Perceptions of Sport-Oriented Professionals: A Multidimensional Scaling Analysis
Click name to view affiliation
Search for other papers by Judy L. Van Raalte in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Britton W. Brewer in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Darwyn E. Linder in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Nina DeLange in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
A multidimensional scaling analysis was used to investigate the psychological structure underlying college students’ perceptions of 12 practitioners: sport psychologist, clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, coach, psychiatrist, counselor, performance consultant, nutritionist, sports medicine specialist, strength coach, hypnotist, and technical equipment advisor. For this analysis, 200 male and female undergraduates completed 66 scales rating the psychological similarity between all possible pairs of the 12 practitioners. The R2 of .84 and stress value of .17 indicated that a two-dimensional solution was the best fit for the similarity ratings. The first dimension was identified as separating practitioners specializing in the mental aspects of performance from those specializing in the physical aspects of performance. The second dimension separated sport practitioners from nonsport practitioners. Interestingly, subjects perceived sport psychologists as being concerned with mental, nonsport issues. The results are discussed in terms of the relationships among the various practitioners.
The authors are with the Department of Psychology at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287. As of Sept. 1990 Judy Van Raalte is with the Dept. of Psychology, Springfield College, Springfield, MA 01109. Request reprints from Darwyn E. Linder.
© 2023 Human Kinetics