An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the psychological

processes experienced by expert ultra endurance triathletes during

competition

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Introduction
This study aims to explore explicitly the psychological processes experienced

by expert ultra endurance triathletes used to cope during competition.

Ultra-Endurance Triathlon

Competitive sports can place athletes under extraordinary physical and

psychological scrutiny. One such event, designed for specifically that purpose is the

Ultra-endurance (UE) distance triathlon (a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile cycle, followed

by a 26.2 mile run). To achieve performance success and emotional satisfaction in a

event of this nature, athletes are required to call upon technical, cognitive and

behavioural ‘coping’ strategies (Crocker, Kowalski, & Graham, 1998) to deal with

the taxing physical and mental demands that arise.

Ultra-Endurance Athletes

Investigation of UE athletes in particular is of interest, since their cognitive

profiles that are notably different to ‘regular’ endurance athletes (Acevedo,

Dzewaltowski, Gill, & Noble, 1992). Unusually, Acevedo et al (1992) found that

cognitive orientation did not discriminate highly successful and less successful

ultramarathoners.

When comparing UE triathletes, (Baker, Cote, & Deakin, 2005a) found that

expert UE endurance triathletes do however cognitively differ from non-experts.

Experts are suggested to demonstrate higher incidence of both thoughts relevant to

their performance and more proactive thoughts than non-experts under retrospective

consideration of race experiences. Baker and colleagues (2005a) were not however

able to attribute a reason as to why cognitions in expert and non-expert UE athletes

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were different, suggesting future research needed to help establish the relationship

between cognition and performance in UE sports.

Findings in this area could not only help to further advance psychologist’s

current understanding of this field, but could provide useful information that could be

used to help sports psychologists to individualize current interventions within the

sport.

Analysis of Coping

An analysis of this nature is not easy since it has to consider the concepts

coping and stress, which reflect both a complex and large field of literature in the

general psychology domain (Crocker, et al., 1998).

Coping itself is hard to define and differences in opinion surrounding its

conceptualization have been prominent in its research (Crocker, et al., 1998).

Historically it has been categorized at the macro level into ‘problem focused’ and

‘emotion focused’ coping dimensions (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). With further

delineation of these dimensions then possible at the micro-level, a distinctly complex

context within which we must analyse ‘coping’ begins to develop. Compas, Malcarne

& Banez (1992) cited in Crocker et al., (1998)) also argue that the numbers and

structure of these categories are a function of the problem being investigated, further

confounding the issue.

Despite a complicated research landscape, Crocker et al., (1998) succinctly

define coping from recent literature as a ‘critical mediator between stressful events

and subsequent reactions, such as emotion and performance.’

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 Furthermore, the particular coping model the researcher chooses to adopt will

also influence the measurement of coping. Different models can place different (and

often sole) emphasis on either personal or situational characteristics of a given

situation. ‘Overemphasizing either person or environmental characteristics may lead

to a distorted understanding of the role of coping’ (Crocker, et al., 1998). This is

corroborated by the recognition that both person and situational attributes transact in

the unfolding of stress, as explained by Lazarus & Folkman (1984) who argue that

stress occurs as a result of an ongoing dynamic between the person and environment.

Rationale for Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

As a result of this extraordinarily complex and interdependent environment

that has been suggested by the aforementioned literature we propose to examine

‘coping’ within this unique category of athletes using Interpretative

Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). There are several reasons as to why this

methodology can be considered appropriate and these are outlined below.

Locke, (1989) in Crocker et al., (1998) suggests that qualitative methods

enable a greater understanding of scenarios in which personal and situational

variables are entrenched within a larger context. With consideration of the nature of

UE triathlon, its extreme duration and combination of three endurance activities

(Baker, Cote, & Deakin, 2005b) there is ample scope for variance in both situational

and personal states, making this type of competition suitable for qualitative analysis.

The cognitive and behavioural efforts of coping that are the mediator between

stressful events and subsequent reactions are considered to be a function of

continuous appraisals of the person-environment relationship (Folkman & Lazarus,

1990). On appraisal, a situation generates an emotion that initiates coping; coping

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then aims to modify the person-environment relationship through either behavioural

or cognitive change which subsequently requires further (re)appraisal. This

(re)appraisal may then invoke further cognitive/behavioural efforts in a continuation

of what Folkman & Lazarus (1990) describe as ‘recursive’ relationship between

appraisal and coping, i.e. each affects the other. Through the directed encouragement

of elaboration, this methodology should not only return a good depth of detail in

relation to the processes and relationships between the various dimensions of coping,

but in a highly contextual nature. Any analysis out of context, due to the complexity

of the experiences we are trying to explore, would be largely redundant.

Since relatively little is understood concerning the coping process, especially

in UE athletes, a methodology that explores the direct and indirect relationships

surrounding said process free from the biases and presuppositions and existing theory

(Willig, 2008) is well suited to furthering knowledge within the field. A methodology

that can also examine the commonalities in intentionality across these unique

participants in search of the essence of the quality of the experience will prove

particularly useful in helping to example cognitive processes employed by UE

experts.

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Methodology

Participants

Participants for this study will be recruited exclusively from the professional

UE triathlon circuit and invitations will be sent to both male and female athletes who

gain qualification for the UE triathlon world championship. Initial contact will be

made via e-mail provided from the athletes’ personal websites. Both the purpose and

predicted value of the study to the UE community will be outlined with further

mention of the confidentiality the research will method will utlize. Each approach

will then be followed up approximately two weeks later with a personal telephone call

to assess as to whether the invited participants wish to further partake in the study.

The purpose of this method of approach is to twofold. First, it will help

gradually establish a rapport between the researcher and participant, through

incremental development of the intimacy of the contact i.e. e-mail – telephone call –

personal meeting. Second it will ensure that any participation in the research study

will be on the athlete’s terms – which will help them to feel at ease with the overall

process.

A maximum of six participants will be selected (up to three male and three

female participants) for the interview process and the semi-structured interviews will

take place preferably at the athlete’s (again to help them feel at ease). Interviews are

expected to last between 1 and 2 hours and Interviewee’s selected will be the first six

appropriate athletes to register an interest in partaking in the study.

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Procedure

All interviews will be confidential and will be conducted by the first author in

quiet setting of the athlete’s choosing (e.g. their home). The interview setting is most

likely to be defined by the athlete as compromise between a comfortable, quiet and

convenient location. Each interview will be audio recorded for and later transcribed

verbatim into single spaced text. No notes will be taken throughout the interview so

as not to distract either the interviewer or interviewee.

The interview process will be semi-structured in nature with a mixture of at

least one of each of four types of questions being asked. Examples of the style and

type of questions to be used are listed below, question types will be moved through in

the order as listed below.

Questions aim to be as open ended and non-directive as possible and look to

provide an opportunity to share personal experience and encourage elaboration.

Descriptive

What situations (in competition) have you felt the need to cope with?

How do ‘coping’ situations seem arise in a race?

What do you cope with during a race?

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Structural

How do you tend to cope within a race with either the physical or mental

aspects of competition?

Do you decide you need to cope?

Is coping an ongoing process?

Contrasting

Are your coping the strategies always the same (race to race)?

Is coping different at different stages of the race?

What are the easiest and hardest things to cope with during a race?

Evaluative

How do you feel about coping?

How do you feel when you are coping or have coped with a situation?

To ensure consistency in terms of the depth and complexity of responses, pre-

defined probing questions as used in Fletcher and Hanton, (2003) will be used for

clarification (e.g. ‘I’m not sure exactly what you mean, could you please go over that

again?’), elaboration (e.g. ‘Could you please explain that in more detail?’) and general

(e.g. ‘What effect did that have?’). At the end of each section participants will also be

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asked if there is anything else they would like to add concerning what has just been

discussed.

Before each interview commences a final explanation of the nature of the

study and a short brief concerning ethics and confidentiality issues will be explained

once more. Participants will be provided with an information sheet (Appendix A).

The interview processes will then be explained before participants will be asked to

sign a consent form (Appendix B) to indicate if they wish to continue with the study.

Data preparation and Analysis

After the recorded interviews have been transcribed the first author will then

undertake the following analysis as described below as outlined by Willig (2008).

Reading

The author will initially read, then re-read the text and become familiarized

with their initial thoughts on what the interviewee has said. Overarching issues and

concepts that arise will be recorded in the left hand margin.

Identification of themes and structure

The author will then devise ‘label themes’ that characterize the various

sections of text and will record these in the right hand margin. Relationships and

‘clustering’ of themes will then be examined and also given descriptive labels.

Summary table production

A summary table depicting the structure and clustering of themes alongside

the theme labels and examples of illustrative quotations from participants will then be

produced to help obtain a clear and systematic overview of each interview.

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 Effort will be made to only capture quotations that indicate a quality of the

experience. Text/quotations that do not meet this criteria, can then be ignored.

Integration of cases

Once this process has been performed for all the interviewees, the author will

then attempt to integrate these findings into a further table that organises participants

by a series of commonly identified ‘master themes’ which helps characterize the

participants as a whole. Throughout the processes any higher order themes will be

continually checked for consistency with their constituent clusters, label themes and

quotations in the transcript.

The aim of the integration is to capture the quality of particpants’ shared

experience of coping during competition

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References

Acevedo, E. O., Dzewaltowski, D. A., Gill, D. L., & Noble, J. M. (1992). Cognitive
orienations of ultramarathoners. The Sport Psychologist, 6, 242-252.
Baker, J., Cote, J., & Deakin, J. (2005a). Expertise in Ultra-Endurance Triathletes
Early Sport Involvement, Training Structure, and the Theory of Deliberate
Practice. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 17, 64-78.
Baker, J., Cote, J., & Deakin, J. (2005b). Cognitive characteristics of expert, middle
of the pack, and back of the pack ultra-endurance triathletes. Psychology of
Sport and Exercise, 6, 551-558.
Crocker, P. R. E., Kowalski, K. C., & Graham, T. R. (1998). Measurement of Coping
Strategies in Sport Advances in sport and exercise psychology measurement
(J.L. Duda ed., pp. 149-161). Morgantown.
Fletcher, D., & Hanton, S. (2003). Sources of Organization Stress in Elite Sports
Performers. The Sport Psychologist, 17, 175-195.
Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1990). Coping and Emotion. Hillsdale, NJ: Erblaum.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal and coping. New York:
Springer.
Locke, L. F. (1989). Qualitative Research as a Form of Scientific Inquiry in Sport and
Physical Education. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 60(1), 1-20.
Willig, C. (2008). Phenomenological methods Introducing qualitative research in
psychology: adventures in theory and method (2nd ed., pp. 52-72): Open
University Press.

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Appendices Index

Appendix A - Information sheet

Appendix B - Consent form

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Appendix A
Appendix B