Identification and Incidence of Mood Profile Clusters Among Sport Participants

Researchers show persistent interest in mood responses among athletes and exercisers. Mood profiling has often focused on antecedents and behavioural consequences associated with the iceberg (Morgan, 1980) and inverse iceberg profiles (Terry, 1995). The iceberg profile (high vigour, low tension, depression, anger, fatigue, confusion) is associated with positive mental health and superior performance. The inverse iceberg profile (low vigour, high tension, depression, anger, fatigue, confusion) is associated with risk of psychopathology and used as a diagnostic criterion for overtraining syndrome. Four novel and theoretically meaningful mood profiles, termed the inverse Everest, shark fin, submerged, and surface profiles, were identified recently in the general population (Parsons-Smith, Terry, & Machin, 2017). In the present study, we investigated whether these six mood profiles are also evident in an athletic population.