The Efficacy of Mood State Profiling with Elite Performers: A Review and Synthesis

Abstract

Research into the relationship between mood profiles and athletic performance has produced equivocal results. It appears that athletic populations tend to show more positive mood profiles than the general population, but that mood profiles are ineffective in differentiating between athletes of varying achievement levels. POMS appears to have greater discriminatory power among homogeneous ability groups in terms of differentiating between successful and unsuccessful performances. In this paper, a number of conditions that increase the predictive capability of preperformance mood profiling are proposed. In addition, measurement issues, factors influencing crosssectional and intraindividual comparisons, and proposed uses of mood profiling among elite performers are discussed. It is concluded that further research is required to fully understand how intraindividual mood fluctuations influence athletic performance, and to understand the impact of preperformance and intraperformance mood trends upon performance.