Overview

The course is delivered by two sport and exercise psychophysiologists who have worked with elite level athletes, coaches, and applied practitioners. You will be taught the most up-to-date theories and applied interventions in the stress and performance literature.

Practical work in lectures will cover four main areas of stress and performance: Attentional Control e.g. why are we distracted by threat? Reinvestment e.g. why do we attempt to consciously control movements under pressure? Psychomotor Efficiency e.g. how do our brainwaves change under duress? Challenge and Threat perceptions e.g. what do our psychophysiological responses to stress mean, and how can we optimally control them?

Assessment Strategy

-threshold -D- to C+Students should be able to demonstrate a basic understanding of the underlying theories and models covered in the course work. They then must demonstrate that they can apply these theories surrounding stress and performance that can explain performance drops. They will then be able to demonstrate basic knowledge of applied interventions based on sound theoretical research to alleviate such negative effects and justify their use.

-good -B- to B+Students should be able to present a very good discussion of the underlying theories and models covered in the course work. They will demonstrate that they can apply these theories surrounding stress and performance to explain performance drops. In addition, they will demonstrate a good knowledge of applied interventions based on sound theoretical research to alleviate such negative effects and justify their use.

-excellent -A- and aboveStudents should be able to present an outstanding in-depth and critical discussion of the underlying theories and models covered in the course work. They will be able to use their deep understanding to demonstrate how theories surrounding stress and performance can explain performance drops. In addition, they will clearly demonstrate applied interventions based on sound theoretical research to alleviate such negative effects and justify their use. They will refer to the athletes situation throughout.

Learning Outcomes

• Apply the contemporary stress and performance theory and research to explain performance slumps present in real-life athlete case studies

• Construct theoretically driven interventions to help alleviate adverse effects of stress on performance.

• Critically analyse stress and performance research.

• Describe the key theories used to explain the relationship between stress and motor performance