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Course Project Task # 6
SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSIONALS 1
SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSIONALS 12
Sports Psychologists’ Ethics
Tony Williams
Argosy University
Pamela Fitzpatrick
1 April 2018
Abstract
The primary role of sports psychologists is to foster good performance and to avoid unruly behaviors in associated teams. This paper seeks to identify the ethical concerns that should be considered in the performance of sports psychologists, their relationship with stakeholders and sports participants as well as the challenges they face with consequential outcomes resulting from a violation of given ethical standards. For instance, a discussion of approaches to sports performance is discussed with respect to the enablement theory that is used in ‘activation’ of non-functional aspects of sports people. Of more importance are the relationships that exist between the institutions of sports, the sports psychologists as well as the sports participants. Aspects of athlete violation in institutions are discussed as a factor of moral erosion within institutions due to their crude strategies that aim at achieving and benefiting from students in an exchange for educational offers. Some of the students rarely attain the required standards of their lives since their talents have much been exploited earlier on in institutions of higher learning. Seemingly, the situation is not as such subject to improvement because the ethical standards have been compromised by both the institutions as well as the governing bodies and sports psychologist who should be in the forefront in the fight against impunities which make the sports people disappointed and end up in terminal disorders that severely affect their lives and future performance in sports. Some are subjected to mental torture after their managers collude with their advisors for their own benefit while leaving the player in anguish. Exploitation and irresponsibility are always central in such incidents with the therapists guiding players hypocritically since the underlying motives and outcomes are well known to them. The entire scenario is unworthy before any ethical institution and thus subject to a lengthy study and discussion.
Literature review
Professional boundaries of sports psychologist and solutions to potential problems
Sports psychologists from one of the kinds training backgrounds ought to supply services, teach, and conduct studies simplest inside the limitations in their competence. Hence, sports psychology specialists who are not aware of the ethical standards of their career can be involved in malpractices which result in the adverse fame of harming or exploiting the other party (Haberl & Peterson, 2006).
In fact, if sports psychologists violate the ethical rules after with the aim of causing harm to their customers, they may be liable to face the infringement or risk of the expulsion from the expert associations. It is crucial to observe that experts and those interested in executed leisure sporting psychology are anticipated to take into account of getting to know the specific moral problems which have recently come about in this discipline (Silva, Metzler & Lerner, 2011).
Even as running with athletic teams and sports activities agencies which might always be small groups of individuals, leisure sports psychologists are necessarily maintained in common touch with athletes, coaches, and management staffs. The trouble derived from this near interaction may also be the look of dual relationships between sports and leisure psychologists and their clients. Commonly, a couple of links may also arise at some point of exercise and intervention in recreation psychology, possibly developing moral dilemmas for concerned events
Even as imparting offerings to those elite athletes, for instance, the Olympic athletes, all of the game psychology specialists regularly have interaction and tour with the groups inside the schooling centers or at the avenue for competitions, in which long-term relationships are constructed up. Practitioners are housed near the athletes, consume meals with the group, attend practices to take a look at, and impressions individually with athletes and coaches.
Meanwhile, individual or group consulting and training offerings are furnished with the aid of game psychology practitioners, such as arousal/stimulation law, purpose placing, imagery, attention, management, and so forth. Majority of sport psychology professionals are possible to be employed in a few kinds of tertiary institutional settings, wherein the instructor-practitioner bi-position relationships might also arise more often than in different expert realms (Haberl & Peterson, 2006).
However, the downside of this relationship has been observed that the sports psychology professional can also encounter time regulations from acting two separate roles. This time drawback may additionally, in the end, compel the character to sacrifice the time necessary to obtain the obligations of both functions, thus impairing the proper dual operations in each region. It may even be difficult to deal with an interpersonal battle that happens among the group members a result of lack of another sports psychology expert being furnished (Smith & Bar-Eli, 2015).
Wearing Multiple Hats
The present competitors encounter an assortment of weights and stress with regards to games and sports. Numerous competitors, groups, and coaches are exploiting sports psychology professionals to help them in accomplishing their execution objectives. In that capacity, influential therapists are winding up increasingly acknowledged as a general piece of the training and care staff for groups and individual competitors. It is perceived that the mind needs to function as ideally as the body for fruitful execution (Silva, Metzler and Lerner, 2011).
A sports psychologist assumes a primary part in giving their athletes a psychological edge rather than a physical edge. While you may accept that therapists work with patients when they are having issues, yet in the realm of games, an expert will enable competitors to concoct mental methodologies so they can move beyond a level or beat challenges so they can perform well and handle the weight (O’Brien, 2000).
It is evident that the practitioners of sports psychology go through a lot of the similar challenges like those of various executed real domains. One of these demanding situations is ethical worries that have acquired attention these days within particular journals of sports psychology. Primarily, based on the angle of the American Psychological Association (APA), ethics is defined as the regulations or standards dealing with the behavior of participants.
However, for the sports psychologists, there have been numerous moral issues which have emerged, where there may be a want to be cautious to keep exceptional services. The number one subjects to consider consist of factors of confidentiality, practicing inside barriers of competence, utilization of knowledgeable agreement, terminating the practitioner-athlete -relationship, and lastly balancing more than one role and organizational needs. In APA’s code of ethics (APA, 2002), psychologists are endorsed to keep away from getting into a couple of relationship with clients, to maintain confidentiality for clients, and to work within competence to lessen capability impairment of themselves or damage to the clients (Smith & Bar-Eli, 2015).
The provision of sport psychology offerings to coaches, athletes, and other staff on the particular team seems unavoidable for the consultants, or the coaches to involve themselves in these multiple-role situations. For a sports psychologist, to provide quality services and to avoid ethical misinterpretation, defining boundaries and emphasizing confidentiality issues in addition to function expectations at the outset and during the connection is critical (Haberl & Peterson, 2006).
Preferably, being capable of a partner with any other sports activities psychology representative at the same time as on the road would be an even higher solution to handling self-care issues on these devastating conditions. It would undoubtedly assist to have a second individual available to higher avoid the dangers brought up by multiple interactive relations. For a coach, it will be even better to have a sports psychology consultant for the team. Although being a consultant-coach benefits convenience and efficiency, a diligent coach should provide professional and every kind of information to help the consultant develop appropriate mental training programs for his/ her team (Smith & Bar-Eli, 2015).
Further, previous studies advocate that there may be consensus inside the area of sports psychology that more than one positional interactions may be ethical if handled appropriately. However, practitioners still need to be prudent when entering into a multiple-role linkage, along with interest paid to the caution symptoms that troubles may additionally exist. Second, how to maintain confidentiality is a critical issue in the field of applied sports psychology. Sports psychologists need to learn the ethical guidelines regarding privacy in the AASP or local related organizations. Then, they are obligated to take reasonable precautions to maintain the confidentiality of their work and to keep everything secret unless they get permission from their clients (Silva, Metzler and Lerner, 2011).
The growing recognition of the sector of implemented sports psychology along with the specific nature of its service transport model keeps raising questions on the way to high-quality offer offerings in a moral way. Importantly, even as game psychology provider provision can be perceived as being less formal than traditional psychology carrier delivery, recreation, as well as sports psychology providers, have not to be any less careful in their pursuit of moral exercise (Haberl & Peterson, 2006).
Discussion
Sports psychology seeks to establish the relationship between cognitive abilities and performance in sports through impact analysis. However, performance in sports is a factor of many elements that range from individual abilities to ethics mostly associated with sports practitioners, psychologists, and governing institutions. Every individual joins a given sport with the aim of coming out better or scale up a career through exercising talent. The main role of the psychologist is the provision of advice to boost the performance of the various individuals. They have to utilize various ethically accepted tools to come up with concrete solutions for sports participants. The enablement theory is also essential in achieving their strategies.
Nevertheless, ethical adherence and job focusing are the primary elements that a sports psychologist is supposed to focus on. Strict measures are established to deal with any form of deviations. As per the psychologist, the primary role is enablement of psychological facets and functions that fail in sportspersons such as athletes and footballers. For instance, their role is centrally positioned and linked to the enablement theory which is crucial is the treatment of psychological abnormalities.
The Enablement Theory
The Enablement theory refers to a treatment theory that targets a non-functional character of an individual. It is concerned with the general functionality of the body. Therefore, any change in behavior is linked to failure (disablement) of a given function (Jarvenpaa, and Tuunainen, 2013). Expert sports psychologists should thus utilize the theory in the identification of problems and their characteristic signs and symptoms. Treatment is initiated once the disorder and its associated functional part are identified. If the body has some deficit, the ultimate aim of any clinical personnel is to bring about activity or participation. It is believed that behavioral involvement or participative behavior is much impaired in cases where sports people and other individuals consume substances such as alcohol as for the case of players.
Therefore, the theory is much essential in bringing about behavioral change once a problem is identified. Besides, states of anxiety, sleep disorders, and dissocial character may be associated with an impaired function which tends to affect excellent performance in sports. For instance, poor performance can be related to nonfunctional abilities related to mistreatment. Adrenaline stimulates the body to act according to our level of activity; thus during stress and tiredness, it activates other body activities such as sleep and mood swings. On the other hand, adrenal and cortisol hormones are responsible for anxiety levels. This implies that enablement theory is much useful in the rehabilitation process (Whyte, 2014).
Enablement theory can be combined with Dialectal behavior therapy to improve performance further. The approach seeks to identify personality issues. Theoretical and practical adjustments are initiated to broaden the scope of understanding of one’s behavior hence giving appropriate treatment. It is an ideal approach for individuals with borderline disorders. The borderline disorder is characterized by impulsive actions and relationships that do not hold for a lengthy period. Individuals with marginal disorder exhibit anger, anxiety, and depression which are evident in sports especially football which is characterized by penalization for various offenses.
Exploitation of Players
For cases where there is manipulation in the counseling of players especially athletes, the top-level management may attain a given strategy that directly exploits the participants. The sports psychologist may be aware of the suffering caused by players, but the administration insists that that is the right procedure on how things should work. This presents an ethical dilemma to them as they have to deal with the mental torture of athletes as well as advise the management on proper treatment for the players.
Taking into account the scenario of student-athletes in a school; Higher education institutions, (universities and colleges) hold football and athletic championships frequently. It’s during these times that the institutions seek to absorb and accommodate young individuals only for their potential and talents. The freshmen and women usually aged between the age of 16 to 20 years old informally agree to enter deals with the universities they join. The university taps their athletic performance in return for the educational urge.
A keen look at the contracts between the student-athletes and the university will reveal a vast disparity regarding benefits to either party. Universities and other colleges have earned massive gate receipts and television revenues. As the media capture these events to broadcast them to their viewers, there is an improved national image whose effect results in increased number of enrolments in the said institutions. Again to mention, is the benefits from donors who come in the name of supporting and nurturing of young talents. It is evident that the coaches and staff are the other categories of individuals who reap big out of these contracts. The NCAA is in charge of sports student protection against exploitation. Student sport and athletic participation is a vocation, and therefore they are subject to legal protection (National Collegiate Athletic Association, National Collegiate Athletic Association. Committee on Competitive Safeguards, & Medical Aspects of Sports, 2002). Therefore, much has to be done by the NCAA harmonize the terms of agreements between the institutions and the student-athletes to give adequate support and flexibility to the sports psychologists.
Results of Ethical Compromise
It’s every player’s dream to join national teams to sign into multi-million dollar contracts. Regarding athletes urge to earn, most of them put in unimaginable efforts to be noticed by agents of civic clubs, but the bitter truth is that out of the thousands of these young, ambitious players, a couple of them do not qualify for the available national teams. So it is a moral initiative to compel the institutions involved to remit part of the profits to the junior athletes to improve their welfare even at their early ages.
Most athletes who don’t get to sign the multi-dollar contracts would at the end of the day experience exhaustion of their bodies. For instance, the tired muscles, shattered bones, worn-out knees, hips and shoulders, ligaments and tendons are prevalent among them. Therefore, as it turns out, colleges; especially senior stakeholders have gotten rich off their sports teams. These colleges should look into the welfare of the athletes utilized in extra curriculum activities.
Other scholars were of a little different viewpoint. They claim that the student-athletes instead exploit the institutions. But even if these students do graduate, there shall still be claims that the college athlete department has been misused. Such claims do not hold water. Therefore, sports psychologists should be incorporated in institutions instead, to give guidance on how the institutions should handle the sportspersons and foster healthy relations that can trigger impulsive success in diverse sporting areas.
Conclusion
Erosion of ethical standards in the society is the cause of moral as well as ethical dilemmas that result in misappropriation and violation of rights of individuals. For instance, manipulation of ethics by therapists has severe consequences that may render those involved ineffective in exercising their roles. Besides, the minority and powerless individuals are vulnerable to risks associated with manipulation of set norms. Therefore, each should focus on individual roles to avoid ruthless exploitation of subjects.
References
Haberl, P., and Peterson, K. (2006). Olympic-size ethical dilemmas: Issues and challenges for sport psychology consultants on the road and at the Olympic Games. Ethics & Behavior, 16(1), 25-40.
Jarvenpaa, S. L., & Tuunainen, V. K. (2013). Theoretical Elaboration of It Enablement Model in The Era of Customer and Community Digital Innovation. In ECIS (p. 224).
National Collegiate Athletic Association, National Collegiate Athletic Association. Committee on Competitive Safeguards, & Medical Aspects of Sports. (2002). NCAA sports medicine handbook. NCAA.
O’Brien, M. (2000). The team doctor, ethics, and media: what are the dos and don’ts? International SportMed Journal, 1(2).
Silva, J. M., Metzler, J. N., and Lerner, B. A. (2011). Training professionals in the practice of sports psychology. Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology, c2011. Xiv, 241 p.: illustrations; 23 cm.
Smith, D., and Bar-Eli, M. (2015). Essential readings in sport and exercise psychology. DIANE Publishing Inc.
Whyte, J. (2014). Contributions of treatment theory and enablement theory to rehabilitation research and practice. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 95(1), S17-S23.
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