Multicultural Training in Applied Sport Psychology

One of the challenges facing the field of applied sport psychology involves addressing the needs of athletes of various racial/ethnic backgrounds. An important step in facing this challenge is providing sport psychology graduate students with training in multicultural issues. A review of current models of sport psychology graduate training reveals a lack of emphasis on multicultural training. In this article we offer a description of multicultural training. We also provide a rationale for its inclusion in sport psychology programs and present several models and ideas for implementing multicultural training.

Students' Views of Mentors in Psychology Graduate Training

This study examined the prevalence and role of mentors in graduate training from the viewpoint of students. Ninety graduate psychology students from a large midwestern university responded to a survey about the characteristics of mentors, the roles mentors play in their professional and social lives, and why some students do not have a mentor. Over 50% of the respondents had mentors. Inability to find a satisfactory mentor was the predominant reason for not having one. Findings suggest that mentors serve supportive functions and promote professional productivity as indicated by research involvement, publications, and conference papers. Personality characteristics distinguish good from poor mentors much more frequently than do intellectual competence or professional activity.