research methods in health psychology ppt

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The Use of Research Methods in Psychological Research: A Systematised Review

Salomé elizabeth scholtz.

1 Community Psychosocial Research (COMPRES), School of Psychosocial Health, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Werner de Klerk

Leon t. de beer.

2 WorkWell Research Institute, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Research methods play an imperative role in research quality as well as educating young researchers, however, the application thereof is unclear which can be detrimental to the field of psychology. Therefore, this systematised review aimed to determine what research methods are being used, how these methods are being used and for what topics in the field. Our review of 999 articles from five journals over a period of 5 years indicated that psychology research is conducted in 10 topics via predominantly quantitative research methods. Of these 10 topics, social psychology was the most popular. The remainder of the conducted methodology is described. It was also found that articles lacked rigour and transparency in the used methodology which has implications for replicability. In conclusion this article, provides an overview of all reported methodologies used in a sample of psychology journals. It highlights the popularity and application of methods and designs throughout the article sample as well as an unexpected lack of rigour with regard to most aspects of methodology. Possible sample bias should be considered when interpreting the results of this study. It is recommended that future research should utilise the results of this study to determine the possible impact on the field of psychology as a science and to further investigation into the use of research methods. Results should prompt the following future research into: a lack or rigour and its implication on replication, the use of certain methods above others, publication bias and choice of sampling method.

Introduction

Psychology is an ever-growing and popular field (Gough and Lyons, 2016 ; Clay, 2017 ). Due to this growth and the need for science-based research to base health decisions on (Perestelo-Pérez, 2013 ), the use of research methods in the broad field of psychology is an essential point of investigation (Stangor, 2011 ; Aanstoos, 2014 ). Research methods are therefore viewed as important tools used by researchers to collect data (Nieuwenhuis, 2016 ) and include the following: quantitative, qualitative, mixed method and multi method (Maree, 2016 ). Additionally, researchers also employ various types of literature reviews to address research questions (Grant and Booth, 2009 ). According to literature, what research method is used and why a certain research method is used is complex as it depends on various factors that may include paradigm (O'Neil and Koekemoer, 2016 ), research question (Grix, 2002 ), or the skill and exposure of the researcher (Nind et al., 2015 ). How these research methods are employed is also difficult to discern as research methods are often depicted as having fixed boundaries that are continuously crossed in research (Johnson et al., 2001 ; Sandelowski, 2011 ). Examples of this crossing include adding quantitative aspects to qualitative studies (Sandelowski et al., 2009 ), or stating that a study used a mixed-method design without the study having any characteristics of this design (Truscott et al., 2010 ).

The inappropriate use of research methods affects how students and researchers improve and utilise their research skills (Scott Jones and Goldring, 2015 ), how theories are developed (Ngulube, 2013 ), and the credibility of research results (Levitt et al., 2017 ). This, in turn, can be detrimental to the field (Nind et al., 2015 ), journal publication (Ketchen et al., 2008 ; Ezeh et al., 2010 ), and attempts to address public social issues through psychological research (Dweck, 2017 ). This is especially important given the now well-known replication crisis the field is facing (Earp and Trafimow, 2015 ; Hengartner, 2018 ).

Due to this lack of clarity on method use and the potential impact of inept use of research methods, the aim of this study was to explore the use of research methods in the field of psychology through a review of journal publications. Chaichanasakul et al. ( 2011 ) identify reviewing articles as the opportunity to examine the development, growth and progress of a research area and overall quality of a journal. Studies such as Lee et al. ( 1999 ) as well as Bluhm et al. ( 2011 ) review of qualitative methods has attempted to synthesis the use of research methods and indicated the growth of qualitative research in American and European journals. Research has also focused on the use of research methods in specific sub-disciplines of psychology, for example, in the field of Industrial and Organisational psychology Coetzee and Van Zyl ( 2014 ) found that South African publications tend to consist of cross-sectional quantitative research methods with underrepresented longitudinal studies. Qualitative studies were found to make up 21% of the articles published from 1995 to 2015 in a similar study by O'Neil and Koekemoer ( 2016 ). Other methods in health psychology, such as Mixed methods research have also been reportedly growing in popularity (O'Cathain, 2009 ).

A broad overview of the use of research methods in the field of psychology as a whole is however, not available in the literature. Therefore, our research focused on answering what research methods are being used, how these methods are being used and for what topics in practice (i.e., journal publications) in order to provide a general perspective of method used in psychology publication. We synthesised the collected data into the following format: research topic [areas of scientific discourse in a field or the current needs of a population (Bittermann and Fischer, 2018 )], method [data-gathering tools (Nieuwenhuis, 2016 )], sampling [elements chosen from a population to partake in research (Ritchie et al., 2009 )], data collection [techniques and research strategy (Maree, 2016 )], and data analysis [discovering information by examining bodies of data (Ktepi, 2016 )]. A systematised review of recent articles (2013 to 2017) collected from five different journals in the field of psychological research was conducted.

Grant and Booth ( 2009 ) describe systematised reviews as the review of choice for post-graduate studies, which is employed using some elements of a systematic review and seldom more than one or two databases to catalogue studies after a comprehensive literature search. The aspects used in this systematised review that are similar to that of a systematic review were a full search within the chosen database and data produced in tabular form (Grant and Booth, 2009 ).

Sample sizes and timelines vary in systematised reviews (see Lowe and Moore, 2014 ; Pericall and Taylor, 2014 ; Barr-Walker, 2017 ). With no clear parameters identified in the literature (see Grant and Booth, 2009 ), the sample size of this study was determined by the purpose of the sample (Strydom, 2011 ), and time and cost constraints (Maree and Pietersen, 2016 ). Thus, a non-probability purposive sample (Ritchie et al., 2009 ) of the top five psychology journals from 2013 to 2017 was included in this research study. Per Lee ( 2015 ) American Psychological Association (APA) recommends the use of the most up-to-date sources for data collection with consideration of the context of the research study. As this research study focused on the most recent trends in research methods used in the broad field of psychology, the identified time frame was deemed appropriate.

Psychology journals were only included if they formed part of the top five English journals in the miscellaneous psychology domain of the Scimago Journal and Country Rank (Scimago Journal & Country Rank, 2017 ). The Scimago Journal and Country Rank provides a yearly updated list of publicly accessible journal and country-specific indicators derived from the Scopus® database (Scopus, 2017b ) by means of the Scimago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator developed by Scimago from the algorithm Google PageRank™ (Scimago Journal & Country Rank, 2017 ). Scopus is the largest global database of abstracts and citations from peer-reviewed journals (Scopus, 2017a ). Reasons for the development of the Scimago Journal and Country Rank list was to allow researchers to assess scientific domains, compare country rankings, and compare and analyse journals (Scimago Journal & Country Rank, 2017 ), which supported the aim of this research study. Additionally, the goals of the journals had to focus on topics in psychology in general with no preference to specific research methods and have full-text access to articles.

The following list of top five journals in 2018 fell within the abovementioned inclusion criteria (1) Australian Journal of Psychology, (2) British Journal of Psychology, (3) Europe's Journal of Psychology, (4) International Journal of Psychology and lastly the (5) Journal of Psychology Applied and Interdisciplinary.

Journals were excluded from this systematised review if no full-text versions of their articles were available, if journals explicitly stated a publication preference for certain research methods, or if the journal only published articles in a specific discipline of psychological research (for example, industrial psychology, clinical psychology etc.).

The researchers followed a procedure (see Figure 1 ) adapted from that of Ferreira et al. ( 2016 ) for systematised reviews. Data collection and categorisation commenced on 4 December 2017 and continued until 30 June 2019. All the data was systematically collected and coded manually (Grant and Booth, 2009 ) with an independent person acting as co-coder. Codes of interest included the research topic, method used, the design used, sampling method, and methodology (the method used for data collection and data analysis). These codes were derived from the wording in each article. Themes were created based on the derived codes and checked by the co-coder. Lastly, these themes were catalogued into a table as per the systematised review design.

Systematised review procedure.

According to Johnston et al. ( 2019 ), “literature screening, selection, and data extraction/analyses” (p. 7) are specifically tailored to the aim of a review. Therefore, the steps followed in a systematic review must be reported in a comprehensive and transparent manner. The chosen systematised design adhered to the rigour expected from systematic reviews with regard to full search and data produced in tabular form (Grant and Booth, 2009 ). The rigorous application of the systematic review is, therefore discussed in relation to these two elements.

Firstly, to ensure a comprehensive search, this research study promoted review transparency by following a clear protocol outlined according to each review stage before collecting data (Johnston et al., 2019 ). This protocol was similar to that of Ferreira et al. ( 2016 ) and approved by three research committees/stakeholders and the researchers (Johnston et al., 2019 ). The eligibility criteria for article inclusion was based on the research question and clearly stated, and the process of inclusion was recorded on an electronic spreadsheet to create an evidence trail (Bandara et al., 2015 ; Johnston et al., 2019 ). Microsoft Excel spreadsheets are a popular tool for review studies and can increase the rigour of the review process (Bandara et al., 2015 ). Screening for appropriate articles for inclusion forms an integral part of a systematic review process (Johnston et al., 2019 ). This step was applied to two aspects of this research study: the choice of eligible journals and articles to be included. Suitable journals were selected by the first author and reviewed by the second and third authors. Initially, all articles from the chosen journals were included. Then, by process of elimination, those irrelevant to the research aim, i.e., interview articles or discussions etc., were excluded.

To ensure rigourous data extraction, data was first extracted by one reviewer, and an independent person verified the results for completeness and accuracy (Johnston et al., 2019 ). The research question served as a guide for efficient, organised data extraction (Johnston et al., 2019 ). Data was categorised according to the codes of interest, along with article identifiers for audit trails such as authors, title and aims of articles. The categorised data was based on the aim of the review (Johnston et al., 2019 ) and synthesised in tabular form under methods used, how these methods were used, and for what topics in the field of psychology.

The initial search produced a total of 1,145 articles from the 5 journals identified. Inclusion and exclusion criteria resulted in a final sample of 999 articles ( Figure 2 ). Articles were co-coded into 84 codes, from which 10 themes were derived ( Table 1 ).

Journal article frequency.

Codes used to form themes (research topics).

These 10 themes represent the topic section of our research question ( Figure 3 ). All these topics except, for the final one, psychological practice , were found to concur with the research areas in psychology as identified by Weiten ( 2010 ). These research areas were chosen to represent the derived codes as they provided broad definitions that allowed for clear, concise categorisation of the vast amount of data. Article codes were categorised under particular themes/topics if they adhered to the research area definitions created by Weiten ( 2010 ). It is important to note that these areas of research do not refer to specific disciplines in psychology, such as industrial psychology; but to broader fields that may encompass sub-interests of these disciplines.

Topic frequency (international sample).

In the case of developmental psychology , researchers conduct research into human development from childhood to old age. Social psychology includes research on behaviour governed by social drivers. Researchers in the field of educational psychology study how people learn and the best way to teach them. Health psychology aims to determine the effect of psychological factors on physiological health. Physiological psychology , on the other hand, looks at the influence of physiological aspects on behaviour. Experimental psychology is not the only theme that uses experimental research and focuses on the traditional core topics of psychology (for example, sensation). Cognitive psychology studies the higher mental processes. Psychometrics is concerned with measuring capacity or behaviour. Personality research aims to assess and describe consistency in human behaviour (Weiten, 2010 ). The final theme of psychological practice refers to the experiences, techniques, and interventions employed by practitioners, researchers, and academia in the field of psychology.

Articles under these themes were further subdivided into methodologies: method, sampling, design, data collection, and data analysis. The categorisation was based on information stated in the articles and not inferred by the researchers. Data were compiled into two sets of results presented in this article. The first set addresses the aim of this study from the perspective of the topics identified. The second set of results represents a broad overview of the results from the perspective of the methodology employed. The second set of results are discussed in this article, while the first set is presented in table format. The discussion thus provides a broad overview of methods use in psychology (across all themes), while the table format provides readers with in-depth insight into methods used in the individual themes identified. We believe that presenting the data from both perspectives allow readers a broad understanding of the results. Due a large amount of information that made up our results, we followed Cichocka and Jost ( 2014 ) in simplifying our results. Please note that the numbers indicated in the table in terms of methodology differ from the total number of articles. Some articles employed more than one method/sampling technique/design/data collection method/data analysis in their studies.

What follows is the results for what methods are used, how these methods are used, and which topics in psychology they are applied to . Percentages are reported to the second decimal in order to highlight small differences in the occurrence of methodology.

Firstly, with regard to the research methods used, our results show that researchers are more likely to use quantitative research methods (90.22%) compared to all other research methods. Qualitative research was the second most common research method but only made up about 4.79% of the general method usage. Reviews occurred almost as much as qualitative studies (3.91%), as the third most popular method. Mixed-methods research studies (0.98%) occurred across most themes, whereas multi-method research was indicated in only one study and amounted to 0.10% of the methods identified. The specific use of each method in the topics identified is shown in Table 2 and Figure 4 .

Research methods in psychology.

Research method frequency in topics.

Secondly, in the case of how these research methods are employed , our study indicated the following.

Sampling −78.34% of the studies in the collected articles did not specify a sampling method. From the remainder of the studies, 13 types of sampling methods were identified. These sampling methods included broad categorisation of a sample as, for example, a probability or non-probability sample. General samples of convenience were the methods most likely to be applied (10.34%), followed by random sampling (3.51%), snowball sampling (2.73%), and purposive (1.37%) and cluster sampling (1.27%). The remainder of the sampling methods occurred to a more limited extent (0–1.0%). See Table 3 and Figure 5 for sampling methods employed in each topic.

Sampling use in the field of psychology.

Sampling method frequency in topics.

Designs were categorised based on the articles' statement thereof. Therefore, it is important to note that, in the case of quantitative studies, non-experimental designs (25.55%) were often indicated due to a lack of experiments and any other indication of design, which, according to Laher ( 2016 ), is a reasonable categorisation. Non-experimental designs should thus be compared with experimental designs only in the description of data, as it could include the use of correlational/cross-sectional designs, which were not overtly stated by the authors. For the remainder of the research methods, “not stated” (7.12%) was assigned to articles without design types indicated.

From the 36 identified designs the most popular designs were cross-sectional (23.17%) and experimental (25.64%), which concurred with the high number of quantitative studies. Longitudinal studies (3.80%), the third most popular design, was used in both quantitative and qualitative studies. Qualitative designs consisted of ethnography (0.38%), interpretative phenomenological designs/phenomenology (0.28%), as well as narrative designs (0.28%). Studies that employed the review method were mostly categorised as “not stated,” with the most often stated review designs being systematic reviews (0.57%). The few mixed method studies employed exploratory, explanatory (0.09%), and concurrent designs (0.19%), with some studies referring to separate designs for the qualitative and quantitative methods. The one study that identified itself as a multi-method study used a longitudinal design. Please see how these designs were employed in each specific topic in Table 4 , Figure 6 .

Design use in the field of psychology.

Design frequency in topics.

Data collection and analysis —data collection included 30 methods, with the data collection method most often employed being questionnaires (57.84%). The experimental task (16.56%) was the second most preferred collection method, which included established or unique tasks designed by the researchers. Cognitive ability tests (6.84%) were also regularly used along with various forms of interviewing (7.66%). Table 5 and Figure 7 represent data collection use in the various topics. Data analysis consisted of 3,857 occurrences of data analysis categorised into ±188 various data analysis techniques shown in Table 6 and Figures 1 – 7 . Descriptive statistics were the most commonly used (23.49%) along with correlational analysis (17.19%). When using a qualitative method, researchers generally employed thematic analysis (0.52%) or different forms of analysis that led to coding and the creation of themes. Review studies presented few data analysis methods, with most studies categorising their results. Mixed method and multi-method studies followed the analysis methods identified for the qualitative and quantitative studies included.

Data collection in the field of psychology.

Data collection frequency in topics.

Data analysis in the field of psychology.

Results of the topics researched in psychology can be seen in the tables, as previously stated in this article. It is noteworthy that, of the 10 topics, social psychology accounted for 43.54% of the studies, with cognitive psychology the second most popular research topic at 16.92%. The remainder of the topics only occurred in 4.0–7.0% of the articles considered. A list of the included 999 articles is available under the section “View Articles” on the following website: https://methodgarden.xtrapolate.io/ . This website was created by Scholtz et al. ( 2019 ) to visually present a research framework based on this Article's results.

This systematised review categorised full-length articles from five international journals across the span of 5 years to provide insight into the use of research methods in the field of psychology. Results indicated what methods are used how these methods are being used and for what topics (why) in the included sample of articles. The results should be seen as providing insight into method use and by no means a comprehensive representation of the aforementioned aim due to the limited sample. To our knowledge, this is the first research study to address this topic in this manner. Our discussion attempts to promote a productive way forward in terms of the key results for method use in psychology, especially in the field of academia (Holloway, 2008 ).

With regard to the methods used, our data stayed true to literature, finding only common research methods (Grant and Booth, 2009 ; Maree, 2016 ) that varied in the degree to which they were employed. Quantitative research was found to be the most popular method, as indicated by literature (Breen and Darlaston-Jones, 2010 ; Counsell and Harlow, 2017 ) and previous studies in specific areas of psychology (see Coetzee and Van Zyl, 2014 ). Its long history as the first research method (Leech et al., 2007 ) in the field of psychology as well as researchers' current application of mathematical approaches in their studies (Toomela, 2010 ) might contribute to its popularity today. Whatever the case may be, our results show that, despite the growth in qualitative research (Demuth, 2015 ; Smith and McGannon, 2018 ), quantitative research remains the first choice for article publication in these journals. Despite the included journals indicating openness to articles that apply any research methods. This finding may be due to qualitative research still being seen as a new method (Burman and Whelan, 2011 ) or reviewers' standards being higher for qualitative studies (Bluhm et al., 2011 ). Future research is encouraged into the possible biasness in publication of research methods, additionally further investigation with a different sample into the proclaimed growth of qualitative research may also provide different results.

Review studies were found to surpass that of multi-method and mixed method studies. To this effect Grant and Booth ( 2009 ), state that the increased awareness, journal contribution calls as well as its efficiency in procuring research funds all promote the popularity of reviews. The low frequency of mixed method studies contradicts the view in literature that it's the third most utilised research method (Tashakkori and Teddlie's, 2003 ). Its' low occurrence in this sample could be due to opposing views on mixing methods (Gunasekare, 2015 ) or that authors prefer publishing in mixed method journals, when using this method, or its relative novelty (Ivankova et al., 2016 ). Despite its low occurrence, the application of the mixed methods design in articles was methodologically clear in all cases which were not the case for the remainder of research methods.

Additionally, a substantial number of studies used a combination of methodologies that are not mixed or multi-method studies. Perceived fixed boundaries are according to literature often set aside, as confirmed by this result, in order to investigate the aim of a study, which could create a new and helpful way of understanding the world (Gunasekare, 2015 ). According to Toomela ( 2010 ), this is not unheard of and could be considered a form of “structural systemic science,” as in the case of qualitative methodology (observation) applied in quantitative studies (experimental design) for example. Based on this result, further research into this phenomenon as well as its implications for research methods such as multi and mixed methods is recommended.

Discerning how these research methods were applied, presented some difficulty. In the case of sampling, most studies—regardless of method—did mention some form of inclusion and exclusion criteria, but no definite sampling method. This result, along with the fact that samples often consisted of students from the researchers' own academic institutions, can contribute to literature and debates among academics (Peterson and Merunka, 2014 ; Laher, 2016 ). Samples of convenience and students as participants especially raise questions about the generalisability and applicability of results (Peterson and Merunka, 2014 ). This is because attention to sampling is important as inappropriate sampling can debilitate the legitimacy of interpretations (Onwuegbuzie and Collins, 2017 ). Future investigation into the possible implications of this reported popular use of convenience samples for the field of psychology as well as the reason for this use could provide interesting insight, and is encouraged by this study.

Additionally, and this is indicated in Table 6 , articles seldom report the research designs used, which highlights the pressing aspect of the lack of rigour in the included sample. Rigour with regards to the applied empirical method is imperative in promoting psychology as a science (American Psychological Association, 2020 ). Omitting parts of the research process in publication when it could have been used to inform others' research skills should be questioned, and the influence on the process of replicating results should be considered. Publications are often rejected due to a lack of rigour in the applied method and designs (Fonseca, 2013 ; Laher, 2016 ), calling for increased clarity and knowledge of method application. Replication is a critical part of any field of scientific research and requires the “complete articulation” of the study methods used (Drotar, 2010 , p. 804). The lack of thorough description could be explained by the requirements of certain journals to only report on certain aspects of a research process, especially with regard to the applied design (Laher, 20). However, naming aspects such as sampling and designs, is a requirement according to the APA's Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS-Quant) (Appelbaum et al., 2018 ). With very little information on how a study was conducted, authors lose a valuable opportunity to enhance research validity, enrich the knowledge of others, and contribute to the growth of psychology and methodology as a whole. In the case of this research study, it also restricted our results to only reported samples and designs, which indicated a preference for certain designs, such as cross-sectional designs for quantitative studies.

Data collection and analysis were for the most part clearly stated. A key result was the versatile use of questionnaires. Researchers would apply a questionnaire in various ways, for example in questionnaire interviews, online surveys, and written questionnaires across most research methods. This may highlight a trend for future research.

With regard to the topics these methods were employed for, our research study found a new field named “psychological practice.” This result may show the growing consciousness of researchers as part of the research process (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003 ), psychological practice, and knowledge generation. The most popular of these topics was social psychology, which is generously covered in journals and by learning societies, as testaments of the institutional support and richness social psychology has in the field of psychology (Chryssochoou, 2015 ). The APA's perspective on 2018 trends in psychology also identifies an increased amount of psychology focus on how social determinants are influencing people's health (Deangelis, 2017 ).

This study was not without limitations and the following should be taken into account. Firstly, this study used a sample of five specific journals to address the aim of the research study, despite general journal aims (as stated on journal websites), this inclusion signified a bias towards the research methods published in these specific journals only and limited generalisability. A broader sample of journals over a different period of time, or a single journal over a longer period of time might provide different results. A second limitation is the use of Excel spreadsheets and an electronic system to log articles, which was a manual process and therefore left room for error (Bandara et al., 2015 ). To address this potential issue, co-coding was performed to reduce error. Lastly, this article categorised data based on the information presented in the article sample; there was no interpretation of what methodology could have been applied or whether the methods stated adhered to the criteria for the methods used. Thus, a large number of articles that did not clearly indicate a research method or design could influence the results of this review. However, this in itself was also a noteworthy result. Future research could review research methods of a broader sample of journals with an interpretive review tool that increases rigour. Additionally, the authors also encourage the future use of systematised review designs as a way to promote a concise procedure in applying this design.

Our research study presented the use of research methods for published articles in the field of psychology as well as recommendations for future research based on these results. Insight into the complex questions identified in literature, regarding what methods are used how these methods are being used and for what topics (why) was gained. This sample preferred quantitative methods, used convenience sampling and presented a lack of rigorous accounts for the remaining methodologies. All methodologies that were clearly indicated in the sample were tabulated to allow researchers insight into the general use of methods and not only the most frequently used methods. The lack of rigorous account of research methods in articles was represented in-depth for each step in the research process and can be of vital importance to address the current replication crisis within the field of psychology. Recommendations for future research aimed to motivate research into the practical implications of the results for psychology, for example, publication bias and the use of convenience samples.

Ethics Statement

This study was cleared by the North-West University Health Research Ethics Committee: NWU-00115-17-S1.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Research Methods in Psychology

Feb 04, 2014

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Research Methods in Psychology. Chapter 1 The Scientific Method And so much more. Psychology…. The science of behavior. Two connotations of science. 1) Content (what we know). 2) Process (an activity that includes) . a) gathering data. b) noting relationships. c) offering explanations.

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• conventional rules
• nonscientific inference
• non sequitur m h
• different treatment conditions
• certain ways

Presentation Transcript

Research Methods in Psychology Chapter 1 The Scientific Method And so much more

Psychology… The science of behavior Two connotations of science 1) Content (what we know) 2) Process (an activity that includes) a) gathering data b) noting relationships c) offering explanations

IS Red Wine good for you, even though it doesn’t have much resveratrol?http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/2256667 forward to 23.30

Scientific methods… 1) Specifying conditions 2) Systematic observation 3) Explanations of behavior Methodology… Scientific techniques used to collect and evaluate data (the facts and figures gathered in research studies).

Methods include: Everything in Methods section of paper Subjects, Apparatus and Procedures And ‘methods’ used in Results section data transforms, statistical techniques, p values

Commonsense psychology… The kind of everyday, nonscientific data gathering that shapes our expectations, beliefs and directs our behavior toward others (Heider, 1958). Summer internship in Paris… “absence make the heart grow fonder” or “out of sight, out of mind”

Constraints: 1) Source of information 2) Inferential strategies

Nonscientific sources of data… although seemingly trustworthy (e.g., friends, family, people we admire, books or even news reports), are not always very good sources for obtaining valid information. Is there any source that is?

What about this guy? E = MC2 God doesn’t roll dice with the Universe

Any truthiness to superstitions… If you believe that the full moon triggers “lunacy” you might notice and remember abnormal behaviors more and ignore the many more instances of no abnormal behavior during this lunar event. However, we can’t avoid all superstitions, myths and urban legends…

Any truth to superstitions… Apparently, there is some scientific evidence to support the belief that Friday the 13th is unlucky! Scanlon, Luben, Scanlon, & Singleton, 1993

Scanlon et al. 1993… Retrospecitive study comparing Group A: Fri 13 to Group B: Fri 6th Measures vehicles on motorways shoppers in supermakets hospital admissions due to car accidents

Scanlon et al. 1993… Results Fewer vehicles on highway on Fri 13 Number of shoppers were the same Increased hospital admission due to Auto accident on Fri 13

Nonscientific inference… Exercise… Pick someone in the room who you perceive to be different from you. Together, create a list of the actual differences between you and your partner. (5 min.) Next, create a list of the commonalities between you and your partner. (5 min.) Tally the number of differences and the number of similarities.

Result of exercise… You’re suppose to learn that you have more in common than you initially thought…

Nonscientific inference… As commonsense psychologists, we are trait theorists. Perceiving others in terms of their traits can lead to overestimations of the likelihood that they will act in certain ways in a wide variety of situations. Inferential biases are believed to be the brain’s way of coping with an immense amount of information.

Scientific mentality… Alfred North Whitehead traced the development of science in his book Science and the Modern World (1925). He postulated that “faith” in an organized universe is essential to science. Research psychologists share the belief that there are specifiable reasons for the way people behave.

Empirical data… Observable or experienced data are preferable to commonsense data, but does not guarantee that correct conclusions will be reached. Modern scientists propose general principles – laws or theories - to explain observable data.

General principles… Laws are applicable to all situations. Theories pull together groups of scientific facts into an organizing scheme or set of rules. Science progresses only through progressively better theories. ( Popper, 1963)

Good thinking… Collection and interpretation of data should be systematic, objective and rational. Avoid letting private beliefs or expectations influence observations or conclusions.

Pre-conceptual science… Comics: Non Sequitur M&H call it woodenheaded thinking “…assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. (Tuchman, 1984, p. 7).”

Good thinking… Principle of Parsimony, a.k.a. Occam’s Razor “entities should not be multiplied without necessity” Avoid unnecessary assumptions to support a hypothesis. When two explanations are equally defensible, the simplest explanation is preferred until conflicting data rules it out.

Self-correction… Science involves a constant re-evaluation of concepts and explanations. Falsification – challenging existing explanations and theories by testing hypotheses that follow logically from them. modus tollens (procedure of falsification) – it only takes one case of a contrary instance to prove a statement false.

Publicizing results… Scientists publish their results in scientific journals and report findings at professional conferences. Reporting scientific findings is very important to avoid unnecessary duplication of experimental work.

Replication… Replicating experimental work ensures that a result can be reproduced, which sometimes does not happen and may even reveal scientific misconduct. As we shall see in the documentary: The Dark Secret of HendrikSchön

The Tools of Psychological Science Observation – systematic recording of events. Measurement – assigning numerical value to events and objects according to conventional rules or standards. Experimentation – is a process to show that certain events are predictable under certain, specifiable conditions.

Experimentation • Can only be done if a prediction is testable. Two minimum requirements • procedures for manipulating the setting • the predicted outcome must be observable • Drug A increases… • dreaming spatial mapping • anxiety etc.

Scientific Explanations in Psychological Science Antecedent conditions – circumstances that come before an event or behavior. Treatment conditions – antecedent conditions that we create in an experiment. The psychology experiment – a controlled procedure in which at least two different treatment conditions are applied to the subjects.

Establishing cause and effect… 1) If the experiment has adequate control AND 2) If the two treatments result in differences in the behavioral measure, THEN 3) We can infer a cause and effect relationship (antecedent  outcome) 4) This is always stated in terms of the probability or likelihood that the treatment caused the behavioral difference between subjects.

The Colbert Nation:Truthiness A statistically sound scientific concept!

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Faculty Resources

PowerPoints

A full set of PowerPoint decks is provided for download below. All decks are tightly aligned to the modules in this course. Since they are openly licensed, you are welcome to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute as desired.

These PowerPoint files are accessible. If you do revise them, make sure to follow these  guidelines for creating accessible PowerPoints .

Use this link to download  all PowerPoint decks in a single .zip file (40 MB). or the following links for individual modules.

• Psychological Foundations
• Psychological Research
• Biopsychology
• States of Consciousness
• Sensation and Perception
• Thinking and Intelligence
• Learning and Conditioning
• Lifespan Development
• Social Psychology
• Personality
• Emotion and Motivation
• Industrial-Organizational Psychology
• Psychological Disorders
• Therapy and Treatment
• Stress, Lifestyle, and Health

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• PowerPoints. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution

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• Projector Screen. Authored by : Denis Shumaylov. Provided by : Noun Project. Located at : https://thenounproject.com/term/projector-screen/1211212/ . License : CC BY: Attribution

General Psychology Copyright © by OpenStax and Lumen Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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11.3 Other Presentation Formats

Learning objectives.

• List several ways that researchers in psychology can present their research and the situations in which they might use them.
• Describe how final manuscripts differ from copy manuscripts in American Psychological Association (APA) style.
• Describe the purpose of talks and posters at professional conferences.
• Prepare a short conference-style talk and simple poster presentation.

Writing an empirical research report in American Psychological Association (APA) style is only one way to present new research in psychology. In this section, we look at several other important ways.

Other Types of Manuscripts

Section 11.2 “Writing a Research Report in American Psychological Association (APA) Style” focused on writing empirical research reports to be submitted for publication in a professional journal. However, there are other kinds of manuscripts that are written in APA style, many of which will not be submitted for publication elsewhere. Here we look at a few of them.

Review and Theoretical Articles

Recall that review articles summarize research on a particular topic without presenting new empirical results. When these articles present a new theory, they are often called theoretical articles . Review and theoretical articles are structured much like empirical research reports, with a title page, an abstract, references, appendixes, tables, and figures, and they are written in the same high-level and low-level style. Because they do not report the results of new empirical research, however, there is no method or results section. Of course, the body of the manuscript should still have a logical organization and include an opening that identifies the topic and explains its importance, a literature review that organizes previous research (identifying important relationships among concepts or gaps in the literature), and a closing or conclusion that summarizes the main conclusions and suggests directions for further research or discusses theoretical and practical implications. In a theoretical article, of course, much of the body of the manuscript is devoted to presenting the new theory. Theoretical and review articles are usually divided into sections, each with a heading that is appropriate to that section. The sections and headings can vary considerably from article to article (unlike in an empirical research report). But whatever they are, they should help organize the manuscript and make the argument clear.

Final Manuscripts

Until now, we have focused on the formatting of manuscripts that will be submitted to a professional journal for publication. These are referred to as copy manuscripts . Many features of a copy manuscript—consistent double-spacing, the running head, and the placement of tables and figures at the end—are intended to make it easier to edit and typeset on its way to publication. The published journal article looks quite different from the copy manuscript. For example, the title and author information, the abstract, and the beginning of the introduction generally appear on the same page rather than on separate pages. In contrast, other types of manuscripts are prepared by the author in their final form with no intention of submitting them for publication elsewhere. These are called final manuscripts and include dissertations, theses, and other student papers.

Final manuscripts can differ from copy manuscripts in a number of ways that make them easier to read. This can include putting tables and figures close to where they are discussed so that the reader does not have to flip to the back of the manuscript to see them. It can also include variations in line spacing that improve readability—such as using single spacing for table titles and figure captions or triple spacing between major sections or around tables and figures. Dissertations and theses can differ from copy manuscripts in additional ways. They may have a longer abstract, a special acknowledgments page, a table of contents, and so on. For student papers, it is important to check with the course instructor about formatting specifics. In a research methods course, papers are usually required to be written as though they were copy manuscripts being submitted for publication.

Conference Presentations

One of the ways that researchers in psychology share their research with each other is by presenting it at professional conferences . (Although some professional conferences in psychology are devoted mainly to issues of clinical practice, we are concerned here with those that focus on research.) Professional conferences can range from small-scale events involving a dozen researchers who get together for an afternoon to large-scale events involving thousands of researchers who meet for several days. Although researchers attending a professional conference are likely to discuss their work with each other informally, there are two more formal types of presentation: oral presentations (“talks”) and posters. Presenting a talk or poster at a conference usually requires submitting an abstract of the research to the conference organizers in advance and having it accepted for presentation—although the peer review process is typically not as rigorous as it is for manuscripts submitted to a professional journal.

Professional Conferences

Following are links to the websites for several large national conferences in the United States and also for several conferences that feature the work of undergraduate students. For a comprehensive list of psychology conferences worldwide, see the following website.

http://www.conferencealerts.com/psychology.htm

Large National Conferences

American Psychological Association Convention: http://www.apa.org/convention

Association for Psychological Science Conference: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/convention

Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference: http://www.spsp.org/confer.htm

Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting: http://www.psychonomic.org/annual-meeting.html

Undergraduate Conferences

Carolinas Psychology Conference: http://www.meredith.edu/psych/cpc/default.htm

Illowa Undergraduate Psychology Conference: http://homepages.culver.edu/illowa

L. Starling Reid Undergraduate Psychology Conference (University of Virginia): http://www.virginia.edu/psychology/conference

Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference (UCLA): http://purc.psych.ucla.edu

Mid-America Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference: http://castle.eiu.edu/psych/mauprc

Stanford Undergraduate Psychology Conference: http://www.stanfordconference.org

Western Pennsylvania Undergraduate Psychology Conference: http://webpub.allegheny.edu/group/wpuc/WPUPweb_page/WPUPC.htm

Western Psychology Conference for Undergraduate Research: http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/psychology/the-western-psychology-conference-for-undergraduate-research-wpcur

Oral Presentations

In an oral presentation , or “talk,” the presenter stands in front of an audience of other researchers and tells them about his or her research—usually with the help of a slide show. Talks usually last from 10 to 20 minutes, with the last few minutes reserved for questions from the audience. At larger conferences, talks are typically grouped into sessions lasting an hour or two in which all the talks are on the same general topic.

In preparing a talk, presenters should keep several general principles in mind. The first is that the number of slides should be no more than about one per minute of the talk. The second is that a talk is generally structured like an APA-style research report. There is a slide with the title and authors, a few slides to help provide the background, a few more to help describe the method, a few for the results, and a few for the conclusions. The third is that the presenter should look at the audience members and speak to them in a conversational tone that is less formal than APA-style writing but more formal than a conversation with a friend. The slides should not be the focus of the presentation; they should act as visual aids. As such, they should present main points in bulleted lists or simple tables and figures.

Another way to present research at a conference is in the form of a poster . A poster is typically presented during a one- to two-hour poster session that takes place in a large room at the conference site. Presenters set up their posters on bulletin boards arranged around the room and stand near them. Other researchers then circulate through the room, read the posters, and talk to the presenters. In essence, poster sessions are a grown-up version of the school science fair. But there is nothing childish about them. Posters are used by professional researchers in all scientific disciplines and they are becoming increasingly common. At a recent American Psychological Society Conference, nearly 2,000 posters were presented across 16 separate poster sessions. Among the reasons posters are so popular is that they encourage meaningful interaction among researchers.

Figure 11.6

New research is often presented in the form of posters at professional conferences.

Thompson Rivers University – Kellee Caton: Research Day 2015 – CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Although a poster can consist of several sheets of paper that are attached separately to the bulletin board, it is now more common for them to consist of a single large sheet of paper. Either way, the information is organized into distinct sections, including a title, author names and affiliations, an introduction, a method section, a results section, a discussion or conclusions section, references, and acknowledgments. Although posters can include an abstract, this may not be necessary because the poster itself is already a brief summary of the research. Figure 11.7 “Two Possible Ways to Organize the Information on a Poster” shows two different ways that the information on a poster might be organized.

Figure 11.7 Two Possible Ways to Organize the Information on a Poster

Given the conditions under which posters are often presented—for example, in crowded ballrooms where people are also eating, drinking, and socializing—they should be constructed so that they present the main ideas behind the research in as simple and clear a way as possible. The font sizes on a poster should be large—perhaps 72 points for the title and authors’ names and 28 points for the main text. The information should be organized into sections with clear headings, and text should be blocked into sentences or bulleted points rather than paragraphs. It is also better for it to be organized in columns and flow from top to bottom rather than to be organized in rows that flow across the poster. This makes it easier for multiple people to read at the same time without bumping into each other. Posters often include elements that add visual interest. Figures can be more colorful than those in an APA-style manuscript. Posters can also include copies of visual stimuli, photographs of the apparatus, or a simulation of participants being tested. They can also include purely decorative elements, although it is best not to overdo these.

Again, a primary reason that posters are becoming such a popular way to present research is that they facilitate interaction among researchers. Many presenters immediately offer to describe their research to visitors and use the poster as a visual aid. At the very least, it is important for presenters to stand by their posters, greet visitors, offer to answer questions, and be prepared for questions and even the occasional critical comment. It is generally a good idea to have a more detailed write-up of the research available for visitors who want more information, to offer to send them a detailed write-up, or to provide contact information so that they can request more information later.

For more information on preparing and presenting both talks and posters, see the website of Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology: http://www.psichi.org/conventions/tips.aspx .

Key Takeaways

• Research in psychology can be presented in several different formats. In addition to APA-style empirical research reports, there are theoretical and review articles; final manuscripts, including dissertations, theses, and student papers; and talks and posters at professional conferences.
• Talks and posters at professional conferences follow some APA style guidelines but are considerably less detailed than APA-style research reports. Their function is to present new research to interested researchers and facilitate further interaction among researchers.
• Discussion: Do an Internet search using search terms such as psychology and poster to find three examples of posters that have been presented at conferences. Based on information in this chapter, what are the main strengths and main weaknesses of each poster?

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This 64 slide PowerPoint is full of visuals and has several YouTube clips throughout to help you cover information on research methods in psychology. The PowerPoint was created for my AP Psychology course, but it is also used in my general psych course as well.

I have two note sheets that go with the presentation to give to the students. One is completely filled out and the other is fill-in-the-blank. You decide which one to use. It is in a Cornell style.

• Wells Bradfield Study
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• Descriptive, Correlation, and Experimentation
• Mean, Median, and Mode
• Standard Deviation
• Skewed Distribution

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BRAIN RESEARCH METHODS

Neural Communication Psychology Introduction It was pretty clear early on that electricity played a role of some sort in neural communication It.

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RESEARCH METHODS IN BIOPSYCHOLOGY

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An introduction for students and practitioners chris barker, nancy pistrang, and robert elliott chapter 2 perspectives on research background issues philosophical ... – powerpoint ppt presentation.

• Perspectives on research
• Philosophical
• Professional
• Data gathering
• Ivory tower isolation
• over-confidence
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• Reformulation
• Dogmatism, rigidity
• Pure (or basic) research addresses the generation and testing of theory.
• Applied research addresses practical questions -- also known as evaluation/ audit/ quality assurance/ health services research.
• A search or investigation directed to the discovery of some fact by careful consideration or study of a subject a course of critical or scientific enquiry. Implications
• Careful, methodical study
• Detached, critical, scholarly attitude
• No prescribed method
• Discovery versus confirmation
• Facts and reality
• Falsification (Popper)
• Kuhns historical viewpoint
• Observations theories
• e.g., Freuds case studies
• Logical basis
• Theory-dependence of observation
• Theory inference test
• Hypothetico-deductive method
• good theories make falsifiable predictions
• conjectures and refutations
• e.g., in neuropsychology
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• Paradigm accepted theory and methods
• Normal science
• Scientific revolution replacement of current paradigm by another
• Incommensurability of paradigms
• No criteria for progress
• Conduct clinical work on basis of personal intuition and of knowledge from sources other than research.
• Articulated in the USA in the 1940s -- also known as the Boulder model (APA, 1947 Raimy, 1950).
• Clinical psychologists are trained to be clinicians as well as researchers (a twin track approach).
• Clinical work as a scientific endeavour
• Apply the findings of general psychology
• Only use empirically validated assessment methods
• Form hypotheses about the nature and determinants of the client's problems and collect data to test these hypotheses.
• Research and practice are integrated, not dichotomized.
• Use best current empirical evidence (especially RCTs) to select optimum interventions and assessment methods.
• (Sackett et al., 1997)
• Producing versus consuming research
• Pure versus applied research
• Small-N versus large-N research

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

The influence of athletes’ gratitude on burnout: the sequential mediating roles of the coach–athlete relationship and hope.

• 1 School of Physical Education, China University of Geoscience, Wuhan, China
• 2 School of Physical Education, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
• 3 School of Physical Education, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China

Background: Athlete burnout is a widespread psychological syndrome in competitive sports, negatively impacts athletes’ competitive state and hampers the healthy development of sports organizations. With the rise of positive psychology, exploring the mechanisms of athlete psychological fatigue through the lens of psychological capital has become a focal point of recent research. This study introduces gratitude, a key element of psychological capital in positive psychology, to examine its effect on athlete burnout and its mechanism of action, with a particular focus on the sequential mediating roles of the coach-athlete relationship (CAR) and hope.

Method: A cross-sectional study design was utilized, involving 483 active Chinese athletes from national training teams and professional sports teams. The sample comprised both male (n=251) and female (n=232) athletes, with an average age of 19.24 ± 3.99 years. Participants were asked to complete self-administered questionnaires, including the Gratitude Questionnaire, CAR Questionnaire, Hope Questionnaire, and Athlete Burnout Questionnaire. Structural equation modeling in AMOS 24.0 and descriptive statistics and correlation analyses in SPSS 20.0 were employed for data analysis.

Results: The study revealed significant associations between athlete gratitude, CAR, hope, and athlete burnout. Notably, gratitude was found to both directly and indirectly (via CAR and hope) influence burnout levels among athletes, suggesting a sequential mediation effect.

Conclusion: The findings highlight the importance of positive psychological constructs in buffering against athlete burnout. Specifically, gratitude, alongside a supportive CAR and elevated levels of hope, may play crucial roles in mitigating burnout symptoms. These insights offer promising directions for the development of targeted intervention strategies aimed at fostering athlete well-being and performance, advocating for the integration of positive psychology principles in the management and prevention of athlete burnout.

1 Introduction

In the dynamic environment of competitive sports, athletes are subject to an array of pressures, including stringent performance expectations, rigorous selection processes, and elevated risks of injury. These challenges contribute significantly to the prevalence of psychological burnout among athletes, a state characterized by emotional exhaustion, a diminished sense of achievement, and devaluation of sports participation ( Raedeke and Smith, 2001 ; Gustafsson et al., 2017 ). Furthermore, psychological burnout adversely impacts an athlete’s well-being and performance, as well as team dynamics and cohesion ( Isoard-Gautheur et al., 2016 ).

The advent of positive psychology has shifted focus toward the exploration of how positive mental states and emotions, notably gratitude, can serve as a buffer against athlete burnout. Gratitude, identified as a fundamental virtue within positive psychology, is posited to promote well-being and mitigate symptoms of burnout ( Wood et al., 2009 ). Despite the broad positive outcomes associated with gratitude, such as enhanced positive emotions, well-being, prosocial behavior, and spirituality/religiosity ( McCullough et al., 2002 ), the specific mechanisms through which gratitude impacts burnout among professional athletes remain underexplored, indicating a critical gap in research.

This study aims to address this gap by examining the influence of athletes’ gratitude on burnout within the professional sports context, with a particular emphasis on the sequential mediating roles of the coach-athlete relationship (CAR) and hope. This approach not only seeks to extend the theoretical framework pertaining to gratitude in sports psychology but also endeavors to reveal practical interventions for alleviating athlete burnout. Hence, the significance of this research lies in its potential to deepen our understanding of the role of positive psychology in sports, especially through the lens of gratitude and its mediating effects on preventing and managing athlete burnout.

In summary, this investigation into the effects of gratitude on athlete burnout among professional athletes fills an essential gap in the literature, offering a nuanced understanding of how gratitude, in conjunction with supportive relationships and hope, can form a vital component in the psychological toolkit against burnout, ultimately fostering athletes’ well-being and success in competitive sports.

2 Theoretical background and research hypotheses

Within the competitive sports domain, athlete burnout is characterized as a decrement in psychological functioning, precipitated by the continuous depletion of mental and physiological resources due to internal and external pressures, absent sufficient recovery. Manifestations of this condition include three primary dimensions: emotional/physical exhaustion, reduced sense of personal accomplishment, and a devaluation of sports participation ( Zhang et al., 2006 ). Table 1 presents the archetypal symptoms associated with each dimension. Previous research has demonstrated that burnout can have detrimental effects on athletes’ physical and mental health, potentially impairing performance, undermining social relationships, and leading to a discontinuation of sports participation ( Raedeke and Smith, 2001 ; Zhang, 2010 ; Zhang et al., 2014 ).

Table 1 . A synopsis of typical symptoms of burnout.

Research into athlete burnout has historically employed Smith’s (1986) , viewing burnout as a culmination of chronic stress. Moreover, investigators have deployed various theoretical frameworks to explore this phenomenon, including the Negative Training Stress Response Model, the Identity Development and External Control Model, and the Athletic Commitment Model. The advent of positive psychology has introduced a novel perspective, incorporating constructs of psychological capital to examine the underlying mechanisms of athlete burnout, indicating a critical shift in contemporary research trajectories ( Zhang et al., 2014 ; Ye et al., 2016b ).

Theoretical research suggests that gratitude may help alleviate athlete burnout. Fredrickson (2004) posited that gratitude, a positive emotion, has the potential to broaden individuals’ thought processes and foster creative thinking, as proposed by the Broaden-and-Build Theory. This cognitive broadening can lead to novel approaches in expressing gratitude, reciprocating to others, developing loving and thankful skills, and building friendships and social networks. These resources, in turn, become enduring personal assets that enhance resilience to stress and adversity. Consequently, they are less likely to resort to negative coping strategies such as avoidance, self-blame, substance abuse, or denial, which could mitigate the adverse effects of athlete burnout. Empirical research substantiates the adaptive benefits of gratitude in reducing psychopathological symptoms, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, significantly improving subjective well-being and self-efficacy, and boosting physical health ( Tennen et al., 2009 ; Wood et al., 2009 ). Furthermore, studies have found that gratitude improves sleep quality, which, in turn, boosts physical health ( Wood et al., 2009 ). It is also a significant predictor of a decrease in symptoms like dizziness and headaches ( Froh et al., 2009 ).

Considering the established research, our study seeks not merely to reaffirm the negative correlation between gratitude and athlete burnout but to delve deeper into this relationship. Specifically, we aim to explore how gratitude interacts with other psychological constructs within the athletic context and its impact on the multifaceted nature of burnout. Therefore, this paper advances the hypothesis:

H1 : Gratitude is a significant negative predictor of athlete burnout, with our study providing further insight into its role and interactions within the context of competitive sports.

Previous studies have shown that the onset and progression of athlete burnout are associated with a spectrum of physiological, psychological, and sociological factors. The coach-athlete relationship (CAR) and hope are recognized as pivotal mediators in how gratitude might affect athlete burnout. CAR involves a dynamic interaction of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral elements between coaches and athletes. Meanwhile, hope refers to the experiential success resulting from the synergistic operation of pathway and agency thought processes during the pursuit of goals, representing cognitive and behavioral inclinations.

The moral affect theory of gratitude highlights the importance of moral motivation, suggesting that feelings of gratitude can lead to increased prosocial behaviors and motivations, such as altruism, care, sharing, and forgiveness. It also prompts a proactive search for opportunities to reciprocate to benefactors ( McCullough et al., 2001 ). Individuals with high levels of gratitude tend to experience fewer interpersonal conflicts and societal obstacles ( Gan, 2012 ). Algoe et al. (2008) examined the impact of gratitude among sorority members and found that greater gratitude in recipients led to better quality in establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Further, Algoe et al. (2012) discovered that expressions of gratitude in one romantic partner significantly enhanced the perceived responsiveness of the other partner, which was predictive of relationship improvements over a six-month trajectory.

In the field of athletics, athletes with high levels of gratitude seek to understand their coaches’ perspectives during crises within the CAR. They appreciate the coach’s dedication and efforts and seek to mend the relationship ( Wang et al., 2014 ). Qualitative studies on athlete burnout have identified that a harmonious CAR, characterized by effective communication, active listening, and empathetic concern from the coach, can provide athletes with greater social support, thereby mitigating the negative impact of burnout attributed to sports activity ( Cresswell and Eklund, 2005 ). Moreover, positive social interactions, such as valuable advice, timely encouragement, and assistance, have been found to correlate negatively with sports-related athlete burnout ( DeFreese and Smith, 2014 ). In summary, gratitude not only promotes harmonious interpersonal relationships but also fosters the development of the CAR, which is closely associated with athlete burnout. Consequently, this paper proposes the hypothesis:

H2 : The CAR mediates the effect of athletes' gratitude on their burnout.

The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions posits that gratitude can lead individuals to positively assess their present and future, fostering prosocial behaviors that foster social cohesion and strengthen interpersonal resources ( Fredrickson and Branigan, 2005 ). These interpersonal resources, in turn, expand individuals’ coping strategies when faced with stress, aligning with the pathways thinking aspect of hope theory. Additionally, gratitude reinforces motivation; individuals with high levels of gratitude report greater recognition of social support from others, including parental upbringing, coaching, and friendship. This increased recognition is manifested as sustained passion and motivation during training and competitions, in harmony with the agency thinking aspect of hope theory. Individuals with high hope levels, who exhibit strong agency and pathways thinking, tend to view stressors as challenges and are more likely to engage in positive actions ( Snyder, 2000 ). Furthermore, research indicates that hope alleviates burnout among college athletes, enhances achievement motivation, and stimulates learning interest ( Xie et al., 2016 ). In sports, hope is inversely related to the three dimensions of burnout; athletes with higher hope levels report significantly lower burnout scores. Moreover, hope not only directly reduces sports-related burnout but also serves as an indirect influence through the mediating effects of positive emotions and perceived stress (Gustafsson, 2010; Gustafsson et al., 2011 ). Therefore, this paper proposes the hypothesis:

H3 : Hope mediates the relationship between athletes' gratitude and their burnout.

Hope emerges from stable and secure attachment relationships and is closely connected to social connectedness ( Snyder, 2002 ). As social groups develop, they commonly establish ideologies and norms. To align with the group’s collective standards, individuals engage in cooperation within the group and intra-group competition, which simultaneously enhances their agency thinking. Additionally, within social groups, members offer mutual support and actionable advice, aiding in the identification of concrete methods to achieve collective goals, thus enhancing individuals’ pathways thinking. A harmonious and effective CAR promotes more positive and effective communication ( Jowett, 2012 ). Such a relationship significantly increases an athlete’s hope level and, through hope, increases satisfaction with athletic performance while reducing the negative effects of external pressures ( Ye, 2016b ). There is a clear link between athletes’ gratitude and the CAR, which affects the athletes’ hope level, and consequently, hope predicts athlete burnout. Consequently, this study proposes the following hypothesis:

H4 : The CAR and hope act as serial mediators between athletes' gratitude and athlete burnout.

3.1 Research design and sampling method

This study adopted a convenience sampling strategy to select athletes from national training teams and professional sports teams across varied provinces and cities, including Beijing, Hubei, Zhejiang, Heilongjiang, Guangdong, and Yunnan. In total, 502 questionnaires were distributed, and 483 valid responses were received, resulting in an effective response rate of 96.2%. The participant demographic was composed of 251 males (52.0%) and 228 females (47.2%), with gender information missing for 4 participants. Additionally, 11 participants (2.3%) did not specify their competition level. The average age of the athletes was 19.24 years (SD = 3.99), and the average training duration was 6.86 years (SD = 3.55). Athletes’ competition levels varied, including secondary level (40 participants), first level (218 participants), national master level (180 participants), and international master level (34 participants), with 11 participants not specifying their level.

The survey included a broad range of sports disciplines, such as marathon, martial arts, gymnastics, shooting, archery, clay pigeon shooting, cycling, triathlon, modern pentathlon, swimming, canoeing, middle and long-distance running, weightlifting, basketball, volleyball, boxing, judo, taekwondo, wrestling, high jump, tennis, and equestrian. The convenience sampling method facilitated rapid and efficient access to a diverse group of professional athletes, offering a practical solution amidst constraints of resources and time, despite the potential limitations in statistical representation inherent to this sampling method. Our direct engagement with athletes at their training bases and schools enhanced the depth and authenticity of the collected data.

3.2 Data collection procedure

The data collection process was rigorously designed to adhere to ethical guidelines, safeguarding the privacy and confidentiality of participant data. This study received ethical clearance from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Central China Normal University, emphasizing our commitment to conducting research with the utmost integrity and respect for participant welfare. Data collection was executed on a team basis using a group testing method, allowing for an extensive reach across a diverse range of athletes. Prior to data collection, explicit consent was obtained from both team leaders and athletes, ensuring their informed participation. Furthermore, participants were compensated for their valuable contribution to the research.

The task of collecting data was entrusted to graduate students specializing in sports psychology, all of whom had received rigorous training to perform this role efficiently. This team’s expertise guaranteed the precision and effectiveness of the data collection process. To protect participant privacy, all questionnaires were completed anonymously. Participants were assured of the strict confidentiality of their responses, which would be used solely for scientific analysis. Detailed instructions were provided to encourage thorough and independent responses, thus ensuring the data’s authenticity and reliability. Each participant was given approximately 20 min to complete the questionnaire, which was then immediately collected on-site to maintain data integrity.

Employing an on-site data collection strategy not only improved the response rate but also the accuracy and reliability of the collected data, thereby significantly enhancing the research’s quality and integrity. Our systematic approach in recruiting participants actively engaged in structured training environments, coupled with a rigorous review of returned questionnaires, further solidified the validity of our findings. This meticulous attention to ethical standards and data collection methodology underscores our dedication to producing credible and ethically sound research outcomes.

3.3 Measures

3.3.1 gratitude questionnaire.

The study employed the Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ) as adapted by Chen and Kee (2008) , which was originally developed by McCullough et al. (2002) . This scale employs a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree), where higher scores reflect higher levels of gratitude. The questionnaire is composed of 5 items, including “Listing everyone I feel grateful to during my sporting career would be a lengthy process,” with the third item being reverse-scored. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated the following results: χ2/df = 12.34, indicating good structural validity for this version of the questionnaire. The original English version of the GQ had a reliability coefficient of 0.87 ( McCullough et al., 2002 ). In the present study, the overall reliability of the Gratitude Scale was found to be 0.80, indicating good reliability. The GQ total score showed a moderate correlation with several theoretical constructs relevant to the scale (namely happiness, optimism, agreeableness, and extraversion), which suggests good criterion-related validity ( Chen et al., 2009 ).

3.3.2 Athlete burnout questionnaire

The study utilized the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ) in its form revised by Zhang et al. (2010) , which was originally developed by Raedeke and Smith (2001) . The scale employs a Likert 5-point scale (1 = never; 2 = rarely; 3 = sometimes; 4 = often; 5 = always), where higher scores denote higher levels of psychological burnout, and lower scores reflect lower levels. It comprises 15 items, such as “Training tires me out so much that I do not have the energy to do other things,” and “I am unable to concentrate during competitions as I used to,” and includes three subscales: emotional/physical exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment, and devaluation in sport. These subscales account for 61.66% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis utilizing the maximum likelihood estimation on a first-order three-factor model of the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire yielded: χ 2 /df = 4.29, RMSEA = 0.08, SRMR = 0.05, GFI = 0.91, NFI = 0.87, CFI = 0.90, IFI = 0.90, suggesting good construct validity for this iteration. The subscales’ reliabilities for emotional/physical exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment, and sport devaluation, as translated into Chinese by Lu et al. (2006) , were 0.88, 0.87, and 0.70, respectively. The scale’s overall reliability was measured at 0.78 in this study, with the subscales for emotional/physical exhaustion, reduced sense of accomplishment, and sport devaluation recording reliabilities of 0.78, 0.78, and 0.62 respectively, confirming good reliability. The scale demonstrated a significant positive relationship against the Chinese version of the ABQ translated by Lu et al. (2006) , supporting good criterion-related validity.

3.3.3 CAR questionnaire

The study employed the CAR Questionnaire (CART-Q) following the revisions of Zhong and Wang (2007) , adapted from the Greek version of the CART-Q developed by Jowett and Ntoumanis (2004) . This questionnaire utilizes a Likert 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree; 2 = disagree; 3 = somewhat agree; 4 = mainly agree; 5 = strongly agree) for scoring, with higher scores signifying more positive coach-athlete relationships (CARs) and lower scores denoting less satisfactory relationships. It features 15 items, such as “I am loyal to my coach and am willing to maintain a long-term cooperation with him,” and “I am open to my coach’s advice and suggestions,” covering three dimensions: closeness, commitment, and complementarity, which account for 64.525% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed: χ2/df = 4.98, RMSEA = 0.081, SRMR = 0.049, GFI = 0.90, NFI = 0.89, CFI = 0.91, IFI = 0.91. The original CAR Questionnaire demonstrated reliabilities for closeness, commitment, complementarity, and compliance of 0.87, 0.82, 0.88, and 0.93, respectively. In this study, the dimensions’ reliabilities were measured at 0.85, 0.86, 0.81, and 0.84, respectively, confirming the questionnaire’s good reliability. The overall scale score demonstrated significant correlations with two criterion items from the Greek version of the CART-Q (0.689 and 0.696), suggesting good criterion-related validity of the translated version of the questionnaire.

3.3.4 Trait hope scale

The Trait Hope Scale (THS), following the revisions by Chen et al. (2009) based on the original scale by Snyder et al. (1991) , was employed in the study. The scale comprises 12 items, such as “I can think of many ways to get out of a bind” and “I have been successful in my athletic career,” and is comprised of two dimensions: agency thinking and pathways thinking. It employs a Likert 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree; 2 = disagree; 3 = somewhat agree; 4 = agree; 5 = strongly agree), with higher scores reflecting greater levels of hope. The confirmatory factor analysis yielded: χ 2 /df = 3.81, RMSEA = 0.076, SRMR = 0.042, GFI = 0.96, NFI = 0.94, CFI = 0.96, IFI = 0.96. The English version of the THS demonstrated reliabilities across agency and pathways thinking domains of 0.74 and 0.84, respectively. In the current study, the questionnaire exhibited an overall reliability of 0.82, with reliabilities for agency and pathways thinking at 0.69 and 0.78, respectively, and exhibited a test–retest correlation coefficient of 0.80, indicating consistency with the reliability of the English version of the Hope Scale. Validity testing revealed that agency and pathways thinking dimensions of the Hope Scale were significantly positively correlated with a proactive coping approach and significantly negatively correlated with a passive coping style, consistent with international research findings ( Woodward et al., 2006 ), indicating good criterion-related validity of the scale.

3.4 Data analysis

Data were organized, processed, and analyzed using SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 24.0 software. Beyond descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations, the study primarily employed Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) as the method of data processing, with the significance level established at α = 0.05. While these components—emotional/physical exhaustion, reduced sense of achievement, and negative sports appraisal—are facets of burnout, their distinct contributions must be considered and not aggregated. The utilization of Zhang et al.’s (2010) weighted total score formula for burnout (Burnout Weighted Total Score =  Z -score for Reduced Sense of Achievement × 0.47 +  Z -score for Emotional/Physical Exhaustion × 0.21 +  Z -score for Negative Sports Appraisal × 0.32) facilitated the derivation of the composite burnout score. These scores were additionally subjected to individual analyses for each dimension. The research not only examined the mediating roles of the CAR and hope between gratitude and the composite burnout score but also their intermediary functions between gratitude and the three discrete dimensions of burnout. These analyses elucidated the complex interplay among these variables, contributing to a deeper understanding of athlete burnout.

4.1 Control and test for common method bias

Data were collected through self-report measures in this study, which raises the potential for common method bias. To mitigate this, the administration of the measures included imposing strict procedural controls regarding the data’s confidentiality, anonymity, and exclusive use for scientific research. Furthermore, Harman’s single-factor test was applied for analytic examination ( Podsakoff et al., 2003 ; Zhou and Long, 2004 ). This method involved loading all measurement items of the study variables into a single factor to create a one-factor model and contrasting it with the fit indices of an 11-factor model that aligned with the theoretical dimensions. The results indicated that the fit indices for the 11-factor model (χ 2  = 1959.39, df = 979, χ 2 /df = 2.00, RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.90, IFI = 0.90, TLI = 0.88) were significantly better than those for the single-factor model (χ 2  = 6208.24, df = 1,034, χ 2 /df = 6.00, RMSEA = 0.10, CFI = 0.44, IFI = 0.44, TLI = 0.41), which suggests that a serious common method bias is unlikely in the current study.

4.2 Correlation analysis of gratitude, CAR, hope, and burnout

As presented in Table 2 , upon controlling for demographic variables (gender, age, years of athletic participation, and level of competition), gratitude, CAR, and hope showed a significant negative correlation with burnout. Moreover, gratitude and CAR demonstrated a significant positive correlation with hope, and gratitude was significantly positively correlated with the CAR. The absolute values of the correlation coefficients among the study variables ranged between 0.32 to 0.50, indicating their appropriateness for further analysis. The mean scores for gratitude and the CAR were notably high, potentially reflecting the influence of social desirability effects, while the limited variability could be attributed to a ceiling effect.

Table 2 . Correlation coefficients among gratitude, CAR, hope, and burnout ( N  = 483).

4.3 Examination of the mediating effect of CAR and hope between gratitude and burnout

Following the recommendation of Fang et al. (2012) , the percentile Bootstrap method with bias correction offers superior statistical power compared to the traditional Sobel test. Consequently, this study employed the SPSS macro program PROCESS, developed by Hayes (2013) , 1 and controlled for demographic variables including gender, age, duration of sports participation, and level of athletic competition. Mediation effects were evaluated through a structural equation model, based on 5,000 bootstrap samples to establish 95% confidence intervals.

Preliminary results, as shown in Table 3 , indicated that gratitude maintained a significant positive influence on CAR ( β  = 0.52, p  < 0.001). When gratitude and CAR were predictors of hope, gratitude maintained a significant positive influence ( β  = 0.27, p  < 0.001), and CAR also displayed a significant positive impact ( β  = 0.19, p  < 0.001). When gratitude, CAR, and hope were introduced into the regression equation concurrently, each variable exhibited a significant negative predictive influence on burnout ( β  = −0.23, p  < 0.001; β  = −0.21, p  < 0.001; β  = −0.19, p  < 0.001), indicating a significant mediating role of CAR and hope in the relationship between gratitude and burnout.

Table 3 . Regression analysis overview for testing the mediation effects of CAR and hope between gratitude and burnout.

Furthermore, detailed scrutiny of the mediation effects, as presented in Table 4 , showed that the total indirect effects produced by CAR and hope did not include zero within the 95% Bootstrap confidence interval, indicative of a significant mediating effect by the two variables between gratitude and burnout. The mediation effect comprises three indirect effects: (1) The first, generated by the path “Gratitude → CAR → Burnout,” with the confidence interval excluding zero, indicates a significant CAR mediation between gratitude and burnout (−0.11, contributing to 26.83% of the total effect); (2) the second, generated by the path “Gratitude → Hope → Burnout,” with the confidence interval excluding zero, indicates a significant hope mediation between gratitude and burnout (−0.05, contributing to 12.20% of the total effect); and (3) the third, generated by the path “Gratitude → CAR → Hope → Burnout,” with the confidence interval excluding zero, indicates partial mediation by CAR and hope between gratitude and burnout (−0.02, contributing to 4.88% of the total effect). Based on these results, a serial mediation model as depicted in Figure 1 can be constructed, accounting for 25% of the variance in burnout.

Table 4 . Overview of bootstrap analysis for the mediating effects of CAR and hope between gratitude and burnout.

Figure 1 . Mediation model of CAR and hope between gratitude and burnout. Solid lines indicate significant paths; dashed lines indicate non-significant paths.

5 Discussion

This study investigated the association between athlete gratitude and burnout, considering the perspectives of CARs and hope, and the mechanisms underlying this relationship. The findings indicate a significant negative correlation between athlete gratitude and burnout, with additional regression analysis demonstrating that athlete gratitude significantly predicts lower levels of burnout, thereby supporting Hypothesis H1. Athlete gratitude was also identified as being significantly positively correlated with the CAR; subsequently, a strong CAR was observed to significantly predict lower burnout, thus confirming Hypothesis H2. The mediation analysis revealed that the CAR and hope mediate the influence of athlete gratitude on burnout. This mediation effect unfolded via two pathways: the independent mediating role of hope and the sequential mediating effect of the CAR to hope, thereby validating Hypotheses H3 and H4. In summary, all four hypotheses proposed in this study have been corroborated by empirical evidence.

5.1 The direct effects of gratitude on burnout

Gratitude, recognized as a positive and affirming emotion, can broaden an individual’s scope of thought and action. Individuals who habitually practice gratitude tend to focus on the positive and pleasant aspects of life, enhancing their ability to recover from the negative effects of adverse events ( Fredrickson, 2004 ). According to gratitude coping theory, those with a strong propensity for gratitude are more likely to engage in positive coping strategies when faced with challenging or risky situations ( Fredrickson and Cohn, 2008 ). These individuals view everything they have, including life itself, as a gift, meeting life’s challenges with heightened positivity and optimism, which facilitates better social adaptation and well-being ( Wood et al., 2007 , 2008 , 2009 ).

In the context of sports, gratitude can broaden athletes’ cognitive and behavioral patterns, bolster personal resources, and provide the essential material and psychological support necessary to strengthen resilience against setbacks and diminish the negative impact of distressing emotions. This enhancement of psychological well-being contributes to the prevention of burnout. Empirical evidence suggests that athletes’ gratitude leads to greater investment in their sport and adherence to ethical behavior, thereby fostering improved engagement in training and competition, superior performance, and recognition from coaches and peers ( Wang et al., 2014 ; Ye, 2016 ). Additionally, athletes with a pronounced sense of gratitude are more apt to attribute their successes to the collective efforts of their support networks, including their country, family, coaches, and teammates. Confronted with competitive stress or the adversities of life, such athletes typically embrace an optimistic and proactive approach, successfully circumventing negative appraisals in sports.

5.2 The mediating effects of the CAR and hope on the relationship between gratitude and burnout

In the nexus of interpersonal dynamics, the Coach-Athlete Relationship (CAR) acts as a critical bridge. Gratitude fosters the development of a harmonious CAR, which is instrumental in building and sustaining social bonds. The expansive cognitive and behavioral effects of gratitude facilitate the creation and preservation of positive social connections, thereby attracting enhanced social support ( Fredrickson, 2004 ; Fredrickson and Branigan, 2005 ; Wood et al., 2009 ). In the domain of sports, athletes who possess a strong propensity for gratitude can adopt their coaches’ perspectives during crises within the CAR, acknowledging the coaches’ sincere efforts and dedicating themselves to repairing any rifts ( Gan, 2012 ). This propensity toward gratitude also influences coaches, who respond with proactive prosocial behaviors, nurturing the growth of a harmonious rapport. Additionally, the CAR has been shown to inversely predict burnout, with harmonious interactions enabling athletes to maintain robust relationships and emotional connections with coaches, thus mitigating undue interpersonal stress and curbing the onset of burnout symptoms ( Jowett, 2009 ; Adie and Jowett, 2010 ; Tabei et al., 2012 ).

Hope, as elucidated by the broaden-and-build theory, serves as a mediator in the gratitude-burnout relationship. Individuals with a strong disposition toward gratitude are likely to perceive the world more positively and proactively expand their cognitive horizons with an inclusive mindset, thereby effectively managing stress ( Fredrickson, 2004 ; Fredrickson and Branigan, 2005 ). Research by Chen and Chi (2012 , 2015) corroborates that hope and self-confidence are significantly tied to enhanced athletic performance, suggesting that elevated levels of these attributes in college athletes correlate with superior performance outcomes. An augmentation in hope allows individuals to sustain agency and pathways thinking, essential when confronting challenges or stress, safeguarding against negative affectivity and thus forestalling or lessening burnout ( Gustafsson et al., 2010 ). Consequently, psychological interventions targeting burnout could potentially be optimized by concentrating on elevating hope levels, which may improve athletic performance while simultaneously mitigating burnout risks.

5.3 The sequential mediating effects of CAR and hope on the relationship between gratitude and burnout

McCullough et al. (2002) contend that gratitude, conceptualized as a moral emotion, serves as a vital cohesive force within social collectives. Within the context of coach-athlete dyads, a harmonious CAR promotes positive and efficacious interactions that alleviate interpersonal tensions, thereby fortifying athletes’ sense of self-identity, clarifying their motivational direction, and amplifying their satisfaction derived from athletic endeavors. This environment is conducive to fostering a hopeful disposition, an optimistic state that buffers against adverse feelings and behaviors ( Tennen et al., 2009 ; Jowett and Nezlek, 2012 ; Ye et al., 2016a , b ). Gustafsson et al. (2010) further reveal that hope robustly negates the propensity for athlete burnout. The present study indicates that athletes endowed with elevated hope are adept at navigating adversities, utilizing optimal strategies to surmount challenges, and maintaining heightened motivation. Hope is instrumental not only in facilitating success when free from impediments but also in proactively addressing and ameliorating psychological distress in response to stressors and adversities, thereby diminishing manifestations of athlete burnout. In summation, both CAR and hope constitute integral components of a ‘mediatory chain’ that links gratitude to athlete burnout, delineating a complex interplay of psychological constructs that underlie the well-being of athletes.

5.4 Limitations and future research

This study adopts a cross-sectional design, constraining the extent to which causal relationships can be inferred among the examined variables. Recognizing that athlete burnout fluctuates over time, as suggested by Gustafsson et al. (2010) , longitudinal research could offer a more nuanced understanding of its progression. The analysis of the CAR in this study is limited to athletes’ self-reports, omitting coaches’ perspectives, which may provide a more comprehensive overview of the CAR dynamic. Consequently, future studies should consider incorporating matched reports from both coaches and athletes to enrich the understanding of CAR. Methodologically, while the current study constructs a mediation model exploring the interp r mediating roles in the gratitude-burnout nexus, future studies may delve deeper into how gender and sports performance influence these relationships. Our preliminary analyses indicate that these factors might significantly affect the psychological state of athletes. In particular, further research could explore the relationship between technical level and athlete burnout and consider how this relationship may evolve over time.

6 Conclusion

The research findings indicate that gratitude, CAR, and hope are integral in attenuating athlete burnout, serving as potent negative predictors. The sequential mediation model elucidated herein demonstrates that gratitude impacts athlete burnout indirectly through CAR and hope, both individually and in combination. These insights provide a theoretical foundation and practical framework for creating interventions aimed at diminishing athlete burnout. To optimize future intervention strategies, enhancing athletes’ gratitude levels, nurturing harmonious CAR, and fostering hope are pivotal. Such measures could not only mitigate the incidence of burnout but also enrich the overall psychological resilience of athletes, thereby contributing to their well-being and performance longevity.

Data availability statement

The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found in the article/supplementary material.

Ethics statement

The studies involving humans were approved by China University of Geosciences. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent for participation in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardians/next of kin.

Author contributions

LD: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. RF: Formal analysis, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing. SZ: Supervision, Writing – review & editing. BW: Project administration, Writing – review & editing. LY: Project administration, Writing – review & editing.

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Youth Project No. 62307034), the Key Project of National Social Science Foundation of China (23FTYA005), the Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Youth Project No. 2023AFB359), and the Youth Foundation of Humanities and Social Science Research of the Ministry of Education of China (No. 22YJC890005).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: athlete burnout, gratitude, coach–athlete relationship, hope, positive psychology

Citation: Dong L, Zou S, Fan R, Wang B and Ye L (2024) The influence of athletes’ gratitude on burnout: the sequential mediating roles of the coach–athlete relationship and hope. Front. Psychol . 15:1358799. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1358799

Received: 20 December 2023; Accepted: 04 April 2024; Published: 24 April 2024.

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Copyright © 2024 Dong, Zou, Fan, Wang and Ye. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Rong Fan, [email protected]

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