ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview general measurement considerations in sport psychology, and summarized dispositional measures of motivation, personality, mood, anxiety, and attentional style that contribute to elite sport performance. Athletes’ ability to navigate the myriad stressors encountered throughout their career is critical in determining the capacity to achieve at the highest levels of competition. Elite athletes have been shown to experience substantial stress in pre-competition, competition, and post-competition phases, with the majority of stress experienced in the days leading up to important competition. In combination with self-report measures, physiological and motoric measurement tools allow researchers to triangulate predictive indices of discrete emotional states to gain a more comprehensive understanding of affective influences on sport performance and expertise. Emotions are considered dynamic psychophysiological states elicited by specific stimuli, and give rise to behavioral responses. Measurement strategies employed to evaluate psychological skills include qualitative interviews, quantitative questionnaires, and performance profiling.
