Welcome back to Martial Attitude Voice, the podcast where we explore the intersections of discipline, psychology, and performance across a variety of domains. I’m Mathias Alberton, and today we’re diving deep into the origins, development, and implications of a fascinating tool in applied sport psychology—the Athlete Apperception Technique, or AAT.
This is a special episode, not just because of the subject matter, but because of our guest: Dr. Petah Gibbs.
Dr. Gibbs is a sport psychologist based in Australia, with an impressive career that spans collaborations with top-tier athletes and organisations in both hemispheres—from the AFL in Australia to the NBA in the United States. But what brings us together today is not just his applied experience, but his deep academic and psychoanalytic insight. Dr. Gibbs is the author and developer of the Athlete Apperception Technique—a projective test designed specifically for athletes, rooted in psychodynamic theory and inspired by tools like the TAT and the Rorschach.
We first heard about the AAT through his PhD supervisor, Professor Mark B. Andersen, who called it a bold and much-needed addition to the field. But as Petah reminds us in this conversation—behind every supervisor’s suggestion, there’s an author willing to take the leap.
In this episode, we talk about how chance meetings, lucky mentorship, and a lifelong love for psychodynamic theory led Petah to take on a PhD that would require him to bridge the gap between century-old ideas and modern elite sport. We explore how projective techniques—so often dismissed for being "too old" or "not empirical enough"—can actually give us access to the deeper layers of athletes' inner lives. Petah speaks candidly about referencing 19th-century sources in his thesis, drawing comparisons between Freud and Newton, and reminding us that while our environments evolve rapidly, human nature doesn’t change all that fast.
This is a rich, thoughtful conversation about theory, practice, and the humanity of sport—and I can’t wait for you to hear it.
Let’s jump in.
Also, If you are interested in Dr. Gibbs original research study, you can find it here: Gibbs, P. M., Marchant, D. B., & Andersen, M. B. (2016). Development of a clinical sport projective assessment method: The Athlete Apperception Technique (AAT). Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 9(1), 33–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676x.2016.1180637
Abstract
Within the field of applied sport psychology, there is an increasing appreciation for diversity of training models, research methodologies, and therapeutic approaches. For example, psychodynamic formulations and interpretations have begun to appear more frequently in the sport psychology literature. In keeping with emerging psychodynamic viewpoints, we believe the time is right to introduce a qualitative sport-specific projective instrument: the Athlete Apperception Technique (AAT). The AAT represents a new technique based on psychodynamic theory and established projective test construction principles. It was designed primarily as a clinical tool for practitioners and not as an instrument for quantitative research into personality. It does, however, have potential research applications, especially in clinical sport case study research and narrative analysis investigations. The AAT produces an idiographic understanding of athletes’ characteristics, anxieties, and motivations (both conscious and unconscious). We briefly review the literature on the development of projective techniques, explain the rationale underlying the development of the AAT, and present three sequential studies to explain the AAT image selection procedures that led to the final product.
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Discover all Dr. Petah M. Gibbs research here:
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