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Research
Sport Psychology faculty and students are very active in a wide range of applied research projects. All students are strongly encouraged to participate in at least one applied research project while enrolled in the program. Funding support is typically available as many of these research projects are supported by grants and awards. Faculty and students have conducted research with a diverse array of participants including high school and college student-athletes, youth sport and college coaches, university athletic directors, physical education teachers, and public school students.
Current Research Studies and Projects
UNIFORM - Psychological skills training program that has been tested with high school athletes. Two articles have been published on the UNIFORM. (Lead investigator: Dr. Jenelle N. Gilbert)
Coach Development - An international collaborative to quantitatively map the developmental activities and learning experiences of sport coaches. Three studies (Australia, Canada, US) have been published and a fourth study has been submitted for publication. Article 1, Article 2, Article 3 (Lead investigator: Dr. Wade Gilbert)
United Nations Millennium Development Goals Implementation into Sport and Physical Education - An international collaborative sponsored by the World Sports Alliance and the United Nations to prepare training guidelines for sport and physical education instructors for integration of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals into sport and physical activity settings. More information about this project is available at the website for the World Sports Alliance. (Lead investigator: Dr. Wade Gilbert)
Physical Education Teacher Development - A collaborative among local schools, a school district, and a health management organization to create professional development opportunities for physical education teachers in the region. This project is an evolution of the SHAPE project (Article). A multi-year funding proposal has been submitted and is under review. (Lead investigator: Dr. Wade Gilbert)
Validation of Three Quantitative Measures of the Sport Injury Domain: The Coaches' Perspective - The purposes of this study are to (1) modify the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI; Davis, 1980) to include a sport injury-specific subscale and determine its validity, (2) modify the Causal Dimension Scale II (CDSII; McAuley, Duncan, & Russell, 1992) to reflect the suggestions of Biddle & Hanrahan (1998) and Lewis (2004) and determine its concurrent validity, and (3) evaluate the factorial validity of the Coaches' Perception of Sport Injury Questionnaire (CPSIQ; Lewis & Ewing, no date). The addition of valid psychometric tools specific to the study of sport injury can increase researchers' ability to examine the coach-injured athlete dyad with greater accuracy and robust interpretation of research findings. Also, because previous research in this area typically employed qualitative methods where researchers' asked similar, but different, questions in interviews, the continued and growing availability of quantitative inventories such as these can allow a variety of researchers to build on our professional and theoretical knowledge in this line of research. Intercollegiate head and assistant coaches from a variety of colleges and universities, sports, program levels (Division I to III), conferences (NCAA, NAIA, etc.), and personal demographics (e.g., age, sex, etc.) will complete the modified IRI and CDSII and the CPSIQ. Participation in the study will be solicited through mail, attendance at coaches' conferences and workshops, and other appropriate methods. The inventories will be evaluated separately using confirmatory factor analysis and the Cronbach alpha coefficient to determine subscale factorial validity and internal consistency respectively. (Lead investigator: Dr. Dawn Lewis).
Theses and Projects
37 theses and projects have been completed as culminating experiences by sport psychology graduate students. Graduate students typically present the results of this work at regional and national conferences, and often this work is also submitted for publication to scholarly journals. Download a listing of all sport psychology theses and projects here.