Psychology with Early Childhood Studies

The formative years of a child’s life are fundamental to their future – shaping the cognitive, emotional and social development that shapes our behaviour, understanding and success. Combining the hands-on study of social psychology, health, cognitive development, and neuroscience—with early years studies, including the role of play, education, and children in society, you’ll gain a unique understanding of how humans grow, learn, and thrive. With a focus on practical skills and versatile knowledge, this BPS-accredited degree prepares you for impactful careers in psychology, education, and beyond, empowering you to make a meaningful difference to the lives of others.

Our joint degree provides students with valuable expertise and understanding in psychology, and the additional skills and knowledge in early years, which pave the way for careers in schools and education, play specialists and family support workers. Our BPS accredited degrees provide students with opportunities to peruse further postgraduate qualifications, that can lead to specialized roles like clinical psychologist, educational psychologist, forensic psychologist, or organizational psychologist. The degree also helps students to develop transferable skills, including critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and data analysis, which forms the basis for many careers beyond psychology. Our hands-on teaching approach, combined with a placement year and research apprentices, offers you valuable real-world experience to give you a competitive advantage in your future professional life.

Year 1
In your first year, students study the core theories of psychology, including topics like learning, social, developmental, clinical, cognitive, and physiological psychology. Students also begin developing key skills, such as research methods, information technology, communication, and critical thinking, all of which are crucial for their future career. Students study the core theories of psychology, including topics like learning, social, developmental, clinical, cognitive, and physiological psychology. Students also begin developing key knowledge about the sociology of early childhood and the importance of play for learning which are crucial for your future career.

Year 2
With a focus on developing research and practical skills, the psychology modules will give students additional hands-on experience in designing and testing their own experiments to explore a range of topics. Students also continue to build upon their knowledge of the core areas of psychology, getting to grips with key concepts from across cognitive, developmental, social and clinical psychology. Students will also learn about the development of language in early years.

Year 3
If students choose, they can take an optional work placement after their second year, expanding their knowledge of psychology in a real-world context across the UK. Students undertaking a work placement will receive a Certificate of Professional/Industrial Placement.

Final year
Students have freedom of choice about the topics they specialise in for their final year. In psychology students study four current topics from a list of sixteen options, taught by world experts in their fields. A typical year’s list includes options in developmental, health, clinical, occupational, cognitive, social and neuropsychology. Students also choose to work on their own research project, supervised by one of our staff. All of our staff are active researchers, and all of our staff teach, unlike other universities. As a large school, students can be confident that we can cover almost every area. In addition, students learn about risk in childhood, and about models of childhood and their impact on, past and present, on the treatment of children.