Urban Johnson

Professional background

Urban is a professor in psychology & sport at Halmstad University, Sweden. His professional interest concerns the area of sport & exercise psychology and specifically towards health and social psychology including group dynamic issues. Moreover, applied questions in sport & exercise settings also occupy his teaching and research time. During the last 15 years his research have foremost focused on studying psychosocial risk factors during rehabilitation of long-term injured competitive athletes. Furthermore, he have also conducted several studies of psychosocial risk factors related to the occurrence of injury and tested brief preventive intervention designs for athletes prone to be injured. Significant keyword in his research and teaching is: intervention, prevention, psychosocial risk factors, coaches, competitive sport, applied sport psychology, group dynamics. Currently he is a director of Centre of Research on Welfare, Health and Sport and a guest editor for a special issue at Psychology of Sport & Exercise (“Sport psychology and the Olympic Games”. Urban was Secretary-General of the European Federation of Sport Psychology (FEPSAC) 2007-2011.

Applied experience

Urban has worked as an applied sport psychologist for team and individual athlete’s from1985–present) besides own coaching career and academic work. Most of his work in the field of applied sport psychology has been with team sport athletes such as soccer, volleyball and handball (both amateur and elite level). Urban’s applied experience also includes individual sport athletes in sport such as swimming, track & field, gymnastic, canoeing and triathlon as well as being a tutor for several applied sport psychology students in a wide range of sports. He has been involved by the Swedish Olympic Committee as an applied sport psychologist for Olympic athletes. Beside this Urban have worked as a full-time employed coach for 4 years (1985-1989) and have coaching experience from some additional 20 years in handball.

Sport background

Urban have played football and handball on competitive level. Moreover, he has been practicing and competing in track & field (middle-long distance running) and triathlon. During 1987-1989 he was the coach for the Swedish National Junior Team in Handball (1987-1989) including several games at the international arena.

Selected list of presentations

– Johnson, U. (2011). Ethical principles for applied sport psychologists of the European Sport Psychology Federation.  In Book of Abstract, 16TH Annual Congress of the ECSS: New horizons from a world heritage city, 6th -9th July in Liverpool, p. 67.
– Stambulova, N., & Johnson, U. (2011). How to manage the dual roles of teacher and supervisor: Halmstad supervision model. Proceedings of the 13th European Congress of Sport Psychology. Madeira, Portugal: FEPSAC on-line publication at: http://www.fepsac2011madeira.com/.
– Claeson, A., & Johnson, U. (2007). Psychological perspectives on post-surgery and conservative rehabilitation following a long-term sport injury. Svensk Idrottspsykologisk Förenings Årsbok, (pp. 31-46), Repro, Örebro Universitet, Sweden.
– Johnson, U. (2006). Present and future trends in sport psychology according to Swedish sport psychology students. In F. Boen, B. De Cuyper, & J Opdenacker (Eds.), Current research topics in exercise and sport psychology in Europe, (pp. 105-113), Lannoo Campus, Leuven, Belgium.

Selected list of publications

– Stambulova, N., Johnson, U., & Stambulov, A. (2009). Sport Psychology Consulting in Russia and Sweden. In R.J. Schinke & S.J. Hanrahan (Eds.) Cultural Sport Psychology. Sport psychology consulting in Russia and Sweden (pp. 125-140). Human Kinetics, Ill.
– Johnson, U. (2007). Psychosocial antecedents to sport injury prevention: A case study of competitive players at risk. In D. Pargman (Ed.) Psychological Bases of Sport Injury , (3rd Ed), pp. 39-49). Fitness Information Technology, Morgantown, WV.
– Johnson, U. (2004). Psychosocial antecedents to injury and illness. In G.S. Kolt & M. Andersen (Eds.), Psychology for the Physical and Manual Therapies (pp. 9-19). Elsevier Science: London.
– Johnson, U., Andersson, K., & Fallby, J. (in press). Sport Psychology Consulting Among Swedish Premier Soccer Coaches. International Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology.
– Johnson, U. (2011). Athletes’ experience of psychosocial risk factors preceding injury. Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, 3(1), 99-115.
– Johnson, U., & Ivarsson, I. (2011). Psychological predictors of sport injury among junior soccer players. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sport, 21, 129-136.
– Bengtsson, S., & Johnson, U. (in press). Time, money and support – student-athletes transition to high achievement sport. Athletic Insight.
– Ivarsson, A., & Johnson, U. (2010). Psychological factors as predictors of injuries among senior soccer players – a prospective study. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 9, 347-352.
– Stambulova, N., & Johnson, U. (2010). Novice consultant’s experience: Lessons learned by applied sport psychology students. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 11, 295-303.
– Johnson, U. (2007). Psychosocial antecedents to sport injury, prevention and intervention: An overview on theoretical approaches and empirical findings. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 5, 352-369.