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19: Taking the Field- An Introduction to the Field of Sport Psychology

  • Page ID
    112099
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    Sport psychology is a vibrant and growing field that examines the psychological factors that affect sport performance, as well as how sport affects the psychological outcomes of participants. This chapter is meant as a brief introduction into the field. To begin, we will define sport psychology and concisely discuss the different subfields within the larger academic discipline. Second, we will give a brief history of the field from first studies to the current state of research and practice. Next, we will talk about the roles that sport psychology professionals have in both the performance enhancement domain, as well as providers of mental health services. To complement this focus on the bifurcation of the field, we will discuss the jobs and careers in sport psychology along with the pathways necessary to obtain those jobs, with a specific focus on issues related to sport psychology professionals in the United States.


    This page titled 19: Taking the Field- An Introduction to the Field of Sport Psychology is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Christopher R. Hill and Kathleen T. Mellano (Society for Transparency, Openness, and Replication in Kinesiology) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.