No emotion is an island: an overview of theoretical perspectives and narrative research on emotions in sport and physical activity

Abstract

a Faculty of Kinesiology and physical education, university of toronto, toronto, canada; b school of Kinesiology, the university of British columbia, vancouver, canada ABSTRACT Within sport and physical activity settings emotions have typically been conceived and explored from an individualistic or intrapersonal perspective, although researchers are increasingly turning their attention to the interpersonal aspects of emotions and emotion regulation. In this paper, we provide a theoretical overview of the social or interpersonal aspects of emotions from a psychological perspective, and we also consider theoretical perspectives of emotion as intersubjective, social, performative and embodied. We then provide a review of narrative research on emotion in sport and physical activity contexts and provide suggestions for future research in this area. We suggest that narrative approaches can advance research on emotions in sport and physical activity by exploring how emotions arise within the context of social relationships; by exploring how emotional stories or narratives function and are used by athletes, coaches, and others within sport and physical activity contexts; by examining how emotions are created, recreated, and sustained through the stories people tell; by examining how collective and group-based emotions are intertwined with one's identity and identity development; and by highlighting the ways in which social and cultural narratives within sport shape athletes' emotional experiences. We conclude by describing some challenges we have faced in conducting qualitative research from a narrative lens, and we describe how we have navigated these issues as a way of offering some 'lessons learned' from our own research.

Emotional Intelligence, Motivational Climate and Levels of Anxiety in Athletes from Different Categories of Sports: Analysis through Structural Equations

“…In this case, it is shown how athletes in collective sports are better at managing and using emotions than the ones who practise individual sports [ 51 ]. These results can be explained regarding higher socialisation between members of a team in collective sports, where greater interaction between them is needed, the athlete therefore acquires better abilities with regard to management and utilisation of emotions [ 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ].…”

Exercise is medicine? Most of the time for most; but not always for all

“…[Isabelle,62,OA] As Isabelle described, the positive affective experience of 'feeling good' from exercise helped sustain her continued participation and overrides any negative affective responses such as stiffness. Yet moving beyond understandings of emotions as psychological states that reside within the individual, our analysis also identified the multiple ways exercise was perceived as pleasurable through a relational understanding of affect (see Fullagar & Pavlidis, 2017;Tamminen & Bennett, 2017). Drawing upon sociocultural frameworks, affect, feelings and emotions are positioned as social, intersubjective and embodied (Tamminen & Bennett, 2017).…”

“…Yet moving beyond understandings of emotions as psychological states that reside within the individual, our analysis also identified the multiple ways exercise was perceived as pleasurable through a relational understanding of affect (see Fullagar & Pavlidis, 2017;Tamminen & Bennett, 2017). Drawing upon sociocultural frameworks, affect, feelings and emotions are positioned as social, intersubjective and embodied (Tamminen & Bennett, 2017). In other words, emotions do not emerge from the mind but are produced relationally between objects and bodies as there is always somebody or something to whom these feelings are related (Fullagar & Pavlidis, 2017).…”

Understanding Appearance-Enhancing Drug Use in Sport Using an Enactive Approach to Body Image

“…In doing so, the athlete is able to re-enact his or her body experience at the pre-reflective level and with the help of distance from the past experience, and the sports psychologist is positioned to offer new senses of the interaction they experienced between their activity and situation. This method has been used for cases of doping and alcohol abuse in elite athletes and for career development ( Hauw and Lemeur, 2013 ; Hauw, in review) and looks like narrative therapy that was also used in sport psychology (e.g., Denison and Winslade, 2006 ; Tamminen and Bennett, 2017 ). In addition to these methods, a free hotline and remote services are useful to identify those in need of help.…”