Welcome

The first question is ‘What inner states influence what people think, feel, and behave?’ The first four chapters in the book examine mood and emotion, self-confidence, anxiety and self-esteem. Andy Lane (the elder!) opens the book with a chapter on mood. This is followed by Kate Hays, Andy Lane and Owen Thomas. Anxiety is a commonly researched topic and Mark Uphill provides a comprehensive analysis of the area. We finish this section by shifting focus to physical activity with Mike Duncan and Emma Eyre.

The second question, ‘How can people manage or self-regulate their own inner states?’, covered in Chapters 5–8, looks at how people manage these inner states or their intentions to achieve goals. Chris Fullerton presents self-control and introduces a recent model. Tracey Devonport presents coping research and practice and the importance of building your own resilient bank of resources. Andrew Friesen discusses his work on emotion regulation, focusing on how to regulate someone else's emotions. Attila Szabo and Alexei Egorov complete this section with an examination of exercise addiction.

The third question is ‘How can sport and exercise psychology professionals help people manage their inner states?’ In this section (Chapters 9–12), we examine some commonly used techniques. Richard Thelwell provides an insightful chapter on psychological skills. David Smith and Caroline Wakefield focus on imagery. Neil Weston provides an insightful examination of the Performance Profile. Costas Karageorghis completes this section with a fabulous chapter on his pioneering research into the effects of music, presenting a new theory.

The fourth and final part is a single, thought-provoking chapter called ‘Beliefs versus reality, or beliefs as reality? Phil Hurts, Chris Beedie and Abbie Foad present work on the placebo effect in sport and exercise’. In this chapter, we are asked to reflect on our knowledge of the mechanisms proposed to explain intervention work. For scientists, thinking about how we should answer this question is fundamental to our work.