This article highlights four key principles of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and proposes situations where these tenets would be relevant from an applied sport psychology perspective. To achieve this aim, a case study of an athlete with a dysfunctional perfectionist mindset is employed. We conclude with possible research directions in applied sport psychology informed by CBT. These recommendations include the need to further develop an evidence based formulation system and the relevance of building a repertoire of “evidence-based” behavioral experiments to improve practice.
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Applying Evidence-Based Principles From CBT to Sport Psychology
Siobhain McArdle and Phil Moore
Reflections on Being a Neophyte Sport Psychologist in the Media: Conversations With My Younger Self
Pete Lindsay and Owen Thomas
The mass media focus on sporting events (Kristiansen, Hanstad, & Roberts, 2011), coupled with the interest in reporting the psychological aspects of sporting performance (Jones, 2005) can place practitioners in stressful situations (Fletcher, Rumbold, Tester, & Coombes, 2011). Concerns over “misrepresentation,” “misquotation,” “misinterpretation,” and being “incorrectly reported or understood” by the media can be at odds with a practitioner’s honest desire to disseminate findings and provide informed commentaries related to the discipline. This article aims to highlight the ethical, professional and personal challenges faced by Pete Lindsay while working as the resident sport psychologist for an international television broadcaster during a World championship sporting event. The autoethnographic account provides a series of reflective fragments that were abstracted from professional development documentation, supervisory meeting records of the time, and the authors recalled reflections of when Pete undertook the role. Practical implications for the training and certification of practitioners in relation to working within the media are considered.
An Insight Into the Use of Personality Assessment by U.K. Sport Psychology Consultants
Stephen Rowles and Tim Holder
Personality has been a feature of sport psychology since the 1920s ( Griffith, 1926 ). Interest intensified in the 1960s and 1970s as researchers sought to use personality traits to predict individual athletic performance ( Fisher, 1984 ). These efforts collectively yielded results of such
Time Management in the Context of Elite Sport Training
Anne-Claire Macquet
This article reports on time management in an elite sports context. It aims at characterizing how coaches experience dealing with athletes’ time management in a sport and academic institute and their constraints. Ten male coaches participated in this study. Each coach was asked to describe his time management activity during the season. Inductive and deductive analysis revealed two main results. The first showed the coaches dealt with a stringent set of constraints concerned with: (a) season organization, (b) training period and task sequencing, (c) the institute’s set times, and (d) the uncertainty linked to the evolution of training. The second emphasized that the coaches used three complex operating modes: (a) the use of organizational routines based on reference to past experience, (b) season shared time management, and (c) time management based on flexible plans. The results are discussed in relation to research that has considered planning and time management.
A Qualitative Analysis of Female Collegiate Athletes’ Eating Disorder Recovery Experiences
Jessyca N. Arthur-Cameselle and Paula A. Quatromoni
The purpose of this study was to characterize recovery experiences of female collegiate athletes who have suffered from eating disorders. Participants were 16 collegiate female athletes who experienced recovery from an eating disorder. Participants told their recovery stories in semistructured interviews regarding factors that initiated, assisted, and hindered recovery. The most common turning point to initiate recovery was experiencing negative consequences from the eating disorder. Factors that most frequently assisted recovery included making cognitive and behavioral changes, supportive relationships, and seeking professional care. Hindering factors most commonly included lack of support from others, professional care complaints, and spending time with others with eating disorders. Results suggested that unique features of the sport environment, including coaches’ behavior and team norms, introduce either positive or negative influences on athletes as they work to recover from an eating disorder. Based on these findings, specific treatment and prevention recommendations for athletes are discussed.
The Role of Confidence Profiling in Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions in Sport
Kate Hays, Owen Thomas, Ian Maynard, and Joanne Butt
This study examined the applicability of confidence profiling to the development of an individualized intervention designed in accordance with Murphy and Murphy’s (1992) eight step cognitive-behavioral model. The case study design illustrated the potential uses and benefits of confidence profiling when developing an athlete driven intervention to enhance the sport confidence of a female swimmer. Specifically, it showed how confidence profiling can act as an applied measure to accurately assess sport confidence from the athlete’s own perspective, provide the basis of an intervention targeted toward the athlete’s individual confidence needs, and provide feedback to the sport psychologist concerning the effectiveness of the intervention. A postintervention interview with the athlete highlighted the usefulness of the confidence profiling process. Specifically, the profiling process helped to raise the athlete’s awareness of the factors that facilitated and debilitated her sport confidence. Furthermore, the athlete reported feeling more confident and very satisfied with the mental skills training, which she perceived resulted in performance gains.
Organizational Systems in British Sport and Their Impact on Athlete Development and Mental Health
Zoë A. Poucher, Katherine A. Tamminen, and Christopher R.D. Wagstaff
A primary factor in determining Olympic success is an athlete’s environment and the management of organizational stress ( Rees et al., 2016 ). The emphasis on understanding the sport environment has led to a surge of research examining organizational psychology in sport (see Wagstaff, 2017 , 2019
An Exploration of Sport Psychology Professional Quality of Life in British Neophyte Practitioners
Daniel R.F. Martin, Alessandro Quartiroli, and Christopher R.D. Wagstaff
Research to date has identified a shift in focus within the profession of sport psychology from one exclusively dedicated to performance enhancement to a humanistic, athlete-centered approach to service delivery ( Anderson et al., 2004 ). Researchers have also reported that professionals encounter
Effective Delivery of Pressure Training: Perspectives of Athletes and Sport Psychologists
William R. Low, Joanne Butt, Paul Freeman, Mike Stoker, and Ian Maynard
Pressure training (PT) is an intervention that applies pressure on athletes while they practice their sport to help them learn to perform under pressure. Pressure refers to athletes’ increased perceived importance to perform well ( Baumeister, 1984 ), and practitioners or coaches can create this
Sport Psychology Consultants’ Views on Working With Perfectionistic Elite Athletes
Ellinor Klockare, Luke F. Olsson, Henrik Gustafsson, Carolina Lundqvist, and Andrew P. Hill
To be successful in elite sport, athletes are required to perform exceptionally and even, at times, perfectly ( Hill et al., 2020 ). Sport psychology consultants can therefore expect to frequently encounter athletes who are perfectionistic. However, so far, research in sport psychology has focused