The mission of the Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology (SEPP) Lab is threefold:

1. To conduct innovative, interdisciplinary research in order to better understand how to optimize the experience, learning, and performance potential of all participants in physical activity settings.
2. To provide evidence-based, theoretically guided training to coaches and leaders in physical activity-based performance settings in order to achieve their program aims.
3. To deliver psychological skills training to athletes in sporting contexts in order to facilitate their development and help optimize their motivation and performance.

Research focus

Dr. Hogue investigates how supportive coaching practices and psychological skills training can help youth and collegiate athletes manage performance stress and have a positive sporting experience. Her primary line of research is focused on investigating stress and motivation in response to the motivational climate fostered by leaders in physical activity settings. Specifically, she examines how caring, task-involving climates (mastery-focused, athlete-centered) vs. ego-involving climates (hypercompetitive, winning-centered) impact psychophysiological stress responses including inflammation and cortisol fluctuations, along with indicators of well-being and motivation. 

For her second line of research, she uses experimental investigations to explore how psychological skills training might help athletes respond more favorably to performance stress. She has incorporated physiological markers of stress and thriving (e.g., DHEA/cortisol) as well as psychological measures of stress and coping, motivation, and well-being. 

For her third line of research, she investigates the impact of coach-driven motivational climates in non-experimental (real world) contexts on athletes’ physiological and psychological well-being, including their cortisol awakening response, along with their motivational responses related to physical activity engagement.