A Feminist Perspective on Sport Psychology Practice

The feminist paradigm has been advocated as an appropriate alternative framework for sport psychology theory and research. The current paper extends the feminist perspective to sport psychology practice, particularly to educational consultation. Application of a feminist perspective to sport psychology practice requires (a) an awareness of relevant gender scholarship and valuing of the female perspective, (b) a shift in focus from the personal to the social, and (c) an egalitarian, process-oriented approach. Applying the feminist perspective implies not only an awareness of relevant sport psychology scholarship but also a commitment to action to educate and empower sport participants. Article: Recently, several scholars (Dewar & Horn, 1992; Martens, 1987) have criticized traditional research methods and epistemological perspectives and have challenged sport psychologists to develop and use alternative frameworks and paradigms to develop a sound and useful sport psychology knowledge base. Krane (1994) takes those arguments a step further and makes a case for a feminist paradigm as an appropriate alternative perspective to guide our research and extend our understanding of sport behavior. As Krane notes, feminism is particularly appropriate for sport psychology research because it brings women's experiences from marginalized status (or "otherness") to the center, because it contextualizes sport and exercise experiences with an emphasis on social constraints and values, and because it challenges assumptions of traditional scientific research and emphasizes alternative methodologies that incorporate a wider range of methods of inquiry and forms of knowledge. The current paper extends the feminist perspective to sport psychology practice. Like research, sport psychology practice is tied to traditional models that reflect male bias. Moreover, with the large number of women participants in competitive athletics, the focal site of much sport psychology practice, a feminist perspective is not only appropriate but essential. Sport Psychology Practice Feminist practice encompasses many activities. In July 1993 the American Psychological Association Division 35 (Psychology of Women) sponsored a conference on education and training in feminist practice (Michaelson, 1993). Areas of practice considered at that conference included (a) theory, research, and assessment; (b) writing and presentations; (c) curriculum, pedagogy, and supervision; (d) political action, public service; (e) therapy (clinical practice); and (f) consultation (educational practice). Sport psychology practice includes all of those areas, and each area could benefit from a feminist analysis. The current paper is more limited, focusing on the area of consultation or educational practice for several reasons. First, applications of a feminist perspective to several other areas have been discussed elsewhere. As just noted, Krane (1994) applied a feminist perspective to research and theory in sport psychology; the feminist and educational practice literature (e.g., Lather, 1992), including literature within physical education (e.g., Bain, 1990; Dewar, 1987), contains a great deal on feminist perspectives; and the clinical practice field includes a number of feminist scholars (e.g., Brown & Root, 1990; Greenspan, 1983; Rosewater & Walker, 1985) who are actively applying a feminist perspective in their work. Second, educational consultation is the most unique practice area in sport psychology. Although sport psychology practice could include many diverse areas, sport psychologists clearly emphasize educational consultation and often define the practice of sport psychology in those terms. For example, the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (AAASP) has worked to develop standards for training and certification in sport psychology practice since that organization was founded in 1985. In 1990 AAASP formally adopted a role definition and set of criteria for a certified consultant. The role definition statement clearly defined the consultant's role as educational. More specifically, the AAASP certification role definition (AAASP, 1990) reads as follows: Conferral of the title "Certified Consultant, Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology" represents recognition by the Association of attainment of a professional level of knowledge.... The application of this knowledge is viewed primarily as an educational enterprise involving the communication of principles of sport psychology to participants in sports training and competition, exercise, and physical activity. The focus of the work in this specialty area is on the development and understanding of cognitive, behavioral, and affective skills in participants. (p. 3) The role definition statement continues by listing specific activities that exemplify the services of AAASP consultants, including providing information on psychological factors, teaching specific psychological skills, helping participants understand and assess relevant psychological factors, and educating organizations and groups. Thus, the defined practice role for most sport psychologists is education with a focus on skill development. Finally, this paper focuses on educational consultation because that area is a major challenge for feminists. Of all the practice areas, educational sport psychology practice seems particularly rigid in adhering to traditional maleoriented approaches. Educational sport psychology generally involves competitive athletics, which is not especially hOSpitable to women, let alone to feminists. In her new book, The Stronger Women Get, the More Men Love Football, Mariah Burton Nelson (1994) argues that competitive athletics maintains its extreme masculine image and sexist practices partly as a reaction to feminist challenges. Certainly, competitive athletics at the intercollegiate or Olympic levels, which are model settings for educational sport psychology, emphasizes competition and hierarchy with an elite few at the top, and men hold the key roles and top administrative positions. In this paper I will take up that challenge and focus on educational consultation (borrowing heavily from the feminist therapy literature) and attempt to develop a feminist perspective for sport psychology practice. Before specifically discussing sport psychology practice, general principles of feminist practice are presented. The first step in feminist practice is to become familiar with feminist scholarship and recognize that gender makes a difference; therefore, major trends in feminist scholarship related to sport psychology are reviewed following the overview of feminist practice. Feminist practice not only acknowledges that gender makes a difference but goes further to translate feminist scholarship into action; thus, the remainder of the paper expands the discussion to consider how sport psychologists might develop feminist sport psychology practice. A Feminist Approach to Practice To begin to bring a feminist perspective to sport psychology practice, consider typical cases that an educational consultant might encounter. Similar cases were introduced and discussed at greater length in a more detailed discussion of gender issues in sport psychology (Gill, in press). For purposes discussed here, consider how gender affects interpretations, responses, and the possible approaches a consultant might take for the following situations: A freshman soccer player lacks control and is prone to angry outbursts. A junior on the basketball team has talent but plays tentatively and lacks confidence. The coach thinks a 16-year-old figure skater may have an eating disorder, but the skater is working to keep that "line," make it to nationals, and get endorsements. A university tennis team member is worried about the assistant coach, who hints at wanting a relationship. The player is not interested, but leaves practice early to avoid the coach, is not concentrating, and does not know what to do. To start taking a feminist approach, consider how gender might influence your responses. Gender influences the reactions, expectations, and options a consultant might consider. If you try to be nonsexist and assume that gender does not matter, you will probably have difficulty deciding what to do. Moreover, gender does matter. Imagine each case with a female athlete, then go back and imagine the same scenario with a male athlete. Trying to "treat everyone the same," does a disservice to the athletes. Moreover, the same advice applies for race, age, and any number of other characteristics. No doubt most of us can think of things that we do, or do not do, because of our gender. Still, it's probably impossible to identify all the ways that gender affects us. From the time we were born, our world has been shaped by gender. Our parents, teachers, peers, and coaches reacted to us as girls or boys. Gender is such a pervasive influence in society that it is impossible to pinpoint that influence. Sport is no exception, and sport psychology consultants should be aware of gender influences in the larger society and within the sport world. Awareness of gender and women's experiences and issues is Step 1 in feminist practice. To move from Step 1, an awareness of gender, to feminist practice, sport psychologists must take bolder steps. Judith Worell and Pam Remer (1992), in a comprehensive text on feminist therapy, note that grounding in feminist psychology provides the base for feminist therapy. Worell and Remer (pp. 14-17) then outline the major tenets of feminist psychology as follows: (a) recognizing that the politics of gender are of central concern and are reflected in women's lower social status and oppression in most societies, (b) seeking equal status and empowerment in society not only for women but for all oppressed minority groups, (c) valuing and seeking knowledge about women's experience, (d) acknowledging that values enter into all human enterprises and that neither science nor practice can be value free, and (e) maintaining a commitment to action for social and political change. These tenets of feminist psychology are the basic framework for any feminist psychologist. Valuing women's experiences and perspectives, recognizing value influences in all our research and practice, and maintaining a commitment to empowerment and action are basic assumptions for feminist scholarship. Feminist psychology goes beyond the mere awareness of gender by emphasizing empowerment and action, and those are keys to feminist practice. Worell and Remer (1992) explicitly put that feminist psychology groundwork into practice by listing three key principles in their empowerment model of feminist therapy: (a) valuing the female perspective, (b) the personal is political, and (c) egalitarian relationships. The first step, valuing the female perspective, implies the awareness of gender and the acceptance of the tenets of feminist psychology. Consider issues relevant to women, and adopt feminist methods and theories. For example, sexual harassment is relevant to women, and women athletes may have particular concerns that sport psychologists could address. The next two principles address practice more directly. "The personal is political" might be interpreted as shifting the focus to social, as well as personal, sources of behavior and solutions. Psychology is defined as the study of individual behavior, and traditionally psychologists have looked to internal sources of behavior, thoughts, and feelings. But psychologists cannot understand the individual without considering the larger world. No behavior takes place in isolation, and social context is critical for feminist practice. Feminist psychologists argue for contextualizing behavior and a more social psychology. Carolyn Sherif (1979) was a long-term advocate of both social and feminist psychology, and she extended her challenge to sport (Sherif, 1976) some time ago. As Krane (1994) notes, some sport psychology scholars adopt a similar approach, and Brenda Bredemeier's (1992) work on moral development is a notable example. Consultants can take a more social approach by incorporating the immediate sport setting, as well as the larger societal context, in their work with athletes. An egalitarian approach is empowering, nonhierarchical, and process oriented. Although a power structure is inherent in coach—athlete and consultant— client relationships (as well as male—female, race, class, and other relationships) sport psychologists who recognize and invite discussion of the athlete's interpretations and suggestions move toward a more egalitarian relationship. The move to social context is a big step for psychology, with its individual orientation. The move to egalitarianism is a big step for sport, with its extreme hierarchies and inherent power structures. The Context of Sport Psychology Practice The first step in a feminist approach to sport psychology practice is valuing the female perspective or incorporating the gender scholarship. However, incorporating gender scholarship requires an understanding of the social and historical context of sport psychology practice. With the civil rights and women's movements of the 1960s and 1970s, women gained a place in sport, and women now constitute about one third of the high school, college, and Olympic athletes in the United States. But one third is not one half, and in other ways women have actually lost a place. Women have not become coaches, administrators, sports writers, or sports medicine personnel in significant numbers. Before Title IX (1972) over 90% of women's athletic teams were coached by women and had a woman athletic director. Today less than half of the women's teams are coached by women, and only 16% have a woman director (for more information see Carpenter & Acosta, 1993; Gill, 1992; Nelson, 1991; Uhlir, 1987). While women have moved into previously all-male competitive athletics, other programs with more emphasis on participation, skill development, and recreation have been lost to both men and women. Perhaps the most notable loss for women is the loss of the educational perspective of the early women physical education leaders who advocated sport and physical education programs that emphasized education and empowerment of women rather than competition for an elite few. Although this traditional educational orientation lost favor as women athletes adopted the male model, we can find related themes in Dorothy Harris's work on women in sport (e.g., Harris, 1972). Carole Oglesby has contributed an educational feminist perspective to sport psychology from her early feminist book (Oglesby, 1978) to her recent work (e.g., Oglesby & Hill, 1993). Women's losses in sport are not confined to athletic programs. Safrit (1984) noted the declining number of women in university departments, especially in research-oriented programs, and cited the continuing low percentage of women editors and authors in research journals. Duda (1991) noted that most articles in the Journal of Sport Psychology from 1979 to 1986 were by male authors, on male athletes, and focused on competitive sports. Even a cursory review of sport psychology conferences, journals, and organizations reveals that males dominate sport psychology research and professional practice, as well as competitive athletics. Thus, sport is male-dominated with a clear hierarchical structure that is widely accepted and communicated in so many ways that we seldom notice. Sport psychology consultants cannot practice effectively if they ignore that context. Gender Scholarship in Sport Psychology Given the social and historical context of women's sport, it is not surprising that our limited gender scholarship did not develop within sport science. Instead, gender scholarship in sport psychology largely follows gender scholarship within psychology. Generally, that psychology scholarship has progressed from gender differences, to an emphasis on gender role as personality, to more current social psychology models that emphasize social context and processes. Sex Differences The early sex difference work, exemplified by Maccoby and Jacklin's (1974) review, assumed dichotomous biology-based psychological differences—male and female are opposites. In practice, dichotomous sex differences typically are translated to mean that we should treat males one way and females another. Today, consensus holds that psychological characteristics associated with females and males are neither dichotomous nor biology-based (e.g., Bern, 1993; Deaux, 1984; Eagley, 1987; Gill, 1992; Hyde & Linn, 1986). Even most biological factors are not dichotomously divided, but are normally distributed within both females and males. For example, the average male basketball center is taller than the average female center, but the average female center is taller than most men. For social psychological characteristics such as aggressiveness or confidence, even average differences are elusive, and the evidence does not support biological dichotomous sex-linked connections. With criticisms of the sex differences approach, and with its failure to shed light on gender-related behavior, psychologists turned to personality. Personality and Gender-Role Orientation Psychologists have focused on gender-role orientation as the relevant personality construct—specifically, Bem's (1974, 1978) work and the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Personality is not a function of biology. Instead, both males and females can have masculine or feminine personalities, and androgyny is best. Advocates of androgyny argue that practitioners should treat everyone the same and encourage both masculine and feminine personalities. Although the designation of masculine and feminine characteristics is rather arbitrary, Bern's measure has been criticized, and even though Bem (1993) has progressed to a more encompassing gender perspective, most sport psychology gender research is based on her early work. Overall, this research suggests that female athletes possess more masculine personality characteristics than do female nonathletes (see Gill, 1992, for a review of the related sport psychology literature). This is not particularly enlightening. Sport, especially competitive athletics, demands instrumental, assertive behaviors, and the higher masculine scores of female athletes probably reflect an overlap with competitiveness. Today, most psychologists recognize the limits of earlier sex differences and gender-role approaches, and they look beyond the male-female and masculine—feminine dichotomies to socialization and social cognitive models for