Sport Psychology Essay -- essays research papers

Sport Psychology How it Helps AthletesIn our society today it seems like sports rule the land. Everywhere we look, in that location is some kind of sporting event going on or being televised. Almost every unitary could be considered a fan of at least one sport. Some people follow sports like a religion. With such an increased focus on sports, the athletes performances are put under a microscope. This puts more force per unit area on athletes to give a winning performance. No longer do athletes play for fun, they play to win. This isnt possibility just on the professional level it is happening on all levels of sport. From little league to backyard football, the goal is to win at all cost. With this increase pressure, athletes are looking for more and more modes to get around their performance. One such way, which is now gaining popularity, is Sports Psychology. Though this isnt a new field, its popularity is just beginning to take off. There is still a lot of skepticism near t he robustness or worth while of the practices used. The following is a review of a number of articles that outline different studies done that show how athletes can purify their performances. The articles were found using a database search of PsychInfo. Keywords such as increased performance, psychological practices, and sports were used to narrow the search. What is Sport Psychology?Over the years there have been many different definitions offered as to what Sport Psychology is. One of the best ways to look at it is to ask what does a psychologist do? A psychologist does a variety of things. They provide psychological assessment, crisis intervention, and psychological service. Just to name a few broad areas. All of these are areas that can also be useful to an athlete. A lot of the tools used by a sport psychologist are adapted directly from clinical psychology. Concepts such as Freuds Psychodynamics, Caltels Personality Test, and The Piagetial cognitive Theory are widely used. (Sloubanov, 1999) All of these are critical tools used by a sport psychologist to assist an athlete with his or her problem. Sport psychology involves preparing the mind of an athlete, just as one prepares the body. Sport psychology is an emerging field in the worlds of psychology and athletics. What Methods are Used?The problem that an athlet... ...een much gird and many changes. Sport has gone through a great metamorphosis that no one of that time could ever imagine. Today sport psychology has move from the simple experiments of the early labs to sophisticated trials and tests. Focus is now on subjects as mental health , psychopysiological reactivity, and body image and esteem. (Gauvin, Spence, 1995, p. 436) The world of athletics is now a business, and now like other businesses, is always looking for ways to break itself. ConclusionSince athletics seems to be moving from being a pastime to a way of life for many in todays world, it is important that there is a means to improv e performance. The corporate world has long been using psychological techniques to improve employee performance. It was only a matter of time before the athletic world adopted the same practices. Some people are skeptical about the validity of sport psychology, while others live by it. With sports producing hundreds of millions of dollars each year. It is important that athletes do everything that they can to improve the way that they play. Sport psychology is a valid, scientific way for athletes to do just that.