Toward a Comprehensive Professional Philosophy in Performance and Well-Being Psychology: Integrating Functional Contextualism and Relational Frame Theory for Esports and Other High-Performance Environments

Abstract

Performance psychology practitioners use a wide range of theories and interventions to improve performance and well-being. Often, however, practitioners do not integrate these theories into a model of practice underpinned by a theory of behavior. Without this foundation, performance programs become patchwork approaches where it is often unclear whether different interventions within a performance program work together or contradict each other. To address this issue, we present a model of behavior based on functional contextualism and relational frame theory. We then use this model as a framework to integrate mainstream performance psychology and psychophysiology theory in line with acceptance-based third-wave cognitive behavioral approaches to improve performance alongside well-being, not at the expense of well-being. Specifically, this includes interventions which promote experiential acceptance, and excludes interventions which promote experiential avoidance. With this framework, we hope to support practitioners, students, and educators by illustrating how different theories can and cannot be integrated in their own practice. Examples are predominantly taken from esports literature. However, the model and philosophy presented is applicable to all high-performance domains. We end this article by proposing questions to develop performance psychology philosophy inside and outside of esports.