Students will follow a twelve week guided study programme and access support material via Blackboard. Students will be required to access additional support material independently. Core required tasks will amount to an average of 8 hours of engagement per week, representing a total of 96 activity engagement hours for the module.

The number of independent study hours is 204, representing a combination of further and additional reading and a series of optional tasks (96 hours) and specific preparation for the module assignments (108 hours).

Students will receive formative feedback throughout the module comprising a combination of task related feedback and (more importantly) comments on online discussion contributions offered up throughout the module.

Social processes involved in sport and exercise settings are considered. In particular, there is an introduction to broad areas in sport and exercise settings where social psychology is of relevance and then social psychological theory is applied to selected areas in sport and exercise settings (e.g., group cohesion, audience effects, sports fans, motivation). Current theories relating body image to sport, health, and exercise will be examined critically, with reference to relevant empirical evidence, including development of body image. The relevance of body image in sport and exercise settings is explored, including an investigation of the impact of low body esteem on exercise motivations. Assessment methods designed to assess body perceptions, body satisfaction, and physical self perceptions will also be evaluated. Gender, disability, and ethnicity and their impact on body image and sports and exercise motivations will be examined. Utility of interventions to improve body image through engagement in sports and exercise will also be explored, with attention to ethical and practical considerations in designing such studies. Finally, the efficacy of psychological techniques applied to improve selected aspects of group dynamics (e.g., cohesion, communication, climate) in sport or exercise settings are considered.

Students will be required to complete 2 pieces of summative assessment.

1. A 20 minute presentation with 2000 words of accompanying notes/script. Appropriate theoretical perspectives and research are critically applied to a selected social psychological issue in sport or exercise. This is worth 50% of the module grade and assesses LOS 1.


2. A grant proposal (3000 words) for an intervention study designed to implement an exercise intervention to improve body image. This is worth 50% of the module grade. This assessment covers learning outcomes 2 and 3.


Students will receive formative feedback throughout the module comprising a combination of task related feedback and (more importantly) comments on online discussion contributions offered up throughout the module.

Grogan, S. (2008). Body image: understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and children (2nd Edition). London: Routledge
Hogg, M. A., & Vaughan, G. M. (2005). Social psychology. London: Prentice Hall.
Jowett, S., & Lavallee, D. (2007). Social psychology in sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Access to an appropriately specified PC, with accompanying Word, PowerPoint, Adobe and Java software.

Course textbooks and learning materials as suggested above. Access to PC with word processing and PowerPoint programmes and internet. To access Blackboard you must have a PC running Windows NT4, 95, 98, 2000 or XP or a Macintosh. You must also have either Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator 4.0 or above. Remote access to library facilities.

None