Box 1.6 Thinking critically about...evaluating the efficacy of sport
psychology consultationsHow can sport psychologists assess the efficacy of their professional work? At first
glance, the answer to this question is simple. All they have to do is to evaluate their
interventions and services empirically from time to time and publish the results
accordingly. Unfortunately, for at least three reasons, this strategy has not proved popular
in sport and exercise psychology. First, many practitioners are too busy to engage in
evaluative activities. Second, until recently, few assessment tools were available for this
purpose. Third, given certain inherent biases of the publication system, there is a danger
that the only outcomes which sport psychologists might be willing to publish are
successful ones. To illustrate, have you ever come across an article by a sport
psychologist in which s/he revealed the complete failure of an intervention? Have you
ever read a paper by a sport psychologist in which s/he referred to clients’ failure to
follow up on his or her advice? Given these problems, how can a sport psychologist
evaluate his or her consultancy services? Recently, Anderson (2002) developed an
instrument called the “Assessment of Consultant Effectiveness” (ACE) to help
practitioners to assess the quality of their professional services. Briefly, this instrument
asks clients to evaluate statements concerning “customer service” using a rating scale.
Typical items include ‘The sport psychologist was a good listener” (item 5) or “The sport
psychologist presented information in a clear and easy to understand way” (item 22).
Critical thinking questions
Is there any danger that clients may not tell the troth when answering this questionnaire?
How can this problem be overcome? How could this instrument be validated? Can you
think of any other ways of evaluating the efficacy of a sport psychologist’s professional
services?
and evidence-based practice, there is a need for psychologists to demonstrate the efficacy
of the professional services that they provide. How can a sport psychologist tackle this
question? This issue is examined in Box 1.6.
In this section of the chapter, we have explored the type of work that sport
psychologists do as well as issues concerning the optimal delivery of psychological
services to athletes and coaches. Now it is time to examine the question of how one can
qualify as a “sport psychologist”.
How can one qualify as a sport psychologist?Earlier in this chapter, I introduced sport and exercise psychology as a hybrid discipline
with roots in both psychology and sport science. Given this dual-discipline background,
perhaps it is not surprising that there is no simple or universally agreed academic
pathway to professional qualification in sport and exercise psychology at present. Not
surprisingly, the crucial question of who is certified to call himself or herself a “sport
Introducing sport and exercise psychology: discipline and profession 23