Sport psychology in Europe – Women’s perspective

• Compared to other disciplines of psychology, sport and exercise psychology is a very young field. Sport psychology associations were founded in a variety of countries (particularly in Europe and North America) in the 1960es and later, after the first World Congress of Sport Psychology had taken place in Rome in 1965. Despite the fact that even in those ages quite a few women were studying psychology and afterwards starting a scientific career, females in sport psychology were extremely underrepresented. One of the reasons could lie in the fact that sport, much more than psychology, was a stereotypically male field, with only a few opportunities available to women. Making a career in sport psychology was then a double contradiction for women. First, making a career in general contradicted the typical female role, and second, making a career in sport meant an untypical field for women.The presentation will be structured as a dialogue between the two presenters – female sport psychologists working in the field for more than 30 years. Both were born and started their careers during the period of the Cold War: Dorothee Alfermann in the Federal Republic of Germany, and Natalia Stambulova in the Soviet Union. Both countries do not exist on the European map any more reflecting dramatic political, social and economic changes in Europe during the last two decades. All the changes in the European context put their impacts on the development of sport and exercise psychology in Europe including overall organizational development, as well as female careers and their contributions to European Federation of Sport Psychology (FEPSAC), other international sport psychology organizations (e.g., ISSP, AASP) and international sport psychology events (e.g., Congresses). The dialogue will be structured around the following three themes: (a) the presenters’ own careers analyzed from the point of gender issues (e.g., female professional role models and mentors), (b) history of European sport and exercise psychology, foundation of FEPSAC and contribution of its first President Ema Geron (1969-1973), and (c) female sport psychology professionals’ role in today’s European sport psychology and their contributions to FEPSAC, ISSP, AASP, national sport psychology associations, the editorial board of Psychology of Sport and Exercise, the European Forum of Applied Sport Psychologists, the European Master’s Studies in Sport and Exercise Psychology (EMSSEP), and the recent European Master’s (Mundus) Program in Sport and Exercise Psychology (EMPSEP).

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Women in sport psychology history

Biographies of eminent women

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)