Psychology and Child Development (with Placement Year)

Want a career where you help to make a difference to children’s lives? Our Psychology and Child Development degree is an ideal springboard for working with young people in education, clinical psychology settings or the caring professions.

Discover how psychology shapes who we are and what influences the way children behave and mature. From how pupils learn to read most effectively through to how neurodivergent children experience the world, you’ll explore the answers to key questions.

With a focus on applying your knowledge to real life scenarios, and using an evidence-informed approach, you’ll become an expert in understanding children and their wellbeing.

You can also choose to undertake a placement year, where you will gain invaluable experience for future employment.

The breadth of the course means you keep your options open at the same time as developing a specialist area of interest. This will help guide your final year project, where you will delve into a research question. Module options also include completing a research assistantship, where you could work on live research with our academic experts.

You’ll have access to our fantastic Science Centre facilities, including cognitive research cubicles, psychophysiology equipment and simulation machines.

And in our children’s lab, discover the work we do with volunteer families on research projects. These resources are also taken out into the community. Topics have included exploring the impact of TV screen time on children’s behaviour, assessing creativity, and the role of psychology in preventing young children from suffering dog bites.

On successful completion of study, we will issue the following award: BSc (Hons) Psychology and Child Development

Course Modules

Year One: Applying Psychology; Becoming a Researcher 1; Foundations in Psychology; Growing and Changing; Steps to Success 1

Year Two: Becoming a Researcher 2; Childhood Contexts and Wellbeing; Developmental and Biological Psychology across the Lifespan; Psychology Option Choice 1; Steps to Success 2

Year Three: Placement

Year Four: Child Psychology: Theory to Practice; Psychology Option Choice 2; Psychology Project; Society and the Mind; Steps to Success 3

Your course will provide you with opportunities to test your understanding of your subject informally before you complete the formal assessments that count towards your final mark. Each module normally includes practice or ‘formative’ assessments, for which you receive feedback from your tutor. Practice assessments are developmental and any grades you receive for them do not count towards your module mark. There is a formal or ‘summative’ assessment at the end of each module. This includes a range of coursework assessments, such as essays, reports, portfolios, performance, presentations, final year, independent project and written examinations. The grades from formal assessments count towards your module mark.