Search

Introduction: The analysis of contents in abstracts has proven helpful to researchers for effectively screening the information they need. On the one hand, this approach can save time, while on the other hand, it can also allow researchers to discover the core values and research trends in the investigated field of study. Thus, this study took all the text contents in abstracts from the Physical Education Journal, Sports & Exercise Research, Quarterly of Chinese Physical Education, Bulletin of Sport and Exercise Psychology of Taiwan, and Chinese Journal of Sports Biomechanics for the period from March 2009 to March 2019 as the target of its investigation, in an attempt to further explain the development statuses and trends of the target journals through a rigorous and objective analysis process. Methods: Utilizing the concepts of text mining and natural language processing, this paper adopted an analysis program suitable for digital volumes of text data. The adopted program included five steps: text extraction, text segmentation, TF-IDF weight analysis, co-word analysis, and network analysis. Results: Most of the research subjects included in the studies published in the target journals were students and athletes in Taiwan, with the research scope covering the fields of social science and natural science. Conclusion: A network map in this research should fall into the category of relevant academic fields in Taiwan becoming rich and diversified. However, the research topics under the category of "sports history and philosophy" appear to be slightly weak. We suggest that relevant scholars should combine research themes using diverse ways of thinking to achieve the goal of multi-level and multi-dimensional development of sports-related academics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sport and Exercise Psychology research has gradually gained attention in the public eyes in Taiwan and has become an indispensable professional field to promote athlete achievement or mass sports quality. This study aims to review 121 data on sports psychology-related topics which were contained 115 academic papers in the Taiwan Social Science Citation Index (TSSCI), and 6 doctoral dissertations, exploring the relationship between the focus of past research topics and discussing trends and changes in research themes across generations through rigorous social network analysis methods. The study found that: (1)“Sportsmanship/Moral Development” and “Modeling/Observational Learning” are the research topics that are less discussed in Taiwan. The other nine research themes can be divided into three categories: a) “Competition/Achievement Orientation” and “Multidisciplinary Approaches to Psychological Issues”; “Self-Perceptions”, “Emotion/Arousal/Anxiety”, “Physical Activity Adoption, Maintenance, and Adherence”; b) “Gender Role”, “Attitude/Motivation”, “Social Development/Significant Others”, “Measurement Development and Validation”. Among which “self-cognition” is the key role of the most developmental potential context, and the frequency of integration with other research topics is also the highest. (2) In the decade after 2006, the development of Taiwan’s sports psychology is the most diverse, and after 2016, it becomes an in-depth study of several research topics. In the time interval 1(1993-2000), the most critical research topic is “Attitude/Motivation”. In time interval 2(2001- 2005), the most critical research topic are “Self-Perceptions”, “Attitude/Motivation”. In time interval 3(2006-2010), the most critical research topics are “Self-Perceptions”,” Multidisciplinary Approaches to Psychological Issues”, “Emotion/ Arousal/Anxiety”, “Social Development/Significant Others”, “Gender Role”, “Attitude/Motivation”. In time interval 4(2011- 2015), the most critical research topics are “Self-perceptions”, “Attitude/Motivation”, “Multidisciplinary Approaches to Psychological Issues”, “Emotion/Arousal/Anxiety”, “Social Development/Significant Others”. At last, “Self-Perceptions” is the most critical research topic in time interval 5(2016-2018). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Sport and Exercise Psychology” is a relatively newborn sub-discipline in the field of Psychology. However, after several years’ development, Sport and Exercise Psychology has spawned its own unique themes in many related research areas. Being first funded in 2001, the Society for Sport and Exercise Psychology of Taiwan (SSEPT) has energetically advanced the Sport and Exercise Psychology academic discipline and its research in Taiwan. The SSEPT has established a firm research foundation for Sport and Exercise Psychology in Taiwan, reflected in three broad dimensions, which are advancing research topics, engaging in related international professional affairs, thereby promoting global attention, and suggesting practical research applications. This special issue includes eight research papers, not only introducing and analyzing certain specific international research topics, but also annotating and emphasizing the roles which the Taiwanese academic community plays in furthering those research topic areas. In conclusion, this special issue not only reflects the diverse developments of Sport and Exercise Psychology in Taiwan, but also demonstrates the contributions of the Taiwanese academic community to the international Sport and Exercise Psychology community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]