Applying Crisis Decision Theory to Sports

This chapter introduces crisis decision theory (CDT, Sweeny, Psychol Bull 134(1):61–76, 2008), as one of the few fitting psychology theories addressing crisis with applicability to sports. The focus of CDT lies in the responses to crises and in factors determining the response. It is based on the transactional model of stress (Lazarus and Folkman, Stress, appraisal, and coping, Springer Publishing Company, 1984) and the self-regulation model of illness (Leventhal et al., Illness representations and coping with health threats, Routledge, 1984), combined with research on decision-making. Originally, CDT addressed responses to different forms of crises with a specific focus on responses to illness diagnoses. The focus of this chapter is to apply the theory to sports. In the applied part of this chapter, a common example of a response to such a crisis is elaborated, the hiring and firing of coaches. A few teams of the English Premier League are examined more carefully. In many cases, the coach seems to be held responsible for poor team performance and is therefore let go. While firing the coach is often chosen as a response to poor performance, it may not always be the most efficacious and certainly not the only option. The present chapter aims to convey, in line with CDT, more response options need to be considered to deal with poor performance.