Trends and knowledge base in sport and exercise psychology research: a bibliometric review study

Abstract

Bibliometric methods were used to examine: (1) research themes in sport and exercise psychology articles published between 2008 and 2011; and (2) the intellectual base of the field of sport and exercise psychology, defined as influential literature being cited in these articles. The dataset consisted of 795 articles from five sport and exercise psychology journals and 345 articles obtained through citation-based extension (n = 1140 articles). A cluster analysis yielded 73 clusters showing themes in sport and exercise psychology research. Principal component analysis was used to identify and analyze relationships between 14 highly cited research areas constituting the intellectual base of sport and exercise psychology. Some main findings were: (1) the identification of many re-emerging themes, (2) research related to motivation seems to be extensive, (3) sport psychology and exercise psychology research share theoretical frameworks to some extent, however (4) differences compared to previous reviews indicate that sport psychology and exercise psychology may be regarded as two distinct research fields, rather than one united field, and (5) isolated research areas were identified indicating potential for research integration. Suggestions for future research are provided. The bibliometric approach presented a broad overview of trends and knowledge base in sport and exercise psychology research.