Developmental Characteristics of Novice Practitioners: Current Knowledge and Future Directions
Presentation
Overview
Overview
Description
Sport psychology supervisors have the responsibility of ensuring that novice practitioners are competent to deliver services. Tod (2007) suggested that to better prepare neophyte practitioners for practice we must understand their development. Knowing the main difficulties and needs of beginning practitioners would allow programs to tailor their training and supervision practices to meet students at the appropriate developmental level. Although past research has found similarities between counselors' development and sport psychology practitioners' development, these sport psychology students were also counseling students (Tod et al., 2009). The present study had the aim of exploring the development of five graduate students through their first year of applied sport psychology practice. Five graduate students in sport psychology (two PhD and three master students) aged between 23 and 28 years were interviewed before the beginning of their first practicum, after one semester of practic e, and at the end of their first year of practice. Interviews focused on their perceptions of competence and development as sport psychology practitioners. They also completed two journal entries in their first semester, and a consulting skills inventory. Inductive coding was used to develop a coding scheme after the first interview. This coding scheme was used for provisional coding in the journals and following interviews. Participants perceived development in their confidence, independence, and flexibility. They also reported improved knowledge of sport psychology practice, self-awareness, ability to set boundaries with clients, listening skills, and the ability to be present focused in session due to their cognitive flexibility. The presentation will compare and contrast differences in the content and timing of development in sport psychology practitioners compared to the published models in counseling psychology
