WHAT WILL YOU STUDY ON A UNIVERSITY DEGREE?

What you study on your degree will vary, especially the options. These often vary depending on the interests of the University lecturers.

Year 1

You will cover core units in the six main areas of psychology. You are unlikely to have much choice in Psychology, although some degrees encourage you to do modules from other subjects.

The usual core units are as follows:

• Research Methods - This will include a more in-depth look at research methods, statistics and carrying out practical work.

• Cognitive Psychology - You will re-look at memory but will do more models etc., and you may also cover topics such as attention, perception and language.

• Developmental Psychology -You have already studied attachment, gender development, personality, and adolescence; you may also look at cognitive and moral development.

• Individual Differences - This is abnormal psychology; the causes and treatments of mental illness. You may also look at differences in personality.

• Social Psychology - You may look again at conformity and obedience but will also cover topics such as relationships, leadership and prejudice.

• Biopsychology - This will include topics like bio-rhythms, sleep and dreaming, but also brain structure and function.

Year 2

You are more likely to be able to choose modules that interest you but you are still likely to have core units such as

• Cognitive Neuropsychology - This area is a combination of cognitive and biopsychology where you look at you areas of brain control; various cognitive functions like memory and language.
• Research methods – You will continue to do research methods and statistics and carry out practical work.

You may do other topics such as

• Evolutionary Psychology - This looks at the evolutionary origins of behaviour.
• Applied Psychology - This looks at how Psychology is used in the real world, such as learning how to manage people.
• Comparative Psychology- This involves looking at animal behaviour and analysing what this tells us about the origins of human behaviour.

Year 3

This includes a dissertation, which will be a large chunk of your final mark. A dissertation is a study that you carry out based on what you would like to find more about. It is usually your decision as to what your dissertation is about but a lecturer will have to supervise your project, so it will have to be in an area of Psychology that is an area of specialism for at least one lecturer at your university.

You will then get to choose modules (usually around 4). They will be quite wide ranging but will reflect the lecturers’ interests. If you want to be a psychologist (such as Clinical or Forensic) then it is a good idea to do a dissertation and pick options that are in the field you are interested in.

It may also be possible to do options from other related subjects like Criminology, Anthropology, Zoology or Sociology.

Assessment and Exams
You will have exams at the end of each year.

• You will need to pass your first year to continue; the pass rate is usually 40%.
• The exams at the end of the second year sometimes count towards your final mark, but the weight of these exams will vary between universities.
• In the third year you will have Finals which, along with your dissertation, count towards the majority of your final mark.