Bruce Ogilvie

For the off-road racer, see Bruce Ogilvie (motorcycle racer).

Bruce Ogilvie (1920–2003) was an applied sport psychologist. Ogilvie is often referred to as the "Father of North American Applied Sport Psychology."^[1]

Clinical psychologists and applied sport psychologists

Clinical sport psychologists have training in psychology so that they can detect and treat individuals with emotional disorders. These psychologists also have additional training in sport and exercise psychology and in the sport sciences.^[2] Whereas an applied sport psychologist uses their research and findings to help troubled athletes to improve their mental game. These psychologists work directly with athletes to help them perform better. Ogilvie was one of the first psychologists to apply treatments to athletes. Because Ogilvie was the first to apply treatments to athletes he is referred to as the "Father of North American Sport Psychology" by the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA).

Work

In the mid-1970s, Dr. Ogilvie tested 250 athletes from a variety of sports including car racing and skydiving. He found that athletes in risky sports such as these have superior intelligence, emotional stability, and independence when compared to those who did not participate in such sports, and he found that they make concerted efforts to minimize risks in their sports. Ogilvie also found that participants in sports share certain traits. For example, he found that race car drivers are very driven and need to be in control. Drivers are also abnormally sexually active, perhaps to help cope with the stress of their sport.^[3]

In another study, Ogilvie says that fifty percent of people don't engage in any activities that cause them to sweat during the week, but he also says that attending a sporting event may not be a passive activity. Dr. Ogilvie decided to study the effects, of attending or watching a sporting event on TV, has on people. He found that watching sports uses many psychological and social skills and that men exude an extreme amount of testosterone while watching sports. Ogilvie says that when a person attends a sporting event it provides a fantasy escape for that person and can be a form of hero modeling. When a person attends a sporting event it gives that person a sense of social meaning and purpose.^[4]

It was in 1966 when Ogilvie along with fellow psychologist, Thomas Tutko, wrote Problem Athletes and How to Handle Them. It was also in this year that Ogilvie first began working directly with competitive athletes.^[5]

Dr. Ogilvie worked with many accomplished professional sports teams. He advised a total of nine NBA teams, four NFL teams, and six MLB teams . Some examples of those teams are the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Mets, Dallas Cowboys, and the San Francisco 49ers.^[6] Not only did Ogilvie advise professional teams he also was an Olympic consultant for the United States from 1960 until his death in 2003.

Life

Bruce Ogilvie was born in 1920 in Victoria, Canada. Ogilvie met his wife, Eva Diane, in 1938 and was married to her in 1943. During this time he attended the University of San Francisco and studied psychology and also received his masters from Portland State. Shortly after his marriage the family moved to London so Ogilvie could pursue his PhD. He received his PhD from the University of London in 1954, in sport psychology. After Ogilvie received his PhD the family moved to Los Gatos, California. Ogilvie then began working at San Jose State University as a professor. In 1979 he retired from his job at San Jose State University. In 2003 Bruce Ogilvie died at his home in Los Gatos, California.^[7][8]

References