Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology MSc
Limerick, Ireland
DURATION
1 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
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EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
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STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Key Summary
Introduction
This MSc. program is dedicated to providing a thorough grounding in the knowledge and application of psychological principles to sport, exercise and performance settings in order to enhance wellbeing and performance. It seeks to equip candidates with a sound understanding of theory and research and develop core competencies and professional skills across a range of key domains including the following: motor cognition and skill acquisition; performance psychology; exercise and mental health; applied positive psychology; organisational behaviour and wellbeing; professional issues and ethics; and research design and methods. The core aims of the program are to create an outstanding and distinctive learning experience through innovations in teaching (e.g. e-learning module in applied positive psychology), instilling a scientist practitioner approach across both sport and exercise contexts and highlighting the role of ethical considerations in practice.
The MSc. aims to:
- Provide a learner-focused and connected curriculum to enable students to develop their capacity to think critically and acquire a broad set of attributes as identified by the UL as knowledgeable, proactive, innovative, responsible, articulate and collaborative.
- Extend the traditional remit of sport psychology by focusing on performance restoration, resilience and mental health, rather than exclusively targeting performance enhancement.
- Enhance the understanding of mental health challenges in sport contexts using a positive psychology approach.
- Develop a multidisciplinary mode of graduate enquiry coupled with an ethical scientist-practitioner basis.
- Lead the provision of postgraduate training in this evolving field of Performance psychology.
- Provide stage one of the recognition process for sport and exercise psychologists for PSI and BPS.
- Include the appropriate skills to enable graduates to develop a case study submission as part of their application for professional membership of the Irish Institute of Sport.
Gallery
Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
For more information about scholarships, please visit the university website.
Curriculum
Semester 1 (Spring)
- Performance Psychology
- Work Design and Employee Well-Being
- Motor Cognition: Understanding Action in Performance and Rehabilitation Contexts
- Exercise Psychology & Mental Health
Choose from either:
- Advanced Empirical Psychology Or
- Qualitative Research Methods In Psychology
Semester 2 (Summer)
- Psychological Skills Training for Sports Performance
- Professional Competencies 4
- Professional Issues and Ethics in Applied Psychology
- Applied Positive Psychology
- Psychology Research Dissertation Development
Semester 3 (Autumn)
- Dissertation in Sport, Exercise and Performance Psychology
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
The MSc. in Sport, Exercise and Performance psychology, the first program of its kind at university level in Ireland, aims to prepare students for a range of employment opportunities across the four tracks identified by the American Psychological Association, Division 47 Sport and Exercise Psychology. Specifically, these include:
- Track I: Teaching/research in sport sciences & also consulting;
- Track II: Teaching/research in psychology & also consulting;
- Track III: Clinical/Counseling services to various populations including athletes;
- Track IV: Health promotion and working with clients but not necessarily athletes.
Furthermore, there is a demand for training in this field for those whose ambition is to work in high performance sport settings. In Ireland and the UK, many of those trained in sport psychology have undertaken roles as performance directors, professional sport coaches and sport management. Thus employability is likely to be strong not just for those who wish to train as practitioners, but for those for whom a postgraduate qualification in this domain augments their other qualifications and professional experience.