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Sport Psychology: A Historical Perspective

1995; Human Kinetics; Volume: 9; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1123/tsp.9.4.363

1543-2793

Penny McCullagh,

Sport Psychology and Performance

special issue of The Sport Psychologist is a direct outgrowth of a symposium I organized for Division 47 (Exercise & Sport Psychology) of the American Psychological Association. The occasion was the 100th anniversary of the association. I titled the symposium Development of Research and Practice: Sport Psychology's First 100 Years7' to help reflect the long-standing history of the field. title may have surprised some individuals who thought sport psychology to be a product of the 1980s. However, my purpose was to highlight some of the historical aspects of the field. In my position as a professor at the University of Colorado, I teach classes and conduct research in the area of sport and exercise psychology. At times I become inundated with requests from prospective students who, as neophytes, often remark This is a brand new field, is it not? My facetious response is, Yes, it is relatively new. It has only been around about 100 years, and I took my first class in the area about 25 years ago. Of course, many individuals are surprised at my responses. Hopefully this special issue will shed some light on some of the early, as well as more recent, developments that have occurred. 1hust caution that the papers presented here represent a fairly ethnocentric approach to the field of sport and exercise psychology because they focus almost entirely on developments within North America. Interested individuals are referred to others sources (e.g., Biddle, 1995; Salmela, 1992) for perspectives from other countries. Interested readers are also referred to some texts that have sections devoted to historical aspects of our field (e.g., Gill, 1986; Horn, 1992; LeUnes & Nation, 1989; Weinberg & Could, 1995). It is my intention that this special issue serve as an adjunct to current texts and supplement the historical accounts provided there. issue is somewhat longer than the typical TSP issue to ensure that all of these articles can be found in one source. As I have learned, if you think you have a brand new idea for either research or practice, take a little deeper look in the literature. Chances are, someone has had a similar notion. issue starts with a contribution by Stephen Davis, Mathew Huss, and Angela Becker. While the title specifically highlights the early work of Norman Triplett, it also does an excellent job of covering a great deal of early research in physical education settings that examined topics such as reaction time, transfer of training, and attention. Although one might classify these topics as more germane to motor learning, many of the investigators made applications to sport settings, and the research could thus be called sport psychology. The majority of this article specifically focuses on the work of Norman Triplett, who did early work on competition in cycling and moved his research to the