A comprehensive review of sport psychology doctoral dissertations completed between 1966 and 1985

The purpose of this secondary research review was to examine specific characteristics of sport psychology doctoral dissertations produced in graduate programs in the United States between 1966 and 1985. Content analysis research was employed to investigate the following: (a) psychological construct addressed, (b) age, gender and group affiliation of the subjects, (c) sport and/or physical activity associated with the research, (d) instrumentation used, and (f) research strategy employed. Six-hundred eighty dissertation abstracts classified as "social-psychological" studies were examined initially. Thereafter, dissertations addressing only sociological constructs were eliminated from further study. Coding categories were then established for each characteristic. Following pilot coding, data were collected. One-way frequency distributions and crosstabulations were applied to the data. Major findings were: 1. Most studied constructs were personality and motivation, 2. Most frequently studied subjects were males aged 19-23 and young adults aged 24-40; students and athletes accounted for the majority of group affiliations studied, 3. Team sports, individual sports, and motor tasks were the most represented sports/physical activities, 4. Most utilized research strategies were descriptive and quasi-experimental, 5. Most used psychological instruments were Cattell's 16 Factor Personality Questionnaire and Speilberger's State-Trait Anxiety Scale; most used performance measure was "game stats". The fragmented and diffused picture of doctoral dissertation research found by this review suggested a need for more coordinated and comprehensive studies. Also, reconsideration of the purpose(s) of the dissertation was proposed