The impact of exercise and sport on our society is pervasive. They are relevant topics for study both because of their societal importance and because they exert a significant influence on physical and psychosocial development across the life span. This entry provides a brief history of exercise and sport psychology, examines the relationship between counseling
Self-handicapping is a future-oriented, self-protection strategy used to (a) maintain personal perceptions of competence, control, self-worth, and self-esteem and/or (b) protect or enhance one’s public image in the eyes of coactors or observers. It consists of thoughts, statements, and behaviors that take place in advance of performance, and that increase the likelihood of situational factors
The dialogues of Plato allegedly do no more than report the teaching of Socrates, but much of what is found in these works is surely Plato’s own invention. Their composition spans a period of years such that one must distinguish between the early, the middle, and the late works, with sometimes dramatic departures found across
Of the many creative undertakings of classical Greece, surely Greek medicine must rank as high as any, and the Hippocratic School takes the laurel. That biological cast of thought reflected in Aristotle’s works certainly benefited from the background influences of the Hippocratic School and from Greek science in general. Hippocrates is not easily dated, nor
Aristotle studied in Plato’s Academy for 20 years, from its founding (c. 347 BCE) until Plato’s death (c. 347 BCE). His father was personal physician to the Macedonian king Amyntas II, father of Philip II and grandfather of Alexander the Great, whose teacher Aristotle became. Though a devoted admirer and friend of his great teacher
Understanding the place of mind and body in nature gave rise to several schools of thought. Examining Mind Several intertwined questions arose from the new scientific, Cartesian, view of mind and its place in nature. Some are philosophical. If I am locked up in the subjective world of consciousness, how can I know anything about
The two decades between 1890 and 1910 constituted a crucial time for the professional foundation of psychology. Americans were coming to recognize the value of science, notably its apparent utility in enhancing commercial productivity and health. Science, including psychology, ultimately was portrayed as a practical pursuit, and American psychologists adopted this utilitarian attitude. The reformism
Woolley, Hollingworth, and Ladd-Franklin lived and worked during a period when women were making important strides in American society. The suffrage movement had secured women the right to vote in the United States by 1919. Thus, their work in psychology was buttressed by what is now called “first-wave feminism.” The middle of the 20th century
There was no formal discipline called psychology in the Middle Ages, but a number of medieval writers, particularly those from the thirteenth century, discussed concerns similar to those of present-day psychologists. More important, at least a few, for example, Avicenna and Albertus Magnus (1193-1280), seem to have been genuinely interested in psychological theory It is
The rise of humanistic psychology was led by Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), and others, also in line with Kantian precepts. This was called a “Third Force” in academic circles, adding to the first force of behaviorism and the second of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis has been continually and roundly criticized for its lack of grounding in