Skiing and Thinking About It: Moment-to-Moment and Retrospective Analysis of Emotions in an Extreme Sport

Abstract

Happiness is typically reported as an important reason for participating in challenging activities like extreme sport. While in the middle of the activity, however, participants do not seem particularly happy. So where does the happiness come from? The article proposes some answers from a study of facially expressed emotions measured moment-by-moment during a backcountry skiing event. Self-reported emotions were also assessed immediately after the skiing. Participants expressed lower levels of happiness while skiing, compared to when stopping for a break. Moment-to-moment and self-reported measures of emotions were largely unrelated. These findings are explained with reference to the Functional Wellbeing Approach (Vittersø, 2013), which argues that some moment-to-moment feelings are non-evaluative in the sense of being generated directly by the difficulty of an activity. By contrast, retrospective emotional feelings are more complex as they include an evaluation of the overall goals and values associated with the activity as a whole.

Antecedents and Consequences of Outward Emotional Reactions in Table Tennis

“…There are several laboratory studies within the context of sport that indicate how outward emotional reactions can influence the opponents' cognitions, emotions, and behaviors (e.g., Furley and Schweizer, 2014;Furley et al, 2015); however, research in the field is lacking. Given the importance of increasing the ecological validity of studies that focus on the relationship between emotions and sports performance (Uphill et al, 2014), we are convinced that with the increased use of innovative research methods (e.g., automatic recognition of body signals; Hetland et al, 2018), the explicit focus on outward emotional reactions can contribute to further insights in this area.…”

“…Similar to the emotion experience (Hanin, 2007), a research design that takes their intensity into consideration could thus be specifically relevant with regard to sports performance. Finally, advances in technology appear to offer fascinating perspectives for future lines of research (e.g., Hetland et al, 2018). The automatic coding of physical features signaling outward emotional reactions could allow to draw on huge amounts of data in real sports competitions and thus help us to understand the role of emotions in sports.…”

The Thrill of Speedy Descents: A Pilot Study on Differences in Facially Expressed Online Emotions and Retrospective Measures of Emotions During a Downhill Mountain-Bike Descent

“…In a previous study, we have used small, head-mounted video cameras to capture backcountry skiers facially displayed emotions, while they were skiing (Hetland et al., 2018 – this issue). The results showed that the participants displayed significantly less happiness while skiing than when they stopped to take a break.…”

“…Such voluntary exposure to extreme hazards has received increased scientific attention, and the list of potential motives is increasing (Celsi et al., 1993; Willig, 2008; Brymer and Gray, 2009; Woodman et al., 2010; Hetland and Vittersø, 2012; Kerr and Houge Mackenzie, 2012; Barlow et al., 2013; Arijs et al., 2017; Frühauf et al., 2017; Holmbom et al., 2017; Hetland et al., 2018). Among the important motives is the experience of positive emotions often explained in the context of flow (Delle Faveaaa et al., 2003).…”

Conceptualising Performance Enhancement in Extreme Sports: Combining Physiological and Psychological Perspectives

“…Siefert et al (26) found that expert rock climbers can successfully perceive and act on relevant information in the environment. Hetland et al (27) examined emotional expression while participating in skiing and determined that performance was linked with high-level focus, likely related to the difficulty of the activity. They also noted that performance was often accompanied by experiences of psychological and physical discomfort-a point recognised in research into polar expeditions (28).…”