Marta Guivernau, Ph.D.

Marta Guivernau is an assistant professor in the School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies.  She completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain) and her graduate work (M.S. 1994; Ph.D. 1999) in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Purdue University. Marta joined the faculty at Kent State University in 2007 and regularly teaches Sport Psychology, Sociology of Sport and Contemporary Athletic Coaching and supervises the internships in Physical Education and Athletic Coaching. Prior to Kent, she was a visiting professor at Kalamazoo College (Michigan), an adjunct faculty at Michigan State and a research associate to the Center for Sport, Character and Community at the University of Notre Dame, which mission was to build character through sports with a research-based foundation.  Marta’s scholarship focuses on understanding the conditions and influence of the environment on moral aspects and motivation and the impact of a positive atmosphere on individual’s psychological and socio-emotional responses. In particular, she examines how to create caring climates in sport and education that optimize the experience of all participants.  Her work also explores the stressors college athletes perceive and its impact on character, experience, wellbeing and performance.  Her research adopts an interdisciplinary approach integrating theories from the areas of developmental, social, and sport psychology with sociological principles and lifespan development. Marta also enjoys interacting with athletes and coaches, consulting with university teams and individual athletes on performance enhancement issues and offering advice to coaches on creating environments that foster positive experiences for athletes and improved performance. Marta’s work has been published in the Journal of Moral Education, Developmental Psychology, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, Journal of Teaching Physical Education and the European Yearbook of Sport Psychology.