Sport Psychology: Past, Present and Future

1. Chapter 1 Sport Psychology: Past, Present and Future Jean Williams & Bill Straub

2. Focus of Applied Sport Psychology • Understand psychological factors that influence participation and performance in sport and exercise • Understand psychological effects derived from participation and performance • Identify interventions to enhance performance, participation, and personal growth

3. Sport Psychologists Study • Motivation • Personality • Violence • Leadership • Group Dynamics • Exercise and psychological well-being • Thoughts and feelings of athletes • Many other dimensions of participation in sport and exercise

4. What Sport Psychologists Do Teach Research Consulting

5. Applied Sport Psychologists • Asks questions such as how to: • Manage competitive stress • Control concentration • Improve confidence • Increase communication skills and team harmony • Maintain optimal motivation • Deal with burnout and injury • Enhance coaching effectiveness • Increase exercise participation

6. Broad Goals of Psychological Skills Training • To learn to consistently create the ideal mental climate that unleashes those physical skills that allow athletes to perform at their best • To use interventions to enhance physical and mental health by increasing exercise participation

7. History of Sport Psychology in North America • Roots lie in Greek antiquity, but scientific foundation comes primarily from last 40 years • Coleman Griffith an exception –active 1920’s to 1930’s • Hired by University of Illinois to help coaches  performance, first SP laboratory and course • Wrote Psychology of Coaching (1926) and Psychology of Athletics (1928) plus 40 articles • Dorothy Yates an exception –active during 1930s-1950s • Wrote 2 books describing her mental training interventions with boxers and aviators • Taught psychology course at San Jose State for aviators and athletes

8. 1965-1979 • Birth of applied sport psychology (e.g., Bruce Ogilvie and Tom Tutko) • Clinical Psychologists (San Jose State Univ.) • Extensive personality testing and team consulting, wrote Problem Athletes and How to Handle Them (1966) • Bruce Ogilvie often referred to as the father of applied sport psychology in North America • Formation of first sport psychology professional organizations • Father of Sport Psychology In Canada – Terry Orlick

9. SP Professional Organizations • International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP, 1965) • North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA, 1967) • Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology (SCAPPS, 1969) • European Federation of Sport Psychology (FEPSAC, 1969) • Mental Training Registry (1980) • Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP,1985) (“the Advancement of” in title prior to 2006) • American Psychological Association (APA) Division 47 (1987) • Canadian Sport Psychology Association (2008?) • Canadian Sport Psychology Association (Division ?)

10. The 1970s • Primary goal: Advance knowledge base through experimental research • Topics diverse and many target populations • Increased cognitive focus: attention to athletes’ thoughts and images • Interactionism paradigm (considers person, environmental variables, and their interaction) surfaced and gained credibility • Performance enhancement consulting discouraged due to lack of knowledge base

11. 1980s • Cognitive focus continued, plus emphasis on field versus lab research • Growth in exercise and health psychology issues and research • Extensive documentation of the effectiveness of psychological interventions – led to advocating performance consulting • Recognition and use of sport psychology consultants by the USOC and its athletes • Mental Training Registry establish (Canada) • Growing practice concerns led to addressing professional issues • Formation of AAASP (1985, became AASP in 2006) and APA Division 47 (1987)

12. Sport Psychology Journals • International Journal of Sport Psychology (1970) • Journal of Sport Psychology (1979) changed to Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology (1988) • The Sport Psychologist (1987) • Journal of Applied Sport Psychology (1989) • Psychology of Sport and Exercise (2000) • International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology (2003) • Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology (2007)

13. 1990-2009 Summary • Extensive growth and diversification in research and practice • Increase in journals and applied books • Considerable progress regarding professional issues • Growth in job opportunities • AASP establishes standards for certifying consultants (1991) and for an ethical code of behavior (1994, 1996) • Mental Training Registry becomes renamed as Canadian Sport Psychology Association

14. 1990-2009 Research • Growth documenting effectiveness of interventions to enhance performance and personal growth • More emphasis on health and exercise psychology issues, including interventions to increase physical activity • Emerging diversity in methods, paradigms, and epistemology • e.g., feminist epistemology, influence of culture, single-subject designs, qualitative methods

15. 1990-2014 Job Opportunities • Growth in consulting job market • All ages and skill level, NCAA athletic departments, fitness industry, sports medicine, performance enhancement in non-sport populations (e.g., Army Centers for Enhanced Performance) • Growth in academic job market • Most in sport science but some in psychology • Growth in exercise psychology positions • Partly driven by greater external research funding

16. Some Homework • Summarize how you become certified mental training consultant in Canada? In the United States? • What are the key organizations to belong to as a consultant? In Canada? In the United States?

17. Two Governing Bodies in Canada - CSPA Canada Sport Psychology Association • Training – psychology emphasis with some kinesiology • Title: Sport Psychologist Canadian Sport Psychology Association • Training – educational /kinesiology emphasis with some psychology • Title: Mental Performance Consultant

18. AASP Certification Criteria • Masters or doctoral degree in related field (e.g., sport science, psychology) • Coursework • 12 categories (11 require equivalent of one 3-unit course, SP category requires 3 courses) • 4 can be undergraduate, unless stated otherwise • Supervised practicum • 700 hrs masters • 400 hrs doctoral • Once certified, have recertification requirements

19. AASP Certification Coursework Categories • C1: Professional ethics and standards • One ethics course or several with ethics content • C2: Sport psychology • Three 3-unit courses (1 can be independent study, 2 grad) • C3: Biomechanical and/or physiological bases of sport • e.g., biomechanics, kinesiology, exercise physiology • C4: Historical, philosophical, social, or motor behavior bases of sport • e.g., motor learning/control, motor development, sport sociology, history or philosophy of sport

20. AASP Certification Coursework Categories (cont.) • C5: Psychopathology and its assessment • e.g., abnormal psychology, psychopathology • C6: Counseling skills (graduate level) • e.g., interventions or practice in counseling, clinical psychology • C7: Skills/techniques/analysis within sport/exercise • e.g., sport skills/technique/coaching courses, clinics, coaching experience, participation in organized sport • C8: Research design, statistics, and psychological assessment(graduate level) • C9: Biological bases of behavior • e.g., comparative psych, neuropsychology, physiological psych, sensation, psychopharmacology, exercise physiology, biomechanics/kinesiology

21. AAASP Certification Coursework Categories (cont.) • C10: Cognitive-affective bases of behavior • e.g., cognition, emotion, learning, memory, motivation, motor learning, motor development, perception, thinking • C11: Social bases of behavior • e.g., cultural, ethnic, group processes, gender roles, social psychology, organizational/systems theory, sport sociology • C12: Individual behavior • e.g., developmental psychology, health psychology, individual differences, personality, exercise behavior Note: Categories 9-12, only 2 of 4 can be sport based

22. AAASP versus CSPA • What is the difference in training between AAASP and CSPA • What Courses need to be taken? • Masters? Phd? Required? • How many supervised hours?

23. History of Sport Psychology in Eastern Europe • Considerable attention given to the applied aspects of sport psychology • Specifically, to enhance elite athletes’ performance through applied research and direct intervention • Sport psychology was a highly esteemed field of academic and professional concern within national sport

24. History of Sport Psychology in Eastern Europe (cont.) • Self-regulation training • Voluntarily control such bodily functions as • Heart rate • Temperature • Muscle tension • Emotional reactions to stressful situations • Autogenic training, visualization, and autoconditioning (self-hypnosis) were key methods used by Eastern European sport psychologists

25. Future Directions in North American Applied Sport Psychology • Vealey suggests more inclusive and diverse research questions and methods • Need greater specialization in training of future students due to growth in knowledge base • Promote more career opportunities for future sport psychologists • More emphasis on positive psychology • Seeks to understand positive emotion and build one’s strength