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Positive emotion in sport

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ARTICLE in INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF SPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY MARCH
2011
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Positive emotion in sport performance:

current status and future directions
Paul J. McCarthy

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Sciences, Glasgow

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International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology

Vol. 4, No. 1, March 2011, 50!69

Positive emotion in sport performance: current status and future

directions
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Paul J. McCarthy*
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK
(Received 24 January 2011; final version received 2 February 2011)
Emotions have firmly established their place in sport psychology research over the
past 40 years. For many decades following World War II, mainstream psychology
researchers placed negative emotions (e.g., anxiety) ahead of positive emotions
(e.g., happiness) but positive emotions are now a genuine, promising field of
research because of their influence on specific components of performance (e.g.,
attention) and psychological well-being. The benefits of these emotions have
hitherto not been wholly realized in a sport context, especially in their capacity to
generate greater self-efficacy, motivation, attention, problem-solving, and coping
with adversity. Although the sport emotion literature is sprinkled with studies that
specifically examined positive emotion in sport settings, the breadth and depth of
this research is too thin to make bold claims about the value of positive emotions in
the emotion-performance relation. There are, however, at least three theoretical
models available to sport psychologists to better understand the influence of
positive emotions on sport performance and two of these models are specifically
designed for sport contexts. Not only can these models deepen and widen this
knowledge base, but they can also support interventions in applied settings to
improve performance and psychological well-being.
Keywords: positive emotion; sport performance; well-being

The crucible of competitive sport raises the tide of emotion for sport performers and
forces them to regulate those emotions that aid sport performance rather than
disrupt it. Because so many sport performers appeared servile to the whims of
vacillating emotions, especially competitive anxiety, researchers sought to explain
their influence on competitive sport performance (Hanin, 2000; Parfitt & Hardy,
1993; Vallerand, 1983). The ensuing research inquiry raised many controversial
issues for researchers because they discovered that the frequency, intensity and
direction of emotions were ephemeral and, rather than acting alone, they acted in
concert with other transitory subcomponents of performance such as motivation,
self-efficacy and perceived control (Jones, Meijen, McCarthy, & Sheffield, 2009).
This tangled knot of research lines could not be unravelled using sport literature
alone, especially because the existing knowledge base could not offer an adequate
solution to understand emotion in performance. Researchers, therefore, borrowed
and tested theoretical models from other fields of psychology (Jones, 1995; Uphill &

*Email: paul.mccarthy@gcu.ac.uk
ISSN 1750-984X print/ISSN 1750-9858 online
# 2011 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/1750984X.2011.560955
http://www.informaworld.com

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International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 51

Jones, 2004), developed and examined models exclusively for sport (Hanin, 1997;
Jones et al., 2009) and cultivated the abundant field of sport emotion literature we
read today.
Although abundant, this literature indicates that negatively-valenced (i.e.,
intrinsic aversiveness of events, objects or situations) emotions such as anxiety,
stress and anger, rather than positively-valenced (i.e., intrinsic attractiveness of
events, objects or situations) emotions such as enjoyment, satisfaction and
happiness, played leading roles (Jackson, 2000). This finding seems obvious on
one hand but obscure on another. It is obvious that the machinery of those
emotions that interfere with the quality of ones sport performance should be
dismantled to help performers compete at their best ! these emotions are often,
though not always, negatively valenced ! but equally it is obscure that emotions
experienced during peak performances (Cohn, 1991) and flow experiences
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Stein, Kimiecik, Daniels, & Jackson, 1995) are rarely
discussed or investigated ! these emotions are often, though not always, positively
valenced. If positively-valenced emotions (e.g., enjoyment, satisfaction) are indelibly
linked with superlative performances in sport, then establishing their exact nature
and function in this relation seems necessary and instructive. Furthermore, positive
and negative emotions do not act alone; people actually experience different
emotions simultaneously, even if they are opposite in hedonic tone and especially if
they are mild or moderate in intensity (Cerin, 2004; Gilboa & Revelle, 1994). This
realization has affected research on stress and coping ! now it is necessary to
measure the intensity and frequency of basic emotions, including positive emotions
in this research (Cerin, Szabo, & Williams, 2001; Folkman, 2008). These
contemporary changes in stress and coping imply that we ought to update the
co-ordinates on the map of sport emotions to more accurately scale the geography
of emotions in sport performance.
This article focuses primarily on positive emotions in sport performance. Because
positive emotions have only been explored briefly in a sport context, certain basic
questions must be answered. For instance, what are positive emotions and how
exactly can we differentiate among them? If they influence competitive sport
performance, do they do so directly, or indirectly through subcomponents of
performance such as motivation, concentration and self-efficacy? And is their
influence enabling or disabling for the sport performer in competitive sport? If they
enable the sport performer, how can these emotions be promoted? Equally, if they
disable the sport performer, how can these emotions be tempered? This article shall,
in so far as the available research allows, attend to these questions. To achieve this
aim, I shall briefly review the estimation of positive emotion in the broad field of
psychology and, more specifically, sport psychology. Next, I shall explore the
function of positive emotions whilst acknowledging their benefits and drawbacks
before finally sketching promising research directions based on contemporary
developments from sport and mainstream psychology. To begin this article, I shall
draft a working definition of emotion because over 90 different definitions abound
(Kleinginna & Kleinginna, 1981) and such definitional variety churns misinterpretation of research and increases the complexity of choosing fitting measures of emotion
(Larsen & Fredrickson, 1999).

52 P.J. McCarthy

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What is an emotion?
What is an emotion? This was the title of a paper by William James in 1884. What is
most perplexing about this question is that emotion researchers are still preparing an
answer. One might imagine that to open any research field for empirical scrutiny
requires at least conceptual clarity and precise definition of the topic under
investigation. In the age of science, however, it is more important to understand a
particular process deeply before proper definitions emerge (Oatley, Keltner, &
Jenkins, 2006). It has been difficult to locate a precise definition of emotion that
adequately accounts for the different theoretical approaches that abound. Many of
the emotion definitions proposed by leading theorists such as James (1884), Arnold
and Gasson (1954), Tooby and Cosmides, (1990), Lazarus (1991), Ekman (1992),
and Frijda and Mesquita (1994) act merely as pointers (Oatley et al., 2006) because
others (Griffiths, 1997; Mandler, 1984) argued that emotion is too heterogeneous to
define. What is apparent, however, is that emotions have several components (that
are expressed in facial movements, posture, gesture, touch and the voice), involve
physiological responses in the brain and body and have specific action tendencies. At
least three components of emotion have been studied experimentally (Vallerand,
1983; Young, 1973): subjective experience of emotion (e.g., experiencing happiness
following a tennis match); physiological changes in the autonomic nervous system
whilst experiencing emotion (e.g., increased blood pressure when faced with a
threatening opponent); and observable emotional behaviour (e.g., smiling after a
successful performance). Deci (1980, p. 85) included these three components to
derive a definition of emotion:
An emotion is a reaction to a stimulus event (either actual or imagined). It involves
change in the viscera and musculature of the person, is experienced subjectively in
characteristic ways, is expressed through such means as facial chances and action
tendencies, and may mediate and energize subsequent behaviors.

This working definition shall guide the research presented hereafter. Before I
continue, two issues at the core of emotion research ! classification and measurement ! deserve brief illumination.

Classifying and measuring emotions

Some researchers interchange emotion with affect and feeling (e.g., Isen, 2000)
while others distinguish these terms from each other (e.g., Fredrickson, 2001; Russell
& Feldman Barrett, 1999). But it is affect, which is . . . the experience of valence, a
subjective sense of positivity or negativity arising from an experience (Carver, 2003,
p. 242) that we commonly encounter in sport research (Gaudreau, Blondin, &
Lapierre, 2002; McCarthy, 2009; Robazza, Bortoli, Nocini, Moser, & Arslan, 2000).
It can be categorized using valence (positive vs. negative) and activation (low vs.
high) (Feldman Barrett & Russell, 1998; Russell & Carroll, 1999). Low-activation
positive emotions include emotions such as happiness and satisfaction and reflect
ones achievement of valued goals and the absence of a need for action (Fredrickson,
1998; Skinner & Brewer, 2004). High-activation positive emotions include emotions
such as excitement and enthusiasm and reflect ones anticipation of favourable
outcomes (Skinner & Brewer, 2004). This classification allows scholars to erect silos

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International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 53

within which we can grasp emotions of different valence. And it is these low- and
high-activation positive emotions that are the feature of this article.
Some researchers study generic positive and negative affect (e.g., Watson, Clark,
& Tellegen, 1988) rather than the specific discrete emotions (e.g., Ekman, 1992;
Lazarus, 2000) such as pride, affection and joy. The former are classified as
dimensional psychologists and the latter as discrete emotion theorists. The
disposition to experience positive emotional states is called positive affectivity and
it can be reliably assessed using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson
et al., 1988); however, the complete independence between positive and negative
affect is rejected (Crawford & Henry, 2004; Watson et al., 1988). Ekman (1992)
outlined at least nine characteristics that distinguish basic emotions from one
another, such as distinctive universal signals (e.g., facial expressions), comparable
expressions in other animals, distinctive physiology, distinctive universals in
antecedent events, quick onset and brief duration. Such distinctions also help us
differentiate emotions from other related processes such as mood and dispositions.
Moods, for instance, typically last for hours, days or weeks. They are often objectless
whereas emotions have an object such as when a person is angry, that person is
typically angry about something specific. Dispositions typically refer to an enduring
aspect of personality such as agreeableness or shyness (Oatley et al., 2006).
Issues of time, context, reliability and validity are considered in measures of
emotion. Time, for example, is critical in emotional experience because emotions are
dynamic processes that unfold, linger, and then dissipate over time (Larsen &
Fredrickson, 1999, p. 42). They also prompt different response systems (heart rate,
sweat glands, hormones) with particular onset times and duration. When emotions
are recorded retrospectively rather than in real time, bodily changes associated with
physiological systems become less obvious or redundant, obfuscating the gradation
in subjective experience. Beyond this issue, when targeting a specific emotion for
investigation, its onset and conclusion are critical. Measures with sufficient temporal
resolution and proximity are necessary for each specific emotion. Contextual factors
such as ambient mood (e.g., depressed, irritable), recent life events (e.g., bereavement), emotion-related personality traits (e.g., pessimistic), diurnal and circadian
influences on mood all create noise in the data, especially when researchers are
aiming to induce a specific emotion. Reliability and validity present other challenges
that are consistently discussed in the emotion literature alongside measures of
emotion such as self-report, observer ratings, facial, autonomic, brain-based, and
vocal (Larsen & Fredrickson, 1999). Self-report measures of emotion dominate
within sport contexts; however, there are samples of facial, autonomic, and brainbased measures also within the literature (e.g., Davis et al., 2008). Self-report
measures of emotion form an extensive range of assessment instruments relying on
participants to experience, reflect upon, and report their emotions using rating scales
(Sport Emotion Questionnaire; Jones, Lane, Bray, Uphill, & Catlin, 2005) or
adjective checklists (PANAS; Watson et al., 1988) with single or multiple-item
measures. Single-item measures might assess a global affective dimension (How
unpleasant are you feeling?) or a specific emotion (How angry are you feeling?)
with bipolar (unpleasant to pleasant) or unipolar (not at all angry to extremely
angry) response scales. Although popular because of their brevity, ease of understanding and administration, brief measurements have drawbacks such as sampling
error, error variance, and representativeness (Larsen & Fredrickson, 1999). One

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54 P.J. McCarthy
particular single-item questionnaire that has been used successfully in a sport setting
is the Affect Grid. It is based on the circumplex model of emotion (Larsen & Diener,
1992; Russell, 1980; Watson & Tellegen, 1985) and comprises a nine-by-nine matrix
with emotion adjectives (e.g., excitement, relaxation, stress) placed at the midpoints
of each side of the grid and at the four corners. Participants check one cell within the
grid to reflect how they are/were feeling along the arousal and pleasantness
dimensions. It measures sensitively manipulations designed to change participants
levels of arousal and pleasantness and because it requires negligible effort, it can be
administered often (Larsen & Fredrickson, 1999). Multiple-item measures of single
emotions such as the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2; Martens,
Burton, Vealey, Bump, & Smith, 1990) or multiple emotions such as the Profile of
Mood States (POMS; McNair, Lorr, & Droppelman, 1971) and the Positive and
Negative Affect Schedule (Watson et al., 1988), are popular in sport. But none of
these two multidimensional scales were designed for sport and so do not adequately
corral the emotional spectrum that exists in sport settings. To address this limitation,
Jones et al. (2005) developed the Sport Emotion Questionnaire (SEQ). The SEQ has
22 items and is a sport-specific measure of pre-competitive emotion to assess anger,
anxiety, dejection, excitement and happiness. This questionnaire has also been used
successfully to assess recalled emotions in a sport setting (Vast, Young, & Thomas,
2010).
On the basis that a self-report measure of emotion for a sport setting now exists,
it should be possible to begin to better understand emotional experience among
sport performers. Following the lead of other emotion researchers in sport (e.g.,
Jones, 1995), it should be possible to clarify not only the intensity of emotions
experienced but also the direction or perceived value of those emotions among sport
performers. For instance, does a high level of happiness benefit sport performance?
Self-report is but one measure of emotional experience. Facial, autonomic, and
brain-based measures of emotion will develop a better understanding of emotional
experience in sport (e.g., Davis et al., 2008).
Getting a grip on emotions in sport
Colman Griffiths 1930 publication in the Research Quarterly, A Laboratory for
Research in Athletics, requested a more scientific and experimental approach to
understand the effects of emotion on sport performance. Though his request was
specific, there was only a modest response among sport emotion researchers while
those in the wider contours of emotion research constructed a comprehensive and
methodically researched field. Such was their endeavour that the quantity of
publications alone makes it impossible to be exhaustive, especially as interest in
emotions spreads across many fields such as psychology, sociology, philosophy,
neuroscience, psychiatry, biology, and anthropology (Oatley et al., 2006). Although
emotion research is a diverse field, by examining specific facets of the emotionperformance relation, it is possible for order to emerge. For example, emotions
influence subcomponents of sport performance including perception, attention,
memory, decision-making and judgement (Forgas, 1995; Isen, 1993). When people
experience positive emotion, they broaden their attention, which fosters openness,
flexibility and an efficient integration of information (Carver, 2003; Derryberry &
Tucker, 1994; Fredrickson, 2001). Positive emotions also influence social goals such

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International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 55

as attachment, affiliation and assertion (Oatley et al., 2006). These specific
components can be examined empirically in sport settings; collectively, these
subcomponents of sport performance could explain a substantial proportion of
the emotion-performance relation in sport.
In general, much more is known about the influence of negatively-valenced
emotions on these subcomponents of competitive performance in sport (Cerin,
2003). A few reasons can explain this finding. First, the scope of research within
mainstream psychology was to cure mental illness and this focus meant that the
research spotlight tilted away from positive emotions (Myers & Diener, 1995),
innocently concealing the bearing of positive emotions on psychological well-being
(Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Second, the dominant theoretical models
within and outside sport meant that few appropriate models existed to understand
the influence of positive emotions on athletic performance. For instance, Yerkes and
Dodsons inverted-U theory (1908), Hulls drive theory (1943), Hardy and Fazeys
catastrophe model (1987) and Martens et al.s multidimensional anxiety theory
(1990) examined anxiety-performance relations (Hanin, 2000; Tenenbaum, Edmonds, & Eccles, 2008), and this dominant theme shackled sport researchers
curiosity to consider other emotions extensively. It was emotions such as anger, stress
and anxiety that had their mechanisms dismantled (Cerin, 2003; Cerin, Szabo, Hunt,
& Williams, 2000).
But positive emotions were not ignored within sport psychology research; rather,
the emotion research backcloth was punctuated with brief ventures to specifically
explore positive emotions such as sport enjoyment (e.g., Scanlan & Simons, 1992),
hope (e.g., Curry, Snyder, Cook, Ruby, & Rehm, 1997), happiness (e.g., Woodman
et al., 2009), positive affect (e.g., Jones, Swain, & Harwood, 1996) and general
positive emotions (Hanin, 2007). Of these specific emotions, sport enjoyment
remains the only one that has received acceptable inquiry among youth, recreational
and elite sport performers (McCarthy & Jones, 2007; Scanlan, Russell, Beals, &
Scanlan, 2003). Scanlan and Simons (1992, p. 202) defined sport enjoyment as . . . a
positive affective response to the sport experience that reflects generalized feelings
such as pleasure, liking and fun. From a practical perspective, it is reasonable to
understand why sport enjoyment has received substantially more scholarly time than
other positive emotions. To explain, motivation and commitment are essential
psychological attributes for successful performance in sport, especially in Olympic
events (Gould & Maynard, 2009). That being so, by unearthing those factors that
increase motivation and commitment, it should be possible to modify motivated
behaviour. One significant factor to sustain motivated behaviour and commitment is
sport enjoyment (McCarthy & Jones, 2007). By way of illustration, the former
professional golfer, Arnold Palmer, at age 75 explained: I still enjoy playing, its not
as much fun as it once was because I dont always play as well as I used to, and that
takes a toll after a while . . . Im still working on my game, still trying to find a way to
hit the ball further (Hauser, 2004). Simply, athletes who enjoy what they do,
invariably do it for longer and with greater enthusiasm than those who do not enjoy
what they do. The folds of research explain in unison that greater sport enjoyment is
associated with greater sport commitment among youth (Scanlan, Carpenter, Lobel,
& Simons, 1993; Scanlan, Carpenter, Schmidt, Simons, & Keeler, 1993; Scanlan &
Simons, 1992) and elite sport performers (Mallett & Hanrahan, 2004; Scanlan et al.,
2003; Scanlan, Stein, & Ravizza, 1989). The more we know about sport enjoyment,

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56 P.J. McCarthy
for example, the more we know about the motivational consequences of positive
emotion. Positive emotions were also included in many studies of motivated
behaviour in youth, recreational, and elite sport participants. They still feature
when specific theories (e.g., achievement goal theory, Nicholls, 1984; Elliot, 1999;
self-determination theory, Deci & Ryan, 1985) are examined in sport contexts;
however, much of this research has examined typical achievement affects (e.g.,
competence, pride and enjoyment) without adequate consideration of other emotions
(e.g., excitement, happiness). A fine-grained understanding of which antecedents
(e.g., mastery or performance goals) produce which emotions is still needed
(Vallerand & Blanchard, 2000).
Not only does enjoyment serve a motivational role in sport, but it is also integral
to optimal performance (Orlick & Partington, 1988). For instance, flow, an optimal
psychological state that occurs when there is a balance between perceived challenges
and skills of an activity (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Jackson, Thomas, Marsh, &
Smethurst, 2001) is associated with enjoyment. Indeed, Jackson (1992) reported that
enjoying what one is doing was regarded as one of five factors identified by elite
figure skaters to enhance the likelihood of getting into a flow state. Similarly,
research on peak experience has indicated that this psychological state is associated
with psychological characteristics such as feeling highly self-confident, a narrow
focus of attention, an absence of fear, and feeling physically and mentally relaxed !
these experiences are linked with fun or enjoyment (Cohn, 1991).
Positive emotions are associated with many attributes, characteristics, and
behaviours such as optimism, resilience, self-belief, self-esteem, commitment,
control, challenge, concentration, attentional control, overcoming adversity, intrinsic
motivation, internal locus of control and decision-making (Jones et al., 2009;
Tugade, Fredrickson, & Feldman-Barrett, 2004; Vast et al., 2010). This partial list
suggests that a balance of these emotions is necessary to compete successfully in
sport. These attributes, characteristics and behaviours are also related to the
multitudinous mental toughness qualities (e.g., Connaughton, Hanton, Jones, &
Wadey, 2008; Crust, 2008; Gucciardi, Gordon, & Dimmock, 2009) and so deserve
greater recognition as this field of research develops.
What good are positive emotions?
Charles Darwins (1872) book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals,
posed two broad questions: how are emotions expressed in humans and other animals
and where do emotions come from? Both questions steer emotion researchers today
but a third question is necessary for this analysis: what functions do emotions serve?
This question is important because evolutionary wisdom implies that positive
emotions do not warn us about danger or force us to protect ourselves from threat.
Yet positive emotions have survived the evolutionary passage of time so clearly they
bestow some value on our survival as a species. At some points in our lives, positive
emotions seized the reins of our destiny.
Positive emotions lie on the margins of emotion research and at least three
reasons can explain this circumstance. To begin with, words for positive emotions
within the English language are outnumbered by words for negative emotions four to
one (Averill, 1980). A similar fate emerges in the scientific taxonomies for basic
emotions with three or four negative emotions for each positive emotion (Ekman,

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International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology 57

1992; Izard, 1977). Such findings may have emerged for other reasons. Pinker (1997,
p. 366) argued that a language accumulates a large vocabulary including words for
emotions when it has influential wordsmiths, contact with other languages, rules for
forming new words out of old ones and widespread literacy. At a more elementary
level, beyond etymology and onomastics, research has established that positive
emotions assemble an ability to survive, though this proposal challenges the views of
emotion theorists (e.g., Ekman, 1992; Frijda, 1986; Lazarus, 1991) who argue that
emotions are linked with urges to act. If we consider, for example, fear and anger, the
former creates an urge to flee while the latter creates an urge to attack. Fredrickson
(1998) disputed this contention to suggest that such urges do not impel people to act
but guide specific possibilities for action such as to run and hide or stay and fight. So,
what good are positive emotions for sport performers?
Based on the literature from other fields of psychology, it appears that positive
emotions are necessary for successful performance in sport, though at first glance it
might not be obvious to see their influence because they may manifest themselves
indirectly rather than directly. To explain this line of reasoning, research has
indicated that positive affect is an effective retrieval cue (e.g., Isen, Shalker, Clark, &
Karp, 1978). Not only does it effectively retrieve information but it is especially
effective at retrieving positive information. Successful performance in sport often
relies on creativity, efficient problem-solving and decision-making. Positive affect
stimulates more creative problem-solving (Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987; Isen,
Johnson, Mertz, & Robinson, 1985), and a greater association of multiple cues with
encoded information to establish a mental environment suitable for making
judgements and decisions under pressure (Isen & Daubman, 1984). Another feature
of positive emotions are their transferable effects in social responses and cognitions.
For instance, Isen (1970) gave participants perceptual-motor skills tests and told a
random sample of participants that they had succeeded in the test, which made them
feel mildly happy; however, she did not tell the other participants how they had done.
Those feeling mildly happier were more likely to help a stranger (an associate of the
experimenter) who had dropped her books. Perhaps more important from a sports
perspective are the cognitive effects of happiness ! it has fashioned more creative
problem-solving (Isen et al., 1987) and more satisfaction in performing tasks
(Kraiger, Billings, & Isen, 1989).
In many of these experiments, researchers used various methods to induce positive
affect. They told participants about their skill success in a task (Isen, 1970), gave
participants gifts (Isen et al., 1978), bags of candy (Isen & Geva, 1987), or showed
them comedy films or TV bloopers (Kraiger et al., 1989). Other inductions included
imagining previous positive events, listening to music, or being asked to read and get
involved in a story and expressing the feelings in the story. One method that relates to
the psychological skill of self-talk is the Velten mood induction procedure (Velten,
1968) in which the participant reads a list of statements (e.g., I am elated about things)
silently, then aloud and tries to feel the suggested mood (Pressman & Cohen, 2005).
Although these methods were specifically designed to induce positive affect in
laboratory settings, they emerge from the behaviour of the experimenter or the
individual. By extension, the coach, manager or sport performer might unwittingly
change the emotional dial before performance by watching motivational films on the
team bus, listening to music, or persuading performers of their success in past
performances. Perhaps the coach or manager has a greater effect on the emotional

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58 P.J. McCarthy
experience of his or her charges when they can see and hear him or her. Evidence to
support this suggestion comes from Mehrabian (1972) whose study of emotional
communication reported that when interacting with others, only 7% of participants
emotional understanding of the other person stemmed from the words spoken;
however, 38% and 55% of their emotional understanding was attributed to verbal tone
and facial expression, respectively. Putting on your game face seems just as
important for the coach or manager as the athlete. Sport performers might also be
able to change their affective experience by moving emotion-relevant muscles. Strack,
Martin, and Stepper (1988) reported that participants holding a pen in their mouths !
making muscle movements characteristic of a smile ! rated cartoons funnier than
those participants not contracting these muscles. Simply making distinct bodily
changes produced distinct emotional experiences, which suggests that managing the
emotional environs is a delicate duty. Similar findings emerged for sadness (Larsen,
Kasimatis, & Frey, 1992) and when Berkowitz and colleagues (Berkowitz, 2003)
induced pain and irritation in participants by making them raise their arms
horizontally for three minutes, they acted more aggressively towards others.
Research has consistently shown that feeling positive affect generates more
cooperative and helpful behaviour in adults and children (e.g., Chertock, 1974; Isen
& Levin, 1972; Marcus, 1987). Many researchers have reported that positive affective
experiences increase attraction and strengthen social bonds (Baumeister & Leary,
1995; May & Hamilton, 1980; Veitch & Griffitt, 1976). In threatening circumstances,
people like each other more because the presence of other people reduces ones
distress and a positive emotional response becomes associated with those people
(Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Kenrick & Cialdini, 1977). Such research accentuates the
value of positive affect in team settings, especially because moods, both good and
bad, are catching. Totterdell (2000) reported that the happy moods of professional
cricketers were linked with the current collective happy mood of their teammates
during a competitive match. This mood linkage was greatest for those who were
older, more committed to the team and more susceptible to emotional contagion. In
organizational settings, empirical evidence has demonstrated that employees
positive mood states predict task performance. Longitudinal studies (Tsai, Chen,
& Liu, 2007) among insurance sales agents suggested that employee positive moods
predicted task performance indirectly through motivational (self-efficacy and task
persistence) and interpersonal processes (helping co-workers and co-worker helping
and support). But what happens if you consistently perform better than your
teammates? Social comparison research (Festinger, 1954) has consistently established
that people strive to outperform others and to see themselves as superior (Festinger,
1954; Taylor & Brown, 1988). According to this competitive paradigm, upward
comparison, or comparing oneself against those who fare better that oneself, should
create negative affect; on the other hand, downward comparison, or comparing
oneself against those who fare worse than oneself, should create positive affect
(Exline & Lobel, 1999). It seems axiomatic that outperforming others makes people
feel happier. Such achievement should generate pleasure and pride ! and it does !
however, mounting evidence suggests that outperforming others is also discomforting. So discomforting in fact, that people will sometimes elude outperformance
altogether, withdrawing effort so as not to outperform others (Pappo, 1983; Peplau,
1976). The fear of being envied prompts people to increase their helping behaviour

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towards those potentially jealous of them as an appeasement strategy (van den Ven,
Zeelenberg, & Pieters, 2010).
The accumulating research hints at the value of positive emotions for sport
performance and psychological well-being. We can begin to realize the value of
positive emotions through two models specifically designed for sport settings that
allow us to understand positive emotions in the emotion-performance relation and
by a third model that presents a specific theory of positive emotion. I shall present
these next.
Models to understand positive emotion and performance
At the outset, I explained that some researchers developed and tested models
specifically designed for the sport context (Hanin, 1997; Jones et al., 2009). Though
these models do not exclusively deal with emotion, they do allow us to consider
emotion alongside other constructs (e.g., self-efficacy, control, achievement goals)
that more fully explain how sport performers respond emotionally to competition.
The theory of challenge and threat states in athletes (TCTSA) proposed by Jones
et al. (2009) and the individual zones of optimal functioning (Hanin, 1997) make
specific predictions about positive emotions and their role in sport performance.
The TCTSA emerged from the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat
(Blascovich & Mendes, 2000; Blascovich & Tomaka, 1996), the model of adaptive
approaches to competition (Skinner & Brewer, 2004) and related approaches to
understand how athletes perceive forthcoming competitions. This theory outlines
why athletes perceive forthcoming competitions as a challenge or a threat, how they
respond emotionally and physiologically to competition, and how these motivational
states influence sport performance. A challenge state emerges when a person
perceives sufficient resources to meet situational demands and a threat state occurs
when a person perceives insufficient resources to meet situational demands
(Blascovich & Mendes, 2000). Following a challenge appraisal, positive emotions
are likely to emerge and be perceived as a benefit to performance whereas following a
threat appraisal, negative emotions are likely to emerge and be perceived as negative
for performance (Skinner & Brewer, 2004). At issue here, however, is not the label of
positive and negative emotions, but rather their interpretation by the athlete, and
function in performance. For instance, Izard (1991) defined anxiety as a complex
threat-related emotional state which may motivate approach and avoidance
behaviour. Athletes who perceive a positive interpretation of their anxiety symptoms
report more positive feelings than athletes who perceive their anxiety symptoms
negatively (Jones & Hanton, 2001; Mellalieu, Hanton, & Jones, 2003). But the
interpretation of these symptoms emerges from the athletes perception of control
within the environment and of oneself, sufficient coping capability and a belief that
the valued goal is achievable (Jones, 1995; Jones et al., 2009). Lazarus (2000, p. 230)
referred to evaluation as an appraisal of the personal significance for well-being that
a person attributes to this relationship and the process. Following appraisal, the
performer experiences an emotional response. Hanin (2000) explained that when
emotions are interpreted as pleasant, they might help performance; however, when
interpreted as unpleasant, they might hinder performance. One critical dimension to
consider in this analysis of the emotions-outcome link is functionality (Tenenbaum
et al., 2008) because labelling emotions as pleasant or unpleasant does not describe

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60 P.J. McCarthy
their value for performance. To illustrate this difference, experiencing anger might be
perceived as unpleasant but actually help performance and experiencing contentment
after scoring a try in rugby, a player might think no further effort is necessary.
Predicting athletic performance using only pre-competition anxiety has been a
consistent limitation in sport psychology (Cerin et al., 2000; Gould & Tuffey, 1996;
Jones & Hanton, 2001; Kerr, 1997; Robazza, Pellizzari, & Hanin, 2004). Frameworks
such as the multidimensional theory of anxiety (Martens et al., 1990) represent a
traditional group-oriented approach, which restricts the relevance of its findings to
an individual athlete in a particular situation (Hagtvet & Hanin, 2007). The swell of
consensus suggests that athletic performance is predicted best by including
positively-valenced and negatively-valenced emotions rather than only pre-competition anxiety (Cerin et al., 2000; Gould & Tuffey, 1996; Jones & Hanton, 2001; Kerr,
1997; Robazza et al., 2004). These restrictions are addressed by the individual zones
of optimal functioning (IZOF) model (Hanin, 1997, 2000, 2007). The IZOF model
was designed to describe and predict the effect of positive and negative emotions
upon performance. In so doing, it would illuminate the emotion-performance
relation in sport. The model accounts for the optimal and dysfunctional effect of
positive and negative emotions upon performance with each athletes subjective
experiences dissected by contrasting best and worst performance patterns (Hanin,
1997). Both models are beginning to generate a more robust understanding of
positive emotion in sport performance (e.g., Hagtvet & Hanin, 2007; Williams,
Cumming, & Balanos, 2010) and a third model seems fitting for this purpose also.
According to Fredricksons broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions
(Fredrickson, 1998, 2001), certain discrete positive emotions ! including joy, interest,
contentment, pride and love ! can broaden peoples momentary thought-action
repertoires and build enduring personal resources (e.g., physical, intellectual, social
and psychological). These emotions increased our tendency to play, explore and
imagine future achievements and through this process our personal resources grew to
guarantee our continued existence. Similar to negative emotions, the capacity to
experience positive emotions is genetically programmed, which through natural
selection became part of our human nature (Fredrickson, 2001). But when we
measure positive emotions against the yardstick of negative emotions, their value
seems questionable because negative emotions increased our evolutionary ancestors
chances of survival by offering reliable and recognizable thought-action tendencies.
For instance, when in the clutches of a life-or-death situation, fear, which is
associated with the urge to escape, helped our ancestors to consider a specific set of
behavioural choices (Fredrickson, 2001); yet positive emotions are less differentiated,
less specific and their adaptability also escaped the attention of emotion theorists
perhaps because they did not fit within the scaffold of existing theories of negative
emotion (Cohn & Fredrickson, 2006; Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005). The
evolutionary currency of positive emotions differed from negative emotions so
examining them through that lens would not allow us to appreciate their value in
human existence. So rather than responding to one particular situation, positive
emotions were designed to encourage us to explore our environment for resources
and opportunities (Cohn & Fredrickson, 2006). The urges associated with these
emotions (e.g., joy urges us to play and be creative) had a broadening effect on our
survival, not alone, but over time, and actions associated with broadened states led to
building. Play, for instance, assembles physical abilities that are necessary later in life

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(Panksepp, 1998). The assembled experimental research indicates that positive

emotions build psychological resiliency and trigger upward spirals toward improved
emotional well-being (Fredrickson, 2001), broaden peoples thought-action repertoires (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005) and undo lingering negative emotions
(Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998). Collectively, these findings share links with various
strands of research in sport settings but have yet to be explored empirically.

Future directions
The main thrust of sport emotion research has focused on anxiety because of its
effect on cognitive functioning and physical activity (Tenenbaum & Bar-Eli, 1995;
Tenenbaum et al., 2008). Occasionally, researchers included more than one emotion
when exploring this relation but rarely have they examined the broad spectrum of
positive and negative emotions. However, this focus is necessary because these
emotions are constantly modified through the process of cognitive appraisal
(Lazarus, 1999, 2000; Martinet & Ferrand, 2009). A cursory glance at the
contemporary developments in other fields of psychology suggests that the most
rewarding bounty has yet to be harvested in this field (Isen, 2009).
Broadly, we need to know more about the precise influence discrete positive
emotions have on sport performers well-being and sport performances. Not only do
we need to know the unique effect of these emotions but also the effect of cooccurring positive emotions. As Diener (1999, p. 803) noted, There is a glue that
holds together certain of the discrete emotions. The explanation of the co-occurrence
of emotions and moods has the potential of shedding light on the most fundamental
nature of affect. Many emotions remain in the margins of sport emotion research,
such as courage, hope, happiness, pride and, to a lesser extent, passion, that are
customary in the language of managers, coaches, and sport performers. When more
is known about these emotions, more will be known about positive emotions in sport
performance.
Numerous experiments have offered data to conclude that even a mildly positive
mood benefits thinking, problem-solving, social interactions and psychological wellbeing (Isen, 2009). On this evidence, emotions are amenable to change and it seems
equitable to suggest that positive emotions might benefit sport performers
performances and well-being. Various direct and indirect strategies could generate
positive emotions. Direct strategies might include promises of a reward, listening to
music or watching comical sketches or films. Indirect strategies might include
psychological techniques such as goal setting, self-talk, mental imagery and
relaxation. These techniques generate positive emotion through performance
accomplishment (see Emmons, 1986). In other words, because people are inclined
to view their ability positively when they achieve important goals, this perception
cultivates feelings of self-worth that in turn promote positive emotions (see Lazarus,
1991). Goal setting, or rather goal attainment, for example, is associated with
positive emotion. When people are committed to their goals, they are generally
successful at achieving them. Not only do they value their ability more, but they feel
proud, happy and joyful, daily (e.g., Emmons, 1986). Positive emotions also arise
from coping processes such as benefit-finding and reminding, reordering priorities,
adaptive goal processes and permeating ordinary events with positive meaning

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62 P.J. McCarthy
(Folkman, 2008). Such straightforward techniques, when skilfully deployed in sport
settings, could raise ones resilience and, perhaps, sport performance.
Authors such as Seligman (2002) have included optimism, resilience, hardiness, and
toughness whilst classifying emotions. Though specifically positive personal traits,
greater optimism (Scheier & Carver, 1985, 1987; Taylor & Brown, 1988), resilience,
hardiness, passion (Vallerand et al., 2006) and mental toughness are associated with
greater positive emotion. It would be worthwhile, especially for sport psychologists in
applied settings, to determine which specific positive emotions are associated with
which positive personal traits. A note of caution ! although these characteristics are
valuable to performers, they can also harbour danger for certain sports (e.g., motor
racing) because risks might be taken when sport performers are unduly optimistic
about their chances of success and the probable outcomes of events. For instance,
studies among motorists have shown that the average driver judges himself more skilful
than the average driver (Svenson, 1981). Even when surveys were conducted among
motorists in hospital who caused the collision, they still considered themselves more
skilful than the average driver (Preston & Harris, 1965).
From a simple glance at the sports pages of daily newspapers or highlights on
television, we see a display of positive emotions, from contentment and happiness to
joy and ecstasy. The behaviour of sport performers after a stage win in cycling, a try
scored in rugby or a holed eagle putt floods our minds with images of positive emotion.
These images range from smiling faces, vocal expressions and warm embraces. These
images reflect how emotions are communicated through facial expression, vocal
communication and touch. Systematic coding of these detailed affective cues holds
promise for researchers of affective communication and especially for those who
explore intensely emotional situations in sport (Sauter, 2010). One example of this
research comes from Tracy and Matsumoto (2008). They examined non-verbal
expressions of pride among athletes following a win in Olympic judo matches. Winners
exhibited behaviours associated with pride such as smiling, tilting their head back,
raising their arms and expanding their chest. Even congenitally blind Olympic athletes
exhibited similar displays after winning matches.
Research has yielded a fertile understanding about a few discrete emotions (e.g.,
anxiety, enjoyment) and how they influence sport performance at youth, recreational, collegiate and professional levels (Scanlan et al., 2003). The folds of research
are gathering on emotional experience among athletes but also among coaches
(Fletcher & Scott, 2010), parents (Harwood & Knight, 2009), referees (Bortoli &
Robazza, 2002) and sport fans (Jones & Sheffield, 2007). The benefits and drawbacks
of positive and negative emotions are being uncovered. For instance, positive
emotion influences leadership behaviour and effectiveness, though negative affect
can also be effective in these roles (Damen, van Knippenberg, & van Knippenberg,
2008). And regulating our emotions depletes self-control resources needed to
perform successfully in sport (Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, & Tice, 1998).
We are missing longitudinal research that might explain whether greater positive
affect is associated with greater long-term achievement in sport or enhanced wellbeing. In short, positive emotions bear immense authority on the emotionperformance relation in sport. Positive emotions bear immense authority on
psychological well-being, but unless we can quantify this bearing, and generate
and evaluate practical interventions to instil positive emotions among sport
performers, they will be rendered a paltry consequence of sporting triumph.

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Conclusion
Emotions are part of the fabric of everyday life but there is an unsettling ledger of
limits to our understanding of positive emotions in sport performance. The
embryonic research on positive emotions has lifted the curiosity of researchers
from psychology, sociology, philosophy, neuroscience, psychiatry, biology, and
anthropology to passionately pursue answers to critical conceptual and empirical
questions that have hitherto impeded this research. The touchstone set with the
emergence of positive psychology (i.e., the study of positive emotions, positive
character traits, and enabling institutions) (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000;
Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005) means that this weanling science is
maturing; and the diligence of a few researchers to resuscitate positive emotions
within mainstream emotion research heralds it welcome to the lingua franca. But it
would be misleading to stretch the research material that is thin to start with even
thinner; however, based on the available evidence, positive emotions might be the
catalysts of excellence in sport and deserve space on our workbenches if we are to
raise the level of competitive performance among sport performers. From a holistic
perspective, positive emotions are permanently linked with psychological well-being
and research in this field is necessary especially when you call to mind the human
suffering of mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. This research is
economically worthwhile when seen in the light of Mary Laskers assertion (founder
of the Lasker Foundation): If you think research is expensive, try disease.
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