Rethinking Sport and Exercise Psychology Research (eBook)

Peter Hassmén is Professor of Psychology in the School of Health and Human Sciences, Southern Cross University, Australia. He has taught widely across Sport and Exercise Psychology and published extensively using both quantitative and qualitative research methods.Richard Keegan is Assistant Professor of Sport and Exercise Science in the Faculty of Health, University of Canberra, Australia. He also works as a Sport Psychologist, balancing his applied work with research, as well as teaching Sport and Exercise Psychology both at the under- and postgraduate level. David Piggott is Principal Lecturer in Sports Coaching in the School of Sport at Leeds Beckett University, UK. He has taught and published widely in Sports Coaching, Sport Psychology and Sociology and has a keen interest in the Philosophy of Science and Sociology of Knowledge.

Contents 5
List of Figures 7
List of Tables 8
1: Why Rethink? 9
Introduction 9
Philosophical Baggage 11
Karl Popper and ‘Critical Rationalism’ 12
Thomas Kuhn and ‘Normal Science’ 17
Imre Lakatos and Scientific ‘Research Programmes’ 25
Paul Feyerabend and ‘Epistemological Anarchism’ 31
Applying Philosophy to the Past, Present and Future 39
Moving Forward 43
2: The Emerging Field of Sport and Exercise Psychology 44
Early Psychophysics 45
Scales of Measurement and Modern Psychophysics 51
Experimental Psychology 53
The Dawn of Sport and Exercise Psychology Research 56
Smocks and Jocks in the Box 62
Concluding Remarks 64
3: How Do We Know That We Really Know? 65
Critical Thinking in Sport and Exercise Psychology 67
Critical Thinking About Sport and Exercise Psychology 70
Peer Reviewers, as Gatekeepers 72
Open Access Publishing 73
Scientific Literacy 75
Heuristics and Bias 77
Myths in Sport and Exercise Psychology 79
Science Versus Pseudoscience 79
Signs of Pseudoscience 82
Claims Are Reasonable and with Boundaries 82
Claims Can Be Reproduced 83
Claims Are Falsifiable 85
Claims Are Cumulative 86
Claims Are Self-Correctable 87
Claims Are Not Overly Complicated 87
Concluding Remarks 88
4: The Status of Theory 89
Four Views on Theory 89
Theory as a ‘Framework’: The Example of SDT 91
Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET) 92
Organismic Integration Theory (OIT) 94
Causality Orientations Theory (COT) 94
Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT) 94
Generating ‘Grounded’ Theories 100
Conclusion: Theory, Dogma and Progress 107
5: Research Paradigms, Methodologies and Methods 111
Philosophical Differences Between Paradigms 115
Paradigms (a.k.a., Worldviews, Research Traditions) 116
Nomothetic Versus Idiographic Approach 120
Quantitative Versus Qualitative Methods 121
The Mixed-Methods Approach 124
Methodological Backlash 128
The Audit Culture 129
Concluding Remarks 134
6: Norms, Culture and Identity 136
Paradigmatic Dominance in Sport and Exercise Psychology 138
Occam’s Razor and the Principle of Parsimony in Achievement Goal Theory 146
Ad Hominems, Straw Men and Exclamation Points 151
Diversity: Gender, Ethnicity, Disability and Culture 156
Gender 161
Disability 165
Conclusion 168
7: Measuring Constructs 169
Operationalisation 170
Reliability and Validity 173
Reliability 174
Validity 176
Statistics 178
Likert-Type Scales 180
Psychometrics and Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Data 181
Methodolatry 188
Some Examples 191
Burnout 191
Mood States 193
Achievement Goals 196
Concluding Remarks 198
8: Research and Practice in Applied Sport and Exercise Psychology 199
What Is the ‘Research-Practice Gap’? 201
What Are the Consequences of Allowing a ‘Research-Practice Gap’? 203
Practical Theories and Theories of Practice 207
Theoretical Practice 208
The Scientist-Practitioner Model in Sport and Exercise Psychology 210
Reclaiming ‘Theoretical Practice’ 212
Practical Theories 213
Theories of Practice 219
Additional Approaches to Bridging the Research-Practice Gap 221
Conclusion 223
9: Developments to Enable Progress 225
Nailing the Colours 225
The Myth of the Framework 226
A Sociological Fly in the Philosophical Ointment 233
A Professional Ethics for Sport and Exercise Psychology Researchers 239
Conclusion: Defining and Enabling ‘Progress’ 245
10: Planning a Post-revolutionary World 247
Introduction 247
The Story So Far 249
Imagining Post-revolutionary Research 252
Imagining the Post-revolutionary Journal 259
Imagining the Post-revolutionary Conference 268
Imagining Post-revolutionary Research Education 273
Conclusion 279
References 281
Index 309