Sports Psychology
Sport Psychology
Athletes in today’s society are bigger, stronger, and faster than ever before but they still share the same goals as their predecessors, climb to the top of their sport and be crowned champion. Unlike in previous generations, the “game” is no longer just a game, it’s a booming business. Major League Baseball alone boasts a three point seven billion dollar a year industry. In this new generation of big business, how do athletes cope with the pressure of grossing fifteen million dollars a year and performing in front of twenty thousand screaming fans packed into Madison Square Garden or seventy-two thousand fanatical “Cheese Heads” at Lambeau Field? One of those answers is with sport psychology. But one answer leads us down a convoluted path with many other unanswered questions. This paper will define sport psychology and identify where it come from. It will also discuss the objectives of sport psychology and how are they applied. The final topic will describe sport psychologists do.
According to the sport psychology program at San Diego State University, sport psychology can be defined as “the study of people and their behavior in sport and exercise contexts”, or “the effect of sport itself on human behavior”, or “a field of study in which the principles of psychology are applied in a sports setting.”(SDSU, web para. 1) How did we arrive at this definition? The history of sport psychology can be divided into five periods dating as early as 1895 to the present. The first period is from 1895-1920. Norman Triplett, a psychology professor at Indiana University, was the first researcher to confirm that bicyclists sometimes rode faster when they raced in groups or pairs than when they rode alone. Following Triplett’s work in 1899 is E.W. Scripture of Yale. Scripture believed that a certain set of personality traits could be fostered through participation in sports. In 1903, G.T.W Patrick wrote an article for the “American Journal
Athletes in today’s society are bigger, stronger, and faster than ever before but they still share the same goals as their predecessors, climb to the top of their sport and be crowned champion. Unlike in previous generations, the “game” is no longer just a game, it’s a booming business. Major League Baseball alone boasts a three point seven billion dollar a year industry. In this new generation of big business, how do athletes cope with the pressure of grossing fifteen million dollars a year and performing in front of twenty thousand screaming fans packed into Madison Square Garden or seventy-two thousand fanatical “Cheese Heads” at Lambeau Field? One of those answers is with sport psychology. But one answer leads us down a convoluted path with many other unanswered questions. This paper will define sport psychology and identify where it come from. It will also discuss the objectives of sport psychology and how are they applied. The final topic will describe sport psychologists do.
According to the sport psychology program at San Diego State University, sport psychology can be defined as “the study of people and their behavior in sport and exercise contexts”, or “the effect of sport itself on human behavior”, or “a field of study in which the principles of psychology are applied in a sports setting.”(SDSU, web para. 1) How did we arrive at this definition? The history of sport psychology can be divided into five periods dating as early as 1895 to the present. The first period is from 1895-1920. Norman Triplett, a psychology professor at Indiana University, was the first researcher to confirm that bicyclists sometimes rode faster when they raced in groups or pairs than when they rode alone. Following Triplett’s work in 1899 is E.W. Scripture of Yale. Scripture believed that a certain set of personality traits could be fostered through participation in sports. In 1903, G.T.W Patrick wrote an article for the “American Journal