Master's Thesis Award
Please read the full instructions below before starting your application.
Effective as of the 2026 Awards Cycle
Master's Thesis Award applications are submitted online through the Cadmium platform.
Click Here to Start Your Application in Cadmium
After you press "save application" upon completing all components of the application, please click the "submit" button at the top right of the screen to move your application from Active to Completed status. The action of clicking "submit" will prompt the system to email the applicant a confirmation of the submitted application. Clicking "submit" is the final step to submit your award application for consideration. Award nominees with a sponsor will be required to invite their sponsor to certify the nomination in Cadmium prior to final submission.
The Master's Thesis Award recognizes the completion of an outstanding thesis by an Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) student member (thesis must have been completed between January 1 - December 31, 2025). The recipient receives a check for $1,000, a waived AASP Annual Conference registration fee in the year of the award, and a plaque awarded during the conference.
Award Criteria
Applicants must meet the following guidelines:
- Complete the requirements for a thesis between January 1 and December 31 of the year prior to the award, on a topic involving sport, exercise, and/or performance psychology.
- Hold membership in AASP for the application year of the award and year preceding application.
Submission Guidelines
- Provide one blinded full thesis (no reference to author or affiliation in any part of the thesis).
- Provide a non-blind abstract.
- One letter of support (two pages maximum) from the chairperson/co-chair of the thesis committee, and a copy of the signed cover sheet (used by universities and signed by thesis committee members indicating acceptance and completion of thesis work) with the application.
- Deadline for receipt of all materials is April 15 of the award year.
- The Cadmium submission platform requires that the file uploads be in PDF format.
Thesis Award Review Committee
Committee Membership
- A minimum of (3) members who have experience supervising or serving on a master’s thesis committee will comprise the committee. Individuals interested in serving on the committee will either respond to an open call for members or will be suggested by the Nominations & Leadership Committee. The current committee will review applications and vote on new member additions.
Committee Process
- Upon receipt of the blinded theses of all nominations, committee members will (a) evaluate and rank the order of the nominees; and (b) submit their evaluations to the committee Chair.
- Each thesis will be evaluated on a number of aspects including (a) background and review of the literature, (b) methodology, (c) quality and rigor of data analysis, (d) discussion of theoretical or practical implications of the results, (e) contribution this study makes to the literature, (f) overall writing quality, and (g) overall quality of the project.
- If there is unanimous agreement of the top nominee, the Chair shall forward that information to the President-Elect.
- If there is not unanimous agreement on the top nominee, the Chair shall guide committee deliberations via email or a conference call until agreement upon the award recipient is achieved. Upon selection of the awardee, the Chair shall forward that information to the President-Elect.
- Any committee member who has served in any capacity on a nominated thesis (e.g., thesis committee member) will recuse themselves from evaluating that thesis for fear of conflict of interest.
Award Recognition
- The recipient receives a check for $1,000.
- The conference registration fee will be waived in the year of the award.
- A plaque will be given to the award recipient during the conference, at a session in which a summary of the thesis will be given.
*Deadline for this award: April 15 of each year.
