The nature of sport and exercise psychology.

The chapter begins by discussing the clients and key roles of a sport and exercise psychologist. Importantly, we propose that a sport psychologist and an exercise psychologist have markedly different clients. We also explore why someone might either become a sport or exercise psychologist, encouraging people to reflect on their own beliefs and values. We follow this by looking at some of the key issues involved in service delivery. We discuss the issue of performance enhancement versus the well-being of the client, an issue that is particularly relevant for sport psychology. Following this, we look at guiding philosophical issues as these influence how practitioners work with clients including how to conduct a needs analysis. We finish by looking at measurement issues related to applied psychology, and in doing so conclude an important point related to the performance versus well-being debate. To get the most of this chapter, we suggest you read the case studies, complete all tasks and activities as these are designed to highlight key issues concerning your approach to consultancy. Before getting engrossed in the literature, it is important to bear in mind that a psychologist is a person who comes with a set of beliefs, values, and opinions. These personal characteristics can influence how they work in ways that are so subtle that the psychologist may not realise it is happening (Andersen, Knowles, & Gilbourne, 2004). Therefore, from the outset we encourage you to reflect on your core beliefs and values and how this might affect how you think and what you do. By completing this task, it is hoped that this will prompt answers to the question: Why do I want to be a psychologist? What is in it for me?