Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1995

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education

Major Professor

Craig A. Wrisberg

Committee Members

Patricia Beitel, Wendell Liemohn, John Lounsbury

Abstract

Every year an increasing number of sport psychology practitioners work with athletes, coaches, and teams in the field (Murphy & Ferrante, 1989). Despite the growth in the number of active consultants, many athletes and coaches remain reluctant to utilize sport psychology services (Ravizza, 1988). Little is known. about how athletes themselves feel about sport psychology consultants (SPCs), particularly those from cultural backgrounds different than that of the consultants (Anshel, 1990). Recently, Wrisberg and Martin (1994) found that African-American athletes may have less favorable perceptions of SPCs than do Caucasian athletes. Thus, the major purpose of this study was to develop and standardize questionnaire to measure athletes' attitudes toward seeking sport psychology consultation. A 50-item questionnaire was. developed and administered to 48 African-American (14 female and 34 male) and 177 Caucasian (79 female and 98 male) athletes ranging from 17 to 23 years of age at an NCAA Division I university. Principle components factor analyses were conducted to extract initial factors, followed by varimax orthogonal rotation. The results revealed three dimensions of athlete attitude toward sport psychology consultation representing 35% of the variance: stigma. tolerance, confidence/recognition of need, and personal openness. A secondary purpose of this study was to determine whether attitudes toward seeking sport psychology consultation of athletes differed as a function of gender and race. A MANOVA and follow-up univariate analysis was performed on the factors to identify which ones maximized differences among race and gender groups. Factor 1, stigma tolerance, was significant for race, F(1, 210)=19.36, p=.0001, ω²=.07; and for gender, E(1, 210)=44.13, p=.0001, ω²=.16. No other significant effects were obtained. However, 2 (Gender) x 2 (Race) ANOVAs were performed on each item of the questionnaire which revealed that male athletes exhibited greater stigma towards sport psychology, whereas, females viewed sport psychology consultant as someone that could help them enhance their athletic performance. Moreover, compared with Caucasian athletes, African-American athletes were less likely to think that an SPC could help them perform better, were more apprehensive about going to an SPC because they feared they would be harassed by teammates or receive a bad reputation, were less likely to self-disclose, were less committed to following the instructions of an SPC, and were more comfortable with an SPC who of the same race and gender as them. African-American male athletes were less sure what an SPCactually does than were African-American female athletes andCaucasian athletes. Implications for consultants working with athletes and recommendations for further research. cross-cultural consulting are discussed.

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