Emotional Sport Research Articles

Emotions in Sport

Emotions in Sport

Reply to Lane on "mood and emotion in sport".

The 2000 findings of Jones, Mace, and Williams have been re-examined by Lane in the light of a recent conceptual model outlining the relationship between mood and performance. In addition, Lane outlined some concerns regarding the methodology of Jones, et al. The present paper aims to justify the methodology used and augment the discussion by Lane on the study of mood and emotion in sport.

Emotions in sport

Emotions in sport

Towards an understanding of children's motivation for physical activity: Achievement goal orientations, beliefs about sport success, and sport emotion in zimbabwean children

Abstract The study of children's physical activity motivation is important for public health promotion. However, more needs to be known about physical activity determinants across different groups and cultures. This study investigated the achievement goal orientations, beliefs about sport success and emotional feelings concerning sport in 159 children from Zimbabwe. The study was based on research conducted in the USA and England to test the replicability of findings across cultures. Results showed that children endorsing a task (self-referenced) orientation of sport success were more likely to believe that sport success was the result of effort rather than ability, whereas the reverse was true for those endorsing the normatively referenced ego (social comparative) goal. Children high in task orientation, either alone or in combination with a high ego orientation, were found to display the most motivationally adaptive profile. The results were very similar to those reported in the USA and England and high...

On problems of the emotions in sport and leisure: critical and counter-critical comments on the conventional and figurational sociologies of sport and leisure

The subject of this paper is the emotions which are aroused in sport and leisure and their significance for a full sociological understanding of sport and leisure behaviour and sport and leisure institutions. The paper deals more with sport than leisure in general and is primarily conceptual and theoretical in its focus. It advances the claim that a ‘figurational’ (or ‘process-sociological’) approach, above all Elias's theory of ‘civilizing processes’ (Elias, 1939; l994a), whilst by no means representing a panacea for all of sociology's current problems, does represent a means of circumventing and hopefully overcoming some of the dilemmas on the horns of which practitioners of our subject recurrently become impaled.

Attributions for objective outcome and subjective appraisal of performance: Their relationship with emotional reactions in sport

Participants in a regional squash league (N = 74) were studied to ascertain the nature of relationships between attributions and emotions in sport. Attributions were assessed for objective outcome (win/loss) and subjective appraisal of performance (satisfied/dissatisfied). In addition, players were assessed on performance satisfaction, outcome importance and performance importance, as well as 16 emotions. Factor analyses yielded three factors for both outcome and performance attributions (personal sport ability, unstable and opponent). A factor analysis on emotion ratings produced three factors: positive self-esteem, relaxation and surprised incompetence. Multiple regression analyses revealed that for winners, emotions were generally related to performance satisfaction rather than attributions, while for losers emotion was best predicted by unstable attributions and perceived importance. Players satisfied with their performance reported greater positive self-esteem after unstable attributions, while emotion for dissatisfied players was best predicted by opponent attributions or perceived importance. Results are discussed in the context of Weiner's (1985, 1986) propositions on causal search, Vallerand's (1987) intuitive-reflective appraisal model of sport emotion, and the structure of attributions in sport.

Emotion and Sport: A Case Study of Collegiate Women Gymnasts

Previous studies of emotion in sport have examined team sports. The present research focuses on an individual sport—women’s collegiate gymnastics. Data were gathered during the gymnastics season of 1988-89 from 10 members of the team and its coach and trainer. The methodology included the use of photo-elicitation interviews and observations of women’s gymnastics. The emotion-work and categories of emotions described were displayed when the gymnasts were off stage, when preparing to compete, between events, and after competition. Discussion focuses on the control and management of emotions according to the “feeling rules” (i.e., the socially constructed subcultural norms of the sport). The gymnasts did display individual variations in their adherence to the feeling rules. Categories of emotion included nervousness, fear of pain and injury, frustration, and disappointment. Emotional social experiences included social psyching up and the happiness and joy associated with a successful performance. Consideration is given to some advantages and qualifications of the photo-elicitation technique.

Antecedents of Self-Related Affects in Sport: Preliminary Evidence on the Intuitive-Reflective Appraisal Model

In line with various cognitive theories of emotion, Vallerand (1983, 1984) has proposed an intuitive-reflective appraisal model for self-related affects in achievement situations. A fundamental postulate of the model states that it is the cognitive evaluation of events and not events per se that produces emotions. Such cognitive evaluation can be seen as intuitive (almost automatic) and reflective (deliberate) in nature. Whereas the intuitive appraisal is akin to one's almost automatic subjective assessment of performance, the reflective appraisal is hypothesized to include several forms: (a) intellectualization, (b) comparison (self, outcome, and social) processes, (c) mastery-related cognitions, (d) information processing functions, and (e) causal attributions. Two studies tested some of the model's postulates in field (Study 1) and laboratory (Study 2) settings. Results showed support for some of the model's postulates in that both the intuitive and reflective attributional appraisals were found to have important effects on self- and general-type affects. In addition, perceptions of success/failure (the intuitive appraisal of performance) had more potent effects on affects than did objective success/failure. On the other hand, the intellectualization reflective appraisal (task importance) did not have appreciable effects on affects. Results are discussed in light of the intuitive-reflective appraisal model, and implications for future studies on emotion in sport are underscored.

On Emotion In Sport: Theoretical and Social Psychological Perspectives

This paper presents and critically assesses four major cognitive theories of emotion. Theories were selected on the basis of their pertinence to a social psychological study of emotion in sport. Four cognitive theories of emotion by Schachter (1964), Lazarus (1966), Arnold (1960), and Weiner (1981) were reviewed. Strengths and weaknesses of these theories were examined. Cognitive theories of emotion were also shown to be amenable to theoretical research in sport. It was suggested that a comprehensive theory of emotion in sport should incorporate aspects of different cognitive theories of emotion thus leading to a better understanding and prediction of emotion in sport settings. Such a comprehensive theory, however, must await future research. Issues for a social psychology of emotion in sport were formulated. It was argued that emotion research in sport should be incorporated within a social psychological framework. To this end it was suggested that a better understanding of the antecedents and consequences of affect is needed in order to fully understand emotion as experienced by sport participants.

Thought Processes and Emotions in Sport.

In brief The mental approach to sport is much more important than most athletes realize. Mental processes must be trained just as sports skills, and they take time to develop. Various methods for dealing with psychological problems that appear before, during, and after competitive events include relaxation techniques, mental preparation, and positive self-evaluation. Sport psychologists can help athletes improve the psychological processes associated with successful athletic performance, but few are available in the United States at this time because the field is new. However, physicians and trainers have contact with many athletes and can listen to and help them with these problems.

Emotions in Sport Sociology

It is suggested that a sociology of and through sport approach to research might be applied to the study of emotion in a manner beneficial to both sport sociology and to the emerging sociology of emotions. As an exploratory step in this direction, two sport-relevant emotion-oriented theories — Scheff's (1979) distancing theory of catharsis, and Elias and Dunning's (1970) approach to the understanding of emotion in leisure spectacles — are synopsized and compared. A very tentative approach to their synthesis in a broader theory of emotions in sport is attempted, and some possible implications for our understanding of emotions in sport, and of sport in society, are discussed.