BSc (Hons) Psychology of Esports

Social Minds: Exploring Human Interaction

The module will explore the experience of relationships through the processes related to forming an impression of people, feeling attracted or not to them, wanting to be their friend, getting to know them and forming a relationship with them, through a variety of behaviours, such as approaching them, talking to them, and meeting them socially.

Psychological theories and empirical findings from investigations into impression formation will be introduced, and methodology will be explored.

Thinking Like a Social Scientist: Study and Research Skills

This module will introduce you to research skills that are essential for your academic success and growth. It introduces you to the basics of data analysis and covers key concepts in time management and teamwork. You’ll develop your critical thinking skills to enhance your ability to present convincing arguments in written work, and your academic reading skills will also develop to enable you to access complex scientific reports.

Additionally, the module will teach you how to produce high-quality assessments, including creating references and citations using APA style, presenting information effectively, and writing well-structured essays.

Introduction to Esports: History & Context

This module will introduce you to the history, development and current trends of the esports world. Esports is a rapidly growing industry, with global tournaments offering multi-million-pound prize funds and predicted growth of the sector set to explode into multiple billions in future years.

You will examine how competitive gaming competitions grew from Stanford University’s Spacewar competition in 1972 to the mass participation global events seen today.

The module will take a specific look into the history of esports, major tournaments, events and how they will feed into future events-based modules.

Facilitating Wellbeing: Positive Perspectives

Based on the discipline of Positive Psychology, the module will explore the experience of living well, relating the need to understand well-being, emotions, motivation, aspirations and goals to self-development, personality traits, needs for achievement, self-efficacy, and self-esteem, environmental influences and the enhancement of well-being.

Psychological theories and empirical findings from investigations into needs, motivation and traits will be introduced, as will the use of selected nonparametric statistics.

This module aims to give you an understanding of a broad area of everyday functioning and experience in terms of the behaviours, feelings, attitudes, and mental processes involved in that experience.

The module also aims to use functional analysis so that a broad experience can be broken down into a series of questions concerning the sub-functions and behaviours involved, allowing the psychological constructs and theories that are associated with those behaviours to be elucidated and explored.  Exploration will involve appropriate methods to investigate what psychological constructs and theories relate to relevant behaviours and function.

The module will explore the experience of positive psychology relating the need to understand one’s own motivation, aspirations, and goals to self-development, personality, need for achievement, self-efficacy and self-esteem.

Psychological theories and empirical findings from investigations into emotions, traits and environments will be introduced and non-parametric methodology will be explored.

Mind and Machine

The module aims to develop an understanding of a broad area of everyday functioning and experience in terms of the behaviours, feelings, attitudes and mental processes involved in that experience.

You will use functional analysis so that a broad experience can be broken down into a series of questions concerning the sub-functions, psychological states and behaviours involved, allowing the psychological constructs and theories that are associated with those states and behaviours to be elucidated and explored.

Exploration will involve appropriate methods to investigate what psychological constructs and theories relate to relevant behaviours and function.

The Science of Behaviour: Theory to Evidence

This module introduces the conceptual and historical issues in psychology, as well as the work of prominent figures who have influenced the development of modern psychology. You will begin to explore key thinkers in psychology, focusing on how key thinkers design and conduct research in their field.

Human Cognition and Individual Differences

This module explores how we think (Cognitive Psychology) and how we differ from one another (Individual Differences).

The aim of this module is to introduce you to basic theory, research findings and methods of investigation in perception, attention, learning, memory, face and object recognition and problem-solving.

Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology involves the study of development and maturation in cognitive, personality and social processes.

The aim of this module is to introduce you to fundamental theory, research findings and methods of investigation in infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and overall lifespan development.

The module will aim to provide a critical understanding of ways in which behaviour is influenced by developmental factors, the nature of developmental processes, and ways in which empirical research can help us to understand how developmental processes influence what we do.

Research Methods: Experimental Design and Analysis

The module aims to develop an understanding of experimental designs and associated methods of analysis related to psychology, and introduces you to research ethics. The introduced methods are variants of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), a method that allows comparison of groups and/or conditions.

Biological Psychology

Biological Psychology involves the study of the biological and psychological bases of mind and behaviour.

This module will introduce you to basic theory, research findings and methods of investigation in behavioural genetics, neuroscience and neuropsychology.

The module will aim to provide a critical understanding of the ways in which behaviour is influenced by biological factors, how we study these biological processes and why these processes are important in applied psychological settings.

Sports Science: Physicality of Gaming

An understanding for the physical demands of the esport player in competition is essential when examining the requirements for optimal participation and performance in esports.

This module aims to develop knowledge of the nature of the physical demands in response to active involvement in playing esports.

This module will address the physical demands and preparation for esports performance with consideration of the role of the central nervous system, energy demands, nutrition, supplements, repetitive movements and endurance activities.

Athletic esports demands and training will be discussed with a focus on the metabolic, neuromuscular, neuroendocrine and cardiovascular systems of the human body to develop knowledge on the nature of esports performance.

Research Methods: Survey & Qualitative Designs and Analysis

The module aims to develop an understanding of survey and qualitative designs and associated methods of analysis related to psychology.

The module will develop knowledge of survey and qualitative approaches to investigating and analysing psychological data. The relationship between correlational analysis and predictive reasoning will be outlined. Areas covered include multivariate analysis (multiple regression) and thematic analysis.

Independent Project

The Independent Project provides an opportunity to apply appropriate knowledge, concepts, techniques and research methods of psychology to an in-depth study of a particular question or problem related to psychology.

This module aims to foster a greater understanding of the processes involved in undertaking a research project and marks the culmination of your learning experience.

The study will enable you to produce a written research report, and a poster presenting a summary of your research and findings.

Project Management and Presentation Skills

This project will support you to develop a wide range of skills, from project management, to the ability to present your research results in an accessible form. You will develop your scientific reasoning and reporting skills and produce a poster to present your research work.

Advanced Esports Psychology 

One of the fundamental concerns of sports psychologists and coaches is enabling an athlete to perform to their potential when training and competing. In order to do this, researchers and practitioners must understand the psychological pressures inherent in training and competition and the potential consequences of these pressures.

Given the team nature of some esports, researchers and practitioners must also understand the factors which impact the effectiveness of group functioning and the potential consequences to group performance.

This module aims to develop your understanding of the psychological demands of training and performance that you will meet in the esports industry.

Applied Organisational Psychology

This module aims to provide a critical understanding of organisational psychology, as well as introduce and explore important aspects of the working environment, their relationship to psychological reactions in employees, and consequent job and organisational performance.

The ways in which psychologists work with business and industrial organisations will be outlined, and the career pathways of work and organisational psychologists explained.

Research Industry Project: Esports

This module presents a unique opportunity to cultivate innovation and collaboration, essential for navigating the transition into the burgeoning esports industry and its associated disciplines.

You will be given the chance to concentrate on subjects that have elicited interest throughout the programme or have been emphasised in guest lectures. Through peer support and supervision, participants will be equipped to undertake and articulate their learning, showcasing robust academic capabilities.