Have you heard of Sport Psychology before? Can you describe it? Did you know that the Psychology program here at UWGB had two sport psychologists on the faculty and a Sport Psychology masters program?

Let’s break it down…

Drs. Jana Fogaca and Alan Chu are the two Psychology faulty who are Sport Psychologists. They both work with students on research regarding sport psychology and they are the two in charge of the master program. Here is what they had to say about some further information on sport psychology for those of us who are fairly new to the topic.

• How would you describe sport psychology?
  • Sport psychology focuses on the use of psychological skills to perform well
  • typically work with athletes, but the field has been expanding to work with other performers, such as musicians, dancers, surgeons, and pilots
  • Psychological skills include strategies like deep breathing, mindfulness, self-talk, imagery, developing a growth mindset, working well with others, being a good leader, etc
  • One nice thing is to use sport activities to teach these skills to kids. It helps them build their confidence and perform better at school and engage less in risky behavior.

• What are the important aspects to know about the sport psychology master’s program?
  • The masters program is prepared to receive students who want to work in applied sport psychology (with the applied track) and who want to focus on research and pursue doctoral studies (thesis track).
  • We designed it in a way that the students will have opportunity to take all the courses necessary for the CMPC (certified mental performance consultant) certification.
  • We also have two faculty, Dr. Fogaca and Dr. Chu, who are certified and part of the list of approved mentors.
  • We also have great connections with the community and they are excited to receive potential interns and researchers from our program.

• What kind of work is done with students in the sport psychology research lab?
  • RAs help with literature review, design, and may do some pilot data collection and analysis
  • “This semester, we are finishing up the plan for an intervention at the YMCA where we will use basketball and volleyball drills to teach psychological skills to the participants. They are helping me think about the drills, how to incorporate psychological skills into them, and how to communicate difficult concepts to kids. On the second half of the semester, they will help me implement the project and collect data.” – Dr. Fogaca
  • “For field experience, some of my RAs and I will go to several high schools in this areas to collect data on sport motivation, meet with coaches to provide suggestions, and deliver some mental skills workshops to athletes. For lab experience, we have been planning projects on the effects of novelty on motivation (in collaboration with Dr. Cowell) and gender and racial biases in sport (in collaboration with Dr. Fogaca) that will involve experiments with the use of physiological measures such as eye tracking.” – Dr. Chu