Adversity is something most people will inevitably encounter in sport and life. Yet, the way we give meaning to these experiences through storytelling can be very different for different people. Dr Ross Wadey visited the Meaningful Sport podcast to share his exciting work on stories of sport injury and adversity. What are the consequences of the stories we tell to ourselves and others around us? Should sport psychology researchers be more critical about which narratives they are promoting through their work?
I was excited to have the conversation with Ross because I have read his work for many years. Especially his recent edited book Sport Injury Psychology: Cultural, Relational, Methodological, and Applied Considerations has caught my interest with its focus on interdisciplinary approaches and narrative theory and methodology. And certainly my expectations were not let down.
For the first part, we focused on the ‘injury-problem’ in sport. As I have observed also in my own research, for some athletes it is the disjunctures in their sporting lives such as a sports injury that trigger deeper questions about meaning. But why are some athletes more vulnerable to a psychological crisis when they experience a sporting injury?
In the conversation, we track how the sport psychology discourse on injury has evolved, and how Ross has significantly changed his own theoretical position within the field. For Ross, a significant limitation of previous work is that it has often been acontextual and focused on what goes on in the athlete’s head. In his recent edited book and research, he has advocated for a shift towards a more cultural and relational discourse and looking into the stories of athletes to understand how they make meaning of these experiences with the cultural narrative resources that are available to them.
We also discuss an exciting new article led by Ross’s PhD student Ciera Everard titled Storying sports injury experiences of elite track athletes: A narrative analysis.
Part 1 here:
In the second part, we focus on ‘Growth following adversity’ which is another sport psychology topic where Ross has had a significant contribution, for exampe by co-editing (together with Melissa Day and Karen Howells) the book Growth Following Adversity in Sport: A Mechanism to Positive Change.
In the podcast, Ross shares how, as an early career researcher, he fell in love with this storyline which promises that something good can come out of bad experiences. Indeed, sport psychology researchers have increasingly demonstrated that adverse experiences can also have some positive outcomes for athletes, such as personal growth and finding new meaning in sport or life.
But as Ross continued pursuing research in this area, he started to realise that this seemingly attractive storyline also has a negative or detrimental side to it. This, in turn, led him to turn away from this line of research.
In the episode, we discuss the potential dark sides of the storyline and also ask how we can know whether athletes simply tell these stories because they are expected to do so, and does it even matter?
Part 2 here:
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Ross Wadey is an Associate Professor in Sport Psychology at St Mary’s University. You can find out more about Ross and his work here and follow him on Twitter @rosswadey