Sport Psychology

Running Head : SPORT PSYCHOLOGY

Sport Psychology

[Writer 's Name]

[Institution 's Name]

SPORT PSYCHOLOGY

Introduction

Sport psychology as an academic discipline examines values , attitudes interests , and behaviors effect and have been affected by participating in or observing sport . Sport psychology as a profession focuses on appropriate models of educational training , accreditation

of training programs , credentialing issues (e .g , certification versus licensure , and ethical concerns . Success in advancing sport psychology as an academic discipline and profession is clearly dependent on the adequacy , richness . and diversity of the assessment

approaches

that have underscored the field

Within sport and exercise psychology settings , psychological assessment has played an important role in at least four domains : health and exercise (e .g , mood changes as a function of exercise participation clinical (e .g , evaluation of eating diss performance enhancement (e .g , evaluation of an imagery training program and special purposes (e .g , talent identification (Heil Henschen , 1996

Goals of the sport Sport psychology started to grow and come into prominence in the 1960s and 1970s . The original research focused on the relationship between personality and per mance , attempting to determine whether highly able athletes have different personality styles from less successful athletes or nonathletes . Investigating whether certain personality types are more likely to be successful in different sports or positions within sports was another area of interest . This was followed by a focus on testing mainstream psychology theories (e .g attribution theory , achievement motivation theory , social facilitation theory ) in laboratory settings using motor performance as the major outcome variable . These early studies yielded some interesting findings that helped lay the foundation for our body of knowledge in sport psychology . However , in the 1980s a number of sport psychologists felt that these highly controlled , mostly laboratory studies compromised the generalizability of these finding to the extent that applications to the real competitive sport environment were limited . At the same time there was an increased interest from coaches and athletes regarding the mental side of sport performance , with many individuals feeling that this aspect was being neglected and needed to be developed

As the field started to progress in the 1980s and 1990s the focus became more applied , investigating how various psychological techniques such as anxiety management . goal-setting , imagery , self-talk , and concentration training might enhance athletic performance . Many practitioners started to become interested in using some of these psychological skills (i .e mental

skills ) to enhance their own performances or the performances of their athletes . However , a debate started to emerge among sport psychologists regarding the research basis for the effectiveness of these interventions . Specifically , although sport psychologists had become

more interested in applied issues and the development of mental training pr 3grams to enhance performance , skepticism remained as to whether the accumulated scientific evidence warranted the use of psychological interventions with athletes . For example , Dishman said that it is not clear to what extent contemporary sport psychology possesses ii clearly defined and reliable technology for interventions in applied settings (1983 ,

. 127 . However , Gould (1988 ) argues that...