About the programme

A degree in psychology isn't simply a valued qualification that opens a lot of doors. It's also an opportunity to learn more about people, giving you skills and knowledge that will help you in your day-to-day life. After all, the more you understand people, the greater your insight into the way they behave in different situations – helping you get the best out of them.
Psychology is the study of behaviour and mental processes. It aims to understand how people think and what they do – as well as gaining an understanding of their deeper motivations. Psychology has many applications across a broad range of areas, including clinical psychology, forensic psychology, and occupational psychology – which opens up a wide range of career paths for you.
The breadth of what you'll learn studying for degree in Psychology means that this is a qualification that's highly relevant to a wide range of areas of work – taking in everything from social work to marketing, education to human resource management.
As well as covering subjects that are specific to psychology, studying for this degree gives you excellent training in other areas, such as data collection, analysis, IT skills, communication skills and report writing – preparing you for working in areas unrelated to psychology.

Programme modules:

Level 1

• Skills for Learning and Psychology
• Introduction to Psychology 1
• Statistics in Psychological Research
• Introduction to Psychology 2
• Research Issues, Methods and Ethics
• Applications of Psychology

Level 2

• Individual Differences
• Neuropsychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Advanced Research Methods
• Cognitive Psychology

Level 3

• Project Planning
• Work Psychology
• Psychology of Education
• Project
• Forensic Psychology
• Clinical Psychology

Learning materials

Textbooks are provided with specially written study guides containing interactive materials. Opportunities for student/student and student/tutor discussion are provided via our Student Community website.
Additional learning resources include access to the ATHENS database and the UK Libraries Plus system. We also provide a CD containing a statistical software package, SPSS for Windows.

Assessment and examinations

Assessment is through a mixture of coursework and examination. Coursework includes essays, logs, research projects, practical tasks and a final-year dissertation. Assessment at Level 1 is often by coursework, in order to provide you with maximum feedback and guidance. Across Levels 2 and 3, the emphasis shifts to examination-based assessment, but there will be no more than four exams per level.

Duration

Each module requires 200 study hours (approximately six months) but you can study more than one module at a time.

Award

BA (Hons) in Psychology Studies on successful completion of the full programme. You can also study individual modules, or gain a Certificate of Higher Education, Diploma of Higher Education or an Ordinary BA degree, depending on the number of modules completed.