dissertation topics in sport psychology

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Sport and Exercise Psychology Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2024 2024.

A Randomized Need-Supportive Intervention with U.S. Youth Hockey Coaches , Diane Benish

Theses/Dissertations from 2023 2023

Living Your Best Life: The Mindful Pursuit of Student-Athlete Thriving , Andrew Augustus

Working with Community Partners in WV: Learning How to Frame Health Equity in Physical Activity Interventions , Karly Marie Casanave-Phillips

How do college student-athletes’ understanding and expectations of mindfulness and self-compassion change through an intervention? , Blake Costalupes

“Building the Roots”: A Delphi Study Examining the Aims of a Multicultural Competency Graduate Course in Sport and Exercise Psychology , Matthew Paul Gonzalez

Exploring the Conceptualizations and Utilizations of Learning Theories in Sport Settings , Kevin R. Lou

Drivers of Change in Mindfulness- and Acceptance-Based Interventions with Athletes: Investigating the Influence of Dosage, Readiness, and Attitudes , Thomas O. Minkler

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Short-Term International Sport for Development and Peace Programs: A Retrospective Analysis and Critique Informed by Stakeholders’ Perspectives in a Two-Year Follow-Up , Adam Hansell

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

'Deporte y Cambio Social': Women's Empowerment SDP Program in Mexico , Sofia Espana Perez

A Qualitative Study of College Athletes’ Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic , Carra Johnson

Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Student-Athletes: A Descriptive Study of Practitioners and their Perspectives , William C. Way III

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

A Phenomenological Photovoice Exploration of Female Exercisers’ Experiences of their Body in Fitness Center Environments , Katherine E. Fairhurst

Exploring the Relationship Between Hardiness and Performance in Collegiate Baseball Players , Kevin R. Lou

Using the social ecological model to build a path analysis model of physical activity in a sample of active US college students , Jonathan J. Stewart

"Yo, I Like Your Walk-Up Song": Music Integration in Professional Baseball Gamedays , Seth Swary

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Stigma, Attitudes, and Intentions to Seek Mental Health Services in College Student-Athletes , Robert C. Hilliard M.S.

Supporting The Injured Athlete: Coaches’ Perspectives On Providing Social Support , Stefanee Opal Maurice

Being Mindful of Perfectionism and Performance Among Athletes in a Judged Sport , Erika D. Van Dyke

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Competitive Aggressiveness, Anger, and the Experience of Provocation in Collegiate Athletes , Michael E. Berrebi

Functional Movement Screen Composite Scores for Collegiate Field Club Sport Athletes at One University , Daniel Camillone

Exploring the Use of Sport as a Platform for Health Promotion with Youth in Africa: A Scoping Review. , Adam H. Hansell

Use of Four Predictive Screening Variables for Determination of Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction in Adolescent Soccer Athletes , Brian Hanson

Coaching life skills through sport: An application of the teaching personal and social responsibility model to youth sport in eSwatini , Zenzi Huysmans

Psychosocial Development of Junior Hockey Players , Alexander John Sturges

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Players' Responses to and Primary Caregivers' Perceptions of Authoritarian and Authoritative Coaching in the Inner-City , Renee Brown

Examining the Impact of a Short-Term Psychological Skills Training Program on Dancers' Coping Skills, Pain Appraisals, and Injuries , Leigh A. Bryant

Changes in Athletes' Anxiety, Anger, and Impulsiveness following Concussion , Megan Byrd

Development of Ethics Education Guidelines for Undergraduate Athletic Training Education Programs , Kaitlynn Cullen

Using a Multi-Omic Approach to Investigate a Diet Intervention in Young Adults at Risk of Disease , Oluremi Ariel Famodu

Approaches to Supervision in Sport Psychology and their Influences on Initial Supervisees' Professional Development , Janaina Lima Fogaca

High School Coaches' Experiences with Openly Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Athletes , Meghan K. Halbrook

#Physical Activity: Influencing Parent Behavior Change Through Social Media , Adam Keath

The Effects of an Exercise and Kinesiotape Intervention on Forward HeadRounded Shoulder Posture and Scapular Dyskinesis , Lucas Klawiter

Student-Athletes' Experiences with Racial Microaggressions in Sport: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis , Sae-Mi Lee

The Effects of a Six Week Lumbopelvic Control and Balance Training Program in High School Basketball Players , Margaret Long

Thrombospondin-1 and Cd47 Mediate Peripheral Microvascular Dysfunction Following Pulmonary Exposure to Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes , W. Kyle Mandler

The Investigation of Motor Primitives During Human Reaching Movements and the Quantification of Post-Stroke Motor Impairment , Erienne Virginia Olesh

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

The Effect of Lower Extremity Asymmetries on Low Back and Lower Extremity Pain with Pregnancy , Erica Casto

Do Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviors, and Nutrition Affect Healthy Weight in Middle School Students in an Appalachian Community? Children's Health Opportunities Involving Coordinated Efforts in Schools (CHOICES) Project , Kibum Cho

How Far is Too Far? Understanding Identity and Overconformity in Collegiate Wrestlers , Ashley M. Coker-Cranney

An Examination of Collegiate Athletes', Undergraduate Sport Science Majors', and Athlete Majors' Intent to Pursue Collegiate Coaching as a Career , Lauren Deckelbaum

A preliminary exploration of the application of self-compassion within the context of sport injury , Zenzi Huysmans

Psychosocial Predictors of Resilience in a Military Sample , Anna-Marie C. Jaeschke

Evaluating the Efficacy of Various Modalities to Improve Arterial Stiffness , Corey Moore

The Influence Over Time of Abdominal Strength Changes on Gluteus Maximus Strength , Taylor M. Opperhauser

Use of a Functional Movement Screening Tool to Determine Injury Risk in Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Athletes , Sara E. Spencer

Adherence to Sport Rehabilitation , Kjersti A. Traaen

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Surgery and Rehabilitation Treatment Options for Ulnar Collateral Ligament Injuries of the Elbow for Baseball Athletes: A Systematic Review , Amanda M. Damm

What elite men's collegiate tennis coaches look for in recruits and how they assess preferred player characteristics , Brandyn H. Fisher

The Influences of Participation in an Elite Paralympic Military Program on the Self-Identity of Active Duty Service Members with Acquired Disabilities , Lindsay M. Hammond

The Influence of Physical Activity on International Students' Cross-Cultural Adjustment: A Qualitative Longitudinal Study , Shuang Li

Becoming a Mindful Sport Psychology Consultant: Defining, Developing, and Integrating Mindfulness into Practice , Michelle M. McAlarnen

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Certified Athletic Trainers' Abilities to Identify and Refer Athletes with Psychological Symptoms , Marc L. Cormier

Usage of Evidence Based Medicine Resources in Clinically Practicing Athletic Trainers , Kenneth G. Faldetta

Division I College Student-Athlete Career Situation and Attitudes toward Career Counseling , Adrian J. Ferrera

An Evaluation of State Employees' Preferences for Worksite-based Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Stress Management Programs , Peter Kadushin

The use of joint mobilization on mechanical instability deficits for a lateral ankle sprain: A Systematic Review , Kathleen M. Kerecman

The Effect of a Six Week Functional Training Program on Performance Outcomes in Softball , Zachary M. Mohondro

Sport Psychology "App"lication: NCAA Coaches' Preferences for a Mental Training Mobile App , Raymond F. Prior

"It's not just your dad and it's not just your coach..." The dual-role relationship in female tennis players , Olivier N. Schmid

Stoking the Flames of Wellness: An Exploration of Factors that Influence West Virginia Firefighters' Health Behaviors , Chelsea B. Wooding

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

The Influence of Gender on the Peer Leadership-Cohesion Relationship , Michael E. Berrebi

Stressors and Coping Behaviors of Female Peer Leaders Participating in College Club Sports , Leigh A. Bryant

An Exploration of Master's Degree Field Study and Teacher and Student Behavior in P.E , William J. Davis

An Exploratory Investigation of Baseball Coaches' Attitudes and Experiences With Sport Psychology , Jesse D. Michel

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Using Concept Mapping to Identify Action Steps for Physical Activity Promotion in Cancer Treatment , Sean J. Fitzpatrick

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

At-Risk Student-Athletes and Academic Achievement: Experiences of Successful and Unsuccessful First Year Collegiate Football Players , Samantha J. Monda

A Survey of Bariatric Surgical Patients' Experiences with Behavioral and Psychological Services , Jessica C. Peacock

A tailored wellness intervention for college students using internet-based technology , Alessandro Quartiroli

Theses/Dissertations from 2010 2010

The effects of a walking intervention on self-efficacy for coping with cancer and quality of life among cancer patients during treatment , Sean J. Fitzpatrick

Validity and reliability of accelerometers for examining vertical jump performance , Ryan M. Ruben

Theses/Dissertations from 2009 2009

The evaluation of a nutrition education and fitness program with a contest component among college students using the RE-AIM framework , Michelle L. Bartlett

An individualized multimodal mental skills intervention for college athletes undergoing injury rehabilitation , Jamie L. Shapiro

The role of emotional intelligence on coach-athlete relationships and motivational climate , Eric E. Steege

Theses/Dissertations from 2008 2008

Effectiveness of an educational intervention on the attitudes toward sport psychology of athletic training students , Damien Clement

Impact of a physical activity intervention for weight loss: A qualitative analysis of participant perceptions and expectations , Jessica Anne Creasy

Leadership and organizational culture transformation in professional sport , Joe Frontiera

Motivation in sport: Bridging historical and contemporary theory through a qualitative approach , Daniel J. Leidl

Theses/Dissertations from 2007 2007

Impact of a tailored intervention on coaches' attitudes and use of sport psychology services , Rebecca Zakrajsek

Theses/Dissertations from 2006 2006

Does physical disability truly create impairment in adjustment to college life? , Jennifer R. Hurst

The transtheoretical model and psychological skills training: Application and implications with elite female athletes , Linda Ann Keeler

Theses/Dissertations from 2005 2005

The role of apoptosis in muscle remodeling , Parco Ming-fai Siu

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50 Best Sports Psychology Research Topics

When it comes to selecting sports psychology research topics, it might seem like a challenging task in the eyes of many students. But once you choose a topic from our list and master the tricks of writing a professional research paper, you present yourself as an expert researcher in no time.

What makes a sports psychologist proficient? Sports psychology requires a proficient application of psychological knowledge and skills to address athletes’ most favorable performance and well-being. When studying psychology, your lecturers require you to be skilled and creative in writing and presenting research findings.

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Best Sports Psychology Topics

Are you looking for the best sports psychology research topics? We have some recommendations for you.

• Historical and modern perspective of sports psychology
• How to utilize and improve sports psychology for better customer experience in a sports merchandise store
• Importance of employing sports psychologists in elite sports
• Role of sports psychology and nutrition in musculoskeletal injuries in professional rugby
• Scientific application in sports psychology in sports
• Sports psychology and health: Strategies for creating a healthy and high-performance workplace
• Sports psychology in your local football or soccer league
• Sports psychology perspective on the importance of motivation in increases success
• Sports psychology: An essential aspect for athletes success
• Sports psychology: how to deal with fatigue

Excellent Sports Psychology Research Topics

Finding excellent sports psychology research topics can be a hassle. That is why we have generated top ideas to help you in your next project.  

• Application of Artificial Intelligence in sports psychology
•  Application of psychophysiology in sports psychology
• Personality dimensions in sports psychology
• Psychological factors affecting physical performance and sports
• Role of sports psychology in individual development in sports
• Sports psychology in police training: Building understanding across all police disciplines
• Sports psychology in your country: Review of sports psychology journals
• Sports psychology perspective of anxiety
• Sports psychology perspective of electronic sports
• The role of sports psychology in controlling obesity

Interesting Sports Psychology Research Topics

If you are looking for exciting sports psychology research topics, you are on the right platform. Check them out and contact the support for more guidance.

• Analysis and visualization of anxiety in final football matches
• Case study: Relationship between competitive anxiety and mental toughness
• Effects of temperament and anxiety on sports performance
• How do anxiety and ego depletion affect sports performance?
• Impact of spectator behavior on individual player’s psychology
• Impact of spectator behavior on team performance
• Managing anxiety levels in sports performance
• Sports psychology perspective: Measuring anxiety in sports
• Understanding fear and anxiety management in extreme sports
• Use of music in mental training

Expert Sports Psychology Research Topics

When you select expert-generated sports psychology research topics, you will for sure impress your audience. We hope you find the best topic from the list below:

•  Challenges of gender studies in sport psychology
• Compare and contrast anxiety and self-confidence between a team and individual sports at your college
• Controlling fans aggression
• Dealing with negative stereotypes in sports: Women soccer
• Mental toughness and sports competition anxiety for male and female MMA fighters
• Psychological and physiological impacts of doping in sports
• Relationship between arousal-anxiety and sports behavior
• Sports psychology: Children anxiety in sports
•  Sports psychology: Effects of racial abuse on athletes
• Volitional regulation and motivation of young boxers

Exciting Sports Psychology Research Topics

Although looking for sports psychology topics can be mind-boggling, we have cut the hassle and generated fascinating topics for you.

• Application of sports psychology in goal setting
• Effectiveness of psychological intervention during a long-term sports injury rehabilitation
• Literature review: Impacts of physical activity in the treatment of depression
• Neuropsychology of sports rehabilitation
• Organizations support mechanisms for soccer players in major leagues. How does league organization affect performance?
• Social factors affecting sports performance in your country
• Sports psychology: Anxiety and emotions of women in sports
• Systematic review: How do skiers manage stress and anxiety before a competition?
• The role of imagery in sports performance
• Theoretical aspects of motivation in sports rehabilitation

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Sports psychology refers to the study of the psychological processes of sports. This branch of science uses psychological knowledge and skills to address the issues and challenges of sports athletes. These include the health of athletes, development, and systematic problems of a sports organisation. Research in sports psychology has become a dire need for the mental and physical well-being of sports players. Therefore, students must look for updated and inspiring sports psychology dissertation topics for their research modules.

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Innovative Research Topics in Sports Psychology: Shaping the Future of Athletic Minds

The realm of sports psychology is continuously evolving, with innovative research topics emerging to address the complex needs of athletes in today's competitive environment. This article delves into the forefront of sports psychology research, highlighting key areas that are shaping the mental resilience and performance of athletes. From mental health interventions to the psychology of injury recovery, and from the development of young athletes to the enhancement of peak performance, we explore the cutting-edge studies that are transforming the landscape of athletic minds.

Key Takeaways

• Emerging evidence-based mental health interventions are crucial for athlete wellness, emphasizing the reduction of stigma and encouragement of help-seeking behaviors.
• Understanding the psychological aspects of sports injuries and recovery can significantly improve rehabilitation outcomes and maintain athlete motivation.
• Early sports experiences play a pivotal role in the cognitive and emotional development of young athletes, with parental and coaching strategies greatly influencing long-term psychological well-being.
• Psychological techniques such as visualization, mindfulness, and flow states are increasingly recognized for their ability to enhance athletic performance.
• The dynamics of team culture and social interactions have a profound impact on individual mental health and overall team performance, necessitating strategies for fostering inclusivity and cohesion.

Advancements in Mental Health Interventions for Athletes

Evidence-based approaches to athlete mental wellness.

As you delve into the realm of sports psychology, it's crucial to recognize the importance of evidence-based interventions in promoting athlete mental wellness. Rigorous schedules and performance pressures can significantly increase the likelihood of mental health-related issues among athletes. Understanding and positively influencing athlete mental health have become paramount for researchers and sporting stakeholders, such as coaches and support staff.

To address these challenges, a variety of interventions have been identified. These include crisis response, sports-specific outreach, and programming that cater to the unique needs of athletes. For instance, the NCAA Mental Health Advisory Group recommends best practices that are tailored to the mental health needs of student-athletes. Moreover, the introduction of a Liaison role dedicated to the athletics department is suggested to bridge the gap between athletes and mental health resources.

Here are some key steps to consider in implementing evidence-based approaches:

• Engage athletes through sports-specific outreach and programming.
• Provide full-time access to licensed mental health professionals.
• Foster a supportive community within schools and universities.
• Update best practices regularly based on the latest research findings.

By incorporating these strategies, you can contribute to a more supportive environment that encourages athletes to seek help and prioritize their mental health.

Reducing Stigma and Promoting Help-Seeking Behavior

In your quest to foster a supportive environment for athletes, it's crucial to address the pervasive stigma that often silences individuals struggling with mental health issues. Stigma is the main barrier preventing student-athletes from seeking help , and innovative strategies are needed to dismantle these barriers. By promoting mental health literacy (MHL) interventions that focus on knowledge and beliefs about mental health, you can encourage athletes to seek the support they need.

Consider the following initiatives that have shown promise in promoting help-seeking behavior among athletes:

• Identifying and articulating mental health and wellness initiatives on campus.
• Collaborating with campus partners to create inclusive spaces for open conversations about mental health.
• Sharing resources and initiatives that specifically address the needs of diverse athlete populations, such as Black male student-athletes.

These efforts not only reduce stigma but also build a network of support, making it easier for athletes to access help without fear of judgment. Remember, creating a culture of acceptance and understanding within sports teams can significantly encourage individuals to take the first step towards healing and recovery.

The Role of Sports Psychologists in Athlete Support Systems

As you delve into the world of sports psychology, you'll find that the role of sports psychologists is pivotal in shaping the mental fortitude of athletes. Their expertise is not just limited to counseling , but extends to the development of comprehensive support systems that address the unique psychological needs of individuals in competitive sports. These professionals work closely with athletes to enhance their mental resilience , offering strategies and techniques that are crucial for managing the pressures of competition and the demands of training.

Sports psychologists play a key role in collaborative efforts with coaches, trainers, and medical staff to ensure a holistic approach to an athlete's well-being. They are instrumental in creating an environment where athletes feel comfortable seeking help, which is essential for breaking down the barriers to mental health support. Consider the following points that highlight the multifaceted responsibilities of sports psychologists:

• Designing and implementing mental health interventions tailored to athletes' needs.
• Educating athletes on the importance of mental health and its impact on performance.
• Encouraging open communication between athletes, coaches, and support staff.
• Monitoring athletes' psychological responses to injury and aiding in their recovery process.

The integration of sports psychologists into athletic programs, especially at the collegiate level , has shown to be beneficial. Research indicates that student athletes who have access to sport psychology resources are better equipped to handle the challenges they face, leading to optimized performance and overall well-being.

The Psychology of Injury and Recovery in Sports

Mental resilience during rehabilitation.

As you navigate the challenging path of sports injury rehabilitation, understanding the concept of mental resilience is crucial. Mental resilience in sports injury recovery refers to an athlete's capacity to adapt , bounce back, and stay focused in the face of adversity. It's a cornerstone of mental toughness , enabling you to maintain a positive attitude even when setbacks occur.

Building mental resilience isn't just about enduring hardship; it's about using sports psychology principles to develop confidence, reduce anxiety , and ultimately reach your full performance potential. Here are some strategies that athletes find helpful:

• Establishing clear, achievable goals for each stage of recovery
• Engaging in positive self-talk to combat negative thoughts
• Utilizing visualization techniques to mentally rehearse success
• Seeking support from coaches, teammates, and sports psychologists

Remember, resilience is not an innate trait but a skill that can be cultivated with practice and support. By focusing on these strategies, you can enhance your mental resilience and emerge from the rehabilitation process stronger than before.

Psychological Impact of Chronic Injuries on Athletes

Chronic injuries can cast a long shadow over an athlete's career, often leading to a complex interplay of psychological challenges . The persistent nature of these injuries means that athletes frequently grapple with uncertainty about their future in sports, which can trigger a cascade of emotional responses. Feelings of frustration, anxiety, and depression are common , as the path to recovery may be fraught with setbacks and a slow pace of improvement.

To understand the psychological toll, consider the identity that is often intertwined with being an athlete; a chronic injury can shake the very foundation of who they perceive themselves to be. Athletes may experience a loss of confidence and a diminished sense of self-worth as they struggle to regain their pre-injury level of performance. This list outlines the typical psychological effects experienced by athletes with chronic injuries:

• Loss of athletic identity
• Fear of re-injury or permanent disability
• Feelings of isolation from teammates and the athletic community
• Difficulty in managing the balance between recovery and the desire to return to play

It is crucial for sports psychologists and support systems to recognize these issues and provide targeted interventions that address both the physical and mental health of the athlete. By doing so, they can help athletes navigate the turbulent waters of injury recovery and emerge resilient and ready to face future challenges in their sporting careers.

Strategies for Maintaining Motivation and Focus During Recovery

When you're sidelined by an injury, maintaining motivation and focus can be as challenging as the physical recovery itself. Developing a resilient mindset is crucial during this period. Embrace the concept of growth as you adapt to new routines and set realistic goals that align with your recovery process.

Consider the following strategies to stay engaged:

• Seek Help : Don't hesitate to reach out to sports psychologists or peer support groups.
• Maintain a Connection : Stay involved with your team or fitness community, even if it's in a non-physical role.
• Set Alternate Goals : Identify new objectives that are achievable within your current capabilities.
• Explore Low-Impact Activities : Investigate exercises that maintain your fitness without risking further injury.

Remember, recovery is not just about healing physically but also about nurturing your mental well-being . Practicing mindfulness techniques , such as meditation or deep breathing, can help you cultivate mental toughness and stay focused on your journey back to peak performance.

Cognitive and Emotional Development in Young Athletes

Fostering emotional intelligence and self-regulation.

As you delve into the world of sports psychology, you'll find that emotional intelligence (EI) and self-regulation are pivotal for young athletes' development. Developing these skills early on can significantly influence an athlete's ability to cope with pressure , both on and off the field. Emotional intelligence involves recognizing and managing one's own emotions, as well as understanding and influencing the emotions of others. This is particularly crucial in team sports, where interpersonal dynamics can greatly affect performance.

Self-regulation, on the other hand, refers to the ability to control impulses, behavior, and emotions in pursuit of long-term goals. Young athletes who master self-regulation are better equipped to handle the rigors of training, competition, and the inevitable setbacks they will encounter. To foster these skills, coaches and parents can employ a variety of strategies:

• Encouraging open communication and reflective practices
• Modeling emotional intelligence and self-regulation
• Providing opportunities for athletes to set and work towards personal goals
• Teaching coping mechanisms for stress and failure

By integrating these approaches into training and mentorship, you can help young athletes build a strong foundation for their future in sports and life.

The Influence of Early Sports Experiences on Long-Term Psychological Outcomes

The formative years of an athlete are not just about physical development but also about laying the groundwork for psychological resilience and well-being. Early sports experiences play a pivotal role in shaping the mindset of young athletes, influencing their approach to challenges, success, and failure in later life. It is during this critical period that foundational attitudes towards teamwork, discipline, and self-esteem are forged.

Participation in sports from a young age has been linked to a variety of long-term psychological benefits. These include enhanced social skills, improved emotional regulation, and a stronger sense of identity. However, the pressure to specialize early in a single sport can also lead to burnout, anxiety, and a decreased likelihood of lifelong sports participation. To illustrate the balance between these outcomes, consider the following points:

• Encouraging a positive sports environment that emphasizes personal growth over winning.
• Recognizing the signs of burnout and implementing strategies to maintain a healthy balance between sports and other life activities.
• Providing support systems that include coaches, parents, and sports psychologists to nurture mental health.

Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that early sports experiences contribute positively to the holistic development of young athletes, setting them up for success both on and off the field.

Parental and Coaching Strategies for Healthy Cognitive Development

As you navigate the complex role of guiding young athletes, it's crucial to recognize the multidimensional roles parents and coaches play in fostering not only physical prowess but also cognitive development. The findings underscore that parents' positive goals and values are pivotal in motivating young athletes, shaping their approach to sports and life. Coaches, on the other hand, must balance the fine line between pushing for excellence and nurturing an athlete's autonomy.

To cultivate a healthy sports environment, consider these strategies:

• Embrace failure as an integral part of learning, encouraging resilience.
• Foster open communication, allowing athletes to express their thoughts and feelings.
• Prioritize fun and enjoyment in sports to maintain intrinsic motivation.
• Develop emotional intelligence through reflective practices and mindfulness.

Remember, the ultimate goal is to support young athletes in leading balanced lives, where sports serve as a platform for overall growth and well-being.

Performance Enhancement through Psychological Techniques

Visualization and mental imagery in training and competition.

Imagine stepping onto the field, the court, or the track with an unwavering sense of preparedness, having already experienced the game in your mind. Visualization and mental imagery are not just exercises of the imagination; they are critical tools for enhancing athletic performance. By mentally rehearsing your movements, you can prime your neuromuscular system, refine your technique, and solidify your strategy before the competition begins.

Sports psychologists emphasize the importance of mental imagery in training. It allows you to unlock the untapped potential of your mind, enhancing decision-making skills and team dynamics. A well-structured visualization routine can lead to increased confidence in your abilities, a key factor in peak performance. Consider the following steps to integrate mental imagery into your training regimen:

• Begin with a clear and detailed image of the performance environment.
• Incorporate all senses to create a vivid experience.
• Practice regularly, making mental imagery a consistent part of your training.
• Focus on positive outcomes and successful execution of skills.

Remember, the clarity and frequency of your visualization practice can significantly impact its effectiveness. As you continue to use these techniques, you may find yourself achieving a level of focus and confidence that was previously out of reach.

Mindfulness and Concentration Skills for Peak Performance

In the realm of sports psychology, the cultivation of mindfulness and concentration skills stands as a pivotal element for athletes aiming to achieve peak performance. Mindfulness techniques , such as guided imagery and mini meditations, have been shown to mediate the stress response, enhancing an athlete's ability to remain focused and composed under pressure. These practices not only improve performance but also contribute to an athlete's overall mental wellness.

To integrate mindfulness effectively, consider the following steps:

• Begin with simple breathing exercises to center your thoughts and calm the nervous system.
• Progress to visualization techniques, imagining successful outcomes and positive performance.
• Regularly practice mindfulness to build a resilient mindset, capable of overcoming the inevitable challenges of competitive sports.

By embracing these techniques, you empower yourself to manage stress through mindfulness and relaxation, seek support from peers and mentors, and master time management strategies for optimal performance. Encourage players to develop pre-game routines that include mindfulness exercises, such as deep breathing or visualization, to enhance concentration and readiness for competition.

The Science of Flow States and Optimal Performance in Sports

In the realm of sports psychology, the concept of flow has emerged as a pivotal element in achieving optimal performance. Athletes who master the art of flow can perform at their peak , often describing the experience as being 'in the zone' where time seems to stand still, and actions become effortless. Research suggests that mental training programs are vital to sport performance, particularly in cultivating this state for peak performance.

To harness the power of flow, athletes must engage in practices that promote deep concentration and a merging of action and awareness. The Flow State Scale (FSS) identifies several experiential states that athletes can aim to achieve through deliberate psychological training:

• Intense and focused concentration on the present moment
• A sense of personal control over the situation or activity
• A loss of self-consciousness and a merging of action and awareness
• An altered sense of time, often experiencing time as passing more quickly

These components not only enhance performance but also contribute to the enjoyment and satisfaction derived from the athletic endeavor. As you strive for excellence in your sport, consider integrating flow-inducing techniques into your training regimen to unlock your true potential.

Cultural and Social Dynamics in Sports Teams

The impact of team cohesion on individual mental health.

In the realm of sports psychology, the concept of team cohesion stands out as a pivotal factor influencing the mental health of athletes. Team cohesion, a mediating element , may explain how sports participation boosts social development and individual well-being. When athletes feel an integral part of a supportive team, they are more likely to experience positive mental health outcomes.

Team-building interventions have been shown to enhance team functioning, particularly in fostering cohesion among sports teams. This study aims to identify the mechanisms through which these interventions operate and their impact on individual athletes. The following points highlight the benefits of strong team cohesion:

• Improved communication and understanding among team members
• A sense of belonging and shared identity
• Enhanced support during times of stress or failure

Furthermore, studies have shown that adolescents playing team sports tend to experience greater mental health benefits, including fewer depressive symptoms, than those engaged in individual sports. These findings provide valuable insights into the factors influencing the success of team-building interventions in enhancing team cohesion within sports teams, ultimately contributing to the mental health of each athlete.

Navigating Identity and Inclusivity in Athletic Environments

As you delve into the realm of sports psychology, you'll find that the athletic environment is a complex social ecosystem where identity and inclusivity play pivotal roles. Athletes from diverse backgrounds often confront unique psychological challenges as they navigate their identities within team dynamics. It's crucial to understand the interplay between an athlete's sense of self and the broader cultural context of their sport.

To foster an inclusive athletic environment, consider the following steps:

• Recognize and respect the individual identities of each athlete.
• Promote open dialogue about diversity and inclusivity within the team.
• Implement policies that support equity and prevent discrimination.

Inclusivity isn't just about avoiding exclusion; it's about actively creating a space where all athletes feel valued and supported. This requires a concerted effort from coaches, management, and the athletes themselves to cultivate an atmosphere of acceptance and belonging.

Psychological Benefits and Challenges of Diverse Team Dynamics

In the realm of sports, the composition of a team can significantly influence its success. Diverse teams bring together individuals with unique perspectives and experiences , fostering an environment ripe for creativity and innovation. This diversity can lead to improved problem-solving approaches, as each member contributes their distinct insights to the collective effort. However, the benefits of diversity extend beyond mere strategic advantages.

Psychological well-being is another critical aspect of diverse team dynamics. Athletes from varied backgrounds may experience a sense of belonging and support that bolsters their mental health. Yet, it's important to acknowledge the challenges that can arise. Athletes may encounter issues such as decreased well-being , mood disorders, or anxiety, particularly when inclusivity is not adequately addressed. The psychological dynamics of team sports can significantly influence an athlete's mindset and performance, making it essential for sports psychologists to understand and navigate these complexities.

To illustrate the dual nature of diverse team dynamics, consider the following points:

• Enhanced team cohesion can lead to individual mental health benefits .
• Diverse perspectives can result in improved creativity and problem-solving.
• Inadequate inclusion may lead to psychological challenges such as anxiety or depression.
• Sports psychologists play a pivotal role in fostering a supportive and inclusive team environment.

Ultimately, the goal is to harness the psychological benefits of diverse team dynamics while mitigating the challenges to ensure every athlete can thrive.

The synergy of culture and social dynamics within sports teams can make or break their success. Understanding these intricate relationships is crucial for any athlete, coach, or sports enthusiast aiming to foster a winning environment. Dive deeper into the fascinating world of team dynamics on our website, where we unravel the secrets to building cohesive and resilient sports teams. Don't miss out on the opportunity to elevate your team's performance. Visit us now to explore comprehensive guides, expert insights, and real-world strategies tailored to enhance your team's cultural and social fabric.

As we conclude our exploration of innovative research topics in sports psychology, it is evident that the field is on the cusp of transformative change. The future of athletic minds hinges on our ability to integrate evidence-based interventions, foster resilience, and promote mental well-being among athletes. The emerging themes of empowering athletes to become problem solvers, understanding the unique mental health challenges faced by student-athletes, and the importance of reducing stigma in seeking help, all point towards a holistic approach to sports psychology. By embracing these innovative research topics, we can shape a new era where the mental fortitude of athletes is given as much importance as their physical prowess, ultimately leading to enhanced performance and a healthier sports culture.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the latest advancements in mental health interventions for athletes.

Recent advancements include evidence-based approaches tailored to athletes, initiatives to reduce stigma, and the development of support systems involving sports psychologists to foster mental wellness.

How important is psychological support during injury recovery for athletes?

Psychological support is crucial as it helps athletes maintain motivation, focus, and mental resilience, which are essential for an effective recovery process and return to peak performance.

What role do parents and coaches play in the cognitive development of young athletes?

Parents and coaches are instrumental in fostering emotional intelligence, self-regulation, and a positive sports experience, which significantly impacts long-term psychological outcomes for young athletes.

How can psychological techniques enhance athletic performance?

Techniques such as visualization, mindfulness, and developing concentration skills can lead to peak performance by inducing flow states and optimizing mental preparedness for competition.

What is the impact of team cohesion on individual mental health in sports teams?

Team cohesion can significantly improve individual mental health by fostering a sense of belonging, support, and shared purpose, which can enhance overall team performance.

How do cultural and social dynamics affect sports teams?

Cultural and social dynamics can influence team dynamics, identity, inclusivity, and the psychological well-being of athletes, challenging teams to navigate diversity for a cohesive environment.

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Sports Psychology Research Paper Topics

Dr. wilson mn.

• August 3, 2022
• Essay Topics and Ideas , Nursing

The article provides a list of over 40 best and interesting Sports Psychology Research Paper Topics . Also provides a guide on factors to consider when selecting a Sports Psychology Research Paper Topics .

Psychology is an interdisciplinary field that deals with a wide range of issues and concerns. If you want to create a top-notch psychology research paper, you need to pick a topic that interests you.

Let’s start with a few pointers to keep in mind before diving into the rest of the material.

The first stage of a successful study is to come up with a research topic. There are many psychology-related research subjects to choose from, but narrowing them down can be time-consuming.

As soon as you understand the subject, everything else will fall into place.

If you’re going to do research, you’d be wise to begin planning months in advance. There is plenty of time to review and narrow down your topical ideas this way.

You can also check out 140+ Good Argumentative Essay Topics Psychology

What You'll Learn

Factors to Consider When Choosing Psychology Research Paper Topics

• Scope . A good psychology research topic would have a reasonable and balanced scope.

If your topic is too broad, your ideas will be all over the place. Again, a narrow topic will limit your psychological research .

Revolving around just a few ideas robs your study of its value.

• Relevance . A psychology paper is meant to educate and solve societal problems. It is advisable to go for a topic that touches on trending social issues.

This way, your study will spark curiosity in your audience and cause them to follow through.

• Personal interests and values.  Psychology is broad and touches on real-life issues.

For you to thrive in psychological research, choose a topic that is of interest to you.

Also, consider an area of study that doesn’t contradict your values so that you can handle it freely.

• Sports Psychology Research Ideas for College Students
• What impact does positive reinforcement over interval training techniques in improving competitive performance in professional matches?
• Why do certain sports like soccer, football, and rugby have more athletes that have or will be accused of a violent crime?
• Are certain pain medicines used to treat professional athletes negatively impacting their perception of the sports in which they play?
• How do cheerleader and band support the psychology of a high school or college-level student-athlete? Is this true across all sports?
• Does a sound physical and mental training program reduce the tendency for athletes to reduce the desire to be aggressive or violent?
• Does a sound physical and mental training program reduce the tendencies for athletes to reduce the desire to aggressive or violent?

Sports Psychology Research Ideas for Grad Students

• What is the relationship between the speed and accuracy with which an athlete visually respond to stimuli and the ability to react with movement?
• What mental effects do sport nutrition supplements in the way an athlete prepares for contest? Do supplements take on a “placebo effect”?
• Are there psychological differences when participating in international sporting events versus domestic sporting events?
• What psychological impact does a coach have on a team’s success? Is a well-known coach more likely to have a positive or negative impact? How do players react to each kind of coach?
• Are young coaches feeling pressure to win within a certain timeline and does this affect how players perform? Do they put themselves at risk of injury by feeling pressured?
• How can sports psychology help in the process of building team chemistry and support among teammates working towards a common goal?
• How do athletes manage their emotions when they participate regularly in sports? What happens when the emotions are negatively charged (i.e., a boxer)?
• How has sports psychology evolved in the last twenty years? What do you see in the way it will continue to develop and how it will affect the way athletes, coaches, etc., approach sports?
• What mental effects do sports nutrition supplements on the way an athlete prepares for the contest? Do supplements take on a “placebo effect”?
• What effects do team chants before games have on team performance? What do the numbers suggest for individual players and their level of chant participation?
• Do sports awards and trophies assist in boosting athletes’ self-esteem and motivation? Have awards become meaningless in athletics’ opinions?
• What impact does positive reinforcement over intervals training techniques in improving competitive performance in professional matches?
• How does cheerleader and band support to the psychology of a high school or college-level student-athlete? Is this true across all sports?
• Future trends in sport psychology in light of increased evidence showing head trauma in sports like football and rugby. Will these sports be made safer or will the rules remain the same as long as athletes continue to play and people continue to watch?
• Understanding how team sport dynamics have changed in the last twenty years and what can be expected in the future. The rise of the superstar has changed the ways teams are put together, and changed the nature of how the locker room dynamics are.
• Ways to promote increased physical activities in lower socio-economic areas where good health in the greater population is low.
• Discuss the role of the Olympics upon nations where sport activity is virtually non-existent because of underfunding. Is it a good thing for these nations to invest in sports in the years after the Olympic Games?
• Using psychological tests to determine an athlete’s ability to cope with the move from collegiate to professional sports. Are these tests accurate? Could team owners and psychologists have guessed from these results if athletes were going to have drug or problems with violence?

As you continue, thestudycorp.com has the top and most qualified writers to help with any of your assignments. All you need to do is place an order with us. (Sports Psychology Research Paper Topics)

You can also check out Best Examples of Self-fulfilling Prophecies

Sports Psychology Research Topics on Behaviour

• How to the behavior of a player reveals his psychology on the ground?
• How to keep yourself calm and composed in stressful situations as well?
• What are the results of having good behavior in the sports field for players?
• Drawbacks of getting out of control on the sports field for a sportsman.
• The latest research on behavioral psychology of sportsmen.

Sports Research Topics about Athlete Performance

• What should be done to enhance performance on the field?
• Role of practice in sports for gaining success.
• What are the main components that enhance the performance of a player in Sports?
• Which is the largest disgrace in reducing the performance of the player?
• How a bad coach can decrease the overall output of a sports team.
• The way through which unity enhances performance.

You can also check out Psychology Essay Example

Related FAQs

1. what is sports psychology and why study it.

Sports psychology has become one of the most popular areas of study within the larger discipline of psychology. It’s a study of how sports, exercise, physical activity and athletic performance are all influenced by elements of psychology.

2. What is sport psychology?

Sport psychology is an interdisciplinary science that draws on knowledge from many related fields including biomechanics, physiology, kinesiology and psychology. It involves the study of how psychological factors affect performance and how participation in sport and exercise affect psychological and physical factors.

3. Which researchers have had a positive influence on sport psychology?

Franklin M. Henry was another researcher that had a positive influence on sport psychology. In 1938, he began to study how different factors in sport psychology can affect athlete’s motor skills.

4. What does a sports psychologist do?

Sports psychologists help athletes maintain high levels of performance by prioritizing mental fitness. They also look at sports participation in relation to skills like teamwork and emotional regulation. The field of applied sports psychology emerged in the early 20th century.

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Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology

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Journal scope statement

Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology ® is the official publication of APA Division 47 (Society for Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology). The journal publishes papers in all areas of sport, exercise, and performance psychology for applied scientists and practitioners.

This journal is committed to publishing evidence that supports the application of psychological principles to facilitate peak sport performance, enhance physical activity participation, and achieve optimal human performance. Published papers include experimental studies, correlational studies, evaluation studies, and qualitative research. In addition, historical papers, critical reviews, case studies, brief reports, critical evaluations of policies and procedures, and position statements will be considered for publication.

The journal is divided into three sections.

• Sport Psychology addresses the interactions between psychology and sport performance, including the psychological aspects of optimal athletic performance, the psychological care and well-being of athletes, coaches, and sport organizations, and the connection between physical and psychological functioning.
• Exercise Psychology publishes research on the behavioral, social cognitive, and psychobiological antecedents and consequences of physical activity with a focus on the adoption and maintenance of physical activity and its effects on psychological well-being.
• Performance Psychology focuses on the psychology of human performance, in particular, professions that demand excellence in psychomotor performance (i.e., performing arts, surgery, firefighting, law enforcement, military operations, etc.). Also addressed are work environments in which teamwork and motivation are important to human performance.

Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology emphasizes original research manuscripts and their potential scientific impact that progresses our understanding of human behavior in sport, exercise, and performance.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion

Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology supports equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in its practices. More information on these initiatives is available under EDI Efforts .

Open science

The APA Journals Program is committed to publishing transparent, rigorous research; improving reproducibility in science; and aiding research discovery. Open science practices vary per editor discretion. View the initiatives implemented by this journal .

Editor’s Choice

One article from each issue of Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology will be highlighted as an “ Editor’s Choice ” article. Selection is based on the recommendations of the associate editors, the paper’s potential impact to the field, the distinction of expanding the contributors to, or the focus of, the science, or its discussion of an important future direction for science. Editor's Choice articles are featured alongside articles from other APA published journals in a bi-weekly newsletter and are temporarily made freely available to newsletter subscribers.

Author and editor spotlights

Explore journal highlights : free article summaries, editor interviews and editorials, journal awards, mentorship opportunities, and more.

Prior to submission, please carefully read and follow the submission guidelines detailed below. Manuscripts that do not conform to the submission guidelines may be returned without review.

To submit to the editorial office of Mark Beauchamp, please submit manuscripts electronically through the Manuscript Submission portal Microsoft Word (.docx) or LaTex (.tex) as a zip file with an accompanied Portable Document Format (.pdf) of the manuscript file.

IMPORTANT note for quantitative studies: In manuscripts that have employed inference tests in the data analysis, it is essential that the authors provide a justification for the sample size used. Authors should consult the APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards for Quantitative (JARS-Quant) Research in Psychology which provides guidance on the reporting of sample size determination (e.g., power analysis, or methods used to determine precision of parameter estimates). For a useful primer on sample size justification see Lakens (2022) . Clearly reporting on and justifying how a study’s sample size was determined is a pre-requisite for sending a manuscript for review. If this information is relevant to your study but is not reported, your manuscript may be desk rejected and you will be asked to resubmit it as a new submission.

It is equally important that a well reasoned rationale be provided for the selected sample size for qualitative studies based on the nature (i.e., breadth and complexity) of the research questions as well as the anticipated diversity in the data.

Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7 th edition. Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language (see Chapter 5 of the Publication Manual ). APA Style and Grammar Guidelines for the 7 th edition are available.

Submit Manuscript

Mark Beauchamp Professor of Exercise and Health Psychology School of Kinesiology The University of British Columbia, Vancouver Campus 122-6081 University Blvd, Vancouver BC, V6T 1Z1 Canada Email

General correspondence may be directed to the editor's office .

In addition to addresses and phone numbers, please supply email addresses and fax numbers, if available, for potential use by the editorial office and later by the production office.

Manuscripts

The page limit for submissions is 30 pages for quantitative submissions and 34 pages for qualitative submissions, multiple-study submissions, mixed methods, or systematic reviews. The page limit is inclusive of all parts of the manuscript, including the cover page, abstract, text, references, tables and figures.

Manuscripts must also include line numbers to aid in the review process.

Submissions that exceed the page limits will be returned to the author for shortening prior to the initiation of peer review, unless permission for longer submission has been obtained by the Editor.

All statistical tests should include effect sizes whenever possible.

Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology publishes direct replications. Submissions should include “A Replication of XX Study” in the subtitle of the manuscripts as well as the abstract.

• Registered Reports

Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology  is pleased to offer Registered Reports as a new submission option for hypothesis-driven research (in addition to traditional manuscript submissions). Registered Reports for intervention studies (including secondary analyses of data that authors have not previously accessed) and quantitative data syntheses (e.g., meta-analyses) are particularly welcome, but registered reports will also be considered for particularly innovative observational (non-experimental) research. Registered reports involve a two-stage review process.

In Stage 1, editors and reviewers initially consider a detailed study protocol before the research is undertaken, which is assessed based on the specificity and significance of the research question for current theory or applications, the strength of the scientific rationale, and the rigor of the proposed methodology. Following review, the article will then be accepted in principle, rejected, or an invitation offered to revise the manuscript for further Stage 1 consideration.

Following in-principle acceptance, authors will then proceed to conduct the study, adhering exactly to the peer-reviewed procedures articulated in their Stage 1 protocol. When the study is complete the authors will submit their finalized manuscript for expedited re-review (Stage 2). Pending quality checks and a sensible interpretation of the findings, the manuscript will be published regardless of the results. Specific instructions for Registered Reports submitted to the journal are available for both authors and reviewers:

• Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology Registered Reports Author Guidelines (PDF, 151KB)
• Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology Registered Reports Reviewer Guidelines (PDF, 164KB)

In addition to welcoming direct submissions via the Editorial Manager web portal,  Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology has also partnered with the Peer Community In Registered Reports (PCI RR) as an “interested” journal to facilitate the publication of Registered Reports for sport, exercise, and/or performance psychology studies.

This means that, via the PCI RR pathway, authors can submit Stage 1 manuscripts which will then be overseen by the PCI RR managing board and recommenders (equivalent to associate editors), and then subject to peer review (by reviewers assigned by the respective PCI RR recommender). Where authors consent, then after the completion of Stage 1 reviews via PCI RR, the editorial team at SEPP will be informed of recently recommended Stage 1 and Stage 2 PCI RR manuscripts (that include Stage 1 manuscripts where the authors elected to keep the Stage 1 recommendation and approved manuscript under a private embargo until Stage 2). In instances where manuscripts fall in line with the scope and mandates of SEPP, and after ensuring that all of the Stage 1 criteria have been met (as highlighted on the journal webpage), the editorial team at SEPP can offer in-principle acceptance or indicate to authors whether additional review would be required before a manuscript can be offered in-principle acceptance. As a commitment, where possible, we will look to inform authors (who are keen to submit via the PCI RR pathway) of our interest in submissions following Stage 1 acceptance rather than waiting until Stage 2. We also commit to never rejecting a Stage 2 submission that was recommended by PCI RR on the basis of the results of the study. For submission via the PCI RR pathway, researchers should follow the steps articulated on the PCI RR website.

Manuscript preparation

Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7th edition. Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language (see Chapter 5 of the Publication Manual ).

Review APA's Journal Manuscript Preparation Guidelines before submitting your article.

All papers submitted to the journal should be masked prior to entry into the review process. Specifically, please make every effort to see that the manuscript itself contains no clues to authors’ identities, including grant numbers, names of institutions providing IRB approval, self-citations, and links to online repositories for data, materials, code, or preregistrations (e.g., Create a View-only Link for a Project ). Authors should not use first person (I, my, we, our) when referring to a study conducted by the author(s) especially when doing so reveals the authors’ identities, e.g., "in our previous work, Smith et al., 2020 reported that…" Instead, references to the authors' work should be in third person, e.g., "Smith et al. (2020) reported that…."

Please ensure that the final version of the manuscript for production includes a byline and full author note for typesetting.

Double-space all copy. Other formatting instructions, as well as instructions on preparing tables, figures, references, metrics, and abstracts, appear in the Manual . Additional guidance on APA Style is available on the APA Style website .

Journal Article Reporting Standards

Authors are required to follow the APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS) for quantitative , or  qualitative, meta-analysis, and mixed methods research . The standards offer ways to improve transparency in reporting to ensure that readers have the information necessary to evaluate the quality of the research and to facilitate collaboration and replication. The JARS:

• Recommend the division of hypotheses, analyses and conclusions into primary, secondary and exploratory groupings to allow for a full understanding of quantitative analyses presented in a manuscript and to enhance reproducibility;
• Offer modules for authors reporting on N-of-1 designs, replications, clinical trials, longitudinal studies and observational studies, as well as the analytic methods of structural equation modeling and Bayesian analysis;
• Include guidelines on reporting on registration (including making protocols public); participant characteristics, including demographic characteristics; inclusion and exclusion criteria; psychometric characteristics of outcome measures and other variables; and planned data diagnostics and analytic strategy.
• Provides guidelines for intervention description and replication. Authors of randomized trials are required to report on all intervention components that are delivered within a study, including interventions targeted at actors involved in implementation (e.g., coaches, parents, teachers, peers). We therefore ask that authors report on all items in the ‘Experimental Manipulations’ section of the ‘ Journal Article Reporting Standards for Studies With an Experimental Manipulation ’ for each intervention targeted at different actors.

Below are additional instructions regarding the preparation of display equations, computer code, and tables.

JARS-Qual offers guidance to researchers using qualitative methods such as narrative data, grounded theory, phenomenological, critical, discursive, performative, ethnographic, consensual qualitative, case study, psychobiography, and thematic analysis approaches.

The guidelines focus on transparency in methods reporting, recommending descriptions of how the researchers’ own perspectives affected the study, as well as the contexts in which the research and analysis took place.

For the reporting of randomized trials authors should follow CONSORT guidelines (Shultz et al, 2010) in the reporting of their manuscript, and include the applicable CONSORT flow diagram of participants through the trial and a CONSORT checklist as an online supplementary file. For reporting of randomized trials authors are recommended to consult the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TiDIeR) checklist and guide (Hoffman et al, 2014) and provide a completed TIRieR checklist as an online supplementary file.

For the reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, authors should follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRIMSA; Page et al, 2021) standards, and include a PRISMA checklist as an online supplementary file.

Display equations

We strongly encourage you to use MathType (third-party software) or Equation Editor 3.0 (built into pre-2007 versions of Word) to construct your equations, rather than the equation support that is built into Word 2007 and Word 2010. Equations composed with the built-in Word 2007/Word 2010 equation support are converted to low-resolution graphics when they enter the production process and must be rekeyed by the typesetter, which may introduce errors.

To construct your equations with MathType or Equation Editor 3.0:

• Go to the Text section of the Insert tab and select Object.
• Select MathType or Equation Editor 3.0 in the drop-down menu.

If you have an equation that has already been produced using Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 and you have access to the full version of MathType 6.5 or later, you can convert this equation to MathType by clicking on MathType Insert Equation. Copy the equation from Microsoft Word and paste it into the MathType box. Verify that your equation is correct, click File, and then click Update. Your equation has now been inserted into your Word file as a MathType Equation.

Use Equation Editor 3.0 or MathType only for equations or for formulas that cannot be produced as Word text using the Times or Symbol font.

Computer code

Because altering computer code in any way (e.g., indents, line spacing, line breaks, page breaks) during the typesetting process could alter its meaning, we treat computer code differently from the rest of your article in our production process. To that end, we request separate files for computer code.

In online supplemental material

We request that runnable source code be included as supplemental material to the article. For more information, visit Supplementing Your Article With Online Material .

In the text of the article

If you would like to include code in the text of your published manuscript, please submit a separate file with your code exactly as you want it to appear, using Courier New font with a type size of 8 points. We will make an image of each segment of code in your article that exceeds 40 characters in length. (Shorter snippets of code that appear in text will be typeset in Courier New and run in with the rest of the text.) If an appendix contains a mix of code and explanatory text, please submit a file that contains the entire appendix, with the code keyed in 8-point Courier New.

Use Word's insert table function when you create tables. Using spaces or tabs in your table will create problems when the table is typeset and may result in errors.

Academic writing and English language editing services

Authors who feel that their manuscript may benefit from additional academic writing or language editing support prior to submission are encouraged to seek out such services at their host institutions, engage with colleagues and subject matter experts, and/or consider several vendors that offer discounts to APA authors .

Please note that APA does not endorse or take responsibility for the service providers listed. It is strictly a referral service.

Use of such service is not mandatory for publication in an APA journal. Use of one or more of these services does not guarantee selection for peer review, manuscript acceptance, or preference for publication in any APA journal.

Submitting supplemental materials

APA can place supplemental materials online, available via the published article in the PsycArticles ® database. Please see Supplementing Your Article With Online Material for more details.

Abstract and keywords

All manuscripts must include an abstract containing a maximum of 250 words typed on a separate page. After the abstract, please supply up to five keywords or brief phrases.

List references in alphabetical order. Each listed reference should be cited in text, and each text citation should be listed in the references section.

Examples of basic reference formats:

Journal article

McCauley, S. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019). Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development. Psychological Review , 126 (1), 1–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000126

Authored book

Brown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000092-000

Chapter in an edited book

Balsam, K. F., Martell, C. R., Jones. K. P., & Safren, S. A. (2019). Affirmative cognitive behavior therapy with sexual and gender minority people. In G. Y. Iwamasa & P. A. Hays (Eds.), Culturally responsive cognitive behavior therapy: Practice and supervision (2nd ed., pp. 287–314). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000119-012

All data, program code, and other methods must be appropriately cited in the text and listed in the reference section. Such materials should be recognized as original intellectual contributions and afforded recognition through citation.

Data citation

Alegria, M., Jackson, J. S., Kessler, R. C., & Takeuchi, D. (2016). Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES), 2001–2003 [Data set]. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR20240.v8

Software/Code citation

Viechtbauer, W. (2010). Conducting meta-analyses in R with the metafor package. Journal of Statistical Software, 36(3), 1–48. https://www.jstatsoft.org/v36/i03/

Wickham, H. et al., (2019). Welcome to the tidyverse. Journal of Open Source Software, 4(43), 1686, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.01686

All data, program code, and other methods must be cited in the text and listed in the reference section.

Preferred formats for graphics files are TIFF and JPG, and preferred format for vector-based files is EPS. Graphics downloaded or saved from web pages are not acceptable for publication. Multipanel figures (i.e., figures with parts labeled a, b, c, d, etc.) should be assembled into one file. When possible, please place symbol legends below the figure instead of to the side.

• All color line art and halftones: 300 DPI
• Black and white line tone and gray halftone images: 600 DPI

Line weights

• Color (RGB, CMYK) images: 2 pixels
• Grayscale images: 4 pixels
• Stroke weight: 0.5 points

APA offers authors the option to publish their figures online in color without the costs associated with print publication of color figures.

The same caption will appear on both the online (color) and print (black and white) versions. To ensure that the figure can be understood in both formats, authors should add alternative wording (e.g., “the red (dark gray) bars represent”) as needed.

For authors who prefer their figures to be published in color both in print and online, original color figures can be printed in color at the editor's and publisher's discretion provided the author agrees to pay:

• $900 for one figure
• An additional $600 for the second figure
• An additional $450 for each subsequent figure

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Authors of accepted papers must obtain and provide to the editor on final acceptance all necessary permissions to reproduce in print and electronic form any copyrighted work, including test materials (or portions thereof), photographs, and other graphic images (including those used as stimuli in experiments).

On advice of counsel, APA may decline to publish any image whose copyright status is unknown.

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APA policy prohibits an author from submitting the same manuscript for concurrent consideration by two or more publications.

See also APA Journals ® Internet Posting Guidelines .

APA requires authors to reveal any possible conflict of interest in the conduct and reporting of research (e.g., financial interests in a test or procedure, funding by pharmaceutical companies for drug research).

• Download Full Disclosure of Interests Form (PDF, 41KB)

Authors must disclose any prior uses of data reported in the manuscript in the author note and in the cover letter, which should include a complete reference list of these articles as well as a description of the extent and nature of any overlap between the present submission and the previous work.

Authors must disclose all sources of financial support for the conduct of the research (e.g., "This research was supported by NIDA grant X"). If the funding source was involved in any other aspects of the research (e.g., study design, analysis, interpretation, writing), then clearly state the role. If the funding source had no other involvement other than financial support, then simply state that the funding source had no other role other than financial support. Also provide a conflict-of-interest statement disclosing any real or potential conflict(s) of interest, including financial, personal, or other relationships with other organizations or companies that may inappropriately impact or influence the research and interpretation of the findings. If there are no conflicts of interest, this should be clearly stated.

Posting of a manuscript to a preprint archive (like PsyArXiv) prior to submission is permitted for authors submitting manuscripts to Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology ; preprints should be disclosed in the cover letter, and links should be included in the disclosures and acknowledgments section of the author note.

Participants: Description and informed consent

The method section of each empirical report must contain a detailed description of the study participants, including (but not limited to) the following:

• nativity or immigration history
• clinical diagnoses and comorbidities (as appropriate)
• any other relevant demographics (e.g., sexual orientation)

In the discussion section of the manuscript, authors should discuss the diversity of their study samples and the generalizability of their findings.

The method section also must include a statement describing how informed consent was obtained from the participants (or their parents/guardians) and indicate that the study was conducted in compliance with an appropriate Internal Review Board.

Author contribution statements using CRediT

The  APA Publication Manual ( 7th ed. )  stipulates that “authorship encompasses…not only persons who do the writing but also those who have made substantial scientific contributions to a study.” In the spirit of transparency and openness, Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology has adopted the  Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT)  to describe each author's individual contributions to the work. CRediT offers authors the opportunity to share an accurate and detailed description of their diverse contributions to a manuscript.

Submitting authors must identify the contributions of all authors at initial submission according to the CRediT taxonomy. If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the CRediT designations will be published as an author contributions statement in the author note of the final article. All authors should have reviewed and agreed to their individual contribution(s) before submission.

Authors can claim credit for more than one contributor role, and the same role can be attributed to more than one author. Not all roles will be applicable to a particular scholarly work.

Transparency and openness

APA endorses the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines developed by a community working group in conjunction with the Center for Open Science ( Nosek et al. 2015 ). Empirical research, including meta-analyses, submitted to Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology must at least meet the “disclosure” level for all eight aspects of research planning and reporting and the “requirement” level for citation, data transparency, as well as design and analysis transparency (reporting standards). Authors should include a subsection in the method section titled “Transparency and openness.” This subsection should detail the efforts the authors have made to comply with the TOP guidelines.

For example:

We report how we determined our sample size, all data exclusions (if any), all manipulations, and all measures in the study, and we follow JARS (Applebaum, et al., 2018). All data, analysis code, and research materials are available at [stable link to repository].

Data were analyzed using R, version 4.0.0 (R Core Team, 2020) and the package ggplot , version 3.2.1 (Wickham, 2016). This study’s design and its analysis were not pre-registered.

In the section on “Transparency and openness”, authors must state whether data and study materials are posted to a trusted repository and, how to access them.  Recommended repositories include APA’s repository on the Open Science Framework (OSF), or authors can access a full list of other recommended repositories . Trusted repositories adhere to policies that make data discoverable, accessible, usable, and preserved for the long term. Trusted repositories also assign unique and persistent identifiers. Specifically, at the end of the method section, specify whether and where the data and material will be available or note the legal or ethical reasons for not doing so. For submissions with quantitative or simulation analytic methods, state whether the study analysis code is posted to a trusted repository, and, if so, how to access it (or the legal or ethical reason why it is not available).

If authors cannot make their data available on a public site, they are required to follow current APA policy to make the materials and data used in a published study available in a timely manner to other researchers upon request.

Preregistration of studies and analysis plans

Preregistration of studies and specific hypotheses can be a useful tool for making strong theoretical claims. Likewise, preregistration of analysis plans can be useful for distinguishing confirmatory and exploratory analyses. Investigators are encouraged to preregister their studies and analysis plans prior to conducting the research. There are several preregistration forms (e.g., the APA Preregistration for Quantitative Research in Psychology template , the APA Qualitative Preregistration template , ClinicalTrials.gov , or other preregistration templates available via OSF ). Completed preregistration forms should be posted on a publicly accessible registry system (e.g., OSF , ClinicalTrials.gov , or other trial registries in the WHO Registry Network).

There are many available templates; for example, APA, the British Psychological Society, and the German Psychological Society partnered with the Leibniz Institute for Psychology and Center for Open Science to create Preregistration Standards for Quantitative Research in Psychology (Bosnjak et al., 2022).

We recognize that there may be good reasons to change the analysis plan after it has been preregistered, and thus encourage authors to do so when appropriate so long as all changes are clearly and transparently disclosed in the manuscript.

Articles must state whether or not any work was preregistered and, if so, where to access the preregistration. If any aspect of the study is preregistered, include the registry link in the method section.

• This study’s design was preregistered prospectively, before data were collected; see [STABLE LINK OR DOI].
• This study’s design and hypotheses were preregistered after data had been collected but before analyses were undertaken; see [STABLE LINK OR DOI].
• This study’s analysis plan was preregistered; see [STABLE LINK OR DOI].
• This study was not preregistered.

Open science badges

All authors publishing in Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology may apply for Open Science Badges. Introduced in 2013 by the Center for Open Science's Open Science Framework, these badges may be awarded to authors for making data or materials public or for preregistering their studies. Meant to encourage the sharing of data and materials, as well as pre-registration of studies and analysis plans, these badges are digital objects associated with journal articles and are available in five types: 

In addition, notations may be added to badges or open practices notes to indicate, for example, that an analysis plan was registered before the observation of outcomes (DE, Data Exist) or that there were strongly justified changes to an analysis plan (TC, Transparent Changes).

For all badges, items must be made available on an open-access repository with a persistent identifier — and in a format that is time-stamped, immutable, and permanent. For the preregistered badge, this is an institutional registration system (e.g., ClinicalTrials.gov, Open Science Framework, and so on).

Data and materials must be made available under an open license allowing others to copy, share, and use the data, with attribution and copyright as applicable. At submission, authors must confirm that criteria have been fulfilled in a signed badge disclosure form (PDF, 33KB) that must be submitted as supplemental material.

If all criteria are met as confirmed by the editor, the form will then be published with the article as supplemental material.

Authors should also note their eligibility for the badge(s) in the cover letter.

Authors must, in acknowledgments or the first footnote, indicate if they did or did not preregister the research with or without an analysis plan in an independent, institutional registry.

If an author did preregister the research with an analysis plan, the author must:

• Confirm in the text that the study was registered prior to conducting the research with links to the time-stamped preregistrations at the institutional registry, and that the preregistration adheres to the disclosure requirements of the institutional registry or those required for the preregistered badge with analysis plans maintained by the Center for Open Science.
• Report all preregistered analyses in the text, or, if there were changes in the analysis plan following preregistration, those changes must be disclosed with explanation for the changes.
• Clearly distinguish in-text analyses that were preregistered from those that were not, such as having separate sections in the results for confirmatory and exploratory analyses.

Ethical Principles

It is a violation of APA Ethical Principles to publish "as original data, data that have been previously published" (Standard 8.13).

In addition, APA Ethical Principles specify that "after research results are published, psychologists do not withhold the data on which their conclusions are based from other competent professionals who seek to verify the substantive claims through reanalysis and who intend to use such data only for that purpose, provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and unless legal rights concerning proprietary data preclude their release" (Standard 8.14).

APA expects authors to adhere to these standards. Specifically, APA expects authors to have their data available throughout the editorial review process and for at least 5 years after the date of publication.

Authors are required to state in writing that they have complied with APA ethical standards in the treatment of their sample, human or animal, or to describe the details of treatment.

• Download Certification of Compliance With APA Ethical Principles Form (PDF, 26KB)

The APA Ethics Office provides the full Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct electronically on its website in HTML, PDF, and Word format. You may also request a copy by emailing or calling the APA Ethics Office (202-336-5930). You may also read "Ethical Principles," December 1992, American Psychologist , Vol. 47, pp. 1597–1611.

Other information

Visit the Journals Publishing Resource Center for more resources for writing, reviewing, and editing articles for publishing in APA journals.

Editor-in-chief

Mark R. Beauchamp, PhD The University of British Columbia, Canada

Associate editors

Rachel Arnold, PhD University of Bath, United Kingdom

Alex Benson, PhD Western University, Canada

Antonis Hatzigeorgiadis, PhD University of Thessaly, Greece

Andrew P. Hill, PhD York St John University, United Kingdom

Diane E. Mack, PhD Brock University, Canada

Andreas Stenling, PhD Umeå University, Sweden

Sarah Ullrich-French, PhD Washington State University, United States

Consulting editors

Vassilis Barkoukis, PhD Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Denver Brown, PhD The University of Texas at San Antonio, United States

Francesca Cavallerio, PhD Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom

David E. Conroy, PhD The Pennsylvania State University, United States

Melissa Day, PhD University of Chichester, United Kingdom

David W. Eccles, PhD Florida State University, United States

Panteleimon Ekkekakis, PhD Michigan State State University, United States

Chris Englert, PhD University of Bern, Switzerland

M. Blair Evans, PhD Western University, Canada

Mark Eys, PhD Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada

Robert C. Eklund, PhD Florida State University, United States

Katrien Fransen, PhD University of Leuven, Belgium

Mary D. Fry, PhD University of Kansas, United States

Daniel Gucciardi, PhD Curtin University, Australia

Bradley D. Hatfield, PhD University of Maryland, United States

Jennifer Heisz, PhD McMaster University, Canada

Jasmin Hutchinson, PhD Springfield College, United States

Patricia Jackman, PhD University of Lincoln, U nited Kingdom

Ben Jackson, PhD University of Western Australia, Australia

Maria Kavussanu, PhD University of Birmingham, United Kingdom

Jeemin Kim, PhD Michigan State University, United States

Camilla Knight, PhD Swansea University, United Kingdom

Scherezade K. Mama, PhD University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States

Jeffrey Martin, PhD Wayne State University, United States

Meghan H. McDonough, PhD University of Calgary, Canada

Desmond McEwan, PhD The University of British Columbia, Canada

Kerry R. McGannon, PhD Laurentian University, Canada

E. Whitney G. Moore, PhD East Carolina University, United States

Lee Moore, PhD University of Bath, United Kingdom

Alexandre J. S. Morin, PhD Concordia University, Canada

Amber Mosewich, PhD University of Alberta, Canada

Athanasios Mouratidis, PhD Bilkent University, Turkey

Raôul Oudejans, PhD Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands

Kurtis Pankow, PhD Swansea University, United Kingdom

Markus Raab, PhD German Sport University Cologne, Germany

Christopher Ring, PhD University of Birmingham, United Kingdom

Tatiana Ryba, PhD University of Jyvaskyla, Finland

Catherine M. Sabiston, PhD University of Toronto, Canada

Alan L. Smith, PhD Michigan State University, United States

Nicholas Stanger, PhD Leeds Beckett University, United Kingdom

Katherine Tamminen, PhD University of Toronto, Canada

Ian Taylor, PhD Loughborough University, United Kingdom

Cecilie Thogersen-Ntoumani, PhD University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

Mariya Yukhymenko, PhD California State University–Fresno, United States

Philip M. Wilson, PhD Brock University, Canada

Dawn K. Wilson, PhD University of South Carolina, United States

Svenja A. Wolf, PhD Florida State University, United States

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Special issue of the APA journal Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, Vol. 8, No. 1, February 2019. The articles showcase an array of psychophysiological applications for sport and exercise science and highlight the potential of psychophysiological research to shine light on theory and mechanisms in sport and exercise psychology.

Special issue of the APA journal Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, Vol. 6, No. 3, August 2017. The papers reflect the growing emphasis on concussion as a heterogeneous injury that is multidimensional, involving multiple clinical profiles, symptoms, and impairment.

Special issue of the APA journal Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, Vol. 5, No. 2, May 2016. Articles contribute to the professional knowledge base and understanding related to the needs and experiences of parents supporting their children in a variety of competitive sports and cultures, as well as through specific transitions and critical moments.

Transparency and Openness Promotion

APA endorses the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) Guidelines by a community working group in conjunction with the Center for Open Science ( Nosek et al. 2015 ). The TOP Guidelines cover eight fundamental aspects of research planning and reporting that can be followed by journals and authors at three levels of compliance.

• Level 1: Disclosure—The article must disclose whether or not the materials are posted to a trusted repository.
• Level 2: Requirement—The article must share materials via a trusted repository when legally and ethically permitted (or disclose the legal and/or ethical restriction when not permitted).
• Level 3: Verification—A third party must verify that the standard is met.

At a minimum, empirical research, including meta-analyses, submitted to Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology must at least meet the “disclosure” level for all eight aspects of research planning and reporting and the “requirement” level for citation, data transparency, as well as design and analysis transparency (reporting standards). Authors should include a subsection in the method section titled “Transparency and openness.” This subsection should detail the efforts the authors have made to comply with the TOP guidelines.

The list below summarizes the minimal TOP requirements of Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology . Please refer to the manuscript submission instructions for more information. APA recommends sharing data, materials, and code via trusted repositories (e.g., APA’s repository on the Open Science Framework (OSF)). Trusted repositories adhere to policies that make data discoverable, accessible, usable, and preserved for the long term. Trusted repositories also assign unique and persistent identifiers.

• Citation: Level 2, Requirement—All data, program code, and other methods developed by others must be cited in the text and listed in the reference section.
• Data Transparency : Level 2, Requirement—Article states (in the transparency and openness subsection in the method section) whether the data on which study conclusions are based are posted to a trusted repository and how to access them. If the data cannot be made available, the article states the legal or ethical reasons why they are not available.
• Analytic Methods (Code) Transparency : Level 1, Disclosure—Article states whether computer code or syntax needed to reproduce analyses in an article is posted to a trusted repository and, if so, how to access it. Computer code or syntax can be included in a supplement or provided via a link to a trusted repository in the transparency and openness subsection in the method section.
• Research Materials Transparency : Level 1, Disclosure—Article states whether materials described in the method section are posted to a trusted repository and, if so, how to access them.
• Design and Analysis Transparency (Reporting Standards): Level 2, Required—Article must comply with APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards ( JARS-Quantitative , JARS-Qualitative, and/or MARS ). For quantitative studies, authors must clearly specify primary, secondary, and exploratory hypotheses.
• Replication : Level 1, Disclosure—The journal publishes replications.
• Study Preregistration: Level 1, Disclosure—Article states (in the transparency and openness subsection in the method section) whether the study design and (if applicable) hypotheses of any of the work reported was preregistered and, if so, how to access this information. If the study was pre-registered, access to a masked version of the preregistered materials must be available at submission via stable link or supplemental material.
• Analysis Plan Preregistration: Level 1, Disclosure—Article states (in the transparency and openness subsection in the method section) whether any of the work reported was preregistered with an analysis plan and, if so, how to access this information. If the analysis plan was pre-registered, access to a masked version of the preregistered analysis plan must be available at submission via stable link or supplemental material. Any deviations from the initial data analysis plan should also be reported.

Other open science initiatives

• Open science badges: Offered
• Public Significance Statements: Not required
• Author contribution statements using CRediT: Required
• Registered Reports: Published
• Replications: Published

Explore open science at APA

Inclusive study designs

• Diverse samples

Definitions and further details on inclusive study designs are available on the Journals EDI homepage .

Inclusive reporting standards

• Bias-free language and community-driven language guidelines (required)
• Author contribution roles using CRediT (required)
• Data sharing and data availability statements (required)
• Participant sample descriptions (required)

More information on this journal’s reporting standards is listed under the submission guidelines tab .

Other EDI offerings

Orcid reviewer recognition.

Open Research and Contributor ID (ORCID) Reviewer Recognition provides a visible and verifiable way for journals to publicly credit reviewers without compromising the confidentiality of the peer-review process. This journal has implemented the ORCID Reviewer Recognition feature in Editorial Manager, meaning that reviewers can be recognized for their contributions to the peer-review process.

Masked peer review

This journal offers masked peer review (where both the authors’ and reviewers’ identities are not known to the other). Research has shown that masked peer review can help reduce implicit bias against traditionally female names or early-career scientists with smaller publication records (Budden et al., 2008; Darling, 2015).

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Best 49 Sports Psychology Dissertation Topics Ideas

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Sports Psychology Dissertation Topics

Dissertation topics in sport psychology,  Different ideas, and titles for Sports Dissertation

How many of us continuously watch the clock throughout the day on which our favorite team is about to play, how many of us like to gloat when our favorite team wins and continuously talk about the game even if it’s over and in the record books.

Well, in a sports psychology dissertation, you can express all you feel in writing. However, you are not required to cover last week’s game in your sports dissertation. The two topics that I am going to tell you are the basics that every sport psychology dissertation should address. Give a strong dissertation on any one of these vast topics and you are sure to be winning accolades for writing a great dissertation. The two topics are:

• Sports science dissertation
• Sport psychology dissertation

Best Sports Psychology dissertation topics for students

Here is the list of best sports psychology dissertation topics for college students:

• The impact of mental imagery on athletic performance
• The effects of stress on athletic performance
• The role of self-talk in athletic performance
• The effectiveness of goal setting in sports
• The relationship between anxiety and athletic performance
• The impact of personality traits on athletic performance
• The effects of mindfulness on sports performance
• The role of mental toughness in athletic performance
• The effects of team cohesion on performance
• The impact of motivation on athletic performance
• The role of emotional intelligence in sports
• The effects of stress management on athletic performance
• The impact of confidence on athletic performance
• The effectiveness of visualization techniques in sports
• The effects of goal setting on motivation in sports
• The relationship between self-esteem and athletic performance
• The impact of relaxation techniques on sports performance
• The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy in sports psychology
• The relationship between mental health and athletic performance
• The effects of positive affirmations on sports performance
• The role of positive self-talk in sports
• The effectiveness of hypnosis in sports psychology
• The relationship between perfectionism and athletic performance
• The impact of sleep on athletic performance
• The role of creativity in sports
• The relationship between motivation and self-talk in sports
• The effects of attentional control on sports performance
• The effectiveness of biofeedback in sports psychology
• The relationship between resilience and athletic performance
• The impact of stressors on the mental health of athletes
• The role of personality factors in resilience in sports
• The effects of social support on sports performance
• The effectiveness of neurofeedback in sports psychology
• The relationship between mental preparation and athletic performance
• The impact of music on sports performance
• The role of self-regulation in sports
• The effectiveness of heart rate variability biofeedback in sports psychology
• The relationship between flow and athletic performance
• The impact of goal orientation on sports performance
• The role of coping strategies in sports
• The effectiveness of virtual reality in sports psychology
• The relationship between creativity and flow in sports
• The impact of hypnosis on sports-related injuries
• The role of attentional focus in sports
• The effectiveness of meditation in sports psychology
• The relationship between self-compassion and athletic performance
• The impact of somatic psychology on sports performance
• The role of sport psychology in the rehabilitation of athletes
• The effectiveness of mental skills training in sports.

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Sports Dissertation Topics

Sport and Exercise offers a variety of areas to explore due to the variety of research topics and disciplines that can be investigated. This can include using your dissertation to research areas such as nutrition, performance enhancement, psychology, biomechanical adaptions of performance and physiology. If you’re composing a dissertation in Sport & Exercise Science, whether you’re an undergraduate or postgraduate, but are unsure of the route you wish to explore, some of the examples below can give you some ideas of what areas are trending in the literature and original areas for you to explore to help with an original piece of work or to extend recent research in new directions.

Sports Nutrition

Sport psychology, biomechanics.

Understanding how to enhance athletic performance has long been a topic of interest in the literature due to its ability to enhance – or in some case decrease – sporting performance. Many nutrition dissertations tend to focus on various diets, supplements or the impact of nutrition and training and the outcome this has for an athlete. Studies can take the form of primary or secondary – also known as experimental or review studies – which can provide lots of great investigations. It’s important to be specific in the type of athlete or population you want to investigate – such as a powerlifter, football player or gymnast – so you can collect relevant evidence for your athlete and utilise guidelines for their nutritional needs. Here are some example titles if you’re interested in investigating Sports Nutrition for your dissertation topic:

• Is caffeine beneficial for use as a pre-workout agent in weight and powerlifters?
• Investigating the impact of protein supplementation intake on muscle growth and repair in trained athletes.
• What is the impact of CLA supplementation on reducing body fat in trained male participants?
• How does caffeine intake impact aerobic performance?
• Are fat burners effective in supporting trained athletes in reducing body fat percentage?
• Is eating a balanced diet enough to improve performance in team sport athletes?

Sport psychology opens a wealth of different avenues for exploration; whether it’s relating to imagery, choking or mental health in athletes. We are currently living in a world that has a large focus on encouraging positive mental health and ways to improve performance by improving ‘mental toughness’ in athletes. As such, here are some ideas of the different areas that you can investigate:

• Investigating the association between long-term sports injury and depression in semi-professional team sport athletes.
• What influence does racism in professional sport have on professional BAME athletes?
• ‘The Pressure Shot’: Examining pressure and choking in trained golf athletes in a tournament setting.
• Performance-enhancing drugs and Olympic-level athletes: Is the use of PEDs worth a shot at the grand stage?
• Homosexuality in professional sport: Understanding the experiences and thoughts of homosexuality in male and female athletes.
• What is the impact of repeated sports injury on mental wellbeing in professional athletes?
• Living sporting dreams through children: how parents utilise their children to relive their sporting dreams.
• Drug and alcohol abuse in semi-professional sport.
• ‘Strong is the new Sexy’: Understanding the shifting focus from diet to strong in female active participants.
• How does mental wellbeing influence performance amongst elite athletes?
• Understanding the association between culture and racial perceptions in football fans in England.
• Differences in quality of life amongst semi-professional team sport athletes.

Physiology dissertations can provide opportunities to understand how the body reacts to exercise as well as a way of understanding short- and long-term effects. However, physiology can allow a range of topics to be used in collaboration with other subjects such as psychology and nutrition. Below are some examples of some physiology specific and physiology combined topics that you could investigate as a dissertation topic:

• Exercise, muscle strength and triathlon: Investigating the effects of ultra-marathon exercise on professional triathlon athletes.
• Investigating the impact of ageing on muscular degeneration.
• Does biological age impact the likelihood of becoming a professional athlete?
• Muscular strength and gender: How does muscle transformation different in male and female athletes.
• Understanding the impact of asthma on trained endurance athletes.
• Achieving optimal performance through metabolic training.
• The impact of high-altitude training on aerobic capacity.
• How does music tempo impact physiological responses to exercise?
• What is the impact of smoking and vaping on recreational athlete performance?

Biomechanics can open up many avenues for investigation whether it’s relating to optimal movement in 100m sprint performance, or the use of prosthetic limbs to support Olympic level improve performance. It’s important to make sure you have an interest in biomechanics and are aware of some of the key data that can help you shape your topic. However, some of the most interesting parts of biomechanics topics are due to the potential repercussions that your research can have. Here are some potential topics that you might be interested in:

• Investigating the different types of prosthetics on sprint performance in Paralympians.
• Investigating differences in gait movement between barefoot and different forms of footwear.
• How can biomechanics facilitate improvements in Paralympic Sport?
• Understanding the role between sports biomechanics and sports injury prevention.
• Examining ACL injury differences between male and female professional football players.
• The role of artificial intelligence in sports biomechanics.
• How does VAR impact movement patterns in professional soccer players?
• Biomechanics of fencing: an investigatory review of techniques and injury preventative strategies.

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20+ Sport Psychology Dissertation Ideas - [Most Unusual Topics]

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Sport psychology dissertation topic: why it should be catchy, tips for choosing sport psychology dissertation topics, 25 intriguing dissertation topics in sport psychology, want help of expert writers in choosing topic contact us.

A dissertation is conducting and documenting research on a specific topic. The document should contain the students' findings and conclusions from the investigation. Dissertations are critical for students since they affect their final marks. However, never conducted this study to obtain a degree.

If pursuing a sports-related degree, prepare to work on sport psychology dissertation ideas . Every time you have this task, the professor expects a flawless paper. That is the only method to achieve high grades. What characteristics distinguish a decent sports paper topic? First and foremost, it must be pertinent. Also, make sure it's a subject you can handle professionally. If you choose an incorrect topic, it may not be easy to turn things around afterwards by taking dissertation help .

The primary goal of the dissertation is to acquaint the student with the process of studying, to discover the delight of looking for material, judging it, and eventually recording it by the student. This is the first test of the student's originality. In addition, it demonstrates pupils' communication skills and tests their analytical abilities.

Topic selection is an essential component of the dissertation because it is part of your academic degree. Always choose themes from your area of expertise while choosing topics. Never choose subjects from unusual regions. If you select a topic you know very little about, the research portion will be damaged, and the documentation process will fail.

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1. Set Priority of Task

The sport psychology dissertation topics ushers in a new age of research. Faculty no longer control your procedural requirements as a doctorate candidate. Instead, you must investigate the chosen issue, plan its progression, and adapt your lifestyle to ensure its completion.

2. Choose An Interesting Topic

Furthermore, if your lecturer changes his or her focus, you may be left adrift and unable to complete your academic work then take sport psychology dissertation ideas .  Remember, this subject should keep you interested and motivated for at least a year or two. So choose it with the same care as a new pair of formal shoes.

3. Know About Ongoing Research

Conduct keyword searches in digital databases regularly to find fresh viewpoints or challenges related to your topic. Remember that this is a tough and never-ending effort since new research is always being developed. Therefore, make certain that your time is not spent researching fresh research at the price of assessing your own.

4. Obtain your References Properly

Evaluate your constructs and obtain references to support your construct definition. If your definition veers from the accepted literature, be prepared to defend the definitional defiance to your committee and reviewers who may later, hopefully, publish your results.

5. Support Your Topic

Assess your constructions and gather references to back up your construct definition. If your definition deviates from the recognised literature, be prepared to defend it to your committee and reviewers, who may later, hopefully, publish your findings.

6. Set a Deadline to Complete the Task

A timeline can help you choose your sport psychology dissertation ideas even more effectively. Some projects can be finished in a year, while others might take two or more years. Choose a topic that will be workable within the time constraints.

Also Read:  5 Benefits of Studying Psychology

• Students studying sports psychology dissertation help should select titles that will help them advance in their careers. The 15 dissertation titles are both challenging and entertaining.
• Sports injury: An investigation of sports injuries' causes and rapid healing.
• Obesity in footballers: How does obesity impact football players mentally?
• Leadership in sports: A study of team sport players' leadership characteristics.
• Coaching and homosexuality
• Gender in coaching: How much more effective is a woman coaching while coaching men's sports?
• Marathon injuries in football players: A research to see if frequent injuries psychologically degrade a skilled sports player.
• Drug users among athletes: A research to determine whether mental illness causes athletes to become addicted
• The main problem of depression among football players: Get the complete way to understand how depression attacks a football player who rarely gets playtime on their field.
• What is racism among the cricketers? While discussing it, the complete study of racist comments affects the black players in the South African cricket team.
• How the career transition plays a vital role in sports: In this section, students will study the psychological effects of career riding injuries in football in Spain.
• How do you explain exercise and parenthood? In this section, students will check about the problems faced by the child sports person training and with their parents.
• Explain the complex and ego. It is the study for checking how difficult the child football players in academic sports affect their performance.
• What is hatred among football players? This section covers all the rivalries among the football players in the same team.
• Why has there been a clash between the coach and the player? What are the leading causes behind it? In this section, students will study the main reasons for the conflicts between the athlete and his coach.
• Is it true that students are drug addicts in the football team? It is a study about drug addict players of football in the country of Africa.

Above mentioned are a few suggestions for the students looking for a topic selection in sport psychology. If you also want expert assistance, you are in the right place. You can choose the desired thing as per your interest and requirement. You can consult expert writers if stuck with selecting the best one. For this reason, they will help you deal with the issues arising in your academic life.

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Effects of psychological interventions on high sports performance: A systematic review

Mario reyes-bossio.

1 Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, Lima, Peru

Santiago Corcuera-Bustamante

Giancarlo veliz-salinas, marcelo villas boas junior.

2 Universidade São Judas Tadeu, São Paulo, Brazil

Mariel Delgado-Campusano

Paul brocca-alvarado.

3 Universidad Científica del Sur, Lima, Peru

Tomás Caycho-Rodríguez

4 Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Privada del Norte, Lima, Peru

Leslie Casas-Apayco

Veronica tutte-vallarino.

5 Departamento de Bienestar y Salud, Universidad Católica del Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay

Carlos Carbajal-León

6 South American Center for Education and Research in Public Health, Universidad Norbert Wiener, Lima, Peru

Regina Brandão

Associated data.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Introduction

Intervention programs in sports psychology aid to modify the thoughts and behaviors of athletes in order to improve their performance in sports settings. For high-performance athletes, these interventions are very relevant, given that they constantly face pressure towards obtaining sporting achievements.

This systematic review aims to analyze the scientific articles between 2010 and 2020 that evaluated the effect of psychological interventions on high-performance athletes. In the search procedure, nine studies were selected, the most studied variables were psychological skills, psychological flexibility, and stress.

The 44% of the interventions were designed by the research authors themselves, while the remaining 56% were replicated programs, which already had scientific evidence.

Psychological interventions have a positive impact on sports performance. This review allows sports institutions and professionals to have more knowledge and resources at their disposal to implement these types of programs in their sports planning.

The psychology of sports and physical exercise is a scientific discipline that focuses on the study of people behaviors in the context of sports and physical activities (Gill, 2000 ). In addition, it includes the application of psychological theories to understand and optimize the performance, mental processes, and wellbeing of these people (Moran and Toner, 2017 ). In particular, the discoveries linking mental aspects and athletic performance were originated almost simultaneously with those of psychology (Kornspan, 2011 ; Kremer et al., 2012 ). Nevertheless, since decades ago this discipline has been consolidated and has experienced a considerable growth, accompanied by greater activity and relevance in scientific production (Weinberg and Gould, 2010 ; Berengüi and López-Walle, 2018 ). This increase has allowed sports agents to have at their disposal multiple scientifically validated knowledge and resources to solve daily practical questions related to sports performance (Moran and Toner, 2017 ). However, one of the great challenges for sports psychology is to continue updating the knowledge obtained and to be in constant search of new subfields that answer its main questions (Cantón, 2016 ). A convenient way to do this is through the development of intervention programs with a specific methodology that includes evaluation instruments, techniques, and strategies, both direct and indirect (Cantón, 2010 ).

An intervention program can be defined as an action or process that affects the functioning and/or performance of a person through changes in their thinking and behavior (American Psychological Associaton, 2002 ). In the specific case of sports psychology and physical exercise, this is achieved through psychological factors related to the sports context.

Sports psychological interventions have proven to be important over the years given the positive impact that they have on wellbeing and the optimization of sports performance (Greenspan and Feltz, 1989 ; Weinberg and Comar, 1994 ; Martin et al., 2005 ; Brown and Fletcher, 2017 ). In addition, the training and/or learning of strategies and techniques acquired in these interventions, allow the development of psychological skills such as concentration, activation level, motivation and other cognitive skills required for the most demanding sports scenarios (Craig, 2011 ; Olmedilla et al., 2011 , 2018 ; Escolano et al., 2014 ; Olmedilla and Domínguez-Igual, 2016 ; Larkin et al., 2018 ; McCromick et al., 2018 ).

Previous literature on other systematic reviews have emphasized the impact of psychological variables on sports performance. For instance, Brown and Fletcher ( 2017 ) carried out a meta-analysis that aimed to synthesize all the studies, without a defined range of years, that evaluated the psychological, social, and psychosocial interventions with athletes and the relationship they had with their athletic performance. On the other hand, Ursino and Barrios ( 2019 ) described how sports performance associated with psychological variables has been studied, although it focused on all empirical studies in general. These scientific evidences have become known thanks to the fact that these and other sports science professionals have undergone very rigorous research processes, in which they conceptualized, developed, intervened, and evaluated the impact of certain psychological skills on athletes' performance. Therefore, to continue contributing to the spread and growth of this discipline, the purpose is to carry out a systematic review of the most recent studies that have evaluated the effects of psychological interventions on the performance of professional athletes in sports settings, high competition, or high-performance athletes.

The Instituto Peruano del Deporte ( 2019 ) groups these people into the category called high-level qualified athlete, which means that they represent the country in official international events and obtain results in them. However, for the purposes of this research, the high-performance athlete has been defined as an athlete who can also represent a professional club through competitive tournaments, regardless of their category.

It should be noted that other recent systematic investigations have been carried out, which emphasized the impact of psychological variables on sports performance. On the one hand, Brown and Fletcher ( 2017 ) carried out a meta-analysis that aimed to synthesize all the studies, without a defined range of years, that evaluated the psychological, social, and psychosocial interventions with athletes and the relationship they had with their athletic performance. On the other hand, Ursino and Barrios ( 2019 ) described how sports performance associated with psychological variables has been studied, although it focused on all empirical studies in general.

In this sense, the purpose of this review was to synthesize and analyze the scientific studies between the period 2010–2020 that have evaluated the effects of psychological interventions on the performance of professional athletes who perform in highly competitive settings.

This systematic review followed the guidelines of the methodology proposed in the PRISMA statement (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) (Moher et al., 2009 ).

Search strategy

The studies were identified in electronic databases with scientific relevance and good contribution to the spread of research in the psychology of sports and physical exercise. The search was carried out in WEB OF SCIENCE, SCOPUS, SCIELO and PSICODOC using the following keywords: “sport psychology” AND “intervention program,” including the Boolean operators “AND” between these keywords and the concept “high performance” and excluding through “NOT” recreational sport, physical exercise, case and/or single case studies and interventions that delve into physiological aspects. We considered the use of keywords in English because the results were more numerous with this search, finding research in other languages as well, such as Spanish and Portuguese. In relation to time limiters we selected a 10-year period, between 2010 and 2020. Finally, we chose full-text publications, leaving aside abstracts, as specified in the PRISMA system.

Inclusion criteria

The articles were selected with the following inclusion criteria: (1) intervention programs that contemplate a pre-test, intervention, and post-test in their analysis; (2) investigations that evaluate the effect on psychological variables related to the optimization of sports performance; (3) sample in high-performance athletes who participate in professional categories in sports and indistinct ages; (4) the years between publication of the studies is from 2010 to 2020; and (5) the evaluation of interventions can be both quantitative and qualitative. It should be noted that the language or origin country did not compromise the inclusion of any study in the subsequent analyzes because greater cultural diversity was search among the articles searched.

Study selection

The details of the research compilation strategy and its different phases are shown in the PRISMA flow diagram ( Figure 1 ), while the references and the most relevant data were also rigorously reviewed through databases at Microsoft Excel. In the first phase, 632 articles were identified, using the keywords described above and in the selected electronic databases. Of this total, 13 duplicate articles were detected, so that in the second phase they were erased. In this same study, other 590 investigations were also excluded because, through the reading of titles and abstracts, they did not belong to the discipline of sports psychology, they did not present any type of intervention (correlational, comparative designs, reviews, etc.), their sample was not with athletes (coaches, parents, referees, etc.), and finally, others who did not have free access. In this way, 603 investigations were excluded, which, subtracted from the 632 found, result in 29 research that were maintained in the present systematic review.

PRISMA flow chart for study selection.

In the third phase, the authors read the full text of the 29 selected articles to analyze and decide their eligibility. From this, 16 works were eliminated because they did not meet the established criteria. In most cases, these were excluded because the participant athletes were not considered as high-performance athletes (e.g., university, school, training academy athletes, etc.). In addition, other articles only reported or described an intervention, without evaluating it (pre-test and post-test). Also, some works selected nutritional, physical, or biomechanical variables to evaluate the impact on sports performance. Finally, four of the 13 remaining articles were eliminated to obtain greater uniformity in the discussion of results. Therefore, two studies with a qualitative design and two with single case studies were deleted. As a result of this, in the fifth phase, nine articles were included in the systematic review for further analyzes shown in the results (Reyes-Bossio et al., 2012 ; García-Naveira, 2016 ; Sallen et al., 2018 ; Campo et al., 2019 ; Carraça et al., 2019 ; Holguín-Ramírez et al., 2020 ; Lundgren et al., 2020 ; Tutte Vallarino et al., 2020 ; Vidarte et al., 2020 ).

Quality assessment

The quality assessment was carried out based on the STROBE statement for observational methodological designs (Von et al., 2014 ). It comprehends a checklist of items that should be included in the case study and control reports. This format is made up of 31 variables assigned to sections (a) title and summary, (b) introduction, (c) method, (d) results, (e) discussion and (f) financing information, answered dichotomously among themselves or does not meet the quality attribute ( Table 1 ).

STROBE statement—checklist of items that should be included in reports of case-control studies.

In the first place, emphasizing the formal aspects, of the nine articles analyzed, we find that six were published between 2019 and 2020. It is evident that three of them belong to Latin America within this period (Colombia, Uruguay and Mexico) and three to Europe (Portugal, France and Sweden). Two of them use Spanish and the remaining four use English.

According to the introduction section, all articles except one defined and explained the variables they were investigating. It was found that two articles evaluated psychological abilities, two psychological flexibility and two stress; while psychological wellbeing, emotional intelligence and cognitive abilities completed all findings. Regarding the programs used to measure these variables, it was found that four were developed by the authors themselves, while the other five were replicated programs. Likewise, only one article omitted the mention of research objectives. Besides, three studies presented specific objectives. Finally, it was found that in five of the nine articles the authors mentioned hypotheses.

Regarding the aspects found in the method, four opted for a quasi-experimental design, followed by two experimental studies, a case series study and a couple of articles that did not specify any design. However, only four studies were able to explain the design. Additionally, it was confirmed that all had a pre and post intervention evaluation. According to the participants, it was found that five articles had only men as a sample, two exclusively women, and two other studies participated both genders. Regarding age, it should be noted that only four articles showed their basic measures (range, mean, standard deviation). For their part, it was found that two articles selected practitioners of various sports, while another two chose football as the sports practice to be investigated. The remaining sports were Ice Hockey, Field Hockey, Volleyball, Rugby, and Artistic Gymnastics. Regarding the instruments, seven studies showed evidence of validity and reliability. Finally, in relation to the procedure, all the articles except one described or made a design of the sessions of the applied program.

Regarding the results section of these nine selected articles, it was found that four of them presented descriptive statistics, only one presented correlations between the investigated variables, and another five articles made comparisons. Additionally, six studies worked out the effect size, while the remaining ones were limited to comparing the results obtained from the pre and post-test.

Finally, referring to the discussion section, the five studies that presented hypotheses were able to confirm it and give a logical explanation. In addition, the results they obtained were analyzed and compared with other research in all articles. Finally, the nine selected studies concluded that the applied program had a positive impact on one or more of the psychological variables investigated ( Tables 2 , ​ ,3 3 ).

Descriptive summary of the analyzed studies.

Summary of analysis of selected studies.

V, Variables in the title; D, Variable's definition; R, Replicated program; E, Own elaboration program; O, Mention of objectives in introduction; C, Hypothesis confirmed; P, Pre and post-test; Ed, Design explication; VC, Validity and Reliability; Ds, Sessions' description; Rd, Descriptive results; Rr, Correlational results; Rc, Comparative results; T, Effect size; Ci, Comparison between investigations Ip, Program positive program.

The purpose of this review was to synthesize and analyze the scientific studies between the period 2010-2020 that have evaluated the effects of psychological interventions on the performance of professional athletes who perform in highly competitive settings. In particular, nine studies were selected from a total of 632 identified in the corresponding databases. This number found within a large universe of studies makes us reflect on intervention designs in scientific research. Based on the filters developed and the literature found, it is evident that, in sports psychology, non-experimental studies predominate over those that study the effects of programs (quasi-experimental or experimental). Regarding this, a review that analyzed the current state of research on sports psychology in Spanish between 2010 and 2016, found that the trend was non-experimental designs with a total of 60% of selected articles; although between quasi-experimental and experimental investigations accounted for 24% of the total (Calderón and Lesmes, 2016 ). It leads us to reflect on whether the scope of the applied psychological intervention programs.

A second important finding was regarding the year of publication of the articles, because only in the last couple of years (2019 and 2020) more studies were found than in the previous nine (2010–2018). This could represent the possible lack of psychological intervention work in the last decade; or we could deduce that there are not many records of this type of investigation o there are great difficulties in systematizing and drafting such intervention. In this way, it would not necessarily mean that interventions of this nature have not been carried out in the sports field, but rather that they are not reflected in high-impact magazines; and only in recent years could they be published by these media. The dissemination of research in sports psychology is very important because it provides valuable information and knowledge based on evidence that allows solving multiple relevant practical questions to optimize the sports performance of athletes (Moran and Toner, 2017 ). Additionally, this finding evidences that there is a growth in the publication of sports psychological interventions in high impact magazines, improving the visibility of the results related to the improvement of the performance of elite athletes. On the other hand, it is important to emphasize that, according to the search period of the Ursino and Barrios ( 2019 ) review carried out from 2008 to 2018, it was found that the highest concentration of studies that associated sports performance with psychological variables was between 2015 and 2018, repeating the pattern that there is more research in the last years of the search period, although not exclusively in experimental or quasi-experimental designs, but in empirical studies in general.

As a third finding, the most investigated variables in these nine articles were: psychological abilities, psychological flexibility, and stress. However, it is relevant to consider that, in one of the studies, psychological flexibility was not the only variable investigated, but was shared by others (psychological distress, thought suppression and Flow). In addition, with respect to stress, it was evaluated in different dimensions, because one article emphasized resistance to stress and the other on the stress-recovery balance. In this way, it is evident that the evaluation of psychological abilities had a greater role among the others. It is likely that this is due to the fact that psychological abilities group several constructs that have been scientifically proven over the years that directly intervene in sports performance, such as motivation, attention, coping, attitude, anxiety, imaginative visual control, among other (Getz and McConnell, 2014 ; León et al., 2014 ; Ramos-Cabal et al., 2018 ). Furthermore, the importance of psychological skills in sports performance has been demonstrated by many researchers (MacNamara et al., 2010 ; López-Gullón et al., 2011 ; Weinberg and Gould, 2014 ; Abdullah et al., 2016 ; Ramírez-Muñoz and Prieto-Andreu, 2021 ). Not only psychological skills may provide you a general psychological profile of high-performance athletes, but also to know which the variables are to work on according to the extent to which they influence their competitive performance (Loehr, 1986 ; Raimundi et al., 2016 ).

Regarding the programs implemented in the different research, the use of already established programs predominates (55%), compared to those elaborated for the purposes of the studies; understanding that there are highly recognized psychological techniques used in the construction of programs, such as Mindfulness.

This type of psychological interventions within the sports field have been described as emerging third generation therapies with high levels of efficacy. Demonstrating improvements in athletes who favored different states of anxiety and concentration (Hoja and Jansen, 2019 ). A similarity found in two replicated programs was the use of this technique to address psychological skills such as flexibility, thought suppression, flow, and stress. The continuous investigation of this psychological technique is what has allowed us to know and verify its multiple benefits. Therefore, intervening with this type of (replicated) programs that already have a long history and scientific support, allows to obtain greater security with respect to the development of the psychological skills investigated; unlike what it could mean to implement a program with its own design that does not have the necessary evidence to know whether it can generate a positive impact. However, it is known that one of the main objectives of the research is not only to clarify and expand the knowledge that already exists, but also to generate new ones (Ato et al., 2013 ). This would be achieved through the implementation of self-made programs because it would be creating a new opportunity to investigate other options. In turn, improvements have also been observed with more classical second generation treatments or strategies, based on cognitive-behavioral therapies (Olmedilla et al., 2010 ). Therefore, the remaining 45% of the selected interventions could respond to designs developed by the researchers but using techniques that respond to theoretical models already consolidated in different contexts over time, allowing them to be adapted to the sports environment (Reyes-Bossio et al., 2012 ) y a otros niveles deportivos (Trujillo-Torrealva and Reyes-Bossio, 2019 ; Cárcamo-La Torre and Reyes-Bossio, 2022 ).

Another relevant finding was the great variety in terms of the age range of the athletes considering all the studies, since the youngest was 13 years old and the oldest 40 years old. This finding can have several explanations. The first is defined according to the category of athletes, because they may have selected juniors from the national teams they represent, such as a volleyball sub-17. There are other athletes who, instead of representing a youth category, play in professional teams or clubs of the first/second division of their national leagues, in which it is known that there is a greater variety in age groups. Also, it is important to consider the sport practiced, since there is a recognized age and average start and end of a career in each one (López de Subijana and Equiza, 2018 ). As was previously known, of the nine studies selected, six different sports were found, which is why in some the age of the athletes may be dispersed. Finally, it should be noted that, in addition to the six sports found, two studies evaluated athletes from various sports, which could also explain the variance in age. Additionally, regarding the sex of the athletes, it was found that more than half of the studies intervened only with men, coinciding with the systematic review by Brown and Fletcher ( 2017 ). However, 44% of the articles had the presence of women in their samples. Although these findings appear to be encouraging in the field of scientific research, there is still a large gap in the resources allocated to sportsmen and women, especially financial ones, generating inequity (López, 2017 ).

Following the line of sports, soccer was the sport with the greatest presence in the different studies. Although the magnitude and beauty of this sport around the world is known, from a total of nine studies, five other sports disciplines were found. This may reflect the increasing awareness, research, and psychological intervention in various sports. Added to this, it is worth mentioning that all the sports presented were collective, except for artistic gymnastics, which has a mixed modality. Within the search process of the present review, several psychological interventions were found on individual sports, such as table tennis, sailing, taekwondo, among others; but they were logically investigated under a single case design, falling outside of our inclusion criteria. However, this type of research, which seeks to understand the behavior of an individual in response to an intervention program, is progressively increasing in the psychology of sport and exercise (Kratochwill and Levin, 2010 ; Moran and Toner, 2017 ). For more detail, you can examine the review by Barker et al. ( 2011 ), who investigated the nature and applications of single case designs in that discipline.

A sixth finding was that three studies chose to implement their psychological training program to their entire sample, understanding that they only had one intervention group. Therefore, it is logical that they have chosen to make comparisons between the evaluations applied before and after the program to determine their impact. In contrast, the other six studies divided their sample into an experimental and control group, applying their program only and obviously to the first of the groups. Unlike the other three studies, these six had and made effective the possibility of using the effect size statistic, not only to assess whether there was improvement in the psychological variables evaluated after the intervention, but also in what extent. This means a very relevant result considering that it allows to know how much the findings can be adjusted to reality (Castillo and Bravo, 2015 ).

Finally, in order to evaluate the psychological work resulting from these interventions, it is important to focus on the improvement of the psychological functioning of athletes, assessing their adaptive progress, their relationship with performance and their psychological wellbeing (Olmedilla and Domínguez-Igual, 2016 ; Kosendiak and Ptak, 2017 ). All articles concluded that their psychological training programs had a positive impact on high-performance athletes, regardless of the type of program, intervention strategy or technique used, as well as without discriminating in the distribution or characterization of each sample, coinciding with the findings of the Brown and Fletcher ( 2017 ) review. Perhaps this level of improvement as a consequence of the different interventions selected may be due to the level of satisfaction with the psychological training by both the athletes and the technical staff, as they were able to find time to reflect, share, enjoy and learn techniques such as relaxation, mindfulness and visualization. We could think that generating spaces for exchange and experimentation have effects on the improvement of skills and sense of wellbeing. Similar results were found with Polish Olympic athletes (Kosendiak and Ptak, 2017 ) alluding to their enjoyment of the choice of relaxation and visualization techniques, within a psychological intervention program. However, it is important to clarify, as mentioned above, that some studies evaluated several psychological variables at the same time, so this finding is focused on the overall effectiveness of the program, but not necessarily on the significant improvement of all the psychological constructs addressed. Therefore, the authors culminated their studies with the request and recommendation to continue researching on these topics in order to clarify the panorama and obtain new discoveries that contribute to the growth of sport psychology. At the end of the day, it is the publications of this type of research that allow society to have more knowledge and resources at its disposal for its interventions.

Limitations

A first limitation of the study was to discriminate and define the characteristics of a high-performance athlete over one who is not. This is because several aspects are involved, such as age, category, representativeness in a national team and participation in a professional team. In this way, it was difficult to select the studies that presented the characteristics of the required sample.

Added to this, in the beginning it had been planned to select all kinds of research that would demonstrate the effects of psychological training, including qualitative ones and case studies. However, in order to obtain greater uniformity in the results and analysis, it was decided to select only the quantitative studies. It happens that qualitative studies have other elements that could be discussed and analyzed. Such information, together with what was found in quantitative research, was going to mean more extension, diseños y posibles confusiones metodológicas.

Another limitation is found in the predominance of non-experimental descriptive cross-sectional designs. There are even studies that make mental or psychological training programs available, but a scientific evaluation of the impact generated on athletes is not observed. This is connected with the lack of rigor in the results supported by scientific evidence, understanding that there may be a large number of sports psychological interventions, but that they do not necessarily go through the rigorous process of scientific research, and this causes that ultimately there is no support for a positive impact.

Practical implications

The present study will clarify and have relevant information available on the impact of psychological interventions on sports performance. In this way, it can contribute to different sports institutions having knowledge and providing themselves with various resources and activities that favor the development of psychological skills related to improving their performance. They will have a wide range of effective interventions to apply with their own athletes according to the required needs.

Recommendations

In the first place, based on the objective of promoting the continuous obtaining of new discoveries based on scientific evidence, especially in sports psychology, we recommend continuing research on this discipline in the process of consolidation. The results and analysis that we do cannot be taken as absolute truths because our investigations are framed in a specific sample and context, so it would be a mistake to generalize to large magnitudes. Therefore, to approximate reality, there needs to be a series of studies to support it, and this will only be achieved if there is continuous scientific research.

It is recommended that the inclusion criteria be fairly clear and free of interpretation, because given the large amount of research to be analyzed, some may go unnoticed due to a doubtful inclusion criterion. Furthermore, it makes it difficult for the funnel process, shown in the PRISMA diagram, to be fast and effective.

Finally, it is suggested to analyze and investigate the challenges framed in sports psychology after the Covid-19 pandemic. Because possibly the needs and demands of athletes have mutated and now the psychological variables to work on could be different from what they were a couple of years ago. Athletes and society in general are in constant readjustment processes due to the new competition conditions and sports psychology professionals must consider them in their new interventions both face-to-face and virtual, which has come to stay and be enhanced with technology.

Conclusions

There has been a recent and accelerated growth in the research of interventions in sports psychology, which shows that both professionals in this discipline and sports institutions are opting for their work to have a greater reach in society and form part of the required scientific evidence to be replicated with sustenance. Additionally, it is relevant to evaluate the psychological abilities in high-performance athletes, because by grouping a series of (proven) variables that influence their performance, you obtain a psychological profile of the athlete that will allow you to know what aspects could be worked on to have the maximum potential. Finally, from all the information collected and analyzed, it is concluded that interventions on psychological variables have a positive impact on the performance of highly competitive athletes.

Data availability statement

Author contributions.

MR-B conceived the original idea of the study. MR-B, GV-S, MD-C, PB-A, and LC-A selected the references and contributed to data selecting and processing. MR-B, SC-B, and MV analyzed and presented the data. MR-B, TC-R, VT-V, CC-L, and RB wrote and organized the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This work was supported by the Dirección de Investigación de la Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (C-032-2021).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Psychology Dissertation Topics

Published by Carmen Troy at January 10th, 2023 , Revised On May 17, 2024

Introduction

Psychology entails the study of mental processes and behaviour. Over the last several years, the demand for psychology graduates has continuously risen due to the growing number of people with psychic problems.

As a psychology student, you can explore one of the many areas of psychology as part of your dissertation project. You can specialise in industrial physiology, mental health, behavioural psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, personality psychology, social psychology, biological psychology, and psychosocial psychology.

While there are many topic options for psychology students, make sure that you choose one where there is a gap in the literature and more work needs to be done.

To help you get started with brainstorming for psychology topic ideas, we have developed a list of the latest topics that can be used for writing your psychology dissertation.

You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting  a brief research proposal  from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an  introduction  to the topic,  research question ,  aim and objectives ,  literature review  along with the proposed  methodology  of research to be conducted.  Let us know  if you need any help in getting started.

Check our  dissertation examples  to get an idea of  how to structure your dissertation .

Review the full list of  dissertation topics here.

Psychology Research Topics

Impact of automation in the manufacturing sector on employee distress and happiness in the uk- an exploratory study finding the psychoeconomic factors.

Research Aim: This study intends to find the impact of automation in the manufacturing sector on employee distress and happiness in the UK. It will explore the moderating Psychoeconomic (Psychological and Economic) factors affected by the increasing automation in the manufacturing industry, affecting the employees’ distress and happiness levels. Furthermore, it will examine the strategies implemented by the manufacturing companies to prevent their employees from the anxiety and unhappiness induced by automation after the technological revolution.

Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Cognitive Performance Among Adults Working from Home during COVID-19 in the UK

Research Aim: This research aims to analyse the impact of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance among adults working from home during COVID-19 in the UK. It will identify how sleep deprivation during COVID-19 affected various mental abilities of employees who were forced to work from home. It will also see how these abilities affect the employees’ productivity during COVID-19. Additionally, it will show the policies adopted by the companies to prevent their employees from working overtime to have proper sleep. And how does it improve their cognitive performance and productivity?

Effects of Bad Incidents on Children’s Intelligence- A Critical Assessment through a Clinical Psychology Lens

Research Aim: This research shows the effects of bad incidents on children’s intelligence. It will use a clinical psychology lens to show how clinicians see the relationship between bad incidents in childhood and their impact on children’s intelligence in later life. And in which was these incidents shape the intelligence of children while growing up. Furthermore, it will present a wide range of clinical procedures to overcome the lingering effects of bad incidents on children’s intelligence in later life.

Impact of Marriage Satisfaction on Job Performance in High-Stress Jobs- A Case of Individuals Working in Investment Firms in the UK

Research Aim: This research analyses the impact of marriage satisfaction on job performance in high-stress jobs. It will use investment firms in the UK as a case study to analyse how marriage satisfaction affects the performance of men and women working in high-stress jobs such as trading and investments. Moreover, it will explore various psychological parts of the job affected by the problems in a marriage. Lastly, it will recommend ways to offset the bad effects of unstable marriage to improve job performance.

The Role of Educational-Psychological Counseling in Career Selection among Immigrant Children in the UK

Research Aim: This research investigates the role of educational-psychological counselling in career selection among immigrant children in the UK. It will show how educational-psychological counselling different aspects of their academic life and help them decide what to pursue in later life. It will also show how this counselling can help them believe that despite coming from outside of the UK, they still have a chance to succeed.

The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) on Reducing Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression

Research Aim: This study investigates the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) in reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression, It focuses on exploring the comparative efficacy of different types of MBIs and their potential mechanisms of action.

Investigate the impact of introducing mindfulness programs in school curricula to enhance mental well-being among adolescents.

Research Aim: This study aims to examine the impact of integrating mindfulness programs into school curricula to enhance mental well-being among adolescents. Through empirical investigation, it seeks to assess the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression levels, as well as promoting overall psychological resilience and positive emotional regulation. Additionally, the research aims to explore potential factors influencing program efficacy.

Exploring the Link Between Mood and Innovation in Entrepreneurship

Research Aim: This research investigates the intricate relationship between mood and innovation within the context of entrepreneurship. By exploring how varying moods influence the generation, adoption, and implementation of innovative ideas by entrepreneurs, the study seeks to uncover potential patterns and mechanisms that drive entrepreneurial creativity. The research further explores how understanding this link is crucial for informing strategies to foster innovation within entrepreneurial ventures.

An Examination of the Interplay Between Depression and Creative Writing: Case Studies in Literature

Research Aim: This research examines the complex interplay between depression and creative writing through case studies in literature. It focuses on the experiences of writers who have battled depression and analysing how their mental health condition intersects with their creative process and output, this study seeks to shed light on the relationship between mood disorders and literary creativity. 

Investigating the neurobiological basis of ADHD: brain structure, neurotransmitter function, and genetics.

Research Aim: The study explores the interplay between brain structure, neurotransmitter function, and genetic factors in individuals with ADHD. It focuses on elucidating the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the disorder.

Examine the relationship between ADHD and comorbid mental health conditions, such as anxiety, depression, and substance abuse.

Research Aim: This study explores the complex relationship between ADHD and comorbid mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. It discusses the underlying mechanisms, common risk factors, and potential therapeutic implications for effective management and treatment strategies.

Covid-19 Psychology Research Topics

Topic 1: impacts of coronavirus on the mental health of various age groups.

Research Aim: This study will reveal the impacts of coronavirus on the mental health of various age groups

Topic 2: Mental health and psychological resilience during COVID-19

Research Aim: Social distancing has made people isolated and affected their mental health. This study will highlight various measures to overcome the stress and mental health of people during coronavirus.

Topic 3: The mental health of children and families during COVID-19

Research Aim: This study will address the challenging situations faced by children and families during lockdown due to COVID-19. It will also discuss various ways to overcome the fear of disease and stay positive.

Topic 4: Mental wellbeing of patients during Coronavirus pandemic

Research Aim: This study will focus on the measures taken by the hospital management, government, and families, to ensure the mental wellbeing of patients, especially COVID-19 patients.

Psychology Dissertation Topics in Social Sciences

Topic 1: kids and their relatives with cancer: psychological challenges.

Research Aim: In cancer diagnoses and therapies, children often don’t know what happens. Many have psychosocial problems, including rage, terror, depression, disturbing sleep, inexpiable guilt, and panic. Therefore, this study identifies and treats the child and its family members’ psychological issues.

Topic 2: Hematopoietic device reaction in ophthalmology patient’s radiation therapy

Research Aim: This research is based on the analysis of hematopoietic devices’ reactions to ophthalmology radiation.

Topic 3: Psychological effects of cyberbullying Vs. physical bullying: A counter study

Research Aim: This research will focus on the effects of cyberbullying and physical bullying and their consequences on the victim’s mental health. The most significant part is the counter effects on our society’s environment and human behaviour, particularly youth.

Topic 4: Whether or not predictive processing is a theory of perceptual consciousness?

Research Aim: This research aims to identify whether predictive processing is a theory of perceptual consciousness or not.

Topic 5: Importance of communication in a relationship

Research Aim: This research aims to address the importance of communication in relationships and the communication gap consequences.

Topic 6: Eating and personality disorders

Research Aim: This research aims to focus on eating and personality disorders

Topic 7: Analysis of teaching, assessment, and evaluation of students and learning differences

Research Aim: This research aims to analyse teaching methods, assessment, and evaluation systems of students and their learning differences

Topic 8: Social and psychological effects of virtual networks

Research Aim: This research aims to study the social and psychological effects of virtual networks

Topic 9: The role of media in provoking aggression

Research Aim: This research aims to address the role of media in provoking aggression among people

Psychology Dissertation Topics Behavioral Sciences

Topic 1: assessing the advantages and disadvantages of positive reinforcement in special education.

Research Aim: The strength and importance of praise in the workplace can have a significant impact on employees and move them from apathy to more happiness and satisfaction. Positive reinforcement motivates and encourages people for their respective tasks. This research aims to assess the advantages and disadvantages of positive reinforcement in special education.

Topic 2: Assessing the relationship between depression and anxiety from the perspective of student academic performance

Research Aim: Emotional disturbance is considered to be a psychological element that can lead to the deterioration of the daily activities of students. Since academic achievements are an integral dimension of students’ lives, depression, anxiety, and other emotional disturbance might lead to poor academic performance. Therefore, this research aims to assess the relationship between depression and anxiety on student academic performance.

Topic 3: How cognitive behaviour therapy helps in dealing with depressed adolescents

Research Aim: Cognitive behavioural theory is regarded as a well-established therapy for depression and other various mental illnesses in children and adolescents. It might be because CBT can reduce suicidal behaviour and thoughts among adolescents. The main purpose of this research is to identify how cognitive behaviour therapy can help in dealing with depressed adolescents.

Topic 4: Analysing the psychological impact of bullying on children’s personality and development

Research Aim: Any public humiliation can result in a child’s misconceptions, confusion and misunderstanding about their own personality and the surrounding world. Public humiliation can damage the psychology of children and hinder their overall physical and mental development. The key purpose of this study is to analyse the psychological impact of bullying on children’s personalities and development.

Topic 5: Assessing the impact of psychological pricing on consumer purchase intention

Research Aim: Psychological pricing, also known as charm pricing and price ending, is a market pricing strategy in which certain prices can have a psychological impact on consumers. This strategy also includes a slightly less than round number, e.g. 2.99, which could incline consumers to make purchase decisions in favour of the seller. Hence, this research aims to assess the impact of psychological pricing on consumer purchase intention.

Topic 6: Borderline Personality Disorder and Self-Cutting Behaviors – Are they Inter Related?

Research Aim: Borderline Personality Disorder is a mental health disorder that impacts the thinking process of an individual. This disorder impacts the way you think and feel about yourself and others. Relationships are unstable. There are extreme emotions and distorted self-image when a person is suffering from a borderline personality disorder. This research will discuss this disorder in detail and evaluate whether self-cutting behaviours are a result of this disorder or not.

Topic 7: Depression and its risk factors – How can it be prevented?

Research Aim: Depression is a psychological issue that needs immediate attention. There are a lot of factors that lead to depression. This research will talk about the various risk factors that contribute to depression in an individual. The research will also discuss ways and strategies through which depression can be managed and eliminated in some cases. Case studies will be a part of this research.

Topic 8: Childhood trauma and its long-lasting impacts on individuals in adulthood

Research Aim: This research will talk about an important issue i.e. childhood trauma. This includes emotional and physical trauma that a child had experienced in his childhood. This research will discuss whether this trauma will impact the individual further in his life or not. If an adult’s future life is likely to be affected by childhood trauma, then in what ways will it change the individual, and how will it shape his personality? All these questions will be answered with this research.

Organisational Psychology Dissertation Topics

The role of industrial psychologists, also known as organisational psychologists, is to apply the principles of psychology to marketing, sales, management, administration, and human resources problems that organisations face.

Typical tasks that organisational psychologists perform include but are not limited to organisational development and analysis, training and development, employee evaluation and selection, policymaking, and more. The following dissertation topics are developed with respect to organisational psychology:

Topic 1: Research in industrial and organisational psychology from 1980 to 2015: Changes, choices, and trends

Research Aim: This research will compare the choices, trends, and changes in industrial and organisational psychology. The years compared will be 1990-2000, 2001-2010, and 2011-2020.

Topic 2: Computerized adaptive testing in industrial and organisational psychology

Research Aim: This research will explore advanced techniques, i.e., computerised adaptive testing, in organisational and industrial psychology.

Topic 3: Leader-member exchange as a moderating variable in the relationship between well-being and job security

Research Aim: This research will analyse the leader-member exchange as a variable that moderates the relationship between job security and well-being.

Topic 4: Intelligent leadership and leadership competencies – Developing a leadership framework for intelligent organizations

Research Aim: This research will understand leadership competencies and intelligent leadership by analysing a leadership framework for intelligent organisations.

Topic 5: Burnout amongst executive staff: What are the main predictors? A review of literature from the UK and Europe.

Research Aim: This research will talk about the most pressing issue at workplaces right now, i.e. burnout, The study will include predictors of burnout by analysing literature from Europe and the UK.

Topic 6: Interior design and Industrial psychology – Investigating the role of employees' reward and motivation in shaping up the look of the factory or office

Research Aim: This research will understand the role of employee reward and motivation in shaping workplaces with a focus on how interior design can create a working environment for employees that enhances their motivation levels.

Topic 7: Investigating the impact of strategic business partnering for business organisations – A case study of any UK based company

Research Aim: This research will talk about the impact of strategic business partnering for business organisations. You can provide us with the name of the company you would want to base your research on.

Topic 8: Social science strategies for managing diversity: Industrial and organisational opportunities to enhance inclusion

Research Aim: This research will interrogate an extremely important issue of psychology, i.e., diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The study will be conducted with respect to social science strategies.

Topic 9: Studying Influencing Factors in Effective Training Programs in Organisations

Research Aim: This research will talk about the various psychological factors that influence training programs organised by companies.

Topic 10: To understand international branding in light of the concept of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

Research Aim: This research will aim to understand international branding in light of the concept of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. The research will be descriptive in nature and make use of secondary data.

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Clinical Psychology Dissertation Topics

Clinical psychology can be defined as integrating clinical knowledge, theory, and science to understand and prevent psychologically based dysfunction and distress. Another aim of this branch of psychology is to promote personal development and behavioural well-being.

Clinical psychologists’ job responsibilities include conducting research, teaching, drug and alcohol treatment, assessing disorders, testifying in legal settings, and creating and managing programs to prevent and treat social problems.

A well-written dissertation in this area of psychology can help students to fetch a high academic grade. Here are some interesting topics in this area:

Topic 1: Which clinical and demographic factors predict poor insight in individuals with obsessions and compulsions?

Research Aim: This research will discuss the clinical and demographic factors that predict poor insight within individuals with compulsions and obsessions.

Topic 2: Anger beliefs and behaviour; An Investigation of associations with Hypomania in a non-clinical sample

Research Aim: This research will investigate anger, behaviour, and beliefs concerning hypomania in a non-clinical sample.

Topic 3: Clinical psychologists’ experiences of accessing personal therapy during training: A narrative analysis

Research Aim: This research will discuss clinical psychologists’ experiences of accessing personal therapy during training. This will be a narrative analysis.

Topic 4: Exploring body image and identity in people who have had a heart or lung transplant

Research Aim: This research will help explore the identity and body image of people who have had a heart or lung transplant. All related issues will be discussed in this study.

Topic 5: Psychosocial adjustment to renal failure and consequent dialysis

Research Aim: This research will explore the psychosocial adjustment required during renal failure. The study will also discuss dialysis, which will result in renal failure.

Topic 6: Experiences of psychosocial formulation within a biopsychosocial model of care for psychosis

Research Aim: This research will talk about psychosocial formulation experiences within a biopsychosocial model of care for psychosis.

Topic 7: Experiences and their association with eating behaviour in adulthood

Research Aim: This research will investigate the relationship between individual experiences and eating behaviour in adulthood. The study will furthermore present suggestions as to how these conditions can be improved.

Topic 8: Barriers to communicating about sexual dysfunction following heart trauma

Research Aim: This research will talk about an important issue i.e. sexual dysfunction. However, the study will be conducted concerning the issue being developed due to heart trauma.

Topic 9: Validation of a new scale assessing the use of strategies to change another person’s mood or emotional state

Research Aim: This research will investigate and try to validate a new scale that will be used to assess strategies for changing another person’s emotional state or mood.

Topic 10: Examining Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) within a cognitive framework

Research Aim: This research will investigate an important psychological issue, i.e. depression. Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) will be assessed with a cognitive framework.

Also Read: Construction Engineering Dissertation Topics

Cognitive Psychology Dissertation Topics

Cognitive Psychology can be defined as the study of mental processes such as thinking, creativity, problem solving, perception, memory, language use, and attention through neuropsychology, computer modeling, and experimentation.

Cognitive psychologists are primarily responsible for investigating how the human brain absorbs and interprets information at micro and macro levels. This area of psychology is broad. Therefore you will have many topic options to choose from. Please see below some titles if you are looking to base your dissertation on the field of cognitive psychology.

Topic 1: Adolescent perceptions and beliefs of proactive-reactive aggression explored through the social information processing model of aggression

Research Aim: This research will talk about various perceptions and beliefs of adolescents with respect to proactive-reactive aggression. These will be explored through the social information processing model of aggression.

Topic 2: Analysing how cognitive flexibility is influenced by emotions

Research Aim: This research will analyse how emotions influence the cognitive flexibility of individuals.

Topic 3: Tractable cognition: The role of complexity theory in cognitive psychology

Research Aim: This research will discuss tractable cognition. The study will discuss the role of complexity theory in cognitive psychology.

Topic 4: Conflict monitoring across sensory modalities

Research Aim: This research will discuss conflict monitoring during sensory modalities. The study will talk about various conflict monitoring methods.

Topic 5: Familiarity and its effect on facial expression recognition?

Research Aim: This research will discuss the concept of familiarity and its impact on facial expression recognition.

Topic 6: Investigating the relationship between cognitive vulnerability and depression

Research Aim: This research will investigate the relationship between depression and cognitive vulnerability.

Topic 7: Effectiveness of mindfulness training on ratings of perceived stress, mindfulness, and well-being of adolescents enrolled in an international baccalaureate diploma program

Research Aim: This research will discuss the effectiveness of mindfulness training on ratings of well-being and perceived stress in adolescents. The participants of this research will be international baccalaureate diploma students.

Topic 8: Assessing the development of implicit intergroup cognition in relation to in-groups and out-groups: social learning or pre-specified?

Research Aim: This research will assess the development of implicit intergroup cognition with respect to out-groups and in-groups. The study will conclude whether this development classifies as social learning or is pre-specified.

Topic 9: Assessing the relationship between impaired social cognition, emotion, and anxiety disorders.

Research Aim: This research will discuss the relationship between emotion, anxiety disorders, and impaired social cognition.

Topic 10: Investigating the relationship between episodic memory and emotional memory

Research Aim: This research will investigate the relationship between emotional memory and episodic memory and the underlying causes.

Also Read : Project Management Dissertation Topics

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• Social Psychology Dissertation Topics

This branch of psychology has gained tremendous importance in the world of academia in recent times. Essentially, it deals with social interactions, including their influence on the individuals and their origin.

According to Baron, Byrne, and Sulls (1989), “the scientific field seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behaviour in social situations.”

Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that social psychology primarily investigates how human behaviour can influence other people and the surrounding social environment. Some relevant social psychology dissertation topics are listed below:

Topic 1: Cognitive, affective, and social psychological correlates of psychopathic personality traits in offenders and non-offenders

Research Aim: This research will address cognitive, affective, and social-psychological correlations of psychopathic personality traits in offenders and non-offenders.

Topic 2: A social-psychological exploration of word-of-mouth traveller information in the digital age

Research Aim: This research will explore the word of mouth exchange of traveller information in today’s age with a social-psychological perspective.

Topic 3: Investigating the concept of contemporary social and cultural psychology

Research Aim: This research will investigate the concept of contemporary social and cultural psychology.

Topic 4: Methods for social psychological research: fundamental qualitative and fundamental quantitative methods.

Research Aim: This will be an interesting study. The research will explore two major social psychological research methods; the fundamental qualitative method and the fundamental quantitative method.

Topic 5: The impact of gender mistakes on various individual attitudes and behaviours that contribute to gender inequality

Research Aim: This research will explore the impact of gender issues on different individual attitudes and behaviours. Moreover, the study will assess their impact and contribution to increasing gender inequality.

Topic 6: Personality, passion, self-esteem and psychological well-being among junior elite athletes in the UK

Research Aim: This research will study the psychological well-being of junior athletes in the UK. This includes assessing their personality, passion, and self-esteem.

Topic 7: Mad, bad, or dangerous? Assessing changing social attitudes to mental illness through a study of magazine and TV advertising.

Research Aim: This research will assess the changing social attitudes to mental illness by studying TV and magazine advertising. The study will focus on the impact of these advertisements on the mental health of the audience.

Topic 8: Use of images of women in corporate website branding – The role of gender, marketing, and internet presence

Research Aim: This research will assess the use of women’s images in website branding. The study will evaluate and analyse the role of gender, marketing, and internet presence.

Topic 9: How the use of music can help to reduce crime rate – A quantitative study of underground tube stations in London

Research Aim: The study will focus on an ignored socio-psychological aspect i.e. music. The research will assess how music helps to reduce the crime rate. A quantitative study covering underground tube stations will be conducted.

Topic 10: The enduring legacy of cognitive dissonance

Research Aim: This research will talk about the history of cognitive dissonance. It will also discuss its enduring legacy.

Also Read: Sociology Dissertation Topics

Abnormal Psychology Dissertation Topics

The abnormal patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behaviour that may lead to mental disorders are studied under the abnormal psychology branch of psychology. But what is an abnormality, and who decides what abnormal behaviour is? Historically, societies have been quick to observe and tag individuals as abnormal when they encounter situations that they cannot understand.

Abnormal psychologists are responsible for identifying the human characteristics that deviate from the norm. This branch of psychology can interest students who wish to explore unusual human behaviour and unusual conditions. The following topics on abnormal psychology can help to ease the dissertation topic selection process for your thesis project:

Topic 1: Assessing and Investigating the concepts of abnormality and mental health

Research Aim: This research will discuss the basics of abnormality and mental health. The literature review will cover the various mental health conditions and what leads them to these issues.

Topic 2: A neuropsychological investigation of frontal brain asymmetry in depression with comorbid anxiety

Research Aim: This research will investigate a neuropsychological issue, i.e., frontal brain asymmetry in depression with comorbid anxiety.

Topic 3: What is the relationship between children’s home routines and treatment for ADHD? A study of the literature

Research Aim: This research will talk about a common yet ignored issue, ADHD. The study will explore the relationship between children’s home routines and treatment procedures.

Topic 4: Investigating the relationship between depression and diet – A qualitative study of how the Mediterranean diet can help to lower depression levels

Research Aim: This research will investigate an interesting relationship – between depression and diet. The study will also explore how the Mediterranean diet can help reduce levels of depression.

Topic 5: Promoting mental health and psychological wellbeing in children: A socio-cultural activity theory analysis of professional contributions and learning in a multidisciplinary team

Research Aim: This research will aim to promote mental health and psychological well-being in children. The study will be based on a socio-cultural activity theory analysis of professional contributions and learning in a multidisciplinary team.

Topic 6: A critical inquiry into the views of professionals working with families, parents, and children.

Research Aim: This research will help conduct a critical inquiry into the views of professionals working with parents, families, and children.

Topic 7: Exploring ways of managing stress and coping with poor mental health

Research Aim: This research will help to explore stress and coping issues amongst individuals with poor mental health.

Topic 8: The role of positive irrational beliefs in mental health & wellbeing

Research Aim: This research will talk about the positive role of irrational beliefs associated with mental health and wellbeing.

Topic 9: To understand and establish the relationship between social media websites and self-harm in adolescent females

Research Aim: This research will aim to understand and establish the relationship between social media websites and self-harm in adolescent females.

Topic 10: A biographical narrative study exploring mental ill-health through the life course

Research Aim: This will be a biographical narrative study that will explore the mental illness issues that may cause difficulties in the course of life.

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Developmental and Educational Psychology Dissertation Topics

According to Kendra Cherry (2001), “Educational psychology involves the study of how people learn, including topics such as student outcomes, the instructional process, individual differences in learning, gifted learners and learning disabilities.” This branch of psychology considers not only the learning process but also the social and emotional aspects of development.

Developmental and educational psychologists are responsible for designing professional development programmes, evaluating programmes and interventions, designing training programmes, consulting with groups and individuals, counselling, designing effective treatment programmes, assessing developmental learning and behavioural problems among individuals, diagnosing disabilities and disorders, and identifying and clarifying problems.

Here’s a list of developmental and educational psychology dissertation topics for you to choose from:

Topic 1: Investigating parents’ concerns with a child’s development: A Case Study

Research Aim: This research will investigate the concerns of parents related to child development. A specific case will be examined in this research.

Topic 2: To examine the parent-child relationship issues

Research Aim: This research will explore the issues related to the parent-child bond. Solutions will also be provided as to how these should be tackled.

Topic 3: Managing a child’s difficult temperament or behaviour

Research Aim: This research will help parents understand how they can manage a child who has a difficult temperament.

Topic 4: How educational psychologists can assist a child with disabilities

Research Aim: This research will explore how educational psychologists help in assisting disabled children.

Topic 5: Exploring the causes of sibling rivalries in the family: Studying How These can Be Tackled.

Research Aim: This research will explore the causes behind sibling rivalries in families and will also suggest how these can be controlled.

Topic 6: Problems parents, teachers, and children may face in the transition from early childhood to school years

Research Aim: This study will explore issues and problems parents, teachers, and children face in the transition from early childhood to school years.

Topic 7: Exploring the impact of consultation on educational psychology service users, including pupils, teachers, and parents

Research Aim: This research will explore the impacts of consultation on educational psychology services which include pupils, teachers, and parents.

Topic 8: The development of the theory of mind in deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing preschool children

Research Aim: This research will talk about the developmental theory of mind in deaf people, hard of hearing, and hearing of preschool children.

Topic 9: Cultural differences and perceptions of autism among school psychologists

Research Aim: This research will talk about the cultural differences and perceptions of autism amongst school psychologists.

Topic 10: High school special education teachers’ use of positive behaviour: Effects of a behaviour prompting routine on specific praise rates

Research Aim: This research will discuss the use of positive behaviour by high school special education teachers. Furthermore, the dissertation will also study the impact of behaviour that prompts a routine for specific praise rates.

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Important Notes:

As a psychology student looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment with existing psychology theories – i.e., to add value and interest to your research topic.

Psychology is vast and interrelated with so many other academic disciplines. That is why it is imperative to create a psychology dissertation topic that is particular, sound, and actually solves a practical problem that may be rampant in the field.

We can’t stress how important it is to develop a logical research topic based on your entire research. There are several significant downfalls to getting your topic wrong; your supervisor may not be interested in working on it, the topic has no academic creditability, the research may not make logical sense, and there is a possibility that the study is not viable.

This impacts your time and efforts in writing your dissertation as you may end up in the cycle of rejection at the initial stage of the dissertation. That is why we recommend reviewing existing research to develop a topic, taking advice from your supervisor, and even asking for help in this particular stage of your dissertation.

Keeping our advice in mind while developing a research topic will allow you to pick one of the best psychology dissertation topics that fulfil your requirement of writing a research paper and adds to the body of knowledge.

Therefore, it is recommended that when finalising your dissertation topic, you read recently published literature to identify gaps in the research that you may help fill.

Remember- dissertation topics need to be unique, solve an identified problem, be logical, and be practically implemented. Please look at some of our sample psychology dissertation topics to get an idea for your own dissertation.

How to Structure Your Psychology Dissertation

A well-structured dissertation can help students to achieve a high overall academic grade.

• A Title Page
• Acknowledgements
• Declaration
• Abstract: A summary of the research completed
• Table of Contents
• Introduction : This chapter includes the project rationale, research background, key research aims and objectives, and the research problems. An outline of the structure of a dissertation can also be added to this chapter.
• Literature Review : This chapter presents relevant theories and frameworks by analyzing published and unpublished literature on the chosen research topic to address research questions . The purpose is to highlight and discuss the selected research area’s relative weaknesses and strengths while identifying any research gaps. Break down the topic and key terms that can positively impact your dissertation and your tutor.
• Methodology : The data collection and analysis methods and techniques employed by the researcher are presented in the Methodology chapter, which usually includes research design , research philosophy, research limitations, code of conduct, ethical consideration, data collection methods, and data analysis strategy .
• Findings and Analysis : Findings of the research are analysed in detail under the Findings and Analysis chapter. All key findings/results are outlined in this chapter without interpreting the data or drawing any conclusions. It can be useful to include graphs, charts, and tables in this chapter to identify meaningful trends and relationships.
• Discussion and Conclusion : The researcher presents his interpretation of the results in this chapter and states whether the research hypothesis has been verified or not. An essential aspect of this section is establishing the link between the results and evidence from the literature. Recommendations with regard to the implications of the findings and directions for the future may also be provided. Finally, a summary of the overall research, along with final judgments, opinions, and comments, must be included in the form of suggestions for improvement.
• References : Make sure to complete this following your University’s requirements
• Bibliography
• Appendices : Any additional information, diagrams, and graphs used to complete the dissertation but not part of the dissertation should be included in the Appendices chapter. Essentially, the purpose is to expand the information/data.

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'QUEEEEEN': Raygun of Olympics breakdancing fame spotted busting moves, gains fan in Adele

Rachael gunn, also known as raygun, was spotted breakdancing in front of cheering fans on the heels of the 36-year-old's newfound fame stemming from her performance at the 2024 paris games.

Rachael Gunn , also known by her breakdancing name Raygun, went viral during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games , but the Australian is garnering even more attention after she was recently filmed busting a move or two in front of adulating fans.

Gunn is a 36-year-old university lecturer from Sydney who made waves with her performance at Place de la Concorde during the Paris Games' breakdancing competition. Many people online, and even Grammy-winning singer Adele, poked fun at Gunn's unique moves.

"I think it's the best thing that's happened in the Olympics the entire time," the British singer said about Gunn's dancing while on stage during a concert in Munich, Germany. "Did anyone see the breakdancing lady? Now I didn't even know that breakdancing was an Olympic sport these days. I think that's (expletive) fantastic."

Watch: Adele praises breakdancer Raygun during concert

Adele continued to say that she and her friends had been "laughing" for "nearly 24 hours" about Gunn's dancing, but she said it made her "very very happy."

Despite the jokes, Gunn continues to embrace the spotlight and some lucky fans even got a chance to see her breakdance in person. TikTok user @jeanmitchell posted a video of Gunn dancing in the street as fans surrounded her and yelled after each move. The caption was: "(Expletive) QUEEEEN"

@jeanmitchell_ FKN QUEEEEEN #RAYGUN #breaking #breakdancing #paris2024 ♬ original sound - Jeanos

How did Raygun do at the Paris Olympics?

Although Gunn is gaining fans, the Olympic judges were anything but as they didn't give the "B-girl" a single point throughout the competition. She was defeated by USA’s Logistx, France’s Syssy and Lithuania’s Nicka, losing 18-0 on each occasion.

Gunn, who wrote her PhD thesis on the intersection of gender and Sydney’s breaking culture, also repped Australia at the world championships in 2021 and 2022 before earning a spot at the Olympics through the Oceania championships in 2023, CNN reported.

"In 2023, many of my students didn’t believe me when I told them I was training to qualify for the Olympics and were shocked when they checked Google and saw that I qualified,”  Gunn told CNBC earlier this month .

While most of the 32 B-boys and B-girls at the Paris Games had been breakdance battling since they were young, Gunn did not participate in her first battle until 2012.

“All my moves are original,” Raygun told CNN after competing in Paris. “Creativity is really important to me. I go out there and I show my artistry. Sometimes, it speaks to the judges, and sometimes, it doesn’t. I do my thing and it represents art. That is what it is about.”

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Breaking made Olympics history, but sent a mixed message thanks to an Aussie b-girl's audacity

Was raygun's originality just terrible, heroic or an act of cultural appropriation, by melanie mcfarland.

Eddie the Eagle . The Jamaican bobsledding team. Great underdog stories are part of the Olympics’ fabric, giving TV audiences supplemental heroes to cheer on. The most famous of these contenders have the hearts of champions if not the skills — although some, like the 1980 U.S. men’s ice hockey team, which was mainly comprised of amateurs, make history by pulling off miracles.

Rachael Gunn  was never going to do that. The 36-year-old college professor said as much after she was eliminated from the Paris Games’ breaking competition that left viewers alternately befuddled, delighted and enraged due to its confident awkwardness.

Gunn, who represented Australia in the b-girls competition under the moniker Raygun, was knocked out in the round-robin competition without scoring a single point. Worse, she was totally fine with that.

“I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves, so I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative, because how many chances do you get in a lifetime to do that on an international stage?” Gunn told reporters after the fact.

Maybe not so many. Or perhaps a lot more.  

In her battles, Gunn busted moves like “the kangaroo” and “happy doggo rolling on a lawn,” carrying herself like a combination of Chris Lilley’s “Summer Heights High” character Mr. G and Sacha Baron Cohen ’s Ali G .

While other competitors wore their favorite streetwear, Gunn wore her country’s official tracksuit, which made her look like she was ready to either a) sell you some John Deere mowers; or b) assemble a Subway footlong to your specifications.

Yes. To all of it.

Gunn’s presence in the Olympics' first and possibly only breaking competition didn’t set off any alerts leading up to its debut, scheduled near the end of the 2024 Summer Games to maximize hype.

Most viewers know breaking as “breakdancing,” although calling it that will, at the very least, date you.  Since the ‘90s b-boys and b-girls have competed in an assortment of international competitions, the most publicly promoted being the Red Bull BC One.  

Bringing it to the Olympics was a play to attract younger viewers to the games, inspired by its popularity during the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. Its combination of wide familiarity and relative novelty generated excitement among what the NBC commentators gamely called a “more seasoned” viewership as well.

But there were always some doubts as to whether breaking belonged on the Olympics stage although it qualifies as a dance sport.

Gunn carried herself like a blend of Chris Lilley’s “Summer Heights High” character Mr. G and Sacha Baron Cohen’s Ali G.

Breaking is also part of a subculture defined by authenticity although, as the multicultural vibrancy of the competitors showed, that term is a moving target.

Enter Gunn, who has a PhD in Cultural Studies and lectures at Macquarie University in Sydney. Gunn’s doctoral thesis, titled “Deterritorializing Gender in Sydney’s Breakdancing Scene: a B-girl’s Experience of B-boying,” examines breaking from the lens of gender dynamics. At 355 pages long, one cannot accuse her of failing to think about her subject.

It’s the doing part that has made her either an object of mockery or a hero to the movement challenged. Or, as Dr. Stacey Patton sums up Gunn’s performance in a scathing NewsOne column, a party to “modern-day minstrelsy.”

A potential to generate anger was always lurking in the background of the International Olympic Committee’s decision to add breaking to its program. Some are irked by the standardization of competitive breaking: Dancers strive to defy gravity and capture the music’s spirit in spur-of-the-moment sculptures carved from their muscles, bones and imagination.

Olympics judges, however, were asked to score competitors on creativity, personality, technique, diversity, musicality and vocabulary.

And in the view of the Olympics’ chief breaking judge Martin Gilian, aka MGbility, Gunn represented Australia by “bringing something new to the table. “[S]he got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo,” he told reporters , going on to add, “She was trying to be original and bring something new to the table. From our perspective, that was nothing really shocking.”

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Except, maybe, to people who haven’t followed breaking for years and were shocked at seeing Lithuania’s Dominika “Nicka” Banevic, a small, skinny white girl, bound out wearing a durag like Tupac or LL Cool J.

Stylistic appropriation fades into a lesser sin if the person engaging in it shows reverence and understanding of the marginalized culture they’re drawing from. And Banevic, who won the silver medal, took time to acknowledge the original b-boys and b-girls after her win.

“Big respect for the OGs and the pioneers that invented all those moves. Without them, it wouldn’t be possible,” she said . “Without them, breaking wouldn’t be where it is today. So I’m grateful for them.”

Gunn did not, and this separates her from those other underdogs mentioned above.

Breaking is different.  Like the music and the rest of the culture, hip-hop’s original movement form was born in New York and created in the late ‘70s by poor Black and brown kids living in the Bronx, who established its main cultural currency to be skillfulness and respect.

Pop culture’s industries swiped music and fashion and left the dance form to Madison Avenue. Self-appointed mainstream ambassadors like Dena Rizzo, who was lampooned in a “Bob’s Burgers” episode , killed its mainstream popularity for good.

Breaking proliferated nevertheless, with crews popping up in countries around the world, including Australia. Like hip-hop, breaking is represented by a prismatic range of cultures, each of which has evolved the form and lends its own flavors.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter , Crash Course.

However, in a sport that began as physicalized rebelliousness by poor Black and Puerto Rican boys and girls in reaction to a government that had economically abandoned them, a white Australian woman proudly and mediocrely moving to her own beat was destined to get cooked on the searing barbie that is Black Twitter.  

If we’re being honest, some of that smoke could be a matter of coming to terms with knowing the Americans weren’t favored to medal in a dance sport created in the U.S.A. (Team USA did eke out a bronze, thanks to b-boy Victor Montalvo.)

Among the b-girls, the gold went to Japan’s Ami Yuasa, with China’s Liu Qingyi earning the bronze.

It is also telling that many more people are talking about Gunn than 21-year-old Manizha Talash, an Afghan refugee who stepped into a battle wearing a cape that read “Free Afghan Women,” knowing that would get her disqualified. (IOC forbids athletes from making political statements during competition.)

But that may have been Talash’s biggest moment to use an international platform to send a message to the world. Before the Paris Olympics opened, it was already determined that breaking would not return in Los Angeles’ 2028 summer games. It may not come back after that one, either. That makes every Paris b-boy and b-girl battle in this Olympics historic including, for better or worse, Gunn’s overnight notoriety.

With the games headed to Hollywood, it wouldn’t be surprising to see this discourse return as a movie, a la “Cool Runnings” and “Eddie the Eagle.” Less clear is who would want to see this dark comedy repeated. But like Gunn’s moment at the heart of that Place de la Concorde arena, that might surprise us.

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Melanie McFarland is Salon's award-winning senior culture critic. Follow her on Twitter: @McTelevision

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