Kerry R. McGannon

Developing rigor in qualitative research: problems and opportunities within sport and exercise psychology

ABSTRACT Qualitative research has grown within sport and exercise psychology and is now widely conducted. The purpose of this review is to discuss three commonly used ways to demonstrate rigor when conducting or judging qualitative research in sport and exercise psychology. These are the method of member checking, the method of inter-rater reliability, and the notion of universal criteria. Problems with each method are first highlighted. Member checking and inter-rater reliability are shown to be ineffective for verification, trustworthiness, or reliability purposes. Next, universal criteria within the context of Tracy’s, heavily drawn on paper within sport and exercise psychology is problematized. Throughout the discussion of each method and universal criteria more suitable possibilities for conducting rigorous qualitative research are offered. The paper concludes that to support high-quality qualitative research, scholars – including journal editors and reviewers – need to change how rigor is developed and judged, rather than perpetuate the problems with how it has been commonly evaluated in the past. Recommendations for developing rigor when conducting and/or judging qualitative research within sport and exercise psychology are also offered.

Toward Cultural Praxis and Cultural Sensitivity: Strategies for Self-Reflexive Sport Psychology Practice

Sport psychology researchers have recently focused their attention onto the topic of culture. Their recent findings have begun to be utilized by sport psychology practitioners to increase cross-cultural understandings and deliver culturally sensitized sport services. However, such practices are on the fringes of applied sport psychology. Our intent is to show how reflective practices and self-reflexivity (i.e., forms of introspection) of sport psychology consultants can contribute toward understanding cultural diversity issues in sport. An example in the form of a confessional tale from one of the authors consulting experiences with an Indigenous athlete will then be presented to illustrate non-reflective vs. reflective practices, and how each constrains vs. augments cultural sensitivity. We conclude with future considerations for sport psychology consultants.

Acculturation in elite sport: a thematic analysis of immigrant athletes and coaches

Abstract To identify key issues concerning the acculturation of immigrant athletes in sport psychology, a thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was conducted on focus group interview data from immigrant elite athletes relocated to Canada (n = 13) and coaches working with such athletes (n = 10). Two central themes were identified: (a) navigating two world views which referred to acculturation as a fluid process where athletes navigated between cultural norms of the home community and the host community, and (b) acculturation loads, which referred to whether immigrants and those in the host country shared acculturation (i.e., acculturation as a two-way process) or managed the load with or without support from others (i.e., acculturation as one-directional). Each of these central themes comprised sub-themes, which provided further insight into the experiences of acculturation for immigrant elite athletes. From the project, the authors recommend further research utilising case studies to provide a holistic description of the acculturation process from the vantage of various people within the sport context.

Exploring news media representations of women’s exercise and subjectivity through critical discourse analysis

Despite the importance of media work from a critical perspective being established, much is to be learned about how women’s exercise is (re)presented within news media discourses and the implications for women’s health promotion. Health promotion researchers need to further consider the media environment in which health-related meanings are constructed and compete. Building on media research from a critical perspective, the current paper used critical discourse analysis to explore the construction of exercise narratives in 40 stories within a ‘women’s health’ section of a Midwestern US newspaper. Analysis of this media feature offers researchers the opportunity to explore taken for granted assumptions and prevailing meanings about women’s exercise and health and the implications for self and subjectivity. Two primary discourses were identified: a discourse of exercise and appearance and a discourse of consumerism. Subject positions identified included: the unfit woman, the ignorant/irrational woman, the expert and the responsible consumer. The implications for women’s health and exercise promotion are discussed in light of these findings.

Demographic and Clinical Determinants of Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity During Home-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation: THE HOME-BASED DETERMINANTS OF EXERCISE (HOME) STUDY

PURPOSE: Little is known concerning moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) levels in patients attending home-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs and whether demographic/clinical characteristics moderate these levels. METHODS: Patients (N = 280, 77 female) who were referred to home-based CR, mainly because of myocardial infarction (34%), coronary artery bypass graft (17%), and percutaneous coronary intervention/ stent/atherectomy (32%), completed a questionnaire assessing demographic and clinical characteristics as well as MVPA, measured at the beginning and end of a 3-month home-based CR program. Charts were reviewed for blood work, blood pressure, stress tests, and diagnosis. RESULTS: Patients averaged 88.5 minutes per week of MVPA before starting home-based CR, which increased to 191.1 minutes during the program. Multiple regression analyses showed that patients who were male (&bgr; = −.11), did not have metabolic syndrome (&bgr; = −.14), and were meeting the MVPA guideline before starting home-based CR (&bgr; = .25) engaged in significantly more MVPA during home-based CR than their counterparts. Furthermore, the increase in MVPA was significantly larger for males (&bgr; = −.20), patients without metabolic syndrome (&bgr; = −.13), and patients who did not meet the MVPA guideline at baseline (&bgr; = −.29) than their counterparts. CONCLUSIONS: The MVPA levels of patients attending home-based CR tend to vary depending on gender, whether or not metabolic syndrome was present, and prior MVPA levels, suggesting the need to potentially target these particular groups in future behavioral interventions aimed at increasing MVPA.

Moving beyond words: exploring the use of an arts-based method in Aboriginal community sport research

In recognising the limitations of verbally based research methods for understanding and capturing the multidimensionality of lived experience, arts-based methods have been gaining ground within the social sciences. These methods embrace emotional, sensory, embodied and imaginative ways of knowing that lend to richer knowledge production and communication processes. Yet, these methods are rarely used in sport research. The purpose of the current project was to explore an arts-based method as a tool to facilitate participatory action research (PAR) and generate locally resonant knowledge about the sport experiences of Aboriginal community members in north-eastern Ontario, Canada. Mandala drawings were used to embrace an Indigenous epistemology and open up a culturally affirming space for Aboriginal athletes to share their experiences of sport relocation. Conversational interviews were then used to facilitate deeper understandings of the athletes’ mandalas. The images contributed towards community action on two levels: (1) they affirmed a need for athletes to feel connected to their cultural community during relocation, therein reinforcing local efforts to support relocated athletes; and (2) they served as a resource for educating and inspiring other aspiring young athletes. The strengths and challenges of arts-based methods are discussed in relation to PAR. It is concluded that arts-based methods offer potential for community-based sport research, as these methods open up a diversity of art forms which can be adopted to reflect localised PAR processes and ways of knowing.

Exploring Media Representations of Weight-Loss Surgery

Scholars have problematized popular culture and media (re)presentations of obesity/overweight. However, few have considered the ways bariatric surgery, a rapidly growing treatment for morbid obesity, fits within the discussion. In this article, we explore news media (re)presentations of bariatric surgery using an eclectic approach to critical discourse analysis. Our findings reveal dominant discourses about bariatric surgery and the surgical population, providing an understanding of media (re)presentations as possible contributors to bias, stigmatization, and discrimination. Novel in our findings was our identification of subject positions in the dominant discourses (which were biomedical and benevolent government). We argue that existing (re)presentations of bariatric surgery are highly problematic because they reinforce oversimplistic and binary understandings of weight-loss surgery and obesity, weaving a highly gendered fairy-tale narrative and ultimately promoting weight-based stigmatization.

Pathways for community research in sport and physical activity: criteria for consideration

This paper focuses on how researchers might approach judging community scholarship and what criteria might be used to evaluate this work. It is suggested that rather than adopting a criteriologist approach that proposes pre-established, permanent and universal criteria, a relativist approach is more suitable for making fair and informed judgments about the quality of research. This approach proposes that criteria should be viewed as lists of characterising traits that are open to reinterpretation as times, conditions and purposes change. Informed by a relativist approach to validity, a list of criteria to evaluate community scholarship coupled with recommendations for application is offered for consideration.

Cultural sport psychology research: conceptions, evolutions, and forecasts.

Cultural sport psychology (CSP) is a relatively new research genre that challenges mainstream sport psychologys assumptions to facilitate contextualized understandings of marginalized topics and cultural identities. Conceptual writings on CSP have grown in the past 10 years, and with that, empirical literature explicitly positioned within CSP. In this article, the landscape of CSP is outlined to more clearly explicate and contextualize the goals and tenets of this mode of inquiry, with the overarching intent of making further recommendations for CSP research. As CSP is broad, a small body of sport research conducted on race and ethnicity (two facets of cultural identity) is reviewed. Suggestions are made to extend the limited body of research on marginalized cultural identities via a CSP approach, focusing on reflexive processes and participant engagement. Through these strategies, CSP research is put forward as a way to further open the possibility of advancing social change and social justice.

Understanding immigrated professional athletes' support networks during post-relocation adaptation through media data

A directed content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) of media data concerning immigrated Major League Baseball (n = 56) and National Hockey League (n = 56) players was done to explore post-relocation stressors and adaptation. Fiskes (2004) adaptation pathways of understanding, control, belonging, and trust guided the analysis. The understanding sub-strategies were language advice, language models, and integration advice; control sub-strategies were language reinforcement and integration reinforcement; belonging sub-strategies were shared cultural background and cultural appreciation from ones sport team; and trusting sub-strategies were inclusive reputation of the team and of immigrated veterans. These results extend understandings of adaptation and cultural sport psychology into the realm of immigrant professional athletes relocated to North America. Furthermore, the authors provide suggestions for applied sport psychologists who work with a diversity of immigrated clients.