PSY8078 : Sport and Exercise Psychology Project
- Offered for Year: 2025/26
- Module Leader(s): Dr Max Stone
- Owning School: Psychology
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 3 Credit Value: | 60 |
| ECTS Credits: | 30.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
The aims of this module are to:
• Enable students to become confident in their ability to carry out and manage an independent piece of meaningful research relating to a sport and exercise psychology topic;
• Develop students’ academic skills in analysing and evaluating existing research findings, methods and theory;
• Provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate skills of data collection, analysis, interpretation and communication of findings of an empirical piece of research;
• Facilitate the development of a range of professional and study skills to equip students for their future careers (employment/professional practice, professional training courses and higher degree courses) and to make them highly attractive to the stakeholders who provide these opportunities.
Outline Of Syllabus
The Syllabus is dependent upon the individual student’s dissertation project, however the following topics will be addressed:
- Project expectations, research agreement, and planning for success
- Conducting a literature review
- Writing a proposal
- Thinking ethically and preparing for ethical submission
- Writing up
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Workshops | 5 | 2:00 | 10:00 | Present in person to cover conducting a literature review, writing a proposal, ethical considerations, risk assessments, and writing up the project |
| Guided Independent Study | Project work | 1 | 584:00 | 584:00 | Students will be carrying out independent research including writing a proposal, completing quiz on ethics before applying for ethical approval, completing a risk assessment |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Dissertation/project related supervision | 6 | 1:00 | 6:00 | Supervisors will meet with students a minimum of 6 times over the academic year. |
| Total | 600:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
The students will develop a range of skills and will be trained to engage in research, producing an appropriate output in the form of their final project. To facilitate this, students will receive five in person workshops, spread across the three semesters, where they learn about the module, how to conduct a literature review, how to write a proposal, ethical considerations, and good practice regarding writing up. The final two in person workshops will be used as drop ins to allow students to ask questions regarding their project. Workshops were specifically chosen to facilitate in class tasks and discussions around the different content areas (e.g., good and bad ethical practice, live searching of literature, etc). Students will also be fully engaged in the project selection and development through a dialogue with their project supervisors. They will gain hands-on experience of a range of techniques used in psychological research (appropriate to their own project) and will be required to produce a written sport and exercise psychology project.
In order to attain the intended learning outcomes and skills in full, it will be essential that students engage in a significant amount of private study as outlined. This will include research-based fieldwork and practical experience in a range of psychological research techniques. The amount of hours spent on private study will vary with the individual project but should be approximately as outlined in the teaching activities.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dissertation | 3 | M | 80 | An 8,000 word (quantitative) or 10,000 word (qualitative and mixed method) sport or exercise based empirical research project (excluding references). |
| Oral Examination | 3 | M | 20 | An examination in which students orally defend their research proposal. |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
The project is intended to test the ability of students to conduct a substantial independent project of postgraduate research in an area of interest to them. It allows them to demonstrate their skills in planning and organising their work, discovering and evaluating relevant materials, seeking out an appropriate methodology, considering ethical issues, collecting data rigorously and effectively and presenting their findings in a structured and analytical manner. It also allows them to demonstrate that they have acquired specialised knowledge in their area of research.
The module will also afford students the opportunity for formative practice and feedback. In their proposal, students will be required to complete an ethics section discussing key ethical issues from which they will receive written formative feedback prior to submission. Students will also have the opportunity to submit and gain tutor feedback on plans of their project sections (Intended Knowledge Outcome 1, 2, 3, & 4; Intended Skill Outcome 1-7).
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- PSY8078's Timetable