Sport and Exercise Science
Research
Psychology
The sport and exercise psychology research is conducted by Dr Richard Thelwell, Dr Neil Weston and Dr Jenny Page.
Recent projects
Recent projects have focused on the psychology of coaching and in particular how coaches can enhance their own performance in addition to those of athletes; the psychology of stress, coping and emotions; defining mental toughness, examining what constitutes it and how it can be developed; testing the efficacy of psychological skills training on performance; examining the psychology of sporting performance in extreme environments, in particular single handed ocean sailing; impression formation in both sporting and exercise contexts.
We have recently been involved in the development of perceptual training programmes for athlete, coach and judge performance and monitoring of visual search patterns of individuals in varying occupations.
Variety of research
The variety of projects conducted both within the Department and in collaboration with external researchers has enabled the development of three research strands in which we place our research. These include:
- Psychology of Performance: this focuses on the psychological aspects of performance within a range of sport, environmental and occupational domains.
- Surveillance and Cognitive Functioning: this focuses on surveillance strategies (eg visual search and perceptual training strategies) and cognitive functioning (eg decision making tasks) within sport, occupational and health related domains.
- Psychology of Physical Activity, Exercise, Health and Well-Being: this focuses on psychological aspects of physical activity, exercise, health and well-being across the population (including children, physically inactive, ageing).
Find out more about the Psychology Facilities at University of Portsmouth.