Post-graduate Researcher

Department: Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation

Ralph Appleby is a PhD researcher at Northumbria university investigating athlete burnout and a lead psychology intern with Team Northumbria. Ralph previously completed a masters in sport and exercise psychology and is currently working towards his stage two BPS accreditation. Ralph is a keen sports enthusiast and rugby player having played for Darlington Mowden Park for the last eight years.

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Qualifications

MSc, Sport and Exercise Psychology
BSc (Hons), Psychology

Overview of Doctoral Research

An examination of the role of training demands and significant others in athlete burnout

The current research contributes to the scientific community by assessing the influence the social environment (i.e., perception of teammates and coach-athlete relationship) has on athlete burnout, and builds on the limited longitudinal research. Although, researchers such as Madigan, Stoeber, and Passfield (2015, 2016) have recently started to adopt longitudinal designs in the study of burnout, the research comprising this PhD program of study differs as it involves the inclusion of physiological measures that expand the examination of the coach-athlete relationship and burnout. Study one examined the influence of training hours and social perceptions on athletes’ burnout in team sport. The analysis revealed that the perception of teammate burnout and training hours influenced an athlete’s own level of burnout. The aim of the second and third study was to further examine the social environment of the athlete by determining the influence of the coach-athlete relationship on athlete exhaustion (Isoard-Gautheur, Trouilloud, Gustafsson, & Guillet-Descas, 2016). Additionally, the second and third study investigated the effect of burnout and the coach-athlete relationship on cognitive and physical performance of athletes.

Publications/Outputs

Appleby, R., Davis, P., Davis, L., & Gustafsson, H. (2015). An Examination of the Influence of Training Hours on Athlete Burnout. The British Psychology Society Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Leeds, United Kingdom, 14th-15th December, 2015.

Appleby, R., Davis, L., Davis, P., Gustafsson, H., & Lundkvist, E. (2016). The influence of perceptions of teammates’ burnout on individual athletes’ emotional well being. The British Psychology Society Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Cardiff, United Kingdom, 12th-13th December, 2016. .