Psychology

This course provides you with the experience, knowledge and skills to follow a wide range of careers where you can make a real difference to people’s lives. You explore the core areas of psychology, learning how it applies to everyday life, then choose from optional units in areas such as atypical child development; counselling; criminal behaviour; and cognitive neuropsychology. You also have the opportunity to gain workplace experience or to take a placement year.

Course accreditation
This course is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS). Graduating from a BPS-accredited degree with a 2nd-class Honours or above makes you eligible for Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) of the Society. It also enables you to enrol for Stage 1 postgraduate training.

Facilities and specialist equipment

• Specialist, industry-standard psychology laboratories and computing environments including a biological and cognitive psychology lab, and cognitive neuropsychology lab

• State-of-the-art virtual reality lab housing omnidirectional slip-mills for unlimited movement in virtual environments; a range of tethered and untethered headsets, and eye-tracking capability

• Suite of research cubicles containing up-to-the-minute equipment and technology

Equipment includes:

• Eye-tracking software and screen

• Driving simulator

• Biosemi Active 2 EEG with capabilities for up to 256+8 electrodes plus sensor channels

• Extended physiological recording facilities

• Psychometrics and cognitive test library

• Podcasting equipment

We also have links with other Schools across the University, such as Computing, Engineering & Creative Industries and Life Sciences, able to support with additional resources.

Career-powered links
Our courses are reviewed and developed in conjunction with a panel of industry professionals from the NHS, mental health support and commercial organisations to ensure they align with the needs of employers, opening a variety of career pathways.

Members of our academic team engage with local organisations such as Luton Borough Council, HM Probation Service and charities. They are also actively involved in entrepreneurship and business, bringing this experience into their teaching and integrating it into the curriculum.

Your student experience
Our links with organisations across a range of sectors ensure you have the opportunity to gain valuable workplace experience. Students have previously been placed at a variety of organisations including a low-security in-patient unit in North London and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) team at Bedford Hospital.

Benefit from friendly, approachable staff, small class sizes and easy access to academic support as well as specialist facilities dedicated to Psychology rather than shared with other departments.
Experience a wide variety of teaching methods including workshops; problem solving; virtual reality simulations; computer-based activities; and guided learning.
Complete assessments designed to be authentic, reflecting workplace practice; you can choose how you present your work – for example, as a podcast, presentation or webpage.
Take up field-trip opportunities including visits to relevant charities such as Headway, who support those with head injuries, or observing real-life court cases from the public gallery at Luton Crown Court..
Benefit from membership of our Student Research Institute, providing opportunities to engage in research; work with staff as an assistant; and attend specialist research conferences
Present your supervised research to your peers and psychology professionals as part of our annual Student Research Conference.
Hear from a variety of guest speakers who share their experience and expertise at special events and masterclasses run by the Psychology department.

Course modules

To prepare for your final-year research project, we include units focused on building your research skills: Introduction to psychological research methods and data analysis (Year 1); and two units on Qualitative and quantitative methods of research in psychology (Year 2).

Your subject-specific units are:

Year 1
Foundations to psychology – Key areas including the history, cognitive and biological aspects of psychology. Psychology in everyday life – Understand social, developmental and mental health theories and observe them in everyday life, in yourself and others.

There are two optional units: 
Psychology and criminal behaviour – Investigate offender types and criminal career paths. Introduction to counselling – Commonly presented psychological difficulties like anxiety and depression.

Year 2
Cognitive psychology – Investigate how we process information through experiments in areas such as face recognition and eye-witness testimony. Biological psychology - Focus on brain structure and behaviour, and its role in thinking, perception, language, memory and learning. Social processes and lifespan development - Explore developmental and social psychology, looking at how individuals change through their life. Psychology in context – Different chartered psychologist roles including clinical, educational, forensic and health.

Year 3
As well as completing your Psychology research project, there are two core units in your final year as well as optional units where you can follow a particular interest.

Core units:
Psychology of mental health – Therapeutic approaches to disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar and anxiety. Culture and individual differences – How cultural norms shape behaviour and psychological diversity.

Optional units:
Atypical child and adolescent development – For those interested in education, child health or welfare. Cognitive neuropsychology – Explore areas such as memory, amnesia and frontal lobe deficits using everyday examples. Critical social psychology – The role of social psychology in areas such as violence, relationships and personhood (self and identity). Problem solving – Different approaches to decision making.

Every effort is made to ensure this information is accurate at the point of publication on the UCAS website. For the most up-to-date information, please refer to our website.

Throughout your degree in Psychology you will encounter a wide variety of assessment types collectively designed to suit the variety of individual learning styles. Feedback is given to students for each assessment point and it is expected that you will use this feedback for your own development and to inform your completion of future assessments.

Examples of the range of assessment types include: presentations, reports, essays, group-work related assessments, computer-based assessments, portfolios, reflective journals, exams and much more. Support is provided through statistics drop-in sessions as well as staff office hours where you can discuss the progress of your projects and any challenges that you may be encountering.

Every effort is made to ensure this information is accurate at the point of publication on the UCAS website. For the most up-to-date information, please refer to our website:

https://www.beds.ac.uk/courses/psychology/

Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.

• British Psychological Society