Sport Psychology

Abstract

In 1898, Norman Triplett conducted a study on bicycle racing and observed that cyclists tend to have better performance times when riding in the presence of another cyclist as opposed to riding alone. Triplett’s study, considered the first in the sport psychology domain, has since expanded into various subdomains. Over the past century, the sport psychology domain has attracted an impressive quantity and quality of work from psychologists and kinesiologists alike. Today, there is a general agreement that sport psychology is a scientific and applied domain, particularly centered on advancing knowledge about (a) expertise acquisition in sports, (b) perceptual-cognitive mechanisms of skilled performance, (c) group dynamics, (d) socio-cognitive issues in sports, and (e) applied sport psychology (Eklund and Tenenbaum 2014, cited under General Textbooks). The aim herein is to present these five important subdomains by highlighting key publications that have shaped the sport psychology domain over the past several decades. We begin by introducing the General Textbooks, Journals, and Position Stands from Professional Organizations, which together cover the broad structure of sport psychology. The five subsequent sections are devoted to the subdomains in which most of the research efforts in the sport psychology domain have been concentrated. We conclude by forecasting new trends in the field.