This module explores topics in sport and exercise psychology and introduces you to their relevance across a range of roles, including those of coach, athlete, fitness participant or health professional. You’ll investigate key areas like anxiety, self-confidence, and teamwork to understand their impact on performance. You’ll learn knowledge and skills that can be applied to situations you’re familiar with, can inform your practice, and can help you develop both yourself and those you work with. Along the way, you will develop the expertise to apply these psychological principles effectively in familiar sporting and exercise environments.
What you will study
Through a range of case studies the module will engage and develop your knowledge of both psychological concepts and psychological strategies, and encourage you to use this learning to inform your own practice. You’ll also build on your academic skills. The module comprises five study topics:
Study Topic 1: Exploring sport and exercise psychology
This topic introduces you to the discipline of sport and exercise psychology and explores how you can apply the principles and skills to your own practice. You’ll also learn about how psychologists work in this field.
Study Topic 2: Sport Psychology: insights and applications
You’ll investigate key areas in sport psychology that impact on the wellbeing and performance of individuals and teams in sport and exercise environments. Topics include, anxiety, arousal, self-confidence and team work.
Study Topic 3: Psychological skills training
You’ll look in detail at some techniques that athletes, exercisers, coaches, and parents can use to manage factors such as anxiety, but also to maximise performance.
Study Topic 4: Exercise psychology: insights and applications
You’ll examine a range of concepts that align closely to exercise and health psychology such as wellbeing, mental health and exercise adherence. This topic also introduces you to the darker side of sport and negative exercise behaviours.
Study Topic 5: Special topics in sport and exercise psychology
This topic is a little different from others. You’ll choose one of two specialist topics: the psychological aspects of injury in sport and exercise; or athlete and coach burnout.
Entry requirements
This module has no entry requirements.
However, it would be beneficial if you have some experiences of working or participating in sport and exercise.
This is an OU level 2 module that builds on study skills acquired from OU level 1 modules. We make no assumptions about your subject knowledge.
Preparatory work
If you want to get a flavour of our OU level 2 module Sport and exercise psychology in action (E235), complete our free badged course, Exercise and mental health, on OpenLearn.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
marking your assignments and offering detailed feedback to help you improve
providing individual guidance, whether that’s for general study skills or specific module content
guiding you to additional learning resources
facilitating online discussions between your fellow students in the dedicated forums.
Online tutorials run throughout the module. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available.
Assessment
Course work includes:
3 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs)
1 Interactive computer-marked assignment (iCMA)
End-of-module assessment
What's included
You will have access to a module website, which includes:
a week-by-week study planner
course-specific module materials
audio and video content
assignment details and submission section
online tutorial access
You’ll also be provided with two printed third-party texts.
Computing requirements
Primary device – A desktop or laptop computer with at least 8 GB of RAM and a quad-core processor (2.4 GHz minimum speed). It’s possible to access some materials on a mobile phone, tablet or Chromebook; however, they will not be suitable as your primary device.
Peripheral device – Headphones/earphones with a built-in microphone for online tutorials.
Operating systems – Windows 11 or the latest supported macOS.
Internet access – Broadband or mobile connection.
Browser – Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are recommended; Mozilla Firefox and Safari may be suitable.
Our OU Study app operates on supported versions of Android and iOS.
Software – Any additional software will be provided or is generally available for free.
If you have a disability
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone, and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying E235 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.
To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our Disability support website.
Future availability
Sport and exercise psychology in action (E235) starts once a year – in October.
This page describes the module that will start in October 2027.
We expect it to start for the last time in October 2031.