Sport And Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction

New directions for research on “mental side” of injuries

At least five new directions can be identified for research on psychological aspects of
injuries in sport.
To begin with, given the dearth of prospective studies in this field, Kirkby (1995) and
J.M.Williams (2001) suggested that future researchers should use longitudinal designs in
order to explore the physical and psychological consequences of rehabilitation
programmes for athletes over the course of a competitive season. Of course, these studies
would have to ensure that the athletes involved had been matched for age and type of
injury beforehand. Unfortunately, most research on the psychological consequences of
injury has been hampered by a significant methodological problem—namely, the failure
to specify the pre-injuiy psychological characteristics of the athletes concerned (Quinn
and Fallon, 1999). Second, little is known at present about either the nature or efficacy of
the coping strategies used by athletes during the course of injury rehabilitation.
Therefore, future studies should attempt to establish which strategies are most useful at
which stages of physical rehabilitation regimes. Third, in an effort to counteract naïve
expectations about the relationship between stress and injury, J.M. Williams (2001) urged
future researchers to take into account such potentially important variables as type of
sport, competitive level and gender. Fourth, research is required to explore expert-novice
differences in injured athletes’ “mental models” (i.e., their cognitive representation or
understanding) of their problems. This type of research could address several important
questions. For example, do elite athletes have a richer or more accurate understanding of
their injuries than do less successful counterparts? Also, is there any relationship between
the accuracy of athletes’ understanding of their injuries and the success of their physical
rehabilitation? Qualitative methods (such as “indepth” interviews and “focus groups”)
could help researchers to address these questions. Finally, research is needed to establish
the degree to which injured athletes can derive any significant benefits from their period
of enforced absence from their chosen sports.

Ideas for research projects on injuries in sport

Here are three ideas for possible research projects on the psychology of injury in athletes.

1 Based on a suggestion by Granito (2002), it would be interesting to explore the
relationship between gender and the cognitive and emotional reactions of athletes to
different types (e.g., acute and chronic) of injuries.
2 Based on the research of Hemmings and Povey (2002), it would be interesting to find
out if experienced chartered physiotherapists differ from relatively inexperienced
colleagues in their views about the psychological content of their work.
3 Can you think of a way of establishing whether or not there is a relationship between
the accuracy of athletes’ understanding of their injury and their subsequent compliance
with prescribed rehabilitation exercises?

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