Dr James Rumbold

About

James Rumbold is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, with expertise in sport, exercise and performance psychology.

James joined the School of Sport and Exercise Science in December 2024 as a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology.

James has approximately 17 years' experience of teaching sport and exercise psychology in UK Higher Education, having worked previously at Loughborough University, Sheffield Hallam University, and Arden University.

Teaching responsibilities

Level 4 - Principles of Sport and Exercise Psychology (Module Lead)

Level 5 - Sport and Exercise Psychology (Module Lead)

Level 7 - Applied Practice in Sport Psychology (Module Lead)

Level 7 - Current Concepts in Advanced Sport and Exercise Psychology (Module Tutor)

Level 7 - Independent Research in Sport and Exercise (Project Supervisor)

Level 8 - Professional Doctorate (Advisor, Supervisor, Director of Studies)

Professional interests

James has an interest in mentoring and building the capacity of others in a research capacity sense.

In addition, James has experience of research leadership in several ways. James has supervised doctoral students to completion and examined MRes and PhD vivas in the UK and abroad.

James served as the School of Sport and Physical Activity PGR lead for 3 years at Sheffield Hallam University, and served as the Head of Research and Ethics within the School of Psychology at Arden University in 2024.

Research interests

James has published research on individual differences, stress, emotions, coping and stress management in a range of occupational contexts, including elite and professional sport, medical education and nursing. In addition, James has expertise in using a range of a novel quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approaches to understanding these topics from a social psychological perspective.

James regularly reviews for sport science and psychology scientific journals. In addition, James is currently serving as a Section Editor for the European Journal of Sport Science, and he serves on the editorial board of the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology.

James' current research is focusing on investigating the efficacy of multidisciplinary workplace interventions to tackle psychological stress, well-being and physical health.

James is interested in hearing from prospective doctoral candidates, and potential collaborators (researchers and industry partners) who may have an interest in working together to research the above topics.

Membership of professional bodies

The British Psychological Society (Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology)
Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol.) and Associate Fellow (AFBPsS)
The British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES)
Advance HE

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) Psychology with Sport Science - St Marys University London;
MSc Sport and Exercise Psychology - Loughborough University;
PhD Sport and Performance Psychology - Loughborough University;
Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education - Sheffield Hallam University.

Recent conferences

Higham, A., Newman, J., Rumbold, J., & Stone, J. (2024, July). Can a picture speak a thousand words? A longitudinal photo-elicitation exploration of football coaches’ well-being experiences and sensemaking. Poster presentation at the 17^th FEPSAC European Congress of Sport Psychology, Innsbruck, Austria. Fepsac 2024 conference abstract book.

Higham, A., Newman, J., Rumbold, J., & Stone, J. (2023, December). Using photo-elicitation to see the bigger picture: An exploration of how football coaches experience and make sense of well-being over the course of a competitive season. Oral presentation at the 14^th ICCE Global Coach Conference, Singapore.

White, N., Rumbold, J., & Garner, I. (2022, November). A study into the perceptions of pre-registration nurses’ use of mental simulation for learning cardiac arrest skills. Oral presentation at the annual meeting of the Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare (ASPiH) conference, Birmingham, UK.

White, N., Garner, I., & Rumbold, J. (2022, November). Design of a functionally equivalent mental simulation protocol for learning cardiac arrest skills. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare (ASPiH) conference, Birmingham, UK.

Farrokh, D., Rumbold, J. L., Stone, J., & Davids, K. (2022, July). An ecological dynamics perspective on flow in sport. Oral presentation presented at the 16^th FEPSAC European Congress of Sport Psychology, Padova, Italy.

Jones, L., Rumbold, J. L., & Bird, J. M. (2022, July). A two-part study exploring the use of virtual reality as a coping aid for coaches and athletes. Poster presented at the 16^th FEPSAC European Congress of Sport Psychology, Padova, Italy.

Rumbold, J. L., Madigan, D. J., & Didymus, F. F. (2022, July). A daily diary study of primary appraisals, emotional exhaustion, and turnover intentions in sport coaches. Poster presented at the 16^th FEPSAC European Congress of Sport Psychology, Padova, Italy.

Spray, C. M., Rumbold, J. L., & Braithwaite, R. (2022, July). Motivational climate correlates in sport: A meta-analysis. Poster presented at the 16^th FEPSAC European Congress of Sport Psychology, Padova, Italy.

Experience in industry

James has experience of giving talks and educational workshops to a number of National Sport Governing Bodies and Businesses in the UK.

International experience

James has experience of module leading and delivering undergraduate research methods to international students, as part of distance learning psychology programmes at Arden University.

In the media

Based on his research expertise in stress, emotions and coping in sport, James has featured in a range of interviews with different media outlets, including ITV Calendar, BBC Radio Sheffield, Sky News Podcast and Sky News TV.

In addition, James has previously been invited to write for the conversation in relation to collective emotions in football, football manager stress and transformational leadership.

Recent publications

Higham, A., Newman, J. A., Rumbold, J. L., & Stone, J. A. (2024). “Being a woman in the men’s game, it’s brutal”: A longitudinal photo-elicitation exploration of a woman football coach’s well-being. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology. Advance online publication.

Glandorf, H. L., Madigan, D. J., Kavanagh, O., Mallison-Howard, S. H., Donachie, T. C., Olsson, L. F., & Rumbold, J. L. (2024). Athlete burnout and mental and physical health: A three-wave longitudinal study of direct and reciprocal effects. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology. Advance online publication.

Newman, J. A., & Rumbold, J. L. (2024). Towards an understanding of maltreatment in football. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 6: 1350317.

Higham, A., Newman, J. A., Rumbold, J. L., Stone, J. A. (2024). You wouldn’t let your phone run out of battery: A interpretative phenomenological analysis of male professional football coaches’ well-being. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 16(2), 213-227.

Hill, A. P., Madigan, D. J., Curran, T., Jowett, G., & Rumbold, J. L. (2024). Exploring and evaluating the two-factor model of perfectionism in sport. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment. Advance online publication.

Farrokh, D., Strafford, B., Stone, J. A., Davids, K., & Rumbold, J. L. (2024). Why isn’t flow flowing? Metatheoretical issues in explanations of flow. Theory & Psychology, 34(2), 257-276.

White, N., Garner, I., & Rumbold, J. (2024). Designing effective scripts and resources to support simulated practice, using basic life support as an exemplar. Journal of Modern Nursing Practice and Research, 4(2): 10:

White, N., Rumbold, J., & Garner, I. (2024). Enhancing cardiac arrest skills: Exploring student nurses’ journey through mental simulation to self-efficacy. Journal of Modern Nursing Practice and Research, 4(2): 6.

Newman, J. A., Mahmood, S., & Rumbold, J. L. (2023). The blurred line in elite sport: Exploring UK media reporting of bullying and banter. Sport, Education, & Society.

Rumbold, J. L., Newman, J. A., & Carr, S. (2023). Coaches’ experiences of job crafting through organizational change in high-performance sport. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 12(4), 256-273.

Higham, A., Rumbold, J. L., Newman, J. A., & Stone, J. A. (2023). Using video docuseries to explore male professional football head coaches’ well-being experiences throughout a season. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 69, 102488.

Rumbold, J. L., Madigan, D. J., & Didymus, F. F. (2023). A daily diary study of primary appraisals, emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions in sport coaches. Journal of Sports Sciences, 41(10), 1018-1024.

O Sullivan, M., Vaughan, J., Rumbold, J. L., & Davids, K. (2023). Utilising the learning in development research framework in a professional youth football club. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 5: 1169531.

Rhind, D. J. A., Hodson, E., Newman, J., & Rumbold, J. (2022). Transformational leadership: A qualitative analysis of effective leadership in women’s soccer in England. Unisia, 40(1), 257-276.

Newman, J. A., Eccles, S., Rumbold, J. L., & Rhind, D. J. A. (2022). When it is no longer a bit of banter: Coaches’ perspectives of bullying in professional football. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 20(6), 1576-1593.

Rumbold, J. L., Dunn, J. G. H., & Olusoga, P. (2022). Examining the predictive validity of the Grit Scale-Short (Grit-S) using domain-general and domain-specific approaches with student-athletes. Frontiers in Psychology: Movement Science and Sport Psychology.

Rumbold, J. L., Newman, J. A., Foster, D., Rhind, D. J. A., Phoenix, J., & Hickey, L. (2022). Assessing post-game emotions in soccer teams: The role of distinct emotional dynamics. European Journal of Sport Science, 22(6), 888-896.

Sanders, J., Jenkins, L., Church, H., Patel, R., Rumbold, J. L., Maden, M., Patel, M., Henshaw, K., & Brown, J. (2022). Medical teacher in ten minutes. Medical Teacher, 44(1), 1-2.

Sanders, J., Jenkins, L., Church, H., Patel, R., Rumbold, J. L., Maden, M., Patel, M., Henshaw, K., & Brown, J. (2022). Applying sport psychology in health professions education: A systematic review of performance mental skills training. Medical Teacher, 44(1), 71-78.

Higham, A. J., Newman, J. A., Stone, J. A., & Rumbold, J. L. (2021). Coaches’ experiences of morality in professional football environments: Recommendations for creating a moral atmosphere. International Sport Coaching Journal, 9(2), 211-221.

O’ Sullivan, M., Vaughan, J., Rumbold, J. L., & Davids, K. (2021). The learning in development research framework for sports organizations. Sport, Education and Society.

Rumbold, J. L., Madigan, D. J., Murtagh-Cox, A., & Jones, L. (2021). Examining profiles of the big five and sensation seeking among competitive climbers. Psychology of Sport & Exercise, 55, 101951.

Dunn, J. G. H., Kono, S., Cormier, D. L., Causgrove Dunn, J., & Rumbold, J. L. (2021). Perfectionism and grit in competitive sport. Journal of Sport Behavior, 44(2), 199-223.