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Topic · Developmental and Educational Psychology

Sport Psychology and Performance

Sport Psychology and Performance is a research topic within Developmental and Educational Psychology. Science Explorer counts 20k research works in it since 1954. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the development of expert performance in sports psychology, covering topics such as motor imagery, athlete development, attentional focus, mental toughness, coaching effectiveness, youth sport specialization, deliberate practice, and qualitative research methods.

  • Expert Performance
  • Motor Imagery
  • Athlete Development
  • Sport Psychology
  • Attentional Focus
  • Mental Toughness
  • Coaching Effectiveness
  • Youth Sport Specialization
  • Deliberate Practice
  • Qualitative Research
Research works
20k
fractional, since 1954
In the world top 10%
2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+33%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
23% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Sport Psychology and Performance

Which countries lead Sport Psychology and Performance research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (991 and 646 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 991 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 646 works
  3. 3 China 527 works
  4. 4 Türkiye 409 works
  5. 5 Spain 343 works
  6. 6 Australia 328 works
  7. 7 Germany 316 works
  8. 8 Canada 278 works
  9. 9 Brazil 232 works
  10. 10 India 203 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 23.2%United Kingdom: 15.1%China: 12.3%Türkiye: 9.6%6 others listed: 39.8%23%largest
United States991 · 23.2%United Kingdom646 · 15.1%China527 · 12.3%Türkiye409 · 9.6%6 others listed1,700 · 39.8%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Sport Psychology and Performance research?

By volume in 2022-now, German Sport University Cologne publishes the most Sport Psychology and Performance research, followed by American Society of Genealogists and Loughborough University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 German Sport University CologneGermany 56 works
  2. 2 American Society of GenealogistsUnited States 38 works
  3. 3 Loughborough UniversityUnited Kingdom 33 works
  4. 4 Beijing Sport UniversityChina 31 works
  5. 5 University of TorontoCanada 30 works
  6. 6 Universidad de ExtremaduraSpain 30 works
  7. 7 Shanghai University of SportChina 29 works
  8. 8 Leeds Beckett UniversityUnited Kingdom 27 works
  9. 9 Yogyakarta State UniversityIndonesia 26 works
  10. 10 University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 25 works

Who are the leading researchers in Sport Psychology and Performance?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Sport Psychology and Performance include Richard M. Ryan, Albert Bandura and Edward L. Deci.

  1. 1 Richard M. Ryan United States 395k citations
  2. 2 Albert Bandura United States 370k citations
  3. 3 Edward L. Deci United States 325k citations
  4. 4 Robert A. Weinberg United States 301k citations
  5. 5 Tommi Juhani Vasankari Finland 248k citations
  6. 6 David C. Schwebel United States 210k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Sport Psychology and Performance?

The most cited paper in Sport Psychology and Performance is "The effects of feedback interventions on performance: A historical review, a meta-analysis, and a preliminary feedback intervention theory." (Avraham N. Kluger, Angelo S. DeNisi, 1996), with 5,900 citations. Next come "Perception in chess" (4,403) and "The social psychology of creativity: A componential conceptualization." (3,830).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The effects of feedback interventions on performance: A historical review, a meta-analysis, and a preliminary feedback intervention theory. Avraham N. Kluger, Angelo S. DeNisi · Psychological Bulletin Mar 1996 5,900
2 Perception in chess William G. Chase, Herbert A. Simon · Cognitive Psychology 1973 4,403
3 The social psychology of creativity: A componential conceptualization. Teresa M. Amabile · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Aug 1983 3,830
4 Developing rigor in qualitative research: problems and opportunities within sport and exercise psychology Brett M. Smith, Kerry R. McGannon · International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology Open access 14 May 2017 3,082
5 Psychometric Properties of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory in a Competitive Sport Setting: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis Edward McAuley, Terry E. Duncan, Vance V. Tammen · Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport Mar 1989 2,725
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Sport Psychology and Performance research done?

The largest centres of Sport Psychology and Performance research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), London (United Kingdom), Melbourne (Australia) and Tokyo (Japan). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Sharon.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 87 works
  2. 2 LondonUnited Kingdom 82 works
  3. 3 MelbourneAustralia 79 works
  4. 4 TokyoJapan 73 works
  5. 5 CologneGermany 59 works
  6. 6 ShanghaiChina 55 works
  7. 7 MadridSpain 52 works
  8. 8 IstanbulTürkiye 49 works
  9. 9 TorontoCanada 49 works
  10. 10 AnkaraTürkiye 47 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. SharonUS · 38.0 works53×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Sport Psychology and Performance than the world average.

See Sport Psychology and Performance on the map

Where is the best place to study Sport Psychology and Performance?

Among universities, judged by research, Loughborough University, German Sport University Cologne and Leeds Beckett University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 22.08%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Linköping UniversityLeeds Beckett Univer…Loughborough Univers…German Sport Univers…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Loughborough UniversityUnited Kingdom 71.817.9%23.9×33 +45.7%
2German Sport University CologneGermany 67.79.5%165.5×56 +61.4%
3Leeds Beckett UniversityUnited Kingdom 65.721.6%60.2×27 +11.2%
4Linköping UniversitySweden 64.324.8%5.1×8 +145.3%
5Shanghai University of SportChina 63.517.0%85.8×29 +156.2%
6University of BirminghamUnited Kingdom 63.520.5%4.6×17 +34.6%
7University of BathUnited Kingdom 62.428.3%9.1×13 -5.7%
8Manchester Metropolitan UniversityUnited Kingdom 61.917.1%21.5×21 +101.0%
9Chengdu Sport UniversityChina 59.932.0%77.6×10 -
10Australian Catholic UniversityAustralia 59.732.1%13.7×8 +7.4%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Sport Psychology and Performance, country by country

Is Sport Psychology and Performance research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 33% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Sport Psychology and Performance.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Sport Psychology and Performance as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.023% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Sport Psychology and Performance0.031% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Sport Psychology and Performance over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Sport Psychology and Performance10.2% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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