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Although the field of applied sport psychology has developed, it faces further challenges on its way toward gaining greater professional status. The following principal criteria of professionalism are proposed as a test of such status: (a) provides an important public service, (b) has a knowledge-base underpinning, (c) has organizational regulation, (d) has a distinct ethical dimension, and (e) has professional autonomy. This article undertakes to explore the nature of implications for practice and the extent to which the suggested principal criteria justify a distinctive applied sport psychology profession. In doing so, we hope to stimulate debate on these and other issues in order that an even greater professionalization of our applied discipline may emerge.

This article addresses clinical practice in sport medicine. Combining notions of medical uncertainty with a figurational sociological emphasis on interdependence, the article illustrates how uncertainty characterizes the medical understanding, clinical treatment, and patient experience of concussion. Faced with uncertainty, the clinician’s desire for recognition and validation through athletes’ dependence on them enables medically based diagnostic and treatment guidelines to be replaced by the understanding and definition of concussion dominant in the sport subculture. Clinicians further invoke strategies that protect their professional status and therefore secure their interdependence with others in the sport club figuration. The study advances our understanding by illuminating the basis on which clinicians and athletes negotiate treatment and the impact of these experiences on clinicians’ actions and beliefs.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the sociodemographic and economic determinants underlying sport participation and consumer expenditure on sport. The methodological approach is based on ordered probit models. Empirical results from data obtained by means of a questionnaire survey in Spain indicate the need for different sport management strategies in each of these areas. On the one hand, the results confirm the positive influence of variables such as gender and age, and the negative influence of some professional status categories. Neither low levels of education nor personal income are barriers to the practice of sport. Hence, time availability is a major barrier to expand the base of participants or increase the intensity of participation. On the other hand, consumer expenditure on sport is determined by gender, education, income levels, and some occupational groups.

The purpose of this study was to analyze both male and female physical education teacher attitudes toward cultural pluralism and diversity. Participants (N = 433) were adapted physical education specialists, physical education generalists, and teacher candidates. The research method was a descriptive cross-sectional survey (Fraenkel & Wallen, 1990). Data were collected using a modified version of the Pluralism and Diversity Attitude Assessment survey (Stanley, 1997). Mann-Whitney U tests showed no significant differences in attitude scores between teachers and teacher candidates. However, women’s attitude scores were significantly higher than men’s. Further Friedman’s ANOVA test showed statistical differences on the survey’s constructs for gender and professional status. Post hoc analysis indicated that the groups scored significantly higher on the construct, Value Cultural Pluralism than Implement Cultural Pluralism. This means teachers generally valued cultural diversity, but struggled to implement culturally responsive pedagogy. In conclusion, physical educators may need better preparation to ensure cultural competence.

This paper provides sociological reflections on the professionalization of sport coaching and the attempts of sport coaches to attain such a status. It explicates existing sociological analyses of the professions, highlighting and critiquing the so-called “trait” approach which currently dominates discussions of the professionalization of sport coaching. It subsequently suggests that the “power approach” to professions, as epitomized by the work of Johnson, Larson and Abbott, provides a more realistic depiction of professionalization, alerting us to the conflictual and exclusionary aspects endemic in such a process. Finally the paper explores some twenty-first century trends towards the declining influence and social power of professional groups, and the specific characteristics and social standing of sport coaching which will serve to constrain sport coaches from achieving the goal of professional status. This analysis leads us to question whether professionalization should be viewed as an inherently “positive” development, and whether professionalization is a realistic goal for an occupational group such as sport coaching.

Sex bias in attitudes toward male and female basketball coaches was examined within a context of social learning theory to determine if the precepts of social learning theory help clarify exactly when and why differential attitudes toward males and females occur. More specifically, would having a male or female coach role model and participating on a winning or losing team mediate sex bias previously found when female athletes evaluate hypothetical coaches who vary in sex and status (defined by won/loss record and coaching honors)? In addition to evaluating written coaching philosophy statements from a hypothetical male and female coach with a successful or unsuccessful professional status, the subjects (N=80) were forced to choose which coach they would prefer to have as their own. Attitudes were mediated by both the sex of the athlete's own coach and successfulness of the athlete's team. There appears to be merit in future researchers examining the potential causes of sex stereotypes and bias within a context of social learning theory.

Athlete case studies have often focused on the training outcome and not the training process. Consequently, there is a dearth of information detailing longitudinal training protocols, yet it is the combined assessment of both outcome and process that enhances the interpretation of physical test data. We were provided with a unique opportunity to assess the training load, physical match performance, and physiological fitness of an elite soccer referee from the referee’s final season before attaining full-time, professional status (2002) until the season when he refereed the 2010 UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Cup finals. An increased focus on on-field speed and gym-based strength training was observed toward the end of the study period and longitudinal match data showed a tendency for decreased total distances but an increased intensity of movements. Laboratory assessments demonstrated that VO₂max remained stable (52.3 vs 50.8 mL-kg^–1-min^–1), whereas running speed at the lactate threshold (14.0 vs 12.0 km-h^-1) and running economy (37.3 vs 43.4 mLkg^–1min^–1) both improved in 2010 compared with 2002.