Background/Purpose
To become an effective sport psychology consultant, one must have a thorough understanding of the psychological skills that athletes or other performers use in their pursuit of excellence. If consultants use the skills themselves, they are more likely to be able to assist those with whom they work. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of using the Psychological UNIFORM (Johnson & Gilbert, 2004) or the Wheel of Excellence (Orlick, 2008) as a framework for improving novice practitioners' consulting through a self-growth project.
Method
Participants (n=19) selected an area of their life they wanted to improve and were randomly assigned to either the Psychological UNIFORM (n=9) or the Wheel of Excellence (n=10) as a framework. Data included a demographic survey, model-specific questionnaires, journal entries, and a final summary paper. A content analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1994) was performed on the qualitative data (i.e., journal entries and summary paper).
Analysis/Results
The mean age of the participants was 27.1 years (9 = male, 10 = female). Of the 19 participants, 7 had limited exposure to applied sport psychology prior to the study. All of the participants indicated that the models helped them to use sport psychology skills/concepts in a systematic, organized way, although not all of the skills/concepts were used by all participants. A content analysis of the journal entries and summary paper showed that some of the students were engaged with the self-growth project study from the beginning and saw its value in enhancing performance. Another group understood the value of applied sport psychology for athletes, but did not necessarily understand how sport psychology could and should be applied to their own lives. However, as the study continued, their own use of sport psychology improved and they better understood how their own use of the skills would help them be a more effective consultant when working with athletes on performance enhancement issues.
Conclusions
In conclusion, the self-growth process for these novice sport psychology consultants is represented by five themes: beginning reluctance, cautious participation, initial success, improved engagement, and powerful performance. Possible explanations for these findings are suggested, along with implications for beginning sport psychology consultants and the applied sport psychology profession. Furthermore, results of the project provide insight into the use of applied sport psychology models with non-athlete populations.