Master's Thesis Award
The Master's Thesis Award recognizes the completion of an outstanding thesis by an Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) student member (thesis must have been completed between January 1 - December 31, 2024). The recipient receives a check for $500, a waived AASP Annual Conference registration fee in the year of the award, and a plaque awarded during the conference.
**For the Master's Thesis Award, you should submit two PDFs – one with a blind full copy of the thesis only, and the other with your complete application plus a non-blind abstract.
Award Criteria
Applicants must meet the following guidelines:
- Complete the requirements for a thesis between January 1 and December 31 of the year prior to the award, on a topic involving sport, exercise, and/or performance psychology.
- Hold membership in AASP for the application year of the award and year preceding application.
Submission Guidelines
- Provide one blinded full thesis (no reference to author or affiliation in any part of the thesis).
- Include a cover letter that includes contact information (i.e., current and permanent addresses including email) for the applicant, one letter of support (two pages maximum) from the chairperson/co-chair of the thesis committee, and a copy of the signed cover sheet (used by universities and signed by thesis committee members indicating acceptance and completion of thesis work) with the application.
- Deadline for receipt of all materials is March 1 of the award year.
- Electronically submit all questions and applications to info@appliedsportpsych.org.
**For the Master's Thesis Award, you should submit two PDFs – one with a blind full copy of the thesis only, and the other with your complete application plus a non-blind abstract.
Thesis Award Review Committee
Committee Membership
- A minimum of (3) members who have experience supervising or serving on a master’s thesis committee will comprise the committee. Individuals interested in serving on the committee will either respond to an open call for members or will be suggested by the Nominations & Leadership Committee. The current committee will review applications and vote on new member additions.
Committee Process
- Upon receipt of the blinded theses of all nominations, committee members will (a) evaluate and rank the order of the nominees; and (b) submit their evaluations to the committee Chair.
- Each thesis will be evaluated on a number of aspects including (a) background and review of the literature, (b) methodology, (c) quality and rigor of data analysis, (d) discussion of theoretical or practical implications of the results, (e) contribution this study makes to the literature, (f) overall writing quality, and (g) overall quality of the project.
- If there is unanimous agreement of the top nominee, the Chair shall forward that information to the President-Elect.
- If there is not unanimous agreement on the top nominee, the Chair shall guide committee deliberations via email or a conference call until agreement upon the award recipient is achieved. Upon selection of the awardee, the Chair shall forward that information to the President-Elect.
- Any committee member who has served in any capacity on a nominated thesis (e.g., thesis committee member) will recuse themselves from evaluating that thesis for fear of conflict of interest.
Award Recognition
- The conference registration fee will be waived in the year of the award.
- A plaque will be given to the award recipient during the conference, at a session in which a summary of the thesis will be given.
*Deadline for this award: March 1 of each year.
