Wellbeing in sport and performance psychology: A wicked problem?

For years beyond counting researchers, practitioners, and thinkers have long mused over how people can live a good life. Through these inquiries, the science and philosophy of wellbeing has burgeoned; providing us with a range of definitions, dimensions, theoretical perspectives, and interventions. A mere keyboard search of 'wellbeing' in Google Scholar will leave an individual inundated with research papers and outputs. 

Wellbeing is indeed a complex, multi-faceted, and multi-dimensional concept. This complexity may go some way to explaining why, across a range of contexts, understanding and supporting wellbeing could be described as a wicked problem. Indeed, wicked problems are in-themselves conceptually contested as to what they can comprise. Most researchers agree that wicked problems can be characterised by a lack of clarity in how they are defined, unclear indications as to whether an issue has been resolved (i.e. 'no stopping rule'), no single or reversible solutions, and an illusion of resolvability that can lead to problems elsewhere.

Welcome to the world of being a researcher! I am an academic who specialises in human flourishing within sport and performance domains. Wicked problems like wellbeing preoccupy my thoughts, my research, and the educational content I deliver to lay and academic populations. Wellbeing perplexes many psychologists but particularly those operating within sport and performance domains.

 We often ask ourselves big-picture questions: is wellbeing compatible with sport and performance environments? To what extent can sport and performance contexts contribute to human flourishing? These questions are challenging to respond to confidently. Wellbeing eludes conceptual clarity among sport and performance psychology researchers, and the means (e.g. factors that contribute to) and ends (e.g. how wellbeing has been attained in full or in part) of wellbeing are often unclear. 

We cannot say for certain what dimensions of wellbeing are most desirable, sustainable, or sufficient in sport and performance, and whether that indeed equates to a 'goodness' in one's experience. Furthermore, we cannot guarantee that any intervention or therapeutic approach can be universally applied nor universally successful for wellbeing within sport and performance. 

Should we seek to improve how a performer is feeling (e.g. through aiming for pleasant and 'positive' experiences)? Or would we be preventing the opportunity for a performer to experience the full contextualised richness of being human (e.g. by not giving them the opportunity to face ambivalent experiences)? Do we 'intervene' directly with a performer to support their wellbeing? And would doing so be at the expense of personal growth and fulfilment? 

Indeed, there are plenty of 'shades of grey' when it comes to wellbeing. Complexities that transcend the binaries we often see in sport and performance. Healthy or unhealthy, flourishing or languishing, performing or under-performing, positive or negative, facilitator or barrier, good or bad.

Commonly, those untrained and unqualified, yet operating in the sport and performance space and offering wellbeing support, rarely look beyond these simplifications, rarely recognise that these binaries are co-dependent on one another. For these reasons, I (among many) champion the importance of qualifications (e.g. HCPC-registered status), education (from CPD to undergraduate and postgraduate study), and ethical integrity (e.g. guided by the ethical frameworks of relevant regulatory bodies). 

This is not to say that I agree with the idea that practitioners (from trainee to fully qualified) have sufficient knowledge on the complexity of wellbeing, nor indeed, do not fall into oversimplifications that may contribute to wellbeing remaining a 'wicked problem'. A common challenge among practitioners relates to considerations of what falls within their 'scope'. Their scope of knowledge, scope of practice, and scope of competence. Many readers may interpret this as a reference to clinical training and suitability. Indeed, sport psychologists will rarely be well-positioned to practise clinical psychotherapy; making clear boundaries and referrals very important. 

On the contrary, I would instead argue that the field of sport and performance psychology is not sufficiently trained in wellbeing sciences (i.e. positive psychology) – which is dedicated to the goal of increasing flourishing. The reasons for this are complicated and could be due, in part, to the (in)compatibility of wellbeing in these contexts. Nevertheless, wellbeing appears to be commanding an enhanced interest within these domains, as more and more people turn their attention to wellbeing as an alternative yardstick to define and measure success. 

With this mobilisation in mind, below I offer recommendations for psychologists (e.g. practitioners and researchers), and for those aspiring to become one (e.g. students, trainees) to bear the fruits that a more complex understanding of wellbeing can bring for sport and performance settings.

Recommendations for psychologists (practitioners and researchers)

Joining the calls of many scholars, psychologists, and philosophers: there is a need for us to forgo disciplinary siloes to become more transdisciplinary in our approaches to the wicked problem of wellbeing. It is important that we are proactive in engaging with philosophers and ethicists, scientists, sociologists, anthropologists and such like. 

Journals, conferences and networks, and collaborations (e.g. research, knowledge partnerships) dedicated to such wicked problems – and accessible to all these individual specialties – are not only vital but necessary to the thinking, theorising, and practice of wellbeing scholarship within sport and performance domains. 

Next, practitioners should be cognisant of the understandings they hold of wellbeing, their strengths and pitfalls, the implications of such understandings, and should be prepared to clearly articulate such understandings and why they are necessary for the sport and performance environment. For example, understandings of subjective wellbeing could lead a practitioner towards an intervention that promotes (and measures) pleasant and satisfying experiences, but such an objective that focuses on the desirable and pleasant may not be suitable nor worthwhile given 1) the volatile and often unforgiving nature of high-performing contexts and 2) how easy it could be to use a subjective wellbeing score as a potentially unethical justification for organisational decision-making (e.g. selection, progression, or turnover). 

Connecting to the first point, it is critical to draw on critical friends from other domains to check and challenge understandings, assumptions, and uses of such dimensions of wellbeing; in addition to the value of reflective practice, supervision, and other forms of quality assurance.

Recommendations for students and aspiring professionals

As our world continues to evolve, so do the contexts of sport and performance, and the complexities of wellbeing needed to comprehend these environments. It is very easy, perhaps prematurely, to be embedded within a particular domain of psychology (e.g. sport and performance). As an academic myself who fits this description, I would encourage students and aspiring professionals to diversify their sources of learning and curiosity to equip them with the innovation and creativity that we so desperately need in sport and performance contexts. 

Read broadly (e.g. fiction and non-fiction, religious and scientific texts, inside and outside of psychology); listen to podcasts from a range of experts; watch movies and pay attention to the various characters, plotlines, implications and messages. You will be surprised at how your sense-making skills and creativity can become more attuned and equipped to think outside the box in addressing the wicked problem of wellbeing. 

Lastly, do not be afraid nor intimidated by the prospect of reaching out to academics and practitioners across domains about their research and practice relating to wellbeing, whether to share what you learned, to constructively challenge an idea, or even to share ones of your own. Be proactive in filling your gaps in understanding left by a domain, topic, or context you find yourself situated in. Curiosity, in these forms, lead us down new paths. Maybe one of those paths could lead to a future where wellbeing in sport and performance no longer reads like a 'wicked problem' and more like a kaleidoscope of possibility and opportunity. Could that be your path?

Author biography