Sport Psychology

Block 2 Featured Course / Department: Psychology / Professor: Dr. Kristi Erdal

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This course is an exploration of psychological variables that impact sport participation and behavior in sport settings. Applied, experimental, and clinical aspects of sport psychology are covered in a discussion-based format. Specific topics, which originate from core psychological principles include, but are not limited to, sport-related motivation, superstition, anxiety, the use of imagery and drugs, and how age, gender, race, and spectators impact sport.

Sport Psychology is a subfield of psychology that explores psychological variables which impact sport participation and behavior in sport settings.  While Sport Psychology is a young discipline, it is large in its breadth, having “arms” in the applied, experimental, and clinical fields.  Sport Psychology is an ideal topic for advanced study in psychology, as its foundations are taken from core psychological topics such as neuroscience, cognition, development, perception, social, abnormal, gender, and cultural psychology.  The course therefore takes these fundamental courses as the starting point for further exploration of sport-related topics. 

The course is organized as a seminar, which means there will be few formal lectures.  Students share equal responsibility (with the professor and other students) for leading and contributing to discussions, and for the success of the course.  The key to good discussions is a willingness to express and support your ideas.  To discuss the material adequately, it is essential that you read the assigned articles well ahead of time, preferably twice, and that you think about the articles in relative depth before you come to class.

From Dr. Erdal

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While sport has been a large and influential part of my entire life, it was not part of my scholarly life until Colorado College. Student interest and collaborations with the Athletic Department enabled me to branch my clinical research into concussion testing, athlete stereotyping, and sport superstition.  The Sport Psychology course soon followed, as a senior seminar.  This is not a course about sport performance enhancement. This is a liberal arts look at life, through the lens of sport. Such topics include: how intrinsic motivation is diminished by scholarships; how the NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) rulings have significant racial undertones; why gender verification only exists for women; what is the neural basis of visual imagery. But rather than merely learning and reporting what other scholars have written, students are expected to create theory by merging what they are reading with what they have learned in other courses, in and outside of psychology. While this is an intimidating task, our students are up for the challenge, as evidenced by some of their previous paper titles: “Just War Theory and Refereeing”, “Creative Writing Block Interventions for the Yips”, “How Schadenfreude Contributes to Food Consumption Patterns after Vicarious Victories”, “Nutritional Supplements and Dating Apps as Gateway Drugs”, and “The Parallels of American Football and Westward Expansion”.  It is a pleasure to be on the front lines when students stretch into scholars.