Emotions in Sport

Emotions play an important role in sport. This chapter provides a timely overview of research on emotions from both sport psychology and from general psychology. The current chapter covers evolutionary perspectives, the experience, the assumed functions of emotions, and the connection between the psychology and physiology of emotions. Subsequently, we review studies on the connection between emotions and athletic performance that serve as the foundation for the process of emotion regulation. We extend this discussion to include recent research on emotional intelligence and its significance for performance in sport, health, and well-being are discussed. Finally, current methods of emotion research are described in detail and state-of-the-art methods of emotion induction and measurement are presented.