Applied Sport Psychology

The course deals with how different behaviours and cognitive factors relate to the development of the individual athlete and how different cognitive processes (e.g. performance anxiety, nervousness, stress) affect the performance as well as the motivation to engage in sports and health promotion activities. The course is based on theories related to the sports psychology field, especially performance psychology and theories on motivation, personality, and stress. Different mental techniques and forms of mental training are discussed as confidence boosters and stress reducers along with ways to make individuals develop suitable activity/exercise habits and routines to maintain or improve their psychological health. Instruction is in the form of lectures, group work, literature seminars, and demonstrations of methods in sports and health promotion.