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Martin presents to Association of Applied Sports Psychology

Eric Martin
Eric Martin

Eric Martin, associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology presented multiple panel and poster presentations at the Association of Applied Sports Psychology 2022 Conference.

Martin participated in the panel “Early Career Experiences: Discussing the Importance of Cultural Competency in the Field of Sport Psychology” with Duygu Gurleyik from Ozyegin University, Turkey, Dolores Christensen from the University of Oklahoma Athletics Department, Steven Cohen from Magellan Federal, and Celia Naivar-Sen from Ozyegin University, Turkey. To address the rising need for cultural competency and respect, the panelists discuss their experience in their own work. The panel focused on what cultural competence means in academic settings, the military and college athletics, the challenges that arise, and the advice they would give to future professionals in any of those fields.

Martin and Scott Pierce and Samantha Kurkjian from Illinois State University, Kelly Rossetto from Boise State University, and Liam O’Neil from Utah State University held a symposium titled “A Resilience Program for First Year Collegiate Athletes: An Overview of Program Design, Implementation, Evaluation and Implications.” To educate students on the stressors of starting college-level athletics, Martin teaches students how to manage through resilience by discussing a program designed to help students in three parts. The first presentation provided an overview of the program itself, focusing on the rationale of it, and the second presentation focused on the implementation of the program and how it has been modified using feedback from evaluations. The third presentation discussed how clinical sport psychologists, athletic support staff, and certified mental performance consultants collaborate to best support student athletes.

Martin, along with Aaron Goodson from Duke Athletics, Chelsea Wooding from North Park University, Aidan Kraus from Boston University, and Emily Murphy from the University of Kentucky presented “The Burt Giges Workshop: Effective Brief Interventions When Time Is Limited.” In this workshop, Martin and his co-presenters held mock consultations with the same client to demonstrate the different approaches there are to quick interventions. Each intervention focused on illustrating how sport psychology work can be managed in a short period of time while being aware of provider self-awareness and the available approaches for individual client cases.

Martin, Alexis Stokes, a 2022 Boise State psychology graduate, and Ellie Cain, a current Boise State kinesiology student, presented the poster “Factors that Influence the Development of Passion in Collegiate Athletes Motivation.” Studying the differences between harmonious and obsessive passion, the team was able to research what external factors supported their passion for sports and lead to harmonious or obsessive traits. The results are hoped to be used by coaches, practitioners and parents to help create a supportive experience for athletes, and to encourage harmonious motivation.

Martin and Cain also presented a second poster, “The Effect of Type of Sports Injury and Time Missed on Collegiate Athletes Motivation.” By investigating the common injuries athletes experience and the field time lost from recovery, Martin and Cain concluded that neither the type of injury or recovery time had a significant influence on the athlete’s motivation level.

Finally, Martin and Carsten Schmidt, a 2022 Boise State kinesiology graduate, presented the poster “The Influence of Scholarship Status on Motivation Type and Grit Levels in Division I Athletes.” Martin and Schmidt conducted a study to investigate the possible correlation between scholarship status and motivation and perseverance in college athletes, in order to further understand how athletes can be supported. The results concluded that scholarship status does not influence motivation, but the correlation between perseverance and motivation requires further research.