The Value of Social Validation in Single-Case Methods in Sport and Exercise Psychology

Abstract

Social validation is used to determine satisfaction with an intervention and has been utilized in many single-case studies within sport and exercise psychology research and consultancy. This article reviews current social validation procedures and makes recommendations of how a more thorough consideration of the technique could add greater value to the understanding of single-case protocols within research and applied practice. Recommendations include using semi-structured interviews for data collection, using content analysis to analyze these data, reporting social validation results in a thorough manner, collecting social validation information from significant others, and collecting social validation data as frequently as possible.