AATP Journals

Methodological advances in sport, exercise, and performance psychology. Methodological advancements have immense promise to transform how we approach and study psychological processes in sport, exercise, and performance settings. Despite the availability of new and appealing methods, the adoption of increasingly sophisticated study designs, approaches, and analyses is not without challenges. This special issue is devoted to providing scholars with resources on the uses, misuses, and opportunities afforded by advances in psychological research methods, with particular application to sport, exercise, and performance psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Establishing causal inferences from experimental and observational data: A critical review and primer for sport and exercise psychology. Causal inference is a central goal of research in sport and exercise psychology. However, current norms in sport and exercise psychology privilege experimental designs over observational designs for deriving causal inferences. Causal inferences can be derived from either observational or experimental designs, given that the causal effect of interest is clearly specified, and particular assumptions are met. Drawing from contemporary theory and evidence in the causal inference domain, the purpose of this review is to promote broader thinking around causal inference in sport and exercise psychology. In addition to providing an overview of the systematic process of causal inference, guidance will be provided on the assumptions that underpin principled causal inference of mechanisms (i.e., mediation) from both experimental and observational designs, using examples tailored to the interests of sport and exercise psychology researchers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Working with time: Navigating the temporal jungle to capture change processes. Recent developments in psychological research (e.g., creation of more sophisticated statistical modeling approaches and computer software and hardware) have expanded the opportunities available to researchers to test their hypothesized relations between constructs and complex theoretical models. Yet, rather than serving as a source of inspiration and innovative thinking, for some, these opportunities may appear as an endless, confusing, and overwhelming jungle and result in muddled or incomplete decision making. In an attempt to provide scholars with a map to guide them as they navigate the new possibilities to capture change processes in their theoretical and empirical work, we provide a comprehensive, nontechnical, single source that discusses time and temporality. We will do this through two steps: First, we discuss key conceptual, theoretical, and methodological considerations related to temporality in constructs, relations, and longitudinal study designs. Second, we illustrate how these considerations inform approaches to data analysis with developmental and stable longitudinal processes. Ultimately, we hope that the article provides researchers with a springboard for their future longitudinal research studies as we all seek to further understand psychological processes in sport, performance, and exercise settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

A critical review and user’s guide for conducting feasibility and pilot studies in the physical activity domain. Feasibility/pilot studies should be conducted prior to larger scale randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in physical activity (PA) intervention research. There have been changes in recommendations for feasibility/pilot studies over the years, leading to a crowded and inconsistent landscape of methodologies. The purpose of this article is to critically review up-to-date feasibility/pilot study methodological recommendations and provide a user’s guide for PA researchers. We searched five databases for articles that described feasibility/pilot study methodological recommendations and identified 54 articles. We critically analyzed five areas with notable controversy and advancements. First, terminology has been inconsistent; however, the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials extension places pilot studies as a subset of feasibility studies. Second, there has been an evolving development of methodological recommendations. Third, sample sizes often are not justified, limiting their capacity to inform valid predictions. Fourth, preliminary results of clinical or behavioral outcomes can substantially over- or underestimate effect sizes in larger RCTs. Finally, decision processes for scaling up, although fundamental, often are not described. We recommend the following step-by-step guide to plan, conduct, and report randomized feasibility/pilot trials: (a) design a study protocol that follows Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials guidelines and have an evidence-based theoretically informed intervention, (b) choose process criteria and indicators of success, (c) justify the sample size, (d) thoroughly document process outcomes, (e) analyze with descriptive statistics, and (f) review all process criteria outcomes to determine next steps. This guide should help to minimize misconceptions in the PA literature and optimize future RCTs that have the greatest potential for demonstrating treatment effects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Thu, 25 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

The Delphi technique in sport, exercise, and performance psychology: Extensive scoping review, insights, and recommendations for scholars. The Delphi technique is a systematic research method generally used to identify priorities, reach consensus, and establish guidelines about a particular research question or topic using the collective opinion of a panel of experts. This technique has recently been used with more frequency by sport, exercise, and performance psychology (SEPP) researchers. Despite this growth, there are no clear recommendations for conducting a Delphi study within the SEPP-specific literature, potentially resulting in methodological confusion. The two aims of this article were to (a) offer a timely overview of the use of the Delphi technique in the existing SEPP literature and (b) offer a series of considerations and recommendations for researchers to consider when planning, conducting, and reporting on the finding of a study using a Delphi technique, based on existing methodological literature. Using a scoping review method, from an initial pool of 5,036 articles published between 2000 and 2024, I identified a total of 54 peer-reviewed articles that met the inclusion criteria of: (a) language—published in English, Spanish, Italian, French, or Portuguese; (b) domain—focused on SEPP research domains; (c) publication type—peer-reviewed articles; and (d) design—Delphi techniques were used. The analysis of these articles showed minor inconsistencies in reporting essential elements of Delphi methods. Based on the results of the scoping review and grounded in the Delphi methodological literature, with this article, I offer a roadmap for scholars interested in utilizing the Delphi technique and for reviewers and editors to assess the quality and rigor of these studies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Missing data? Fear not! Best practices for handling, reporting, and embracing missing data. This article is an accessible resource about missing data, handling and reporting missing data, plus introduces planned missing data designs. The first section provides a straightforward introduction to missing data mechanisms: missing completely at random, missing at random, and missing not at random. By understanding the different characteristics behind these three mechanisms, researchers can plan how to turn missing not at random data into missing at random data by the inclusion of items related to potential reasons for missingness or nonresponse. The second section reviews how handling missingness has evolved with an emphasis on the different modern options for handling missing data—multiple imputation and full-information maximum likelihood (FIML)—and how the approach used to handle missingness influences parameter bias, power, and generalizability of the results. Software programs have started to use FIML estimation by default. How this default may unintentionally reduce consideration of what could affect the handling of the missing data with FIML is reviewed. The second section also describes how to go beyond reporting percent missing; specific statistics are discussed that can be reported after multiple imputation or FIML regarding how the handling of the missingness influenced the results. The third section presents different planned missing data designs: multiform surveys, two-method design, and wave-missingness. Each capitalizes on missing completely at random data by randomly assigning participants to their data collection experience and reduces participant burden by reducing the total data collected. The final section illustrates how handling missing data impacts results with an empirical data example including Supplemental Syntax Files. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Mon, 30 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Testing theory predictions and intervention mechanisms of action in sport and exercise psychology using meta-analysis. Testing theoretical predictions in sport and exercise psychology typically involves simultaneous tests of networks of proposed effects among psychological constructs and outcomes. One approach that holds considerable promise in advancing theory in this and other fields is the application of analytic techniques combining meta-analysis and multivariate analyses such as structural equation modeling to test theoretical predictions in synthesized data from multiple studies. In this review, we provide an overview of this approach to theory testing in research in sport and exercise psychology. We provide a nontechnical overview of its basic principles and outline the advantages it affords, including: leveraging of the large sample size from multiple data sources to provide robust averaged point and variability estimates of theory effects with high statistical power; capacity to provide overall evaluations of theoretical models across available research and guideline ranges for the expected size of theory effects in subsequent tests in primary studies; ability to test mechanistic effects, namely, mediation effects and effects of study-level and, in some cases, sample-level moderator variables on theory effects; and capacity to test predictions of both current and novel theories. We outline forms of meta-analytic structural equation modeling procedures and methods available to test theory predictions and provide a series of examples that illustrate their application to test theories in sport and exercise psychology. We conclude by summarizing some of the limitations of this approach and recommend some future innovations to, and applications of, the approach that are expected advance cumulative knowledge of theory in the field. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Thu, 18 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Network approaches for physical activity and mental health research. Physical activity has shown positive effects for depressive and anxiety disorders and is considered as potentially remediating for other mental health problems. Nevertheless, the exact mechanisms of action, symptom-specific effects, and individual differences in treatment response to physical activity are not fully understood. The network approach to psychopathology facilitates studying how the symptoms of mental disorders are interconnected in a complex system, rather than arising from a single (latent) underlying cause as implied in conventional analytic methods. Including physical activity in these symptoms networks can advance understanding of the role physical activity plays across various mental health problems, such as symptom-specific effects and influences on symptom–symptom connections (i.e., network structure). We discuss actual and potential applications of adopting network approaches in research seeking to understand the relationships between physical activity and mental health problems using cross-sectional and (intensive) longitudinal data structures, as well as their limitations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Mon, 16 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Leveraging social relations modeling and social network analysis to understand the structure and nature of interpersonal dynamics in groups. Social relations and social network approaches can address the distinct challenges of studying interpersonal phenomena and the patterns of relationships within groups, yet they continue to be underutilized in sport and exercise domains. In the current article, we encourage the use of advanced quantitative tools from social relations and social network approaches to use group members’ perceptions of one another or their interpersonal ties to study interpersonal dynamics. We articulate the need for these tools within a domain of research that we term small group interpersonal dynamics. Such research acknowledges the dyadic components of groups by collecting data about team member interactions or perceptions to study the emergence and maintenance of relationships or how relationships influence group members. We describe why sport and exercise scholars should care about social relations and network approaches by emphasizing empirical examples and potential uses. For instance, these analyses can offer precise estimates of how individuals are perceived (e.g., extracting how cooperatively a member is perceived in a group, removing sources of error using social relations modeling) and how members influence one another (e.g., how people who must cooperate influence one another’s goal pursuit, using network analyses). We discuss how scholars can design studies and articulate research questions that align with these approaches and highlight methodological considerations for each approach. Because the optimal analysis tool for one’s approach to study relationships in groups depends on several factors, we emphasize the need to seek congruence between theory, strategies to gather and manage data, and analyses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Thu, 03 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Telling tales in sport, exercise, and performance psychology: The how, what, and why of creative analytical practices. There has been a significant increase in interest in qualitative methodologies since the turn of the century. One reason for this increased interest is a desire to understand the different ways which can inform how we understand social reality and, as researchers, describe and represent the social reality of those we work with. Creative analytical practices (CAPs) are one novel way in which researchers have worked to analyze and (re-)present knowledge developed through stories shared by those they have engaged in the research process. This scoping review provides a descriptive overview of the extent, range, and nature of the use of CAPs in sport, exercise, and performance psychology by reviewing research using a form of CAP to represent research findings published over the past 20 years in six high-profile sport, exercise, and performance psychology journals. Based on the analysis of 43 published articles, four descriptive themes are presented: “the ascent of creative nonfiction and composite stories,” “centralizing marginalized voices,” “researchers as storytellers,” and “judging the quality of CAPs.” Critical thoughts, developed from a connoisseurship position, are then shared in the form of three questions posed to current and potential authors of CAPs: “Is there a hesitancy to push the boundaries?” “Why choose to engage with CAPs as a form of representation?” and “Who are we writing our stories with?” The review ends with the authors’ thoughts on how sport, exercise, and performance psychology researchers can begin to use CAPs to move from describing “what is” to imagining “what could be.” (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Take your pick! Examining decision-making behavior in athlete selection: A methodological description and pilot study. Traditional perspectives of human decision-making have illuminated the many “quirks” of the mind. While information regarding the number and scale of these phenomena is growing rapidly, there has been less discussion of why they may be there in the first place. A driving factor for this imbalance may be related to the methodological challenges that exist for rigorously and validly exploring these quirks in appropriate contexts. As such, the aims of this article were to (a) explore these methodological challenges, (b) develop an approach to evaluate athlete selectors’ (coaches, scouts, administrators) decision-making behavior when assessing and selecting athletes, (c) pilot the approach to test selectors’ decision-making in a mock selection environment, and (d) share the lessons learned from the pilot regarding the misuses, potential value, and opportunities for growth in this area. Our findings have implications theoretically and practically, as we illuminate the methodological concerns and challenges facing researchers in this area while presenting possible avenues forward. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Thu, 06 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Accounting for dynamic cognition–action interaction in decision-making tasks in sports: A scoping review. Athletes, sports officials, and coaches make decisions while facing varying levels of cognitive and motor demands. While classic judgment and decision-making (JDM) theories have focused on the cognitive demands, emerging approaches emphasize the interaction of cognitive and motor processes. As the theoretical understanding of JDM is not independent of the experimental tasks used to assess them, the present scoping review aimed to determine to what extent existing decision-making tasks in sports account for dynamic cognition–action interaction. Three databases were systematically searched. Studies were included if they comprised healthy participants, who completed a decision-making task with sport-specific stimuli, and decision-making parameters were assessed as main dependent variables. Upon screening, 430 studies were included, comprising 371 distinct decision-making tasks. The majority of the included studies examined decision-making processes in athletes (70.3%), followed by officials (26.7%) and coaches (3.0%). Despite the frequent use of video stimuli, the presentation of options was deemed rather static in the majority of the laboratory tasks (83.0%). The requisite responses in studies on sports officials and coaches were rather discrete (88.7%), largely constituting micromovements, while 66.4% of athletes’ responses were categorized as continuous, predominantly featuring whole-body movements. Understanding of the cognition–action interaction in JDM is currently undermined by relying on static rather than dynamic options, a focus on simulated rather than executed movements, and dependent variables that are not sufficiently sensitive to capture the cognition–action interaction. We encourage future research to tackle the identified limitations by making use of emerging theoretical approaches and technological developments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Theory-driven development of an embodied-planning paradigm: Integrating methods for advancing theory. In this article, we argue for the theory-driven integration of methods from different research fields to inform theory development in sport and performance psychology. We demonstrate our theoretical and methodological approach by focusing on the integration of cognition and action research in sports, specifically through embodied-cognition approaches, using embodied planning as a showcase. First, we outline general methodological principles, emphasizing rigorous research standards to facilitate both methodological and theoretical advancement. Second, we illustrate these principles by tracing the theory-driven development of the embodied-planning paradigm to assess embodied planning in climbing. The paradigm is designed to elicit embodied-planning processes along the motor–cognitive continuum. This is achieved through the specific manipulation of task characteristics and the comprehensive assessment of dependent variables from movement science and cognitive psychology. Third, we present exemplary data from a lab experiment (N = 212) to conduct a reliability and validity analysis of the paradigm. In conclusion, we discuss how methodological approaches and paradigms like the embodied-planning paradigm can serve as a foundation for systematic research programs and theory development in sport psychology in the near future. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Mon, 09 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Probing brain dynamics correlates of motor expertise with mobile recordings. Mobile electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography technology have the potential to revolutionize the study of motor expertise by providing real-time brain activity data in a noninvasive and portable manner. In the context of sports, these recording techniques have already been used in various applications such as mental fatigue monitoring, concussion assessment, and even talent identification. Here, we discuss the potential for mobile technology to facilitate precise characterization of brain dynamics and outline a number of challenges for the use of portable technology in this context. Specifically, we argue that mobile brain recordings cannot only improve our understanding of motor activities, athletic performance, and athletes’ individual differences but also provide an opportunity for researchers to exploit the richness and uniqueness of sports environments as a tool to better understand the brain. We close with a discussion of the promise of this body of work for future research in sports and exercise neuroscience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Thu, 07 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Advancing physical activity research methods using real-time and adaptive technology: A scoping review of “no-code” mobile health app research tools. Mobile health applications (mHealth apps) and wearable devices have transformed physical activity research through the introduction of advanced research methods. These methods enable more accurate, context-sensitive and real-time evaluations, such as ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) and experience sampling methods. Further, these technological advancements facilitate the delivery of personalized physical activity interventions, employing techniques such as microrandomization trials and just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs). However, developing these apps often requires extensive programming skills and resources. To address these challenges, “no-code” mHealth app design tools have recently been developed. This study aims to (a) identify and review current evidence of “no-code” mHealth physical activity research tools and (b) compare the features of these tools that can be utilized to implement innovative methodological approaches (i.e., EMA, JITAI, microrandomization trials). We conducted a scoping review and an internet search to identify current “no-code” mHealth app development tools, followed by a systematic comparison of their features. We found that current “no-code” mHealth app design tools that can be used for conducting EMA, JITAI, and microrandomization methods include Avicenna, Expiwell, LifeData, mEMA, Metricwire, movisensXS, mPath, MyCap, Pathverse, PiLR Health, and Teamscope. While these 11 tools offer diverse features, no single tool encompasses them all, necessitating selection based on study needs. Additional considerations include data privacy and security when selecting no-code app building tools. Overall, this study aims to inform researchers of the commercially available “no-code” mHealth research app development tools and their features. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Mon, 23 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Immersive virtual reality and augmented virtuality in sport and performance psychology: Opportunities, current limitations, and practical recommendations. In research on sport and performance psychology, it is essential to capture general behaviors and specific movements as they occur in their natural settings. However, in the past, psychological research has predominantly focused on self-report data during controlled laboratory experiments. By immersing users in a virtual world through a head-mounted display (immersive virtual reality [iVR]) and by incorporating real-world elements into the simulation (augmented virtuality [AV]), researchers have the potential to reintroduce actual behavior to our research. To enhance the current marginal use of these technologies, we highlight their potential and limitations for examining authentic behavior under laboratory conditions. We exemplify these issues with specific examples from research in both sport and performance psychology. Furthermore, practical recommendations are offered to facilitate the integration of iVR and AV, including considerations like covering distance within the virtual environment or augmenting the virtual experience with sport-specific haptic feedback. Finally, we provide specific recommendations for hardware, software, and desirable scientific practices to facilitate the integration of iVR and AV into research projects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
View Thu, 10 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT