Sport And Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction

An idea for a research project on sport psychology

Here is an idea for a possible research project on the psychological aspects of sport. Its
objectives are:

1 to find out what athletes mean by “mental preparation”;
2 to establish how important it is to them; and
3 to estimate what proportion of their training time they devote to it on average.

To conduct this project, you will need an audio-cassette recorder or a mini-disc recorder
and some volunteer athletes. Find three people who play different types of sports (e.g., a
team-game, an individual game) who have been actively involved in competitive
performance for at least five years. Request their permission to record your interview
with them on the audio-cassette or mini-disc recorder. Then, ask them the following
questions: “What does the term ‘mental preparation’ mean to you? On a scale of 0
(meaning ‘not at all important’) to 5 (meaning ‘extremely important'), how important do
you think that proper mental preparation is for successful performance in your sport?
What sort of things do you do as physical training for your sport? What sort of things, if
any, do you do as mental preparation for your sport? About what percentage of your
training time do you devote to physical preparation? Give a rough percentage figure. And
to mental preparation? Give an approximate percentage figure, please.”
Compare and contrast the athletes’ answers to your questions. You will probably
discover that although these people think that mental preparation is important for optimal
performance, they devote relatively little time to it. If this finding emerges, how do you
interpret it? If not, what did the athletes say? Did the type of sport make a difference to
the athletes’ views?

Summary

• In this chapter, I have explained that sport and exercise psychology is both a science
  and a profession in which the principles and methods of psychology are applied in
  sport and exercise settings.


• The chapter began by investigating the nature and determinants of the mental side of
  sport as well as the construct of mental toughness in athletes.


• In the next section, I outlined the nature, history and research methods of the discipline
  of sport and exercise psychology.


• The third part of the chapter explored professional aspects of this field. Included here
  was a discussion of four key questions:

1 What type of work do sport psychologists actually do?

2 What is the best way to deliver sport psychology services to athletes and coaches?

3 How can one qualify professionally as a sport psychologist? Where can one learn

more about this field?

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