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SEP graduate receives research funding

Ashley Cranney, sport and exercise psychology doctoral graduate, has received Association for Applied Sport Psychology funding as an extension of her dissertation work.

Cranney emphasizes the importance of the grant. “This grant will maximize participant recruitment, expedite transcription, and refine analysis. Getting this grant affirms the importance of this line of research which will be a valuable step toward future grant applications and the development of an instrument of sport overconformity,” she explained.

CPASS faculty and staff helped prepare Cranney for successfully applying for the grant. “The guidance of Dr. Jack Watson and Marian Chambers was necessary both in pushing me to submit the grant and helping me submit a quality application,” she added.

According to Cranney, the research is an extension of her dissertation project. She explains why it is a necessary step for illustrating that overconformity to sport ethic is a problem in all sports, not just a select few.  

“It will help bolster the significance of my future grant proposals to aid and develop a measure of deviant overconformity that can be used practically as a screening tool to identify athletes at risk of overconforming,” she said.  

“This will help with both prevention and treatment efforts and as a research tool to better understand overconformity to the sport ethic,” Cranney added.

Cranney suggests that students thinking about applying for grants should ‘go for it.’

“You won’t know what will happen unless you submit the application. Each time you submit, you get valuable information back, regardless of the depth of feedback you receive or whether or not you receive funding,” she said.

Cranney says she does not always receive funding. “Sometimes I received great feedback which allowed me to learn about my strengths and shortcomings on the application and in the research design. In the end, though, the moral is that no one will be funded, 100 percent of the time. If you do not put yourself out there, you'll get zero percent, 100 percent of the time,” Cranney explained.

Cranney credits the importance of support from CPASS. “Without it, I would have had much difficulty finding the motivation and confidence to continue my research efforts post-graduation. I'm equally grateful to Dr. Hawley Montgomery-Downs in the psychology department for her Grant Writing class a few years ago that taught me more about grants than I cared to know but has served me well since graduating and continuing my research efforts,” she added.  

Cranney acknowledges the importance of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology for awarding the full grant. “This will allow me to complete the research project as designed,” she concluded.

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