Abstract
In this article Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is proposed as a potentially important framework for the understanding and promotion of mental health in athletes. Cognitive-behavioral approaches predominate in the provision of sport psychology, and often form the backbone of psychological skills training for performance enhancement and maintenance. But far from being solely performance-focused, the cognitive-behavioral approach to sport psychology can restore, promote, and maintain mental health. This review article presents REBT (Ellis, 1957), the original cognitive behavioral therapy, as a valuable approach to addressing mental health issues in sport. REBT holds that it is not events that directly cause emotions and behaviors. Rather, it is one’s beliefs about the events that lead to emotional and behavioral reactivity. Further, REBT distinguishes between rational and irrational beliefs, and suggests that in response to failure, maltreatment, and misfortune, people can react with either healthy or unhealthy emotional and behavioral responses. The extant research indicates that irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy negative emotions, a range of pathological conditions, and a host of maladaptive behaviors that undermine mental health. Therefore, REBT proposes a process for the reduction of irrational beliefs and the promotion of rational beliefs. The use of REBT in sport is seldom reported in literature, but research is growing. This review article proposes three important areas of investigation that will aid the understanding of irrational beliefs and the application of REBT within sport. These areas are: (1) the influence of irrational beliefs and REBT on the mental health of athletes, (2) the influence of irrational beliefs and REBT on athletic performance, (3) the origins and development of irrational beliefs in athletes. Each area is discussed in turn, offering a critical and progressive review of the literature as well as highlighting research deficits, and recommendations to address each of the three areas of investigation.
Highlights
The provision of sport psychology within sporting organizations and with athletes can be approached in many ways
Many consider sport psychology to be much more than the provision of psychological skills training (PST), recognizing the role sport psychology could play in the mental health of athletes
Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) places this central idea or philosophy into an ABC framework where the event is represented by the letter A, the beliefs are allocated the letter B, and emotions and behaviors are represented by C
Summary
The provision of sport psychology within sporting organizations and with athletes can be approached in many ways. REBT places this central idea or philosophy into an ABC framework where the event is represented by the letter A (activating event or adversity), the beliefs are allocated the letter B, and emotions and behaviors are represented by C (consequences) Does this ABC framework hold up scientifically when considering the role of cognitive appraisal in the generation of emotion (David et al, 2002), it facilitates therapy, as it is a non-complex and memorable way for clients to understand the antecedents to their emotions and behaviors. The central aim of REBT is to reduce irrational beliefs in favor of rational beliefs, encouraging decreases in UNEs and increased in HNEs (Ellis and Dryden, 1997) This is done using a systematic disputation (D) process, which entails the practitioner helping the client to challenge specific irrational beliefs (Dryden, 2009). Sport literature has started to report the use of REBT in athlete populations
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