Developing and Sustaining Sport Psychology Programs

A Resource Guide for Practitioners

Charles A. Maher

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000079531
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Sports Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Developing and Sustaining Sport Psychology Programs: A Resource Guide for Practitioners outlines a systemic approach to creating comprehensive, sustainable sport psychology programs in professional sports organizations, colleges, universities, and at secondary school levels.

Based on the author's more than 30 years of professional experience, this volume presents a framework that delineates methods for designing, implementing, and evaluating sport psychology programs, discussing topics such as needs assessment and client identification. Featuring real-world experiences and clear, non-technical writing, this step-by-step guide can be applied to a range of sport psychology programs including mental skills, life skills, coach education, leadership training, and team development programs.

Developing and Sustaining Sport Psychology Programs details a program development process that has been applied successfully at the professional, collegiate, and secondary school levels over a more than 30-year period. It has contributed to the development of sport psychology programs that have sustained themselves over the course of time and is an essential text for sport psychologists and mental skills coaches at all levels as well as graduate students and other professionals in the field.

Part I

Foundations

Taking a Systems Perspective on Sport Psychology

Defining and Illustrating Sport Psychology Programs

Setting the Stage for Program Development

Overviewing the Program Development Process

1

Taking a Systems Perspective on Sport Psychology

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a systems perspective on sport psychology, which will serve as backdrop to the sport psychology program development process covered in this book. It is the systems perspective that I have relied on when designing, implementing, and evaluating sport psychology programs in professional sport settings, college athletic departments, and other organizations. Accordingly, I will present a systems framework as a practical means of focusing on and engaging in the program development process—at individual, group, team, and organizational levels.

During my many years of practicing sport and performance psychology, one thing has become increasingly clear to me: sport psychology has many dimensions to it, besides intervening with the individual athlete (Raaen & Mugford, 2019). Depending on one’s role and point of view, sport psychology can be considered as a professional discipline, a body of research-informed knowledge, and/or an area of service delivery, among other considerations (Aoyagi & Portenga, 2010).

In this book, I will be defining sport psychology as a professional discipline whose intention is to add value to a range of clients and program participants. This range includes, of course, athletes, but it also is of value to coaches, athletic trainers, strength and conditioning specialists, teams, general managers, and executives, as well as entire sports organizations. However, in order for sport psychology to provide value to this wide range of clients and program participants, a systems perspective is key. I have found this to be true in my professional practice, and I want to share that perspective here.

Nature of a Systems Perspective

A systems perspective on sport psychology, as I am framing it, allows the practitioner the opportunity to place sport psychology programs within the larger social, cultural, competitive, and organizational contexts (Wagstaff, 2017). More basically, a systems perspective on sport psychology highlights opportunities for the practitioner to develop programs at many different levels of sports organizations and related organizations.

Without a systems perspective on professional practice, the practitioner and others will not identify opportunities for the development of sport psychology programs in sports organizations and related organizations. Thus, practical ways for making contributions, beyond providing individual interventions for individual athletes, will go unrecognized and unrealized (Checkland, 1999).

A Systems Framework for Program Development in Sport Psychology

With respect to deciding what, whether, and how to design and implement sport psychology programs for my clients, I use the following framework. It is derived from a systems perspective and is represented as a table in Table 1.1. This framework has guided my program development work.

Table 1.1 Systems framework for program development in sport psychology

	Clarification	Design	Implementation	Evaluation
Individual
Group
Team
Organizational

This systems framework consists of three constituent dimensions. These are:

1.Level of Service Delivery – seen as the vertical dimension of the framework.

2.Program Development Process – seen as the horizontal dimension of the framework.

3.Methods and Procedures – seen as the matrix cells.

Level of Service Delivery

This vertical dimension of the framework highlights the reality that sport psychology programs can be provided at various levels, and also to different people at each level, with regard to mental and emotional development and performance. These levels are:

•Individual Level – This level serves to identify opportunities for programs for one athlete at a time. At this level, the program is commonly referred to as an athlete intervention. Typically, this has been the thrust of many sport psychology programs, although the term “program” often has not been used at this level.

•Group Level – This level serves to identify opportunities for programs for a group of athletes or coaches, such as all players on the defensive unit of an American football team or all assistant coaches of a basketball team. At this level, the program also could address the performance or personal needs of each particular group.

•Team Level – This level serves to identify opportunities for programs for a team of athletes or to an entire performance team. At this level, the program is often referred to as a team development program.

•Organizational Level – This level serves to identify opportunities for programs that encompass a large number of athletes, staffs, and executives. At this level, these programs often are referred to as a sport psychology service delivery system or an organizational development program.

Program Development Process

The horizontal dimension of the systems framework depicts the process that I have used in developing sport psychology programs at each level of service delivery. This dimension emphasizes that although the level of service delivery will vary by level, the process is the same across levels. The detailed description and application of this process will be reflected by the guidelines that will be presented in this book.

The four phases of the sport psychology program development process are:

•Clarification – This phase involves identifying and describing the participants for the program. It considers how the program can address participants’ mental and emotional needs and gives attention to the context in which those needs are embedded.

•Design – This phase involves describing the purpose and goals of the program, as well as the organization of the program, so that the goals will be attained and the program can be evaluated.

•Implementation – This phase involves making sure that the program is being implemented as designed, while making necessary adjustments so that the program will sustain itself.

•Evaluation – This phase involves determining the extent to which the program has been considered as being valuable to program participants. Similarly, it considers whether and to what extent the program should be continued.

Methods and Procedures

This is the third dimension of the systems framework. It is the intersection of the Level of Service Delivery and Program Development Process dimensions.

Each cell of the matrix refers to the types of methods and procedures that are used at each phase of the process. Furthermore, the matrix cells also serve to illustrate that, although the process of program development is the same for any of the levels, the methods and procedures will be different. For instance, the methods and procedures used to clarify, design, implement, and evaluate a sport psychology program at the team level will be different than those methods and procedures used at the individual or organizational level.

Professional Practice Exercises

At the conclusion of each chapter of the book, I will provide you with some exercises that you may want to engage in and that may be useful in your own work in developing sport psychology programs. These exercises may also help you learn about yourself with regard to that task.

For this current chapter, consider the following questions:

1.What kinds of sport psychology programs have you been involved with as a practitioner?

2.How have you endeavored to identify opportunities that allow you to develop sport psychology programs?

3.To what types of populations of athletes or others have you been able to target your programs?

4.What has gone well or not so well with your work in those programmatic areas? What have you learned from them?

5.In what ways might the systems framework, as described in this chapter, assist you in your work?

2

Defining and Illustrating Sport Psychology Programs

The purpose of this chapter is to consider the definition of a sport psychology program. This understanding will help you decide what a sport psychology program can be and how to proceed to develop one. In addition to defining terms, I will provide examples of programs that meet this definition. Most of these examples will be of sport psychology progra...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Endorsements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Organization of the Book
• Philosophy of Sport Psychology Program Development
• Acknowledgments
• Part I Foundations
• Part II Clarification Phase
• Part III Design Phase
• Part IV Implementation Phase
• Part V Evaluation Phase
• Appendix A: Example of a Progam Design
• Appendix B: Sport Psychology Program Evaluation Plan
• References
• Index