Thematic Breadth in the Early Days of Sport Psychology in Europe: A Contribution to the Terminology Debate

The organisation of European congresses of sport psychology is one of the major purposes of FEPSAC, and the congresses are showcases for the development of the field. As the programme of this congress shows, contemporary sport psychology covers a wide range of topics, theories and methods in various forms of sport activities. Based on an analysis of the congress contributions of the FEPSAC congresses from the first 20 years (1968-1987), this presentation aims at showing which topics were researched in the early years of FEPSAC and how this reflects the efforts to achieve a common understanding of the subject matter of sport psychology in Europe. In this context, the cultural and linguistic diversity of Europe, which is particularly evident in the different understandings of sport, physical activity, and physical culture, becomes apparent. While questions of performance optimisation in competitive sport make up a large proportion of the contributions, fundamental questions of, for example, sensory-motor skills, psychodiagnostics or personality development are also covered, thus representing the broad understanding of sport psychology in those early years. Against this background, the increasing differentiation of sport psychology can be attributed above all to the differences in the understanding of sport. The FEPSAC Position Statement #1 'Definition of Sport Psychology' (1995) tried to embrace all these forms of exercise, sport and physical active pursuits