Cultural Sport Psychology Research Articles

Expanding understandings of the body, food and exercise relationship in distance runners: A narrative approach

ObjectivesAdditional forms of theorizing and methodologies are warranted to expand understandings of the body, food and exercise relationship in physically active individuals. DesignA narrative approach grounded in social constructionism was used to explore the meaning-making process around this relationship in male and female distance runners. MethodNarratives around the body, food and exercise were elicited from nine recreational male and female distance runners (n = 5 males, 4 females). The sociocultural construction of meaning was explored through a thematic and dialogic/performance analysis of 17 in-depth interviews (2 interviews per person, with one exception) (see Riessman, 2008). ResultsFindings indicated that male and female runners drew upon one of two running narratives – ‘just do it’ and ‘just do it better’ – in constructing meanings around the body, food and exercise. Meanings shifted based upon the gendered narratives and cultural discourses. The specific narratives and meanings within them had implications for the runners' experiences and behaviors around their bodies, food and exercise in empowering/healthy and/or disempowering/unhealthy ways. ConclusionsThis study highlights the complexity of the body, food and exercise relationship in male and female distance runners, demonstrating that athletes' eating and exercising practices are socially and culturally formed in and through particular narratives and cultural discourse. These findings also add to the genre of cultural sport psychology research and a growing body of qualitative literature on disordered eating in the physical activity realm.

Research vs. Me-search: Thinking More of Thee and Less of Me When Working Within the Context of Culture

The ascendance of cultural sport psychology as a concentrated focus of academic inquiry is timely, and emergent investigations therein represent welcome areas of scholarship. The invitation embedded in this forthcoming discussion to sport psychology researchers and practitioners to stretch beyond their comfort zones is being extended with a request to consider pursuing sport psychology research and practice with a “more of thee and less of me” mindset. The North Star goals articulated herein are to stimulate avant-garde and imaginative thinking by expanding the concepts of reflective practice and reflexivity, thereby creating a portal through which to see how perceived stumbling blocks to overcoming traditional approaches to the study of sport psychology can be transformed into stepping stones. Six premises provide the context within which this discussion is presented. Collectively, these premises support and raise caution about the scientific method and suggest that the time has come to rethink commonly held beliefs about color-blindness, melting pot formulations, and alleged-to-be-absent historical and contemporary cultural influences on in-the-moment interpersonal interactions. A context-sensitive across-cultures communication model is offered as a way of synthesizing the premises and creating a portal through which to enter into new domains of investigative inquiry. Implications for the future of sport psychology relative to research, practice, training, and consultation will be offered for consideration.

The Adaptation Challenges and Strategies of Adolescent Aboriginal Athletes Competing Off Reserve

Within the motivation literature, it has been indicated that athletes respond more effectively to sport’s contextual challenges through effective adaptation skills. Fiske identified five core motives as facilitators of the adaptation process across cultures: belonging, understanding, controlling, self-enhancement, and trusting. Through a cultural sport psychology approach, the adaptation challenges and strategies of Canadian Aboriginal adolescent athletes from one community (Wikwemikong) are described as they traveled off reserve to compete in mainstream sporting events. Concurrently, Fiske’s core motives are considered in relation to youth sport participants from the aforementioned Aboriginal community. Culture sensitive research methods among the Wikwemikong, including community meetings, talking circles (TCs), indigenous coding, and coauthoring, were employed in this article. Data are reflected in three themes: (a) challenges pursuing sport outside of the Aboriginal community in advance of bicultural encounters, (b) challenging bicultural encounters in Canadian mainstream sport contexts, and (c) specific responses to racism and discrimination.

Novice consultants' experiences: Lessons learned by applied sport psychology students

Objective Applied sport psychology (ASP) literature reveals a number of publications on reflective practice and professional philosophies of well-established sport psychology consultants. However, there is much less interest in studying how novice consultants make the first steps in their careers and how they perceive the field of ASP in their respective countries and themselves within the field. The objective of this study is to analyse and structure lessons learned by students during their one-year ASP education and supervised practice in Sweden. Method Thirty-seven ASP students (23 males and 14 females) took part in this study. The data were extracted from the students' final reports on their six-month interventions with athlete-clients. Altogether 278 raw data units (lessons learned) were identified. Results We used both inductive and deductive analyses to create 33 themes and four categories named professional tools, consultant–client relationship, learning process and experiences, and professional philosophy. These four categories were further structured into three levels reflecting the students' learning process and exploration of the profession with the shifts from analysis to synthesis and from concrete to more generalized and strategic lessons learned. Conclusion The study provides insight into the novice sport psychology consultants' reflective practice. The results are discussed using career development, scientist-practitioner and cultural sport psychology perspectives. Applications and future research directions are outlined.

The Development of Cross-Cultural Relations With a Canadian Aboriginal Community Through Sport Research

When sport psychology researchers from the mainstream work with people from marginalized cultures, they can be challenged by cultural differences as well as mistrust. For this article, researchers born in mainstream North America partnered with Canadian Aboriginal community members. The coauthors have worked together for 5 years. What follows is our story of how positive cross-cultural relations developed in stages and how we modified our focus from solely academic dissemination to a project that adheres more closely with the American Psychological Association's multicultural guidelines. Recommendations are offered for those interested in developing reflexive cultural sport psychology research while building positive cross-cultural relations.

Canadian Aboriginal elite Athletes: The experiences of being coached in mainstream cultures

Cultural sport psychology (CSP) is an emerging critical discourse located on the intersection of sport psychology and cultural studies. From conceptual and empirical CSP contributions, there is reason to believe that culturally reflective approaches to sport offer athletes and coaches of different cultural origins an opportunity of engagement into respectful negotiations. The present submission, which was a part of a larger study, explored the sport experiences of elite Canadian Aboriginal athletes coached by non‐Aborigines. The respondents were twenty‐three elite Aboriginal athletes. The data was gathered through semi‐structured interviews and developed, refined, and coded with the assistance of a community‐appointed research team. The data was segmented into meaning units, coded collaboratively with an Aboriginal community team, and verified with each respondent individually, and through a password protected website. Co‐authored results with community‐appointed researchers divided into three sub‐sections relating to coaching practice: (1) strategies regarded as ineffective, (2) strategies regarded as effective, and (3) recommendations for aspiring coaches.

The Adaptation to the Mainstream in Elite Sport: A Canadian Aboriginal Perspective

Cultural sport psychology (CSP) is a recent attempt by researchers to better understand respondents from marginalized cultures. CSP research provides useful suggestions of how to work effectively with unique populations for coaches and sport science practitioners. This paper addresses the struggles and adaptation strategies of 23 (16 male, 7 female) elite Aboriginal Canadian athletes. National and international level athletes elicited from seven sport disciplines and three Canadian provinces were interviewed with a semistructured protocol. Indications are that Aboriginal Canadian athletes engage in two higher order types of adaptation: (a) self-adaptation and (b) adapted environment. The study was developed, analyzed, and coauthored with an Aboriginal community appointed research team. Implications, such as the use of ongoing reflective practice, are proposed for aspiring CSP sport researchers and practitioners.

From Mental Game to Cultural Praxis: A Cultural Studies Model's Implications for the Future of Sport Psychology

This paper explores the implications of a cultural studies as praxis heuristic “model” for transforming sport psychology. It provides a brief introduction to both cultural studies and sport psychology and discusses a cultural studies intersection with sport studies and sport psychology. Cultural studies, it asserts, provides one of several interrelated trajectories for future work in sport psychology. Issues such as sociocultural identity/identifi cation, agency, equity and justice, and interdisciplinarity—that are marginal if not completely eschewed in traditional sport psychology—are explicitly engaged as central concerns. Taken up through the cultural studies model, sport psychology evolves from an individual focused, quantitative, “apolitical” single discipline into a multiple identifi cation focused, difference sensitive, qualitative friendly and social justice based interdisciplinary praxis.