The Display of Emotions in Elite Athletes

During the 1960s, psychologists were predominantly interested in studying the unconscious state and in clarifying types of stimuli and their resulting reactions. This was followed by a shift in the paradigm and a focus on cognitive processes. In the 1980s, there seemed to be a neglect of emotions in psychological research and theory, which a few psychologists deplored. However, at the First IOC World Congress on Sport Sciences in Colorado Springs in 1989, two of five keynote speakers in the psychological section presented papers related to emotions. This fact seems to indicate either that sport psychologists are now up to date or that emotions are of special importance in sports settings; perhaps both of these statements are true. In that 1989 meeting, the premise of my talk was that "positive" as well as "negative" emotions can have both benefits and drawbacks with respect to controlling action and, consequently, performance. I would now like to advance these ideas and to provide 1) a brief discussion of what is meant when talking about positive and negative emotions from an action theory perspective, 2) findings from our research group on the experience and display of emotions, and 3) a strategy for influencing the emotional state-what we call emotion modulation-and the effects on motivation and performance.