The state of the art of research into sport psychology in Brazil

Abstract

This study investigates the state of the art of articles on sport psychology published in Brazil in the Scopus and Scielo databases between the years 2002 and 2012. Our analysis took into account this professional field in Brazil, postgraduate courses, and conferences and national journals in the field of psychology and physical education. As parameters, factors related to higher education institutions, methods and content matter were used. Our research confirmed the existence of 377 articles produced by teaching staff and students from postgraduate programmes in physical education and psychology. A significant increase in publications between the years 2009 and 2012 was noted, although this knowledge output was still concentrated in the south and southeast of Brazil. Moreover, it was found that 86.97% of the studies are from journals associated with public university-level depart- ments of physical education. As for topics, there was a prevalence of the following: “motivation”, “emotional aspects involved in sports and in professional practice”, “body image” and “sport leadership”, with a predominant quantitative approach to data analysis. When the purpose of this research study was addressed, an increase in intellectual output in recent years was confirmed, although it should be said that as a science and profession, sport psychology is still in the emerging stage and this field must be explored in greater depth. Thus, it is understood that professionals should be encouraged to develop partnerships for the production of articles, taking into account vocational training needs in this area.