The authors conclude with a few rehashing comments related to understanding how spirituality can play an important role in sport psychology research and practice. They close with a statement declaring the potential for further research is vast and the need to further document the importance of spirituality in the lives of athletes and the work of sport psychology consultants.
My reflection
Mixing religion and spirituality is a touchy issue in or outside of sport psychology and is a major ethical issue for anyone engaged in sport psychology consulting or counseling, in general. If you have not spent time thinking through how to handle this issue, perhaps my article review and reflection will stimulate and encourage you to do so.
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According to Wikipedia, Religion in the United States is characterized by a diversity of religious beliefs and practices. Various religious faiths have flourished within the United States. A majority of Americans report that religion plays a very important role in their lives, a proportion unique among developed countries. 70.6% of the American population identified themselves as Christians, with 46.5% professing attendance at a variety of churches that could be considered Protestant, and 20.8% professing Roman Catholic beliefs. The same study says that other religions (including Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam) collectively make up about 6% of the population (Wikipedia, 2017).
It’s important to realize that 7 out of 10 of our potential clients identify themselves as Christians and possibly one would be a Muslim or a Buddhist. However, as I said above, even within Christianity, one can offend another so easily. I’ve seen a lot of family arguments over politics and religion. It’s just a subject to stay away unless a client really wants to go there. Even conducting mindfulness, deep breathing could possibly offend someone since it would appear to be practicing a Buddhist religious practice.
One leadership expert, John Maxwell (who was mentored by Coach Wooden) said regarding ethics, there is one standard, “do to others what you would have them to do to you” (Maxwell, 2003). That’s actually from the Bible yet most Christians can’t even
Sports—which involve emotion, competition, cooperation, achievement, and play—provide a rich area for psychological study. People involved in sports attempt to master very difficult skills, often subjecting themselves to intense physical stress as well as social pressure. research has expanded into numerous areas such as imagery training, hypnosis, relaxation training, motivation, socialization, conflict and competition, counseling, and coaching. Specific sports and recreational specialties studied include baseball, basketball, soccer,
Sports psychology deals with the mental and emotional aspects of physical performance. It involves describing, explaining and predicting attitudes, feelings and behaviours in an attempt to improve performance. In the film 'Coach Carter,' directed by Thomas Carter, sport psychology is used effectively to enhance the performance of a high school basketball team. However, this improved performance is not limited to the basketball court, it extends into the classroom where the students use goal setting, motivation, concentration and confidence control, ultimately to become accepted into college, avoiding a life of drugs, gangs and prison.
Individuals participate in rituals for various reasons. As explained in Baseball Magic by George Gmelch, athletes often participate in rituals for superstition-based purposes. These athletes tend to participate in rituals or taboo in order to improve their performance on the field. Alternatively, The Adaptive Value of Religious Ritual, written by Richard Sosis, describes that participation in religion-based rituals is often with the intent of improving the communication and cohesion of a group. Although Gmelch introduces ritual participation in the context of individual performance and Sosis in the context of group performance, both authors explain how rituals can benefit a given group or scenario. As an individual who has both witnessed and
I sort of just expected the US to be a little bit more diverse in religion, but it turns out that it isn’t. I had this expectation because I assumed that if the US was a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, that it should also be a melting pot of various religions.
1..An American Apotheosis, written by Joseph L. Price, discusses the religious element of sports. His thesis, “For tens of millions of devoted fans throughout the country, sports constitute a popular form of religion by shaping their world and sustaining their ways of engaging it.” (Price, p. 196) Takes on the difficult challenge of defining sport as religion. This is done through Price’s exploration of how sports shape and engage the world for the millions of devoted fans in America, how sports enable participants to explore levels of selfhood, how sports establish a means for bonding with the devotee community, how sports model ways to deal with fate while playing by the rules and how sports provide the prospect of experiencing abundant life.
This report was created to help the Florida Sports Committee understand why Clear Choice Coaching will want to partner and incorporate the sport phycology discipline in our practices to help us with our approach to recruit, retain and develop our coaches. This report was created to bring attention to the benefits of working together with coaches and sport psychology professionals to help advance and implement reliable yearly platforms of activities that carry out quality measurable assessments. We concentrate in coaching Soccer, Basketball, Tennis and Football. We are confident by integrating this discipline we will develop increased efficiency, knowledge sharing and transfer of improved skills to our athletes. We can see the benefits that
To many people, a sports game is just another thing to watch on the weekend with a group of friends cheering on your favorite team and hoping they come away from the game with the big win. To Jamie Ogden, his life revolves around sports. “Sports has always been a big part of my life.” states Jamie. His interest in sports started at a young age while watching his older brother play basketball and baseball. “I would go out and just sit and watch him practice in the driveway.” The other thing that helps clear his mind is his faith in Christ. “Faith is a huge part of my life. It is incorporated in everything I do.” While growing up, both sports and faith in Christ gave Jamie a way to make his dreams about playing professional baseball a reality.
In Hochstetler’s article he discusses reason people choose to pray. Athletes pray for various reasons and they do not all pray in the same way. Prayer is a mysterious thing and difficult for some to understand. This leads to tensions with prayer in sports. These tensions lead people to question if prayer by athletes is genuine. Hochstetler concludes that an athlete’s relationship with God must mature in order for the athlete to genuinely know how to pray and what pray for. This article relates to my research topic with the way it explains the relationship between sports and prayer. It explores the reasons behind prayer and helps people understand the importance prayer can have in an athlete’s
But American religiosity is diminishing. Other forces like materialism, globalism, humanism, and science continue to push the world into a new frontier. Between 2007 and 2014, adults who are religiously affiliated dropped 6%; though, 77% percent of Americans are religiously affiliated and 58% find religion very important—and those who identify strongly with religion continue to have the same intensity in belief.
Religion, whether we realize it or not, is a major element of American society (and also worldwide history). For many, religion is a significant part of their cultural identity. Religion plays a part in all levels of politics and is often an aspect of community events and organizations. Everyday, we all interact with people who have different religious backgrounds and personal beliefs. Children born into religious families are very connected with their religions from birth and this affects the way they will see the world for the rest of their lives. Even those who later explore other faiths or convert to other religious ideas will be affected in
The religions around the world are practiced in America such as Christianity,Islam,Jewish,etc and this country still remains one of the most religious nations in the world today.Population also usually can be participates in organized religious practice while others can choose to engage in a private spirituality.Besides that,religion can be describes as spiritual belief in, worship of, or obedience to a God and considered to be divine or to have control of human destiny.I believe the percentages in American people that believe in God still be higher in 50 years ahead,but the religious practicing probably will decreasing.It has many factors such as age, race, gender, economic class, and other demographic factors that can affect American
Theoretical practices of sportsmanship in sports provide adolescents with positive attitudes about fairness, honesty, and responsibility. Athletes learn to reflect these values of sportsmanship and apply it to their daily lives, once again providing positive psychosocial benefits to youth athletes. “From the perspective of sport psychology, the sphere of research that encompasses the key concepts of sportsmanship, ethics, and morality has been termed moral development in sport” (Goldstein & Iso-Ahola 2006, p. 19). Moral development is influenced by the sporting environment that the adolescent is exposed too. The adolescent’s psychological growth is dependent on “moral cognitions (thoughts of right and wrong),
Throughout the book, the author carefully details the need for balance between theology and spirituality, and psychology and Christianity. Though the author discusses methods and approaches that are spiritual but based on a strong theological foundation. “Nothing is more crucial to an effective Christian life that a clear awareness of its foundation” (p. 25). Essentially Crabb (1977) maintains that spirituality is a product of the correct thinking associated with strong theological foundation.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2009, over 228 million Americans classified themselves as practicing some type of religion. Due to
For centuries, religion in America has been more of a family affair. What this means is that despite the different groupings, almost all major religions have been united under the same American experience. Almost all the main religious denominations have been required to conform to the dictates of Protestantism. Maybe this has been derived from the belief that almost all of these groupings have been responsible for shaping America as we know it today. However, many things have happened in the past few decades to change the way religions have been conducting themselves. One theme that has overly changed over the years is that of pluralism. For many years, America has been a haven of different groupings of people. The British immigration