Psychology bachelor’s degree program adds new sport, exercise & performance concentration
By Sarah Shoaf, Staff Writer
A new addition to Governors State University’s (GovState) Psychology bachelor’s degree program opens pathways to sports psychology, physical therapy, and athletic training.
With the new Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology concentration, students can focus on the science of sports and coaching by investigating motivation, athlete well-being, and systemic issues of athletic and coaching organizations and practices.
“That’s why we created this program; it’s essentially going to be a feeder program to master’s or Ph.D. level programs,” said Dr. Alli Cipra, Undergraduate Psychology Program Coordinator. “The main difference between this and the other concentrations is that this one has more biology and anatomy required.”
While more science courses are required with this new concentration, it does not change the total number of required credits. Like the other concentrations in the psychology degree, 120 credit hours are needed to complete the program.
Some courses in the concentration include brain body seminar, stress relief seminar, and brain body sport. The latter combines readings on how the brain and body work together when it comes to mood, cognition, and motivation and physical exercise. So, students aren’t just learning about exercise, they actively engage in it, too.
“We think it’ll be appealing to a lot of students considering attending GovState and many of our own student athletes,” added Dr. Cipra. “Many of our student athletes are interested in staying within the field of athletics in some way and now they can pursue a degree that supports that.”
A focus like this in sport psychology is not common at the undergraduate level and it fills a need at GovState and the surrounding area.
“There are a lot of schools that have a version of this in the master’s level or the doctorate level and some that offer it at the undergrad, but not as many,” added Dr. Cipra. “This gives students a leg up if they want to go into physical therapy, occupational therapy, athletic training or even running anatomy labs.”
To learn more about the Sport, Exercise & Performance concentration and to apply to the Psychology bachelor’s degree program at GovState, click here.