Developing rigor in qualitative research: problems and opportunities within sport and exercise psychology

This is the 2nd special issue section focused on sport and exercise psychology research and practice in countries referred to as “emerging” in sport and exercise psychology. Promotion of sport psychology research and practice in emerging countries is an important aim in this journal and of the International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP). This special issue is one among several actions adopted by the ISSP to promote sport psychology in emerging countries. Six articles are reported here from China, Ghana, Argentina and Brazil. Some of them focus on sport psychology practice while others cover different areas of sport and exercise psychology research. These contributions extend beyond building capacity in these regions to an equal mandate: revealing diverse sport psychology practices from the global sport psychology community.

In this chapter, gender psychology meets sport and exercise psychology. For many readers, this is a first meeting, and an introduction is in order. Sport and exercise psychology is located in a much different context than most of the other psychology areas covered in this handbook. Although academic and clinical psychologists have engaged in sport and exercise psychology research or consulted with athletes and exercisers, for the most part, sport and exercise psychology faculty, courses, graduate programs, and research activities are found in departments of kinesiology or exercise and sport science.

Attention to rigour, from the identification of the problem to the dissemination of the findings, is essential in all qualitative research. In this paper, research carried out in Ghana in 1999 is used to highlight methodological issues in relation to rigour in international qualitative nursing research. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature in relation to rigour in qualitative research, highlight the methodological decisions enhancing rigour during this research project, and describe the criteria used to assess rigour during the research process. A participatory action research design was used to explore the cultural, social, economic, and political factors that influenced Ghanaian women's vulnerability to HIV infection. Collaboration with participants and partnerships with key professionals were integral to the design of the study. Participatory action research provided a flexible, socially, and culturally adaptable framework to guide this international research project. Prior to the initiation of international research it was essential to establish the relevance and feasibility of the proposed project. This international research project posed additional methodological challenges to the establishment of rigour. Patience, flexibility and sensitivity were required of the researcher to overcome these challenges. Collaboration with participants and with culture-specific 'experts' may be key to culturally competent scholarship, particularly in unfamiliar settings.

Sport psychology and performance psychology are related and overlapping terms that encompass a broad range of interventions, applications, and areas of research. These two domains focus on the psychological aspects of performance, within sports or exercise contexts in the former, as well as expansion to non-sport areas of performance such as business, the performing arts, medicine, and the military, in the latter. Some have proposed that sport psychology is a subspecialty of performance psychology, which is seen as an umbrella term. Over a number of decades, high-performance strategies and techniques and skills, developed within sports and exercise psychology field, have been extrapolated and applied to non-sports areas with positive results. Most individuals want to perform well in life, whether it is functioning optimally at work or school or performing well within family roles or performing and/or adapting well to situations and life circumstances; thus, the work of sport and performance psychology practitioners and researchers is to understand the often complex relationships of psychological (and/or biopsychosocial) factors involved in creating positive performance outcomes and experiences. Sport psychologists and performance psychologists play important roles within sports medicine and are often the best-trained providers to deal with mental health issues in athletes. Over the years, sport psychology has expanded to be seen as “sport and exercise psychology,” to include the contributions of exercise and sport scientists to sport performance (beyond applied sport psychologists); the field continues to expand and goes beyond sports to general performance science, which focuses on areas such as the development of expertise or the cognitive neuroscience aspects of high performance. For sports medicine providers, the perceived dichotomy of clinically or counseling-trained sport psychology providers and performance enhancement consultants (with various titles) can be confusing, especially as it relates to the mental health of athletes. Clinically trained sport psychologists can provide assessment and interventions that can address diagnosable mental health disorders and the subclinical disorder symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and sleep difficulties. As a member of the sports medicine team, sport psychologists are typically the most experienced providers to deal with the psychological and emotional aspects of an athlete’s sports injury and injury recovery or rehab experience.

Qualitative research in sports and exercise psychology: A timely comment

This paper presents 25 key considerations for advancing research and practice on body image within sport and exercise psychology. Drawing from foundational work and emerging trends, we identify five core areas for progress: conceptualization, measurement, theory, intervention, and policy. First, clarity of key concepts is emphasized, particularly in distinguishing body image from related constructs such as eating disorders, and in advancing our understanding of identity and intersectionality. Second, measurement considerations call for refining self-report tools, embracing diverse methodologies, and aligning study designs with cultural relevance and lived experience. Third, we trace the evolution of theoretical approaches that have been applied to understand the relationship between sport/exercise (dis)engagement and body image and introduce a novel dual-pathways framework to guide future research in sport and exercise contexts. Fourth, in terms of intervention, we highlight the need to develop and evaluate body image programs for athletes and sport leaders, promote movement for positive body image outcomes, and harness digital and media literacy strategies. Finally, we outline policy directions to foster positive body image environments and protect against harm in sport and exercise settings. This paper aims to serve as a roadmap for future work that is inclusive, innovative, and impactful.

Qualitative and Mixed Methods Research in Cross-Cultural Psychology

What Is Enjoyment? A Conceptual/Definitional Analysis with Implications for Sport and Exercise Psychology

Narrative inquiry, as one form of qualitative research, has recently attracted some interest within the field of sport and exercise psychology. Seeking to be theoretically imaginative and instigate dialogue, this article focuses attention on five main issues within ongoing conversations among sport and exercise psychology researchers who promote and/or engage in narrative research. Theoretically inspired and grounded, these interrelated issues include, motivations for why researchers have turned to narrative, the concept of ‘the self’, interviewing, the issue of ‘truth’, and representation. Some implications of these issues for sport and exercise psychology are also highlighted. The article closes with some reflections about the future directions that narrative inquiry might take.

Notwithstanding diverse opinions and debates about mixing methods, mixed methods research (MMR) is increasingly being used in sport and exercise psychology. In this paper, we describe MMR trends within leading sport and exercise psychology journals and explore critical realism as a possible underpinning framework for conducting MMR. Our meta-study of recent empirical mixed methods studies published in 2017–2019 indicates that eight (36%) of the 22 MMR studies explicitly stated a paradigmatic position (five drew on pragmatism, two switched paradigms between qualitative and quantitative elements of the study, and one was situated in relativist-interpretivism). The remaining 14 (64%) studies did not report their underpinning research philosophical assumptions. Evaluating the merits and limitations of these positions against critical realist assumptions suggests that several paradigmatic disagreements are potentially reconcilable. These include (a) maintaining that ontological and epistemological concerns are important for methodological integrity of a mixed methods study; (b) switching between paradigms in the same study is problematic; and (c) refuting the qualitative-quantitative incommensurability thesis, therefore allowing mixed methods research without compromising philosophical coherence. From a critical realist position, we suggest that both quantitative and qualitative designs are justifiable in a mixed methods study because (1) they help corroborate, refine, or refute plausible explanations of phenomena (epistemological), but (2) with different methodologies utilised to perform different tasks in the same research design related to different psycho-social system features (ontological). We call for a collaborative engagement by researchers across paradigmatic positions to work towards the advancement of methodological pluralism in our research community.

The purpose of this article is to illustrate how two innovations in single-case research design, the range-bound changing criterion and the distributed criterion designs, have recently emerged and how these designs might apply to sport and exercise psychology and sport performance. Both design innovations appear most suited to interventions that use, or include, common psychological skills training techniques, such as self-talk and goal-setting, together with more general behavioral self-management approaches. Investigators are encouraged to consider applying these two design innovations to contexts where researchers are interested in shaping or developing behaviors within sport and exercise participants.

Introduction: <br/>The credibility of qualitative research has long been debated, with critics emphasizing the lack of rigor and the challenges of demonstrating it. In qualitative research, rigor encompasses explicit, detailed descriptions of various research stages, including problem framing, study design, data collection, analysis, and reporting. The diversity inherent in qualitative research, originating from various beliefs and paradigms, challenges establishing universal guidelines for determining its rigor. Additionally, researchers' often unrecorded thought processes in qualitative studies further complicate the assessment of research quality.<br/><br/>Methods:<br/>To address these concerns, this article builds on the TACT framework, which was developed to teach postgraduate students and those new to qualitative research to identify and apply rigorous principles and indicators in qualitative research. The research reported in this article focuses on creating a scale designed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the TACT framework. This involves analyzing the stability of its dimensions and understanding its effectiveness as a tool for teaching and research.<br/><br/>Results: <br/>The study's findings indicate that the TACT framework, when assessed through the newly developed scale, exhibits stable dimensions consistent with rigorous qualitative research principles. The framework effectively guides postgraduate students and new researchers in assessing the rigor of qualitative research processes and outcomes.<br/><br/>Discussion:<br/>The application of the TACT framework and its evaluation scale reveals several insights. Firstly, it demonstrates the framework's utility in bridging the gap in pedagogical tools for teaching rigor in qualitative research methods. Secondly, it highlights the framework's potential in providing a structured approach to undertaking qualitative research, which is essential given this field's diverse methodologies and paradigms. However, the TACT framework remains a guide to enhancing rigor in qualitative research throughout all the various phases but by no means a measure of rigor.<br/><br/>Conclusion:<br/>In conclusion, the TACT framework and its accompanying evaluative scale represent significant steps toward standardizing and enhancing the rigor of qualitative research, particularly for postgraduate students and early career researchers. While it does not solve all challenges associated with obtaining and demonstrating rigor in qualitative research, it provides a valuable tool for assessing and ensuring research quality, thereby addressing some of the longstanding criticisms of the quality of research obtained through qualitative methods.

Purpose Student-athletes in Korea are confronted with career development in both academics and sport. This paradigm change in sport policy aims at guarantee of student-athletes' learning rights and successful career transition after sport. But dual career development can be a difficult task for student-athletes, if there is a lack of social support. The purpose of this study was to provide updated information regarding the burnout-in-sport literature and suggest directions for future research in sport psychology. Methods This study is based on reviewing the literature. In order to improve the validity of discussion, the author focused on the findings of the published research articles targeting student-athletes. The outcomes were examined and discussed based on models and measurement tools of athletes’ burnout. Results First, longitudinal study is needed to understand causalities in sport burnout. Second, it is necessary to develop korean sport burnout scale reflecting our social and cultural contexts. To do this, qualitative research should be preceded to provide in-depth understanding on burnout phenomenon of student-athletes. Third, the cut-off values which can allow the separation between clinical and nonclinical athletes should be developed. Fourth, due to dual career development as a new sport environment, burnout research has to pay attention both psychological variables in person and environmental variables. Conclusions Since the 1990s burnout research in sport psychology has been increased in its quantity as one of the remarkable topics in Korea. Based on the comprehensive and systematic review of the literature, directions for future research are suggested.

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in subsequent chapters of this book. The book is committed to 'being critical', with such commitment being achieved through all chapters problematizing taken for granted 'truths' to encourage researchers and/or practitioners to continue to step outside of the disciplinary and subcultural box. The book approaches the sport and physical activity subcultures and the participants within them using different critical perspectives, with the goal of expanding the critical cultural sport psychology (CSP) discourse. Further, it takes a critical approach as each is committed to creating safe and/or socially inclusive spaces for sport and physical activity participants in order to promote psychological well-being and an ethically and socially just sport psychology. The book is divided into three parts: sociocultural dimensions of inclusion/exclusion in sport, critiques of the medical model, sport culture and sport research, self-reflection and reflexivity in sport psychology practice and research.

A review was conducted of the sport and exercise literature for the years 1971 to early 1998 in which the Profile of Mood States (POMS) figured prominently. Analyses indicated that there were 258 published articles in which the POMS was used with athletic or exercise samples during this time period. Of these articles, 226 were data-based and the remainder dealt with general, theoretical, or psychometric issues. Prominent journals publishing the data-based research, leading authors, sport samples used, gender issues, and temporal trends in the use of the POMS were noted. Anticipated future developments include: improvements in research methodologies used to study relationships among sport, exercise, and mood; continued validation of abbreviated forms of the scale as well as a form for use with youth samples; and increased utilization of the POMS for mood profiling.