| Contents | 5 |
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| List of Figures | 7 |
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| List of Tables | 8 |
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| 1: Why Rethink? | 9 |
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| Introduction | 9 |
| Philosophical Baggage | 11 |
| Karl Popper and ‘Critical Rationalism’ | 12 |
| Thomas Kuhn and ‘Normal Science’ | 17 |
| Imre Lakatos and Scientific ‘Research Programmes’ | 25 |
| Paul Feyerabend and ‘Epistemological Anarchism’ | 31 |
| Applying Philosophy to the Past, Present and Future | 39 |
| Moving Forward | 43 |
| 2: The Emerging Field of Sport and Exercise Psychology | 44 |
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| Early Psychophysics | 45 |
| Scales of Measurement and Modern Psychophysics | 51 |
| Experimental Psychology | 53 |
| The Dawn of Sport and Exercise Psychology Research | 56 |
| Smocks and Jocks in the Box | 62 |
| Concluding Remarks | 64 |
| 3: How Do We Know That We Really Know? | 65 |
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| Critical Thinking in Sport and Exercise Psychology | 67 |
| Critical Thinking About Sport and Exercise Psychology | 70 |
| Peer Reviewers, as Gatekeepers | 72 |
| Open Access Publishing | 73 |
| Scientific Literacy | 75 |
| Heuristics and Bias | 77 |
| Myths in Sport and Exercise Psychology | 79 |
| Science Versus Pseudoscience | 79 |
| Signs of Pseudoscience | 82 |
| Claims Are Reasonable and with Boundaries | 82 |
| Claims Can Be Reproduced | 83 |
| Claims Are Falsifiable | 85 |
| Claims Are Cumulative | 86 |
| Claims Are Self-Correctable | 87 |
| Claims Are Not Overly Complicated | 87 |
| Concluding Remarks | 88 |
| 4: The Status of Theory | 89 |
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| Four Views on Theory | 89 |
| Theory as a ‘Framework’: The Example of SDT | 91 |
| Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET) | 92 |
| Organismic Integration Theory (OIT) | 94 |
| Causality Orientations Theory (COT) | 94 |
| Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT) | 94 |
| Generating ‘Grounded’ Theories | 100 |
| Conclusion: Theory, Dogma and Progress | 107 |
| 5: Research Paradigms, Methodologies and Methods | 111 |
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| Philosophical Differences Between Paradigms | 115 |
| Paradigms (a.k.a., Worldviews, Research Traditions) | 116 |
| Nomothetic Versus Idiographic Approach | 120 |
| Quantitative Versus Qualitative Methods | 121 |
| The Mixed-Methods Approach | 124 |
| Methodological Backlash | 128 |
| The Audit Culture | 129 |
| Concluding Remarks | 134 |
| 6: Norms, Culture and Identity | 136 |
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| Paradigmatic Dominance in Sport and Exercise Psychology | 138 |
| Occam’s Razor and the Principle of Parsimony in Achievement Goal Theory | 146 |
| Ad Hominems, Straw Men and Exclamation Points | 151 |
| Diversity: Gender, Ethnicity, Disability and Culture | 156 |
| Gender | 161 |
| Disability | 165 |
| Conclusion | 168 |
| 7: Measuring Constructs | 169 |
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| Operationalisation | 170 |
| Reliability and Validity | 173 |
| Reliability | 174 |
| Validity | 176 |
| Statistics | 178 |
| Likert-Type Scales | 180 |
| Psychometrics and Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Data | 181 |
| Methodolatry | 188 |
| Some Examples | 191 |
| Burnout | 191 |
| Mood States | 193 |
| Achievement Goals | 196 |
| Concluding Remarks | 198 |
| 8: Research and Practice in Applied Sport and Exercise Psychology | 199 |
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| What Is the ‘Research-Practice Gap’? | 201 |
| What Are the Consequences of Allowing a ‘Research-Practice Gap’? | 203 |
| Practical Theories and Theories of Practice | 207 |
| Theoretical Practice | 208 |
| The Scientist-Practitioner Model in Sport and Exercise Psychology | 210 |
| Reclaiming ‘Theoretical Practice’ | 212 |
| Practical Theories | 213 |
| Theories of Practice | 219 |
| Additional Approaches to Bridging the Research-Practice Gap | 221 |
| Conclusion | 223 |
| 9: Developments to Enable Progress | 225 |
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| Nailing the Colours | 225 |
| The Myth of the Framework | 226 |
| A Sociological Fly in the Philosophical Ointment | 233 |
| A Professional Ethics for Sport and Exercise Psychology Researchers | 239 |
| Conclusion: Defining and Enabling ‘Progress’ | 245 |
| 10: Planning a Post-revolutionary World | 247 |
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| Introduction | 247 |
| The Story So Far | 249 |
| Imagining Post-revolutionary Research | 252 |
| Imagining the Post-revolutionary Journal | 259 |
| Imagining the Post-revolutionary Conference | 268 |
| Imagining Post-revolutionary Research Education | 273 |
| Conclusion | 279 |
| References | 281 |
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| Index | 309 |