PHASE ONE: SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW GUIDE

Remind athlete of right to withdraw at any time without penalty and review the issues of confidentiality- GO OVER CONSENT

Gaining rapport:

 Please tell me about a little bit out your sporting background -When did your interest in sports first begin?

-How many years did you play? -What level did you play?

 How did you end up where you are today in your sport? -How did you get involved?

Specific experiences discussion:

I am sure that being a competitive athlete in competitive sporting environments that you have had many emotional experiencess, both good and bad. For the purpose of my study, today I would like to discuss with you a specific challenge or an event that you have experienced in which you feel like you have failed (e.g. you didn‟t‟t reach a personal goal) and the emotions you felt during this time.

 What kinds of challenges or events arise in your sport that you would describe as a failure?

 Are there any specific situations you can talk about that could possibly occur in your sport that may result in an athlete feeling like they have failed?

 Now that we have talked a little bit about what could potentially happen in your sport is there one specific experiences or situation you can tell me about where you have gone through a difficult time in your competitive sport where you felt you have failed? By this I mean a situation where you feel like you have let yourself down or maybe you didn‟t meet a personal goal or expectation.

 Can you tell me about why you think your experiences is one of failure? What about this specific experiences makes you feel like you have failed or let yourself down?

 Why was this experience different from all the other challenges and events you have experienced in your competitive sport?

136 -Why is it important to you?

 Was there a certain moment in your experiences in which you knew you have let yourself down? If so, can you walk me through that moment?

 There are often many emotions present when someone is faced with difficult experiences. What type of emotions were you feeling during your difficult experiences?

 Did you have similar emotions hours, days, weeks, or months after your experiences? Can you tell me in what ways they have changed? For example were they becoming more positive or more negative? Or did they not change at all?

 In what way did these emotions affect you in your sport? -Was your training affected?

-Your approach to your sport (training, coaches, teammates)? -Your competition performance?

-Your attitude?

-Did they carry over to other aspects of your life?

 During this difficult time did you notice things that you did not like about yourself?

 Did you do anything to cope with your emotions?

- Is there anything specific that you feel has helped you deal with your experiences? - Was there someone that was able to help you? For example, a coach, teammate, family, or friend?

 When reflecting back on your experiences can you talk about how your emotions and behavior has or has not changed and why you think this might be the case?

 Is there anything else you would like to add?

Explain photograph component for phase two (Participant will receive information sheet on this).

1. Explain photography release – i.e. they have to give me their consent before the photos will be shown to anyone.

2. Explain that consent must be obtained from the third party if he/she appears in the photograph and distribute photo release forms. If the participant in the photograph is under the age of 18, the photo will not be used for presentation or publication purposes. 3. Explain that the participants will not be judged on their photographs. The photographs

are simply a means of generating discussion and promote understanding. 4. Ask participants if they have any questions.

137 APPENDIX F Phase Two Interview Guide

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PHASE TWO: SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW GUIDE

Thank you for completing the photograph phase of the study. To start off I just want to get your thoughts on how you felt the photograph process was.

 How did you find the photograph taking process? Did you find it beneficial, frustrating, helpful, difficult, or emotional?

 Were you able to express your emotions and thoughts fully through the photographs and your captions?

 Did any new emotions arise from taking then pictures or when you got them developed? If so, can you tell me about how these emotions are different than the ones previously discussed in our first meeting?

 Did you have a plan in mind when taking the pictures or did you just see something that sparked emotions and then took that picture? Why did you choose to do it this way?

Thank you for bringing you photographs with you today, for this part of the interview we will now go through your photos and you can walk me through what they represent and how they reflect your difficult experiences.

 Can you walk me through your photographs? And talk about in what ways these pictures capture your experiences in which you felt you have let yourself down?

Things to bring up with photos

 What does it symbolize?

 Please tell me a about the emotions that arose when you took the photograph, when you wrote about the photograph, and now seeing the picture.

 What emotions are present in this photograph for you?

 What emotions were you trying to portray?

 Can you talk about the emotional story behind this picture? Is it a positive or negative? Personal? Individual or team driven?

 Can you talk about how you feel about the photos? Are they positive, negative or neutral feelings?

 How has your behavior been effected by these photographs?

 In what ways has your behavior changed?

 Would you say you have a better understanding of yourself and your experiences after this photograph taking process?

In conclusion

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Now that we have discussed your experiences of emotional pain I would turn our discussion towards the ideas around compassion.

 Can you tell me what you believe compassion to be?

 Have you heard of the idea or concept of compassion towards yourself?

 Can you tell me a bit about what you think being compassionate towards the self means and involves?

Show Lead researcher Kristin Neff’s video on Self-Compassion

(Having self-compassion means extending compassion to the self for ones failures, inadequacies and experiences of suffering. Leading researcher Kristen Neff says in involves 3 components: 1) Self kindness which means treating oneself with understanding rather than harsh self-judgement. 2) Common Humanity which involves one to realize that suffering and personal inadequacies are part of the shared human experience, and 3) Mindfulness which requires one to take a balanced approach to our negative emotions so that feelings are neither suppressed nor exaggerated. )

 Now that you are a little more familiar with the term self-compassion can you tell me why this might or might not be an important quality for an athlete to have?

 Do you think that self-compassion is something that will help athletes? Specifically do you think that self-compassion can help with the painful emotions that athletes face after experiencing an event in which they felt they have not lived up to a personal expectation or a time when they felt they have let themselves down?

 How do you think self-compassion might help with these negative experiences?

 Do you typically think that you act self-compassionately when faced with negative experiences? Can you explain why you do or don‟t usually act with self-compassion?

 In terms of your personal experiences we‟ve been talking about, do you think that you acted self-compassionately?

 In what specific ways do you believe that you were acting self-compassionately? -If you feel like you did not act self-compassionately can you tell me in what ways you might have been able to use self-compassion when dealing with your difficult

experiences?

 Can you talk about how self-compassion may have played an important role in coping with your difficult time in a healthy way?

 Was there a certain moment after your experiences where you started to accept what happened and began to look at the situation in a different perhaps more positive way?

 Can you walk me through that moment and what you feeling?

 Do you think any of these photos represent self-compassion? And in what ways?

 Did you try to capture aspects of self-compassion in this photograph?

 Overall can you give me a summary of your thoughts

140 APPENDIX F Photo Release Form

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