Making sense of performance and health complexity in sport and music through a Salutogenic lens

Citation

Kirkland A & Lubert VJ (2026) Making sense of performance and health complexity in sport and music through a Salutogenic lens. 8th International Cluster for Research into Coaching Conference, University of Stirling, 08.06.2026-12.06.2026.

Abstract
Kirkland, Andrew1; Lubert, Veronika Jana2 1 University of Stirling, UK 2 Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts Keywords: Performance optimisation, Salutogenesis, biopsychosocial Performance optimisation in sport and music happens in open ecological systems, where the causes of performance and health reflect a complex state of dynamic equilibrium between body, mind, and the environment (Galderisi et al., 2015). Performance emerges through capacity to meet domain specific demands via psychobiological responses and coping skills. However, tradition and historical precedence (Williams & Hodges, 2005) often dominate how performance is conceptualised, with simple empiricist methods, disciplinary conventions, and entrenched biases shaping wider performance systems. Consequently, there is an ontological incongruence between the complex causation (Groff, 2016) of performance and the practices that claim to enhance it. Our aim is to present a conceptualisation of performance using a Critical Realist ontology (Bhaskar, 1975), synthesising the work of Meyer (1951) and Antonovsky (1979) on the causes of health and human adaptation. Meyer (1951) was an early critic of reductionist clinical approaches used to diagnose and treat psychiatric illness. The biopsychosocial model (Engel, 1977) emerged from his central ideas of holism and integration (Owen, 2023). Within this perspective, dynamic equilibrium is understood through life course analysis and case formulation, processes that help identify “dominant facts and what are the points of attack for modification and adjustment” (Meyer, 1951, p. 65). Salutogenesis, a complementary health promoting meta theory (Antonovsky, 1979), extends deficit models reflected by Meyer (1951) to understanding the origins of good health and human adaptation through stress coping responses throughout the life course approach. The theory rests on two biopsychosocial foundations: Sense of Coherence, comprising comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness, and General Resistance Resources, which reflect stress coping capacities shaped by life experiences and sociocultural and historical context. Drawing these strands together, we present a complex, integrative, and holistic model of performance that aligns ontological assumptions with biopsychosocial processes, offering a coherent framework for understanding how performance and health can be more effectively supported and enhanced.