Jour nal of Sports Sciences, 1999 , 17, 205± 212

Perceptions of the sport psychologist by female

university athletes
JO CELYN E E. BRO OK S and STEPH EN J. BULL*
C heltenh am & G loucester College of H igher E ducatio n, Francis C lose H all, Sw indon Road, Cheltenh am,
G loucestershire G L50 4A Z, U K

Accepted 12 M arch 1998

In this study we explored the existence of a favourable attitude towards sport psychologists by female athletes in
relation to other sport-oriented and mental health professionals. Ninety female student athletes m ade judge-
m ents of similarity between 11 practitioner terms using the triad method. A rank-order task was also completed,
where the 11 professionals were ranked on three expertise variables in sporting, mental and physical issues. The
results were analysed using (1) the m etric scaling procedure of correspondence analysis, (2) cultural consensus
analysis and (3) PROperty FITting analysis. A two-dimensional solution provided the best interpretation of the
similarity judgements. The correspondence analysis con W guration positioned the sport psychologist centrally
between a sport-oriented pair and the cluster of m ental health professionals. Participants reported adequate
consensus on all three expertise variables, which is consistent with the assumptions of Cultural Consensus
Theory. Consistent with earlier research, the three variables were salient in the participants’ similarity judge-
m ents of sport and mental health professionals. Our results suggest the existence of a more favourable perception
of the sport psychologist and a distancing from a direct association with m ental health practitioners. However,
the centrality of the term may indicate a more cloudy distinction as to where the sport psychologist exists in
relation to other professionals.

K eyw ords : correspondence analysis, female athletes, perceptions, sport psychologists.

Introduction identiW ed two potential variables, im age and usage ,

w hich m ight aV ect the use of psychological techniques.
W ithin the health-care setting, M eichenbaum and Turk G ould et al. (1991) found that sport psychology
(1987) considered entry into a prog ram m e of treat- ser vices were viewed favo urably by the coaches, athletes
m ent (adoption phase) to be an im portant part of the and adm inistrators they investigated. Sullivan and
overall adherence process. In app lied sport psycho logy, H odge (1991), in a study of the use of sport psychology
adherence to m ental skills training has been shown to be in N ew Z ealand, found ver y supportive results for the
a potential problem (Bull, 1991). To becom e an adherer actual use and status of the profession, with sport
to a m ental skills training program m e, athletes m ust W rst psychology used regularly by elite athletes. Both coaches
choose to adopt the idea that applied sport psychology and athletes rated spor t psych ology as very im portant
can beneW t their perform ance. Those factors that in training and achieving sporting success, although
potentially inX uence an athlete or consum er to consider, 70% of each sam ple adm itted that they did not know
or to ignore, integrating sport psych ology into their enough about it. C onversely, negative connotations or
existing training m ay be the m ost im portant for the derogatory views surrounding the sport psychologist are
w idespread diV usion of sport psychology. Rogers also reported in the literature. C oaches have referred to
(1983) suggested that innovations that are perceived as sport psychologists as `shrinks’ (Partington and O rlick,
possessing greater relative advantage, com patibility w ith 1987) and as `unattractive, threatening and undesirable’
existing values and needs, observability of outcom es (Anshel, 1992, p. 274).
and less com plexity will be adopted faster into the Research has investigated the concept of the `negative
com m ercial world. D eFrancesco and C ronin (1988) halo eV ect’ in relation to the sport psychologist and
other sport and m ental health practitioners (Linder
* Author to w hom all correspondence sho uld be addressed. et al., 1989, 1991; Van Raalte et al., 1990, 1992, 1993).

0264± 0414/99 Ó 1999 E & FN Spon

206 B rooks and B ull

Van Raalte et al. (1996) reported that a com bined ceived the sport psychologist professional to be un-
sam ple of m ale and fem ale British student athletes involved with either the m ental health groupings or
held sim ilar perceptions to those of Am erican m ale ath- the sport and physical-or iented cluster, although the
letes (Van Raalte et al., 1992) and sport psychologists sport psychologist was closer to the sport and physical
(Van Raalte et al., 1993). The spor t psych ologist was group. In addition, the sport psychologist was perceived
positioned closer to the cluster of m ental health pro- as possessing high er exper tise in m ental issues than
fessio nals than to the sport-oriented professionals. It som e psych ology professions, as well as greater exp ertise
was sugge sted that it was the term `sport psych ologist’ in sporting and physical issues.
that was causing controversy, attaching negative con- T he aim of this study was to determ ine British
notations to the profession and ultimately inX uencing student fem ale athletes’ perceptions of sport psycholo-
individuals’ perceptions. It has been im plied that the gists and 10 other sport and m ental health practitioners,
term `psychologist’ is the m ain determ inant in these by replicating previous research by Van Raalte et al.
perceptions, and the term `sport’ fails to m odify the per- (1992) and extending research by Brooks and Bull
ception of the role (Van Raalte et al., 1990). Van Raalte (1997). British student fem ale athletes were selected
et al. (1993) noted that, because the sport psych ologist in an attempt to pursue a research question posed by
was not considered to be ranked high enough in m ental Linder et al. (1991); nam ely, that fem ales would have
expertise, consum ers would be put oV from adopting a better perception of the sport psychologist com pared
the services provided. with m ental health practitioners. We also hoped that
O f the previous research in this area, only one study a broader picture of British fem ale perceptions of
considered British participants’ perceptions (Van Raalte sim ilarity could be gained because of the lack of
et al., 1996); another (Linder et al., 1991) considered research focusing on fem ale attitudes. We expected
fem ale participants’ perceptions of sport and m ental this sam ple would perceive the sport psychologist as
health practitioners. In the latter study, fem ale Am eri- possessin g high levels of expertise in m ental issues,
cans positioned the spor t psychologist further away but not be seen as part of a cluster of m ental health
from the m ental health practitioners and closer to the professionals. Student sports were selected owing to the
sport-oriented professionals. Com bined results from diversity of sports available and their am ateur status in
the m ultidim ensional conW guration and a W ctitious com parison to the high-p roW le sports studied previ-
scouting report (a perform ance record used for re- ously. It was hoped that this replication and extension
cruiting athletes) sugge sted that fem ales m ay possess a of previous research would enable elements within
less well-deW ned set of expectations relating to what is Cultural Consensus T heory to be fur ther investigated.
an acceptable behavio ur (Linder et al., 1991). For Cultural Consensus T heory `allows us to m easure the
exam ple, fem ale respondents perceived that consulting com petence of each inform ant and to reconstruct
a sport psychologist for a perform ance-related problem the correct answers with about as m uch assurance as if
was acceptable, whereas m ale respondents did not we had the actual answers’ (Weller and Rom ney, 1988,
(Linder et al., 1991). It has been reported in asso ciated p. 74).
m ainstream studies investigating perceptions of diV er-
ent psychological practitioners that `wom en tend to
report m ore physical and psychiatric sym ptom s than
m en’ (Al-Issa, 1982, p. 92). Phillips and Segal (1969)
M ethods
reasoned that wom en m ay have no m ore sym ptom s than
Participants
m en, but m ore are reported because the expression of
distress by wom en is m ore socially acceptable. Phillips The participants were 90 fem ale athletes (team and
(1964) found that m ales are rejected m ore strongly than individual sports) aged 18± 23 years (m ean ± s =
fem ales exhibiting identical behavio ur and consulting 20.44 ± 3.4) from one university. T hey all represented
the sam e person for help, such as a m em ber of the clergy, the university in at least one of 15 sports within the
psychiatrist or physician. com petitive structure of the British U niversities Sports
M ost research in this area has concentrated on high- Association (hockey, n = 27; judo, n = 1; canoeing, n = 1;
proW le Am erican m ale sports. It has been suggested squash, n = 4; netball, n = 14; lacrosse, n = 12; volleyball,
that Am erican athletes m ay be concerned about `fear n = 2; athletics, n = 9; bask etball, n = 2; triathlon, n = 1;
by association’ with a particular professio nal, which football, n = 8; tennis, n = 5; rugby, n = 1; sw im m ing,
consequently m ay inX uence their career and W nancial n = 3; gym nastics, n = 6). T he British U niversities Sports
standing (L inder et al., 1989). Because of the am ateur Association centrally organ ize the annual sports com -
status of som e British spor ts, this reasoning m ay petitions between the British universities. Sixteen of
not be so app licable. Brooks and Bull (1997) found the participants identiW ed two sports (winter/sum m er
that British fem ale athletes of national standard per- split) at w hich they represented the university.
Perceptions of the sport psychologist 207

Procedure m ental (m ind-oriented) or physic al (body-o riented)

issues as indicated on the questionnaire by the re-
T he par ticipants were recruited using the university
searcher. This replicated the decision by Van Raalte
sports oY ce register. T he register is com piled from
et al. (1992, 1993) to view the once bipolar m ental±
team lists subm itted to the sports oY ce from university
physical dim ension (Linder et al., 1991) as separate
m atches and com petitions. Altogether, 168 participants
com ponents, each variable possessing a continuum of
were targeted and a two-par t questionnaire was distri-
its ow n. The aim of the ranking test was to obser ve if
buted via the internal m ailing system at the university.
the expertise variab les could help in explain ing the
Boxes were placed in the departmental oY ce and sports
dim ensionality of the sim ilarity judgem ents and the
federation oY ce for the return of the questionnaires.
perceived sim ilarity between the practitioner term s. The
T he students were requested to indicate if they were
term s were random ly ordered for each participant.
studying a specialist option course in sport psycho logy,
ow ing to their potential greater experience of sport
psychology com pared to the other participants. These D ata analyses
students were om itted from the study (n = 4). Excluding
C or respondence analysis. T he sim ilarity judgem ent data
these, 90 com pleted questionnaires were returned, a
from the triad tests were tabulated into 90 separate parti-
response rate of 56% .
cipant proxim ity m atrices of 11 ´ 11 (practitioner ´
practitioner). The pair of practitioner term s not circled
in the triad both received a point of sim ilarity, tallied
Instr um entation
in the relevant m atrix cell. An agg regated m atrix was
Van Raalte et al. (1992) identiW ed a set of 11 prac- produced, by sum m ing each of the 90 participants’
titioner term s to investigate perceptions of sport and scores. The sim ilarity between the practitioner term s
m ental health professionals. The original questionnaire was the W nal sum of tallies each term received in relation
was obtained from Van Raalte and piloted on sport to the other term s. T he m atrix could then be exposed
science professionals at the sam e university as the parti- to correspondence analysis (G iW , 1990; Weller and
cipants in this study. A review of com m ents suggested Rom ney, 1990). Such an analysis visually represents the
that `Wtness adviser’ was a better cultural alternative for sim ilarity am ong the practitioner term s spatially, within
the term `strength coach’ . A sim ilar cultural change in an n-dim ensional solution (n = num ber of dim ensions,
term inology was adopted by Van Raalte et al. (1996) in w hich is dependent on the attributes used by the parti-
their study of British student athletes. T he 11 term s cipants to judge the sim ilarity between the term s). The
were as follows: `sport psychologist’ , `coach’ , `Wtness ad- dim ensions are the attributes, which are m ost frequently
viser’ , `clinical psychologist’ , `spor ts m edicine specialist’ , used to describe the practitioner term s by participants.
`psychiatrist’ , `psychotherapist’ , `nutritionist’ , `hypno- T hese are obtained from the post-analysis output, the
tist’ , `perform ance consultant’ and `counsellor’ . attributes app earing as descending values, which are
T he participants were provided with a two-par t transfo rm ed into percentages of accountable varian ce.
questionnaire consisting of 55 triad tests (Weller and T he num ber of dim ensions com prising the solution are
Rom ney, 1988, 1990) and a ranking task. The use of the attributes with the highest accountable varian ce.
triads to collect sim ilarity judgem ent data was pio- C om pared w ith m ultidim ensional scaling analysis, this
neered by Richardson (1938), who surm ised that, if particular m etric scaling procedure does not actually
each stim ulus represented a point in Euclidean space label the dim ensions. The practitioners are oriented
(psychological space), it would be possible to apply in the E uclidean space by the two-dim ensional co-
factor analysis techniques to determ ine the dim ension- ordinates. Perceived sim ilarity between practitioner
ality of the judgem ents. The triadic com parisons were term s is determ ined by the visual proxim ity of the term s
form ulated using a lam bda-3 balanced incom plete to each other. T he closer together the item s are within
block design (Burton and N erlove, 1976), which eV ec- the Euclidean space, the greater the perceived sim ilarity
tively reduces the num ber of triads needed to investigate between the term s.
a num ber of item s, in this case 11. Each pair of item s
occurs exactly three times. Participants m ake sim ilarity C ultura l consensus analysis. To analyse the rank order
judgem ents on the three item s by circling the item they data and subsequently plot the variab les onto the
perceive to be m ost diV erent from the other two. The sim ilarity structure, the rank orders were subjected
order of the triads and the item s w ithin the triads were to cultural consensus analysis (Rom ney et al., 1987;
random ized for each participant. Batchelder and Rom ney, 1988; Weller and Rom ney,
T he ranking task required participants to rank the 1988). T his is a `method of pooling subjects’ judge-
11 practitioner term s in order of their perceived ex- m ents when the ª correct answersº to system atic
pertise in the three areas of sporting issues and either questions are unknown’ (Van Raalte et al., 1992, p. 277).
208 B rooks and B ull

This detects which participants are inform ed about the In the present case, PRO FIT is used to ascertain the
particular dom ain and those w ho are less knowledge- im portance of the three expertise variab les on the
able. This is a relatively new m ethod of analysis, based sim ilarity judgem ents and subsequent contribution to
on established theories such as Signal D etection T heor y the sim ilarity structure. T he procedure estimates
(Green and Swets, 1966) and Test C onstruction T heor y param eters of a m odel, w hich, in this case, relates
(Rom ney et al., 1986). The theor y behind this technique expertise in sporting, physical and m ental issues to
assum es that a single answer key or cultural truth positions on a m ap or equivocally relates location to
relating to a particular dom ain will exist for any group of expertise on the three variables. The analysis functions
participants (Rom ney et al., 1987). T he basis of this by regressing each of the ranked expertise variables
theory is that respondent consensus or ag reem ent is a again st the coordinates of the two-dim ensional corre-
function of an individual’ s knowledge of that particular spondence analysis conW guration (m ap location),
area or dom ain. T hus, consensus or sim ilarity between gained from the perceived sim ilarities. T he R 2 -valu e
two subjects’ responses is the extent to which they obtained identiW es if the location of the practitioner
possess know ledge of the culturally correct answer term within the solution is related to the value of
(Weller and Rom ney, 1988). the attribute; for exam ple, does perceived expertise in
T he analysis is based on three assu m ptions: the sporting issues increase from left to right? T he higher
existence of one culture (response diV erences are a the R 2 -valu e, the closer the relationship between
function of know ledge rather than sub-culture), location and the particular expertise variable. For
independence (a participant w ill choose a response if dom ains of less than 20 item s, an R 2 -value >0.80 is
they don’ t know) and all questions are drawn from required to support an inference that the attribute was
the sam e dom ain. If all three assu m ptions are satisW ed, inX uencing or driving the perceived sim ilarity between
then the researcher can rely on the knowledge that the items. As w ith the previously described techniques,
inform ant has (Borgatti, 1992). C ultural consensus results are tentative and no m ethods are availab le to
analysis produces overall participant rankings for the prove inferred relationships (Borgatti, 1992).
three variables, a rating of agreement or consensus
between subjects concerning the perceived exp ertise
of the professionals, and a com petency or know ledge
Results
rating for the participants. H owever, the m ain aim of this
procedure is to produce a correct ranking (estimated
Analysis of the similarity judgements using cor respondence
answer keys) of the 11 term s, on all three exp ertise
analysis
variables (see Table 1). T his can then be com pared
to participants’ responses to calculate the degree of Based on correspondence analysis, a two-dim ensional
consensus. To support the one cultural assu m ption and solution was found, the W rst two non-trivial factors
to indicate consensus am ong par ticipants’ responses, accounting for 80.8% of the variance (Fig. 1). Prac-
the ratio of the W rst eigenvalue to the second eigen- titioner term s w ith high perceived sim ilarity are in close
value m ust be greater than 3.0 (Rom ney et al., 1986). proxim ity (closely asso ciated pairings or clusters) with
To indicate strong support, a ratio of greater than 10 each other com pared to those with perceived low
is required. W ith this type of data, conW dence intervals sim ilarity, w hich are further apart and unasso ciated
for the estimated answer key cannot be calculated and within the E uclidean space. In Fig. 1, several distinct
support for the one cultural assu m ption cannot be associations are visible: a sport-oriented pair of the
proven. T he com petency rating is indicated by the coach (C) and perform ance consultant (PC ) in the
loadings on the W rst factor, a lower loading inferring upper left-han d quadrant, and a physic al health-
less know ledge in the particular area. A loading is the oriented pair of sports m edicine specialist (SM S) and
correlation between factor 1 and the subject’ s responses nutritionist (N) in the lower left-hand quadrant.
and illustrates how well they m atch the `correct answer’ . A m ental health-oriented cluster com prising the
counsellor (CO ), clinical psychologist (C P), psych o-
PRO FIT analysis. PRO F IT analysis (PRO perty FIT- therapist (PT ) and psychiatrist (PY) is found half-w ay
ting; Chang and C arroll, 1968) is a m ethod of testing up the righ t-hand side of the m ap. Sport psych ologist
hypo theses relating to the attributes that inX uence (SP) is centrally positioned, m idway between the spor t-
individuals’ judgem ents of sim ilarity am ong item s. This oriented practitioners and the m ental health-oriented
analysis is typically used to aid understanding of the practitioners. F itness adviser (FA) and hyp notist (H )
criteria that participants have used to assess the sim ilar- are som ewhat unasso ciated with any of the three
ities between item s and W nd the best W tting orienta- identiW ed groups, although W tness adviser is centrally
tion of each variable (sporting, m ental and physical positioned between the sport-oriented and physical
expertise) within the conW guration (Borgatti, 1992). health-oriented pairings.
Perceptions of the sport psychologist 209

(n = 47) for m ental and 0.70 (n = 42) for physic al, where
n is the num ber of participants ranking that variab le.
T his indicates that participants were in less ag reem ent
concerning expertise in m ental issues com pared w ith
the other two expertise variab les.

PRO FIT analysis

T he consensus rank orders were plotted onto the sim i-
larity structure of the practitioner term s using PRO FIT
analysis (C hang and C arroll, 1968), as indicated in
F ig. 2. T he m ultiple-regression results (m ultiple R and
R ) were R = 0.96 (R = 0.928), R = 0.97 (R = 0.932)
2 2 2

and R = 0.97 (R = 0.944) for the sport, m ental and

2

physical variables, respectively. To reiterate, these

regression coeY cients are used to locate the head of a
vector (one for each of m ental, physical and sporting)
that passe s through the origin of the m ap. T he further
the item is towards the head of the vector, the greater the
value of the attribute to the individuals.
F igu re 1 Two-dimensional correspondence analysis solu-
tion of the similarity between sport and mental health prac-
titioner terms for female student athletes. C = coach, FA =
W tness adviser, SM S = sports m edicine specialist, SP = sport D iscussio n
psychologist, PC = perform ance consultant, N = nutritionist,
CP = clinical psychologist, C O = counsellor, PT = psycho- T he sim ilarity structure in Fig. 1 bears m ost resem -
therapist, PY = psychiatrist, H = hypnotist. blance to the pairings and clusters within the sim ilarity
conW gurations found in previous research on sport
psychologists and British student athletes (Van Raalte
et al., 1993, 1996). As reported by Van Raalte et al.
C ultura l consensus analysis of rank order data
(1996), and sim ilar to the sport psych ologist, the W tness
Adequate consensus was found to exist on all three adviser was not closely asso ciated with any practitioner
variables. T he ratios of the W rst to the second eigen- grouping and visually was in a sim ilar position. The
values for sport, m ental and physic al expertise were position of `W tness adviser’ within the correspondence
15.68, 3.17 and 6.41, respectively. The m ean com - analysis solution m im ics that found for the strength
petency values (degree of perceived knowledge) for coach (Van Raalte et al., 1992, 1993), which suggests
the three variables were 0.87 (n = 90) for sport, 0.67 that the chosen synonym was a potentially good cultural

Table 1 The estimated answer key (consensus rank orders) for sport, mental and physical
variables for female student athletes

Variables

Rank Sport M ental Physical

1 coach clinical psychologist W tness adviser

2 W tness adviser psychiatrist nutritionist
3 sport psychologist psychotherapist coach
4 perfor mance consultant sport psychologist sport m edicine specialist
5 sport m edicine specialist counsellor perfor mance consultant
6 nutritionist hypnotist sport psychologist
7 psychotherapist coach psychotherapist
8 clinical psychologist perfor mance consultant clinical psychologist
9 counsellor sport m edicine specialist counsellor
10 psychiatrist W tness adviser psychiatrist
11 hypnotist nutritionist hypnotist
210 B rooks and B ull

health professio nals as reported in previous research

(Van Raalte et al., 1992, 1993). T he professional was
centrally positioned between the sport and physical-
oriented pairs, on the left-hand side of the con-
Wguration, and the cluster of m ental health professio nals
was situated on the righ t. T he hypnotist (H ) appears
to be unasso ciated with the cluster of m ental health
professionals, thus reducing the group to the perceived
three highest experts in m ental issues, the clinical
psychologist (CP), the psychiatrist (PY) and the psych o-
therapist (PT). It m ay be speculated that the perceived
lack of sim ilarity of the hyp notist with the m ental health
group, identiW ed by this sam ple of student athletes,
is based upon the experiences of the hypnosis pro-
fessio n, w hich m ay have included entertainm ent and
stage hyp nosis. Alternatively, students m ay perceive
the process of hyp nosis and hypnotherapy as re-
m oved from activities and therapy undertaken by other
m ental health professionals. T hese issues need to be
Figure 2 Two-dimensional correspondence analysis repre- investigated m ore thoroughly.
sentation of the similarity between sport and mental health Regard ing the consensus between the participants’
practitioner term s. Arrows represent expertise in sport (S), responses, adequate ag reem ent was found for all three
physical (P) and mental (M) issues. Based on PROFIT expertise variab les of sport, m ental and physical. As all
analysis. C = coach, FA = W tness adviser, SM S = sports variables had values > 3.0, the three assum ptions under-
medicine specialist, SP = sport psychologist, PC = perform -
pinning Cultural C onsensus Theory are suppor ted. As
ance consultant, N = nutritionist, CP = clinical psychologist,
the sport variab le is greater than 10, support for the
CO = counsellor, PT = psychotherapist, PY = psychiatrist,
H = hypnotist.
existence of one culture and the degree of consensus
is dem onstrated. T hese results indicate that the par-
ticipants are from one culture, despite diV erences in
the type of sport played. L ower com petency values
alternative. This synonym was also chosen by Van (perceived know ledge) were found for the m ental and
Raalte et al. (1996) for investigation of British athletes. physic al variab les, respectively, in contrast to the sport
Two pairings of practitioners were also sim ilar in variable. This oV ers support for the notion that
term s of perceived m ap location and the constituent agreem ent is a function of know ledge, as the variables
professionals: a spor t-oriented pair of coach (C ) and reporting the lower knowledge ratings illustrate less
perform ance consultant (PC ), and a physical health- agreem ent between participants. A lesser understanding
oriented pair of sports m edicine specialist (SM S) and of the m ental variable can be exp lained by som e
nutritionist (N). As in previous research (Van Raalte et individual participants reporting negative values from
al., 1993, 1996; Brooks and Bull, 1997), the counsellor the cultural consensus analysis, which subsequently
was observed apart from the m ental health cluster, decreases the overall com petency and consensus ratings.
which despite its absence was still evident. Van Raalte et It could be speculated that the lesser understanding
al. (1996) added the term `student’ before `counsellor’ , of these two variab les m ay be based upon w hich pro-
which m ay have altered their particular sam ple’ s fessio nals the participants had m ost contact with away
perceptions of sim ilarity, and subsequent location from their spor t, the ages of the participants, the year of
within the correspondence analysis solution, with other study of the participants and the spor t played.
practitioners. T he term `counsellor’ alone m ay be Several observations about the estimated answer
unconsciously associated with experts in m ental issues, keys (consensus rank orders) can be m ade. The sport
owing to psycho logists adopting a nam e that has fewer psychologist was perceived as possessing both a high
perceived negative connotations. Support for such an level of exp ertise in both m ental issues (behind the
explanation is oV ered by the lower ranking of the clinical psychologist, the psychiatrist and the psych o-
counsellor, in the estimated answer key, com pared with therapist) and sporting issues (behind the coach and
perceived experts in m ental issues. Wtness adviser). The spor t psychologist was also per-
In contrast to previous research, two of the prac- ceived to possess the high est expertise after the sport,
titioner term s were perceived diV erently. T he sport physic al-oriented professionals in physical issues, and
psychologist was not em bedded in the cluster of m ental above the psychology-related professionals. This would
Perceptions of the sport psychologist 211

suggest that the term `sport psych ologist’ is well-suited roles of the professionals. M any psycho logy-related
for fem ale athletes and im plies com petence in both professionals have sim ilar sounding titles and m any
areas perceived as relevant to the profession. In this individuals are only aware of a m urky distinction
study, the sport psychology professional was perceived between them (Tallent and Reiss, 1959; Warner and
as possessing enough expertise in m ental issues to be Bradley, 1991). An alternative view m igh t be that
ranked w ith m ental health practitioners and therefore sport psychologists are beneW ting from the im proved
loosely associated w ith the psychology-re lated profes- perception of m ental health professio nals in general
sions. H owever, the sport psychologist was perceived (M urstein and Fontaine, 1993; Wollersheim and Walsh ,
to possess enough sporting expertise to adequately 1993). T his strengthens the need for sport psychology
m odify the perception. T he m odiW cation to the term and other psychology-re lated professio ns to educate
could explain the profession’ s app arent detachm ent potential consum ers and the public alike as to the roles
from the m ental health cluster. This contrasts w ith and boundaries of their professions (Wollersheim and
earlier research (Van Raalte et al., 1990) that suggested Walsh , 1993).
that a nam e change is needed and research by Van In conclusion, our expectations were proved righ t.
Raalte et al. (1993), who suggested that consum ers W ithin the boundaries of the statistical techniques
would be discouraged from contact w ith a sport used, and the realm s of this study, it can be stated that
psychologist because of the lack of perceived m ental fem ale student athletes have an im proved perception
exper tise. of the sport psych ologist in relation to m ental health
U sing cultural consensus analysis, the estim ated practitioners and in com pariso n to past research. T his
answer keys (consensus rank orders) for the three ex- is because the sport psycho logist is not asso ciated
pertise variab les of the fem ale student participants are w ith m ental health practitioners, but is still thought
basically sim ilar, in rank order, to those of Am erican to possess a high level of expertise in m ental issues.
m ale athletes (Van Raalte et al., 1992), Association T hese results tentatively support the suggestion of
for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology Linder et al. (1991) that fem ale athletes are less likely to
(AAASP) conference delegates (Van Raalte et al., 1993) derogate athletes for contact w ith a sport psychologist,
and national fem ale athletes (Brooks and Bull, 1997). although further research is needed to support this
H owever, the degrees of response consensus for each assu m ption.
group are diV erent.
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