Thesis topics
It is possible to write your bachelor's or master's dissertation at the chair of sport psychology. Below you can find a list of the available thesis topics and research areas.
Identifying Research Trends in Anxiety in Sport
“Anxiety” is a core topic in sport psychology. It has been mainly investigated with respect to competition, but there are also other facets to anxiety in sport – for example fear of injury when you are skiing or self-presentation concerns when you are in the gym. The aim of this project is to examine research trends in the past 50 years and identify under-investigated areas. We will use classic literature reviews but also machine learning approaches like automatic text mining.
Maltreatment in (elite) sports: communication
We all communicate on a daily basis and with everyone we meet. The way we communicate has a major influence on the way we interact with each other. This plays a particularly important role in close relationships. If these are also asymmetrical and/or hierarchical, the way we communicate can influence the entire climate of the relationship. One context to which this applies is competitive sport. I am therefore particularly interested in communication within sport systems, with a special focus on communication in the context of interpersonal violence.
Building Habits and Coping with Stress
Coping with stress requires effective strategies that we can integrate into our daily lives (e.g., with digital apps) and become habitual over time. The following research projects center on coping with stress and building habits. Because effective coping that becomes more habitual over time has lasting effects on well-being and stress-related disease risk.
Collectivism/Individualism and Self-Control
A well know dimension of cultural diversity is the etent to which a culture emphasizes the group over the individual (“collectivism”/”individualism”). We want to investigate, to what extend intraindividual differences on this cultural dimension is related to self-control and self-regulation. Could such a cultural dimension also explain differences between types of sport (e.g. team vs. individual sports)?
Motivation and Emotion in High-Risk-Sport
Why do some people engage in high risk sports like climbing, parachuting or surfing? Beyond the well-known construct of sensation-seeking, this project wants to investigate further motives and motivations such as experiencing flow or action control.