Qualitative Methodologies as a Vehicle for Understanding the Emotional Process in Soccer Players
A descriptive-exploratory investigation with pre-experimental design tried to answer the question how sports performance in competition is influenced by emotions? Two assessing instruments were built – Questionário Emoção e Desempenho Desportivo (QEDD, study 1) and Sistema de Observação do Desempenho Desportivo - (SODD -1, study 3). Interviews were used to identify the emotions’ triggers and which sports performance factors were influenced by those emotions (study 2). Study 4 intended to answer the research question, with two football players. For both players different kinds of emotions were generated by the same trigger and by different triggers. For player 1, positive and negative emotions always had a functional effect in sports performance; for player 2, positive emotions had only a functional effect on sports performance, negative emotions had both effects in sports performance (functional and dysfunctional), and some of the studied emotions had no influence in sports performance.