Ethics

The study of ethics in sport, exercise, and performance psychology (SEPP) has traditionally focused upon the provision of practical suggestions to help practitioners avoid ethical issues. These suggestions stem from reviews of SEPP ethical standards that have been derived from the parent field of psychology. This area of study has been primarily nonempirically based. Therefore, the primary suggestion of this chapter is for the development of a more empirically based study of ethics. There is a need to empirically understand the structural issues that are commonly associated with ethical concerns, the common ethical beliefs and behaviors of practitioners, and the methods used by practitioners to make ethical decisions. The authors propose research questions to be of vital importance to the study of ethics in SEPP.

Afterword

Wow, what a process! We definitely enjoyed it—well, at least most of it! After more than 10 years from idea to conclusion, we finally made our dream a reality. We have gathered leading experts in various areas in the sport, exercise, and performance psychology domain to share their knowledge and thoughts about the most pressing questions that will help move the field forward and direct the interested readers to the state-of-the-art literature in the domain. One way to consider and use this book is as a database of the most important questions and literature outputs in the field. Essentially, this book is a primary source for scholars and researchers at various levels and an effective guide toward research endeavors....

An Exploration of Mental Skills Among Competitive League of Legend Players

ESports, also known as competitive video gaming, has seen tremendous growth over the past few years. Several studies have been conducted that examined the potential cognitive benefits of playing video games, but few have examined the psychosocial factors needed to perform at the highest level of competitive video gaming. In this study, the researchers aimed to identify specific mental obstacles players face and any mental techniques gamers already utilize by conducting a qualitative content analysis. Interviews with five high-level competitive League of Legend players were conducted to shed light on their experiences. The interviews resulted in two high order themes. Those high order themes were the following: techniques used to achieve optimal performance and obstacles encountered by competitive gamers. The data collected can be used by a wide population in both the performance psychology field and the eSports realm, more specifically, future mental skills consultants working with League of Legends players, gamers themselves, and academics who wish to serve, improve, or study those involved in an emerging performance domain.

The Philosophical Underpinning of Athlete Lifestyle Support: An Existential-Humanistic Perspective

This study aims to highlight how an existential-humanistic perspective can inform athlete support and in doing so, emphasize the importance of explicating the philosophical underpinnings of athlete lifestyle support. Drawing on applied experience with elite youth cricketers over a 12-month period, ethnographic data were collected through the observation, maintenance of case notes, and a practitioner reflective diary. Based on thematic analysis, we created three nonfictional vignettes that we use to illustrate how existential-humanistic theorizing can inform lifestyle support. We discuss the implications of this professional philosophy in terms of considerations for performance and talent development programs, and how holistic support for athletes is positioned. We also discuss implications for athlete lifestyle and performance psychology practitioners, with regard to training, underpinning theoretical grounding of support and the strategic positioning of their practitioner roles.

Can Writing Be Wrong? Collaborative Autoethnography as Critical Reflective Practice in Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology

Critical reflective practice (CRP) facilitates macro-level reflections about social contexts and power structures through the interrogation of one’s own experiences (Knowles & Gilbourne, 2010). Despite the importance of CRP, examples of how one actually engages in CRP are scarce in sport psychology. Moreover, given that writing in academia is traditionally “author evacuated” (Knowles & Gilbourne, 2010, p. 512), it is questionable how traditional writing practices help facilitate critical reflections. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine how sport psychology professionals can engage in CRP through the use of author-centered writing. Specifically, we responded to Knowles and Gilbourne’s (2010) call to use autoethnography as a way to engage in, as well as document, critical reflective writing. Through author-centered writing, we reflected on normalized practices that can hinder CRP. The detailed written accounts and collaborative process helped us recognize how the personal is political (Hanisch, 2006), and why culture and power are always important for sport psychology professionals to consider.

On the application of playing psychology in oboe Teaching

When playing an instrument, the performance effect is closely related to the actual psychological state of the performer. The performer not only needs to have better professional skills, but also needs to have strong psychological quality, so that the performer can achieve the best state when performing an instrument.Therefore, in the process of oboe teaching, teachers need to pay attention to the use of performance psychology, improve the psychological quality of students’ performance, maintain a good state, and fully integrate performance skills and personal emotions.