Sport and Exercise Psychology Review - Sport Psychology Goes to ...

Challenges for the Division of Sport and
Exercise Psychology: Reflections on
Anderson and Lavallee (2005)
David Tod & Joanne Thatcher
THE PROFESSIONAL status of sport and
exercise psychology in Britain has moved
forward with the creation of the Division of
Sport and Exercise Psychology (DSEP) within
the British Psychological Society (BPS). As discussed
by Anderson and Lavallee (2005), the
DSEP is faced with a number of challenges
regarding the training and registration of
practitioners. Anderson and Lavallee provided
details about the training and registration
procedures operating in Australia and
America by interviewing, via email, the presidents
of the Australian Psychological Society’s
(APS) College of Sport Psychologists (Professor
Peter Terry), and the American Psychological
Association’s (APA) Division 47
Exercise and Sport Psychology (Professor
Judy Van Raalte). Anderson and Lavallee also
discussed a number of issues arising from the
interviews as they relate to Britain. In this article
we present our reflections on Anderson
and Lavallee’s work. We hope that these
reflections add to Anderson and Lavallee’s
article and contribute to the discussions that
will take place as the DSEP progresses. We
have structured our comments around the
three subheadings Anderson and Lavallee
used in their commentary.
Postgraduate training
Anderson and Lavallee (2005) suggested one
challenge facing the DSEP is determining the
curriculum content of specialist masters
courses in sport and exercise psychology.
Professor Terry’s comment that Australian
sport psychologists are psychologists first, and
specialists second, resonated with us and we
believe that this philosophy should inform
course curriculum. One possible advantage
of the Australian system is that students
develop general psychology skills that help
them gain employment in areas other than
sport and exercise. In addition to sport and
exercise psychology, students also study topics
such as counselling, ethics, and psychological
assessment. In Australia, there are
limited opportunities for students to obtain
full-time employment in sport and exercise
psychology related careers, and although the
situation is changing, we think a similar state
of affairs exists in Britain. Students training
in sport and exercise psychology might benefit
from being able to register as chartered
psychologists at the completion of their training,
even if they chose not to use the chartered
sport and exercise psychologist title
(the DSEP is currently striving to obtain the
specialist title; see www.bps.org.uk/spex/join).
In both Australia and Britain, much sport
and exercise psychology education occurs in
human movement departments. Students in
Australian human movement departments
who develop interests in sport and exercise
psychology are unable to enter postgraduate
APS accredited courses unless they have completed
four years of undergraduate general
psychology study. Some talented students
might be discouraged from pursuing careers
in sport and exercise psychology because
they need additional qualifications to allow
them entry onto APS accredited postgraduate
courses. It is conceivable that a similar situation
will develop in Britain. There are
solutions such as postgraduate conversion
courses and the Graduate Basis for Registration
(GBR) examination (see www.bps.
50 Sport & Exercise Psychology Review Vol 1 No 2