 81 , 82 ] in this search collection. A higher trait EI was shown to be related to more frequent use of psychological skills. In one study, high trait EI was associated with more use of task-oriented coping methods, and task-oriented coping is frequently characterized as the most effective coping style for successful sports performance [ 80 ]. Furthermore, stronger athletic success motivation (the capacity to efficiently push oneself toward sports performance) has been linked to higher trait EI [ 82 ]. A more direct examination of psychological skill utilization among athletes discovered that higher scores on trait EI components were associated with more frequent use of self-talk, imagery, emotional regulation, goal setting, activation, and relaxation strategies in practice and competition [ 81 ]. A recent study examined the relationship between EI and anxiety, motivation, and leadership in athletes using a structural equation model. The study shows a strong and direct relationship between EI and anxiety and between EI and motivation, but the direct relationship between EI and leadership is not identified [ 83 ].

The automatic or purposeful use of strategies to elicit, preserve, change, or express emotions is known as emotion regulation [ 84 ]. If an athlete believes that controlling their emotions will help them perform better, they are more likely to attempt. Athletes build meta-beliefs about the emotions necessary for peak performance, and these beliefs are important for emotion control during competition [ 85 ]. Specifically, many athletes like feeling nervous before a competition and will up-regulate that emotion accordingly [ 85 ]. A recent study that investigated emotion regulation strategies used in endurance athletes reported that meta-emotion beliefs that methods targeted at raising anxiety and/or anger would benefit performance, and they utilized techniques to raise the strength of those emotions; that is, they tried to make themselves feel angrier or anxious in order to improve performance [ 86 ]. Furthermore, athletes use many thoughts and behaviors to regulate their emotions. Robazza et al. [ 87 ] found that athletes utilized various emotion regulation strategies, such as self-talk and imagery. An advantage of using the Individual Zone of Optimal Functioning (IZOF) approach in sports (i.e., unpleasant but helpful for achieving success in competition) is that it facilitates detailed analysis of specific instance of real-world experience that has practical value as well as facilitate how theory can be observed in an ecologically plausible environment. In the research field of emotion regulation in sports, various theoretical approaches are being attempted to gain the broadest possible understating of the psychological and behavioral aspects of athletes.

4. Conclusions, Limitations, and Future Research

Our understanding of the existing situation and evolution of PST in sports is assisted by the study’s findings. This information is significant because it gives a comprehensive view of the publications, authors, institutions, and journals with the greatest number of publications and citations, as determined by an examination of 405 total articles. In this study, thematic areas where PST-related studies are flourishing in sports were identified through bibliographic analysis. Basically, traditional topics such as stress management, anxiety control, and coping were the main psychological techniques for optimal performance. In addition, confidence, self-efficacy, and mental toughness were identified as major topics for psychological factors for optimal performance. In addition, to improve athletes’ quality of life, PST programs include mindfulness, emotions, and positive psychology. This study allows not only to determine the topics and areas of interest for authors and academics but also to figure out future research associated with the development and state of each cluster.

It is important to acknowledge any potential limitations of this study. Although the Web of Science database was utilized for the search, which was commonly used in earlier research [ 22 , 88 ] and is extensively used for academic searches, not all of the pertinent material may have been covered in our investigation. Similarly, a qualitative analysis was conducted to decide which papers to include or omit in this study. Although this process may have taken into account the authors’ biases, it enhanced the credibility of the study results by removing studies that mentioned PST for firefighters., surgeons, and military soldiers and including only those referring to PST in sports/elite athletes. For future research, a comparison of these results is recommended with those from other databases such as Scopus, EBSCO, or Google Scholar. In addition, it is suggested to conduct a qualitative analysis of the search results so that useful information can be obtained for academics and experts. These types of studies can provide detailed information about gaps in the existing literature. Sport, especially in the field of PST, is going through a phase of change from a consumer-centric perspective, so it is important to focus attention on theoretical and empirical developments.

Funding Statement

This research received no external funding.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, I.P. and J.J.; methodology, I.P.; software, I.P.; validation, I.P. and J.J.; formal analysis, I.P.; investigation, I.P.; resources, I.P.; data curation, I.P.; writing—original draft preparation, I.P.; writing—review and editing, J.J.; visualization, I.P.; supervision, I.P and J.J. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

New origin of deep brain waves discovered

Knowledge of hippocampal activity could help improve sleep and cognition therapies.

University of California, Irvine biomedical engineering researchers have uncovered a previously unknown source of two key brain waves crucial for deep sleep: slow waves and sleep spindles. Traditionally believed to originate from one brain circuit linking the thalamus and cortex, the team's findings, published today in Scientific Reports , suggest that the axons in memory centers of the hippocampus play a role.

For decades, slow waves and sleep spindles have been identified as essential elements of deep sleep, measured through electroencephalography recordings on the scalp. However, the UC Irvine-led team revealed a novel source of these brain waves within the hippocampus and were able to measure them in single axons.

The study demonstrates that slow waves and sleep spindles can originate from axons within the hippocampus' cornu ammonis 3 region. These oscillations in voltage occur independently of neuronal spiking activity, challenging existing theories about the generation of these brain waves.

"Our research sheds light on a previously unrecognized aspect of deep sleep brain activity," said lead author Mengke Wang, former UC Irvine undergraduate student in biomedical engineering who is now a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University (Wang conducted the study while at UC Irvine). "We've discovered that the hippocampus, typically associated with memory formation, plays a crucial role in generating slow waves and sleep spindles, offering new insights into how these brain waves support memory processing during sleep."

The team utilized innovative techniques -- including in vitro reconstructions of hippocampal subregions and microfluidic tunnels for single axon communication -- to observe spontaneous spindle waves in isolated hippocampal neurons. These findings suggest that spindle oscillations originate from active ion channels within axons, rather than through volume conduction as previously thought.

"The discovery of spindle oscillations in single hippocampal axons opens new avenues for understanding the mechanisms underlying memory consolidation during sleep," said co-author Gregory Brewer, adjunct professor of biomedical engineering. "These findings have significant implications for sleep research, potentially paving the way for new approaches to treating sleep-related disorders."

Brewer's other research affiliations include the Institute for Memory Impairment and Neurological Disorders and the Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

By uncovering the hippocampus's role in generating slow waves and sleep spindles, this research expands our understanding of the brain's activity during deep sleep and its impact on memory processing. The findings offer a promising foundation for future studies exploring the therapeutic potential of targeting hippocampal activity to improve sleep quality and cognitive function.

Joining Brewer and Wang in this study, which received financial support from the UCI Foundation, were William Tang, professor emeritus of biomedical engineering; Bryce Mander, associate professor of psychiatry & human behavior; and Samuel Lassers, graduate student researcher in biomedical engineering.

Sleep Disorders
Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Neuroscience
Intelligence
Disorders and Syndromes
Brain-Computer Interfaces
Memory-prediction framework
Rapid eye movement
Circadian rhythm sleep disorder
Sleep deprivation

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of California - Irvine . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

Mengke Wang, Samuel B. Lassers, Yash S. Vakilna, Bryce A. Mander, William C. Tang, Gregory J. Brewer. Spindle oscillations in communicating axons within a reconstituted hippocampal formation are strongest in CA3 without thalamus . Scientific Reports , 2024; 14 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-58002-0

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How to Become a More Empathetic Listener

Listening isn’t a solo act; it’s a collaborative one.

When the subject of how to be a good listener comes up, psychologists often talk about the value of “perspective-taking” — that is, projecting ourselves into the lives of those we’re listening to. This has been shown to make us grow more generous and less prejudiced toward them, but it’s a flawed way to understand others, because it treats empathy as a solo sport, encouraging listeners simply to try to understand what someone else is going through. What truly good listeners do, however, is work collaboratively with other people to understand them. Scientists call this “perspective-getting,” in which one person uses questions and active listening to understand someone else’s feelings. Perspective-getting boosts mutual understanding, improves relationships, and helps people discover common ground. In this article, the author, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, offers readers guidance on how to practice perspective-getting and get better at it over time.

In 1984, the physician Howard Beckman and his colleagues recorded 74 medical conversations, all of which began with a doctor asking a patient what their concern was. Seventy percent of patients were interrupted within 20 seconds ; just 2% got to finish their thought. The study was widely shared, but fifteen years later, Beckman found doctors were still interrupting just as often, and just as quickly.

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