Curriculum – EdD SPP


About the SPP Doctoral Program

The doctorate of education (EdD) program in sport and performance psychology was designed to offer advanced training for individuals in coaching, business, health care, education, leadership and administrative careers. This program includes two concentration options: 1. Positive Leadership and Administration 2. Sport and Performance Psychology Consulting.

UWS also offers a specialization in clinical mental health counseling within the EdD-SPP program for those interested in pursuing counseling licensure. This integrated EdD degree includes a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling conferred after the first 90 credits.

Specialized knowledge and skills are required to become a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC®) through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). Our curriculum is specifically designed specifically to help professionals complete all of the specialized coursework required to achieve certification.

View the CMPC® candidate handbook here.

Graduation Requirements

The EdD-SPP is conferred upon the student who has fulfilled the following requirements:

  1. Maintenance of enrollment eligibility through satisfactory academic performance, professional development and behavior.
  2. Successful completion of all required courses and program requirements or approved equivalents in a student’s EdD program path with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 on all required coursework.
  3. Successful completion of minimum graduation requirements as officially communicated to students through the university catalog, student publications, and other official documents of the university.
  4. Freedom from all indebtedness and other obligations to the university.

Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the EdD-SPP program will be able to: 

  • Evaluate the predominant theories and emergent trends within both the discipline and professional of sport and performance psychology.
  • Determine appropriate professional conduct for a variety of situations based on the legal and ethical codes of clinical mental health counseling and sport and performance psychology.
  • Implement an individual philosophy of performance excellence integrating the disciplines of psychology sport science, and counseling.
  • Implement culturally responsive consulting strategies based upon the relationships, issues, and trends within a multicultural society.
  • Extend the predominant theory, research, and application trends in sport and performance psychology through the completion of individual research.

8 CMPC  Knowledge Competency Areas:

  • K1 – Professional Ethics and Standards
  • K2 – Sport Psychology
  • K3 – Sport Science
  • K4 – Psychopathology
  • K5 – Helping Relationships
  • K6 – Research Methods and Statistics
  • K7 – Psychological Foundations of Behavior
  • K8 – Diversity and Culture

Textbooks

You can buy your textbooks online. Find the SPP textbook list here.

Curriculum

The purpose of the EdD program in sport and performance psychology is to offer advanced training for individuals in psychology, education, coaching, business, health care, leadership and administrative careers. The doctor of education in sport and performance psychology degree is a blend between a research-oriented doctoral program and an applied clinical psychology doctorate designed to allow students to meet their specific career goals and educational needs. The program includes two optional concentration options; 1) sport and performance psychology consulting and 2) positive leadership and administration (PLA). Each of the doctoral program options requires 86 quarter-credits (equivalent to 57.3 semester credits). The curriculum addresses the eight (K1-K8) knowledge competency areas required for achievement of the Certified Mental Performance Consultant credential.

The program is comprised of:
• Core curriculum of 13 courses (50 credits)
• Five elective courses (20 credits) from an extensive list of options
• Culminating dissertation (16 credits)

The UWS catalog houses the curriculum, course descriptions, curriculum sequence and other helpful information about the program. 
View the current catalog.

Program Planners

Find your EdD-SPP planner here.

Concentrations and Specializations

EdD Sport and Performance Psychology Consulting Concentration

The Sport and Performance Psychology Consulting Concentration is designed for students pursuing a career in applied sport and performance psychology.  The cornerstone of the concentration is the development of professional competence in implementing ethical and evidence-based interventions with performance populations.  Students identify a population of interest, secure intervention opportunities, and are mentored in their experience by UWS faculty members with extensive applied experience in a variety of performance domains.  All SPP faculty mentors are listed on the Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) Registry of Approved Mentors and abide by both program and CMPC Mentor Guidelines and Best practice Recommendations.  In this way, hours gained in the concentration are eligible to meet the requirements for CMPC certification.

EdD Positive Leadership and Administration Concentration

Positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play. Positive leadership applies the principles of positive psychology to the challenges in competitive sport environments and in the workplace. This concentration is intended to help leaders and their teams or organizations succeed through a gained understanding of human motivations and behaviors, and how to apply that understanding to achieve extraordinary results in:

  • Long-term motivation
  • Team and business functional effectiveness
  • Effective work processes
  • Organizational design/structure that leads to optimal performance

Specialization in Clinical Mental Health Counseling


UWS also offers a Doctorate of Education in Sport and Performance Psychology with a Clinical Mental Health Counseling specialization for those interested in pursuing counseling licensure as well as an EdD in SPP. This integrated EdD degree includes a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling conferred after the first 90 credits.

Students in the integrated degree can do the mentorship concentration but cannot complete the PLA concentration.