Announcement of a Master or Bachelor thesis

Initial situation

Emotions play a major role in sport. It is believed that emotions play a role in the development of the hot hand phenomenon (the fact that we gain or lose points in a row). In rebound sports such as tennis, badminton or table tennis, very different emotional reactions can be seen between points. On the one hand, players show their fist or cheer themselves on loudly after winning points. On the other hand the head goes down or in extreme cases even the racket is thrown after a loss of points. Interestingly enough, there are also situations where the visible reaction does not really allow you to conclude whether a point has been won or lost.

Objective

Within the framework of a project module or a bachelor or master thesis, a student should gain insights into which emotional reactions occur in a setback sport of his or her choice (e.g. tennis) and how these affect sporting performance.

Methodology and procedure

The plan is to first record several matches in the relevant sport and then use video analysis to analyse the emotional reactions. In collaboration with the Department of Health Education and Sport Psychology, descriptive and inferential statistical methods will then be used to examine the relationship between emotional reactions to sporting performance. The students are welcome to contribute their own ideas when carrying out the work.

Requirements

• Knowledge in the empirical-scientific field and interest in further developing this knowledge

• Interest in sport psychological questions and especially the familiarisation with the topic "emotions in sport"

• High sense of responsibility with the handling of external data

• Reliability and a high degree of personal initiative

If this description applies to you, please contact the Department of Sports Psychology informally, ideally by e-mail to Prof. Darko Jekauc (darko.jekauc∂kit.edu). If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us by e-mail.