ABSTRACT
The Theory of Critical Moments (TCM) proposes that psychological factors are most crucial to performance during specifically delineated periods of competition and explains how select personality, behavioral, and psychophysiological measures influence sport performance when it counts the most. The theory maintains that performance must be studied at the microlevel to empirically assess and understand the effect of an athlete’s psyche on competition and to explain more of the statistical variance in the performance equation that can be attributed to psychological factors. This means that performance must be viewed in the context of interactions between meaningful personality, behavioral, and psychophysiological variables and longitudinal microperformance outcome measures derived from analyses of critical moments of competition.
