The History of Sport Psychology

History of Psychology

Before delving into its history, we should identify what is meant by the term psychology. 

When reading around the history of psychology, literature often refers to the science of psychology, which is the empirical, objective study of the domain concerned with behaviour and mental life (Wertheimer, 2012).  However, we know that the contemporary outlook identifies psychology as a subjective discipline which seeks to help individuals overcome negative feelings and problems relating to social interaction.  

In the modern day, the field of psychology is so vast, that Maher (2011) defines it as:

‘A continuum ranging from working with individuals suffering from mental illness (abnormal) to teams striving to fulfil the far reaches of their potential (super-normal)’

Ultimately, psychologists are seeking to find out more about human thought processes and how this affects their behaviour, although their methodology and reasoning may differ (scientific or unscientific). 

Even though the notion of psychology did not begin to take form until the nineteenth century, thoughts and concepts, which are now considered to be psychological, date back to the Ancient World.  For example, in Ancient Greece individuals attempted to account for events attributed human feelings and emotions onto nature – known as anthropomorphism (Hergenhahn,, 2000).  At a similar time, Siddhartha Gautama (also referred to the as Buddha, and founder of the Buddhist movement) was teaching a theory which considered motivation, perception, sensation and the nature of the mind (Hergenhahn, 2000).

These concepts can be traced back through time, but it wasn't until the mid-nineteenth century that psychology emerged as an area of study, due to the work of European pioneers in the field.  Most notably, the publication of Fechner’s Elements of Psychophysics (1860) was the first publication which detailed how to measure mental qualities.  Shortly after this in 1879, Wundt founded the world’s first experimental psychology laboratory (Schultz & Schultz, 2011).

Since then, much research has been conducted on many different psychological concepts, with some of the most influential psychological research being conducted in the twentieth century and shaping the way we currently we view the subject. For example, Skinner’s work on behaviourism, and Bandura’s Social Learning Theory.  Psychologists continue to build on this work, and look at how the human cognitive process affects our behaviour.

Evolution of Sport Psychology

Whilst identifying what psychology is above, we discovered that it’s an extremely broad field, and sport psychology is no different, which is shown by the lack of precision in Kremer’s definition of sport psychology shown below.

‘Psychological  theory and methods are applied to understand and improve sporting performance’ 

(Kremer & Moran, 2008)

Weinberg & Gould (2011), however, go on to explain that sport psychologists seek to understand how performance is affected by psychological factors, and to find out how participation in sport affects an athletes psychological development. 

The first sport psychology experiment was undertaken by Norman Triplett in 1897 and was based upon social facilitation, but it wasn’t until 1920 that the first sport specific research laboratory opened in Berlin (Weinberg & Gould, 2011). Even though the early work undertaken by Triplett was successful, it is only in recent decades that sport psychology has evolved and is now considered an important component for the success of elite athletes.  Looking to the United States, as we often do in matters relating to sport, it wasn’t until 1985 that the United States Olympic Committee recruited a psychologist (Weinberg & Gould, 2011).

Since then, psychology has begun to play a more dominant role in elite sport, and is now considered to be a key element to the success of sportspeople and teams.  Sport and exercise psychologists have a variety of roles, and the way they work with athletes and teams varies greatly dependent upon their needs.  The posts in this blog will consider several key concepts  in sport and exercise psychology (personality, motivation, arousal, anxiety and stress) and their effect upon performance.

References:

Hergenhahn, B. R. (2000) An Introduction to the Brief History of Psychology. Wadsworth: Belmont.

Kremer, J & Moran, A. P. (2008)  Pure Sport: Practical Sport Psychology.  Routledge: East Sussex.

Maher, C. (2011)  School Sport Psychology: Perspectives, Programs and Procedures.  Routledge: London.

Schultz, D. P. & Schultz, S. L. (2011) A History of Modern Psychology (10th Edition) Wadsworth: Belmont.

Weinberg, R. & Gould, D. (2011) Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology (5^th Edition). Human Kinetics: Leeds.

Wertheimer, M. (2012) A Brief History of Psychology (5th Edition) Psychology Press: New York.