Emotions in sport: What we know and what (we feel) we think we know

Abstract

Over the last decades, emotions have assumed their rightful place in sport psychology research. Emotions are currently one of the most productive themes in the literature in this field. This paper opens by analysing some basic conceptual and methodological issues concerning the definition, classification and assessment of emotions, and it outlines the main theoretical models that link emotions with performance. The paper goes on to examine some of the main research trends in this field (e.g. dimensions of emotions, assessment times, research methodologies, and moderator and mediator variables). To conclude, some of the developments achieved so far in this field are highlighted, namely the growing attention given to different positive and negative discrete emotions, assessed at different competitive moments using a wider range of qualitative and quantitative instruments. Additionally, some fields of future research are suggested.