Sport Psychology Unit

This analysis aims to stimulate scholarly discussion and enhance understanding of the complex challenges inherent in safe sport through a critical examination of its shortcomings. [read more]

From June until August this summer, Dr. Svenja A. Wolf, Assistant Professor of Sport Psychology at Florida State University (Tallahassee, USA) and leader of the Laboratory for Emotions in Groups and Organizations (the LEGO) visited the Sport Psychology Unit, where she was a Visiting Professor in… [read more]

“The girls played a fantastic tournament and won the title – securing the double in indoor and field hockey – that’s never happened before!” [read more]

From May 26 to 31, I traveled to Cluj-Napoca (Klausenburg) in Romania for a week-long research exchange. This trip was sponsored and financed by the Bavarian Research Alliance as part of the Bavarian University Support Program for Initiating and Deepening International Research Cooperation. I had… [read more]

The Graduate School of the Department of Health and Sport Sciences organized a Winter School for doctoral students at the Darmstädter Haus in Hirschegg. From March 16 to 20, 2025, around 25 doctoral students, including Julia Schwender and Lisa Hepperle from our unit, traveled to Kleinwalstertal on… [read more]

On December 18, our working unit organized a small internal Christmas party and we went bowling instead of going to the Christmas market. In addition to the core team, all the current interns and assistants were there and our former colleague Benedikt, freshly back from Australia, also joined us. In… [read more]

From September to December 2024, I spent three months in Australia for a research stay at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. First and foremost, I would like to sincerely thank Prof. Cliff Mallet for offering me this opportunity and Dr. Vanessa Wergin for her continuous support and guidance… [read more]

In an episode of the “Bergwelten” magazine podcast, Lisa Hepperle, PhD candidate of our working unit Sport Psychology as well as Swiss mountaineer Dani Arnold and mental coach Maya Lalive talked about mental toughness in sport in general and in mountain sports and mountaineering in particular. You… [read more]

Together with the former and associated members of the working unit Sport psychology Vanessa Wergin, Cliff Mallett and Svenja Wolf, Julia Schwender published an article on experienced emotions, emotion regulation strategies, and regulation depletion in collective team collapse and performance… [read more]

From July 1st to September 30th, 2024, I had the privilege of being a guest researcher at the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, within the Sport and Performance Psychology Lab, at the University of Toronto (U of T), under the supervision of Professor Gretchen Kerr. This experience… [read more]

Dr. Ximena Tiscareño Osorno, alumna from the Sport Psychology Unit, will be presenting the talk "Why Me? Life After an Accident or a Disease" at the Women of TUM network. In this talk, she will explore the emotional challenges individuals face after sudden health crises or major life obstacles,… [read more]

The FEPSAC conference took place in Innsbruck from July 15 - 19, 2024. The biennial conference of the European Community for Sport Psychology was held this year under the motto “Performance under Pressure” and scientists and applied sport psychologists from different corners of the world came… [read more]

Lukas Moebus and Benedikt Perl presented their research findings at the European Conference on Positive Psychology (ECPP) in Innsbruck. With over 1000 participants from all continents, the conference offered an exciting program of keynotes and application-oriented workshops.  [read more]

The article investigates how elite athletes can be safeguarded from interpersonal violence in sports. An exploration of the issue and potential solutions are proposed. To the article: https://www.in-mind.org/article/in-the-shades-of-the-rings-experiences-of-interpersonal-violence-in-elite-sports  [read more]

As part of this year's summer festival at the TUM School of Medicine and Health, the sports psychology unit provided insights into the various research fields of our employees. In addition to the poster exhibition, those interested were able to experience sports psychology first hand and apply it… [read more]

Mobile health applications (mHealth) can be used to prevent cardiovascular diseases. The HerzFit app, which was developed as part of the DigiMed project with the involvement of our employee Benedikt Perl, was evaluated for user-friendliness in a publication in the journal DIGITAL HEALTH. The… [read more]

We are pleased to announce that our research assistant and doctoral candidate, Julia Schwender, completed a research exchange at the University of Queensland in Brisbane in March 2024. This significant opportunity was part of her ongoing work abroad, aimed at enhancing her research capabilities and… [read more]

In our Lab at the Sport Psychology Unit, we study the effects of breath-control practices on psychophysiological correlates of stress and relaxation. Here is an introduction to this research by Lukas Moebus [read more]

The article "Guideline-Based Cardiovascular Risk Assessment Delivered by an mHealth App: Development Study" has been accepted for publication in the journal JMIR Cardio. The HerzFit app, which was developed with the participation of our research associate Benedikt Perl, contains the first… [read more]

Popular belief has it that some of us are more “right-brained” – creative, emotional and sensual, whereas others are more “left-brained” – analytical, rational and logical as depicted in the Tel Aviv’s print ads of Mercedes Benz that feature the brain’s opposing hemispheres (see… [read more]

Elite sports pose very different challenges to athletes. Identification and development of athletic talents, therefore, requires an interdisciplinary perspective. From a sports psychology perspective, the so-called "executive functions" have come into focus in recent years. Skills such as fast… [read more]

This year's Young Scientists' Conference of the Association for Sport Psychology (asp) took place at the Institute for Sport and Movement Science at the University of Stuttgart and offered an inspiring platform for more than 30 young scientists from German-speaking countries to exchange ideas and… [read more]

Julia Schwender and Benedikt Perl, together with the team of the Chair of Preventive Paediatrics led by Barbara Reiner and Nils Olson, have successfully completed another run of the Mind Body Boost programme. The intervention programme was jointly developed from a research consortium of eight… [read more]

On May 18, 2023, Xin Chen presented the research questions of his doctorate at "55. Jahrestagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Sportpsychologie (asp 2023 Stuttgart)" in the form of posters (The Psychological Collectivism Questionnaire (PCQ): Factorial and construct validity across Chinese samples).… [read more]

For 30 years now, the "Zeitschrift für Sportpsychologie" has enriched sports science in Germany and is certainly one of its most renowned journals. It is the organ of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Sportpsychologie (asp) and the organ of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie (DGPs). Recently, issue… [read more]

Dr. Svenja A. Wolf (Florida State University), Dr. Vanessa Wergin (University of Queensland, TU Munich), M.Sc. Andrea Schittenhelm (Universität der Bundeswehr München) and M.Sc. Benedikt Perl (TU Munich) have received funding from the Albrecht von Dewitz Foundation for the next two years to study… [read more]

Julia Schwender has been the deputy women's representative of the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences since November 2022. Together with Dr Barbara Reiner and Dr Carolina Olufemi, she is the contact person for questions, incidents, ambiguities and much more on the topics of diversity, equal rights,… [read more]

Julia Schwender and Benedikt Perl, together with the team of the Chair of Preventive Paediatrics led by Barbara Reiner and Nils Olson, have successfully completed another run of the Mind Body Boost programme. The intervention programme was jointly developed from a research consortium of eight… [read more]

During the academic year celebration 2022 of the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, the teaching award was presented in the categories "Best Lecturer Lectures" and "Best Lecturer Seminars/Exercises", based on the results of the course evaluation of an academic year (WiSe and SoSe). Our colleague… [read more]

The Bavarian-Czech Higher Academic Agency, based at the University of Regensburg, supports the development of academic networks in research and teaching between Bavarian and Czech universities. In order to re-intensify a contact that had been reduced due to corona-related travel restrictions, Dr.… [read more]

In October 2022, the staff of the AG Sportpsychologie spent three days at the TUM research station Friedrich N. Schwarz in the Berchtesgaden mountains. [read more]

On 07.07.22 Benedikt Perl presented the research questions of his doctorate at the congress "Health Meets Technology" in the form of two posters, as well as a plenary lecture (Changing health habits with digital Apps). [read more]

As part of the DigiMed Bayern project, Benedikt Perl and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Beckmann, in collaboration with the German Heart Foundation, Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), Deutsche Hochdruckliga (DHL) as well as the German Heart Center Munich (DHM) and DigiMed Bayern, have successfully published the HerzFit… [read more]

Article by Mirifar, Keil, and Ehrlenspiel entitled “Neurofeedback and Neural Self-regulation: A new perspective based on Allostasis” has been accepted for publication in the journal Reviews in the Neurosciences. In this study, Mirifar et al. investigated the mechanisms underlying neurofeedback… [read more]

Article by Mirifar, Luan, and Ehrlenspiel entitled “Effects of Unilateral Dynamic Handgrip on Reaction Time and Error Rate” has been accepted for publication in the journal Cognitive Processing. As a follow up to our previous experiments on effects of unilateral dynamic handgrip on performance, our… [read more]

Two new research projects have been granted to the Sports Psychology Working Group. From 2021 to 2023, the German Heart Foundation has approved the project "Analysis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Adults with Congenital Heart Defects (ABS-AHF): Preparing for a Holistic Care Concept" with… [read more]

On Friday, 11.06.21 Mengkai Luan successfully defended his dissertation - congratulations!  Professor Joachim Hermsdörfer, as chairman of the examination board, as well as the first examiner were on site for examination, while the second examiner, Prof. Rouwen Canal Bruland from the Friedrich… [read more]

Vanessa Wergin as speaker at the Women of TUM Talks 2020 [read more]

The article 'The Testing of a Four-Dimensional Model of Athlete Leadership and its Relation to Leadership Effectiveness' was published in the Journal Frontiers in Psychology. [read more]

The article "The Testing of a Four-Dimensional Model of Athlete Leadership and its Relation to Leadership Effectiveness" by Maechel, C., Loughead, T. M., & Beckmann, J. was accepted for publication by the journal Frontiers in Psychology and will be published shortly. The study developed and tested… [read more]

Jürgen Beckmann, Vanessa Wergin and Wiebke Hähl have successfully submitted a service research project on "Coping with set losses and defeats in beach volleyball" to the Federal Institute for Sports Science (BISp). The aim of the project is to develop and test concrete possibilities for high… [read more]