A SURVEY OF COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAMS AND EXERCISE SPORT SCIENCEDEPARTMENTS - SPORT PSYCHOLOGY ISSUES AND TRAINING

As the field of sport psychology has evolved and become more focused o n applied/practitioner issues, the need for interdisciplinary training has been noted. Little information exists, however. concerning the ac ceptability of sport psychology training in applied psychology program s. Thus, 41 counseling psychology programs and 41 exercise/sport scien ce departments (matched pairs) were surveyed to determine their relati ve attitudes toward sport psychology research, training, and current p rofessional issues. The exercise/sport science departments were found to offer more courses in sport psychology and to have more faculty and students interested in sport research. Over 70% of the counseling psy chology programs, however, had students with sport psychology interest s. In addition, the two academic areas reported equally high levels of acceptance concerning their graduate students pursuing sport psycholo gy research and training. Mechanisms for promoting interdisciplinary t raining in sport psychology are discussed.