The Athlete Apperception Technique

As the field of sport psychology has matured, so a greater appreciation for a diversity of training models, research methodologies, and therapeutic approaches, opposed to the dominant models of objective testing, has developed. The Athlete Apperception Technique (AAT) sets out a sport-specific projective test for practitioners working in sport and exercise service delivery or counselling work with athletes and coaches. This innovative book includes - a basic primer on projective methods and the psychoanalytic theory behind them; - a history of projective, storytelling instruments in clinical psychology; - the development of the image set for the AAT; - some examples of interpreting AAT image stories; - instructions for the administration of the AAT; - a scoring guide for the stories produced; - and in-depth descriptions of the stimulus properties of each image in the AAT, along with all images presented as full-page illustrations. The AAT will help sport practitioners identify and assess personality features, relationships, anxieties, achievement, motivation, and perfectionism, and augment the recent shift in orientation for service delivery to athletes and provide a more in-depth understanding of athletes' characters. The AAT is useful supplementary reading for students of sport psychology and a novel tool for any practicing sport psychologist.

Petah M. Gibbs is based in Melbourne, Australia, and works as a psychology and high performance consultant for several professional sporting clubs and leagues in Australia and the USA (including AFL, NBL, WNBL, NBA, NCAA). His main areas of interest are in coach and player welfare, professional and personal development, career transition, and character profiling (recruiting). Mark B. Andersen is a professor in the School of Health and Welfare at Halmstad University in Sweden and a clinical psychologist in private practice in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. His interests include the application of psychodynamic theory in sport and clinical practice, mindfulness and Buddhist psychology, neuropsychotherapy, sport injuries, and quantitative and qualitative research methods. Daryl B. Marchant is a registered psychologist and associate professor in the College of Sport and Exercise Science and the Institute of Sport, Exercise, and Active Living at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. His research, publications, and supervision interests include applied sport psychology, psychometrics, personality, choking in sport, psychological profiling, and coach development.

Introduction 1. Projective Techniques 2. Development of the Athlete Apperception Technique 3. Properties of the AAT, the AAT-S, and the AAT-C Images 4. Administration Procedures for the AAT, the AAT-S and the AAT-C 5. Scoring and Interpretation of Projective Techniques 6. The AAT Image Sets 7. Final Thoughts on Using the AAT