Oblinger-Peters Violetta, Henriksen Kristoffer, Ronkainen Noora J
Institute of Sport Science, University of Bern, Switzerland.
Institute of Sport Science and Clinical Biomechanics, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.
Psychol Sport Exerc. 2025 Jan;76:102725. doi: 10.1016/j.psychsport.2024.102725. Epub 2024 Aug 31.
Athletes' stories about their experiences in elite sport inevitably evoke the notion of meaning, a concept, which has appeared in many shapes and forms within sport psychology. Qualitative scholarship, for example, has generated a large literature base on the meaning of experience (i.e., implicit meaning) in elite sport. However, the experience of meaning(fulness) (i.e., existential meaning) has received less scholarly attention and has rarely been the explicit study object. To assist theorizing and the empirical investigation of meaning and purpose in elite sport in these early stages, we take stock of the emerging body of literature in sport psychology. The article has three parts: Firstly, we distinguish between implicit and existential meaning to delineate our study object. Secondly, we introduce psychological theory to show how existential meaning can be conceptualized (e.g., dimensions, sources, crisis of meaning). Thirdly, we analyzed 23 studies in a narrative review approach to understand how meaning (n = 17) and purpose (n = 6) in elite sport have been understood, and what we know about these concepts empirically. The current scholarship revealed itself heterogenous in terms of study designs, methodologies, theoretical frameworks, and conceptualizations of meaning and purpose. Findings are discussed in eight overarching themes (e.g., moments when meaning and purpose are questioned; as mechanism and indicator of growth following adversity) to map the reviewed literature comprehensibly and to provide a foundation for applied work. The article concludes by highlighting unresolved issues and proposing future directions for studying and applying existential meaning in elite sport.
运动员们讲述的他们在精英运动中的经历不可避免地引发了意义这一概念，该概念在运动心理学领域以多种形式出现。例如，定性研究已经产生了大量关于精英运动中经验意义（即隐性意义）的文献。然而，意义（感）的体验（即存在意义）受到的学术关注较少，也很少成为明确的研究对象。为了在这些早期阶段帮助对精英运动中的意义和目的进行理论化及实证研究，我们对运动心理学领域新兴的文献进行了梳理。本文分为三个部分：首先，我们区分隐性意义和存在意义以界定我们的研究对象。其次，我们引入心理学理论来说明存在意义如何被概念化（例如，维度、来源、意义危机）。第三，我们采用叙事综述的方法分析了23项研究，以了解精英运动中的意义（n = 17）和目的（n = 6）是如何被理解的，以及我们在实证方面对这些概念的了解。当前的学术研究在研究设计、方法、理论框架以及意义和目的的概念化方面呈现出异质性。研究结果在八个总体主题中进行了讨论（例如，意义和目的受到质疑的时刻；作为逆境后成长的机制和指标），以便全面梳理所综述的文献，并为应用工作提供基础。文章最后强调了未解决的问题，并提出了在精英运动中研究和应用存在意义的未来方向。
