Foundations To Psychology

This unit introduces core areas of History of Psychology: Concepts within Psychology; Cognitive Psychology, Biological Psychology. 

The aim is for students to gain a breadth of understanding of the theoretical and experimental debates within these areas with a view to addressing the question: How are psychological theories developed and investigated ethically?

Throughout the Unit established ideas in Psychology (e.g. classical conditioning) will be discussed from a historical perspective, students will then use skills in information literacy to locate and evaluate more recent experimental research which builds upon initial theories.

Introduction To Psychological Research Methods And Data Analysis

The unit is designed to introduce you to the idea of the discipline of psychology as a science and discusses the theoretical and practical applications of how Psychologists design, conduct, analyse and write up an ethically sound research project.

The unit is split in several integrated sections covering a variety of quantitative and qualitative approaches, designs, and analyses.

The Unit aims to encourage you to consider what is meant by the scientific study of psychology and examine how the BPS ethical guidelines underpin researching psychological issues. It also aims to provide you with the skills needed to begin to critically evaluate published research and begin you on your journey to conducting your empirical project in your final year.

Psychology In Every Day Life

This unit aims to enhance knowledge of psychological topics by framing them in the context of everyday life and everyday behaviours, and further develop independent learning abilities and critical thinking.

You will gain topic knowledge and an understanding of psychological theory using the observable and latent behaviour of yourselves, others and groups within society.

This unit develops your knowledge of contemporary topics in psychology, professional and transferable skills, and your ability to reflect upon your learner development, framing these using key psychology theories.

Introduction To Counselling And Psychotherapy

This unit aims to introduce students to the concepts of counselling, psychotherapy, coaching and psychological therapies. The students will be introduced to major theoretical approaches, the developmental theories that inform them and the relevant therapeutic interventions. 

An overview of the most commonly presented psychological difficulties, such as anxiety, depression will be introduced as well as a short overview of the relevant interventions.  It also aims to offer an experiential approach to the application of counselling skills.

Social Processes And Lifespan Development

The unit explores key topics in developmental and social psychology with a view to addressing the question: How do individuals change and develop across the lifespan?

The aim is for you to develop an understanding of aspects of biological, cognitive and social development from the prenatal stage through to old age with an emphasis on culture, society, and social factors.

This unit encourages critical reading and evaluation of current research articles, and provides an opportunity to conduct and participate in small-scale empirical exercises relevant to the unit topics. This unit aims to allow you to learn academic and transferable skills including writing critical reviews and provides the opportunity to reflect on personal development and career goals.

Biological And Cognitive Psychology

The unit examines human thinking, perception, language, memory and learning at two related levels of explanation. At the biological level the aim is to explain and investigate the physiology and neuroanatomy of behaviour The unit will therefore enable you to integrate biological concepts into your knowledge of other areas of psychology such as individual differences and cognition. At the cognitive level, the unit takes an information processing approach to theories of memory, perception language and thinking and aims to relate these theories to everyday behaviour from face recognition and eye-witness testimony to the use of mobile phones in cars. Staff research informs a number of the topics covered in this unit, for example, language processing, perception, attention and behaviour.

The Unit aims to:

Develop an understanding of information processing and computational models of human thinking

Provide a grounding in neuroanatomy and the physiology of behaviour

Develop biopsychological explanations of cognitive processes;

Provide the opportunity to test theories by experiment

Examine the impact of the structure and organisation of cognitive system on human behaviour

Develop an appreciation and critical reflection on the various research methods, conceptual and historical issues relevant to cognitive and biological psychology

Encourage critical reading and discussion of primary sources

Methods Of Research In Psychology

This unit builds on the first level units on research methods and extends into an exploration of the assessment of personality and individual differences. The central question is how to select the most appropriate research method to answer particular questions, develop and validate methods of psychological assessment, and consider ethical issues relating to the design of research through to the dissemination of findings.

Moreover, you will have the opportunity to advance your knowledge and skills in software packages such as the SPSS for statistics, software for qualitative analysis, and programs for designing and conducting laboratory experiments, as well as for database search.

Students will expand their knowledge on research design and methods of collecting and analysing data working individually as well as in groups on research topics of their choice in preparation for the final year Honours Project.

Staff research will inform the content of the unit and engage the students in current research activities related to the topics covered in the unit.

Counselling And Psychotherapy In Context

This unit builds on the learning outcomes from the “Introduction to Counselling and psychotherapy” unit at level 4 and provides a breadth of contemporary knowledge about how counselling and psychotherapy are applied in different contexts.

It aims to offer students specific applications of counselling and psychotherapy to deal with different contexts and settings. Students will also continue to develop basic counselling skills through tutorial activities. They will also learn to critically evaluate theory and practice of counselling and psychotherapies in the field.

The unit also enables students to consider the role of factors such as culture, gender and age when delivering counselling and psychotherapies.

All topics covered will be informed by the current evidence base and practise based evidence. 

Psychology Placement Year

The unit aims to provide you with the opportunity to gain formally recognised appropriate work based learning. It will allow you to develop your employability skills and reflect on your personal and professional development as part of a four year degree course. The experience of work that you gain can be applied in your final year of study.

Atypical Child And Adolescent Development: Theories And Applications

The unit addresses the question of what makes a child atypical or exceptional. It therefore looks at the causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment or outcomes of atypical development. You will also examine how different issues involved with exceptional children and atypical development affect and are influenced by families, education, and society. The unit aims to:

• introduce an aetiological developmental framework for understanding exceptional children.

• examine cognitive and psychosocial aspects of selected difficulties in learning, perception, attention and emotional and social development.

• introduce key issues in psychological assessment and intervention.

• develop a critical awareness of the theoretical underpinnings of contemporary research in the field of atypical development.

• discuss and evaluate the ways in which practice informs theory in our understanding of human development.

• provide information about research and assessment in developmental psychology and demonstrate how developmental research can be ethically applied in different settings.

• provide illustrations of the application of developmental theory and research to issues in the real world.

This unit has applications for those with interests in the field of education and welfare (teaching, child and adolescent mental health, educational psychology and social work).

Psychology Of Mental Health

This unit will allow you to familiarise yourself with the main issues relating mental health problems and therefore help you develop a good grounding towards further study and training or employment in role relating to mental health.
The unit aims to:
• introduce you to the main theoretical and therapeutic approaches to mental health problems
• present and evaluate major aspects in the classification of mental health problems
• familiarise you with the clinical symptoms of the most common psychological disorders
• encourage you to critically discuss aetiological models and therapeutic interventions of the major mental health problems in the light of traditional but also recent concepts and empirical findings
• discuss the importance of socio-cultural factors in the causation, diagnosis, and treatment of mental health problems.

Psychological Coaching And Therapies

This unit aims to enable you to understand what is meant by the concepts of coaching and a range of psychological Therapy models. It also aims to introduce you to the currently leading models of coaching psychology and understand the basic psychological principles which inform them. It seeks to address the question of what common therapeutic approaches can influence the delivery of effective short term psychological interventions. It also aims to offer you the opportunity of enhanced personal insight and reflection with the skills to apply this to self-management. It also aims to enable you to recognise, discriminate and apply core coaching and interpersonal skills which they have been progressively learning in level 4 and 5 in a peer coaching role supported by experts in the field. 

The unit also provides important employability and career development skills.

Culture And Individual Differences

This unit will consider cultural and individual differences within the area of cross-cultural psychology. Cross-cultural psychology is the comparative study of cultural effects on human psychology. It examines psychological diversity and the links between cultural norms and behaviour. Hence it is a complement to individual differences as well as all the main topics within psychology. Cross-cultural psychology uses comparative methods to establish psychological concepts, principles and hypotheses with a view to possible generalisability, on a range of phenomena from cognition to emotion; intelligence to personality. The purpose of the unit is to introduce the field of cross-cultural psychology and its contemporary applications. Within the context of globalisation of knowledge and societies, this unit will enable us to investigate psychology’s contribution to the various changes that are taking place in various applied fields such as education, health, mental health, crime and work practices.

Psychology, Counselling And Therapies Research Project

The Research Project is designed to enhance your pre-existing research methods skills and further develop independent learning abilities and critical thinking. You are required to blend supervised academic research with independent critical evaluation of your own learning and professional practices. This unit allows you to enhance your knowledge of a research topic in psychology, your professional and transferable skills, and your ability to reflect upon your learner development, framing these using key psychological theories.

English Language Foundation

This unit focuses on your ability to understand and use the English language accurately when you read, speak, listen and write. We will concentrate on the English you need for undergraduate level study in your chosen subject area, covering grammar, subject area vocabulary and the four language skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.

A key element of the unit is the grammar of the language, and particularly the verb tense system in English, because your ability to use the verb tense system accurately will be extremely important when you come to write essays and reports. This unit will focus in particular on the grammar of the language.

We will also focus on reading, listening and speaking skills in the context of your chosen subject area. Beginning with short texts, we will practise each skill and practise it again, so that gradually you will see, hear and feel that your command of the language is improving. 

A recurring focus of the unit will be your acquisition of 'learner autonomy'. This means your ability to acquire the language yourself, without needing a teacher's help. This is important because from next year you will not have an English teacher to help you. So we will consider and practise strategies to help you gain confidence in your own ability to increase your knowledge of and ability to use the language, including for instance guessing meaning of difficult words, deciding which words are important in a text, recognising differences between formal and informal language, and other strategies, so that as the first semester continues, you begin to feel more confident in your use and experience with the English Language.

Academic Skills Foundation

When you begin your undergraduate level studies, you will be expected to have knowledge of and ability to use a large range of 'study skills'. You will also be expected to have some knowledge of the subject area you will  be studying. This unit deals with both of these aspects of your preparation for undergraduate level study. 

All of the academic skills are practised in English, so you will use your developing acquisition of the language from the partner unit 'English Language Foundation' to practise and gain mastery of these skills. You will also use your language and study skills as you learn the foundation of your subject area, putting the skills into practice as you learn.

Developing English Language Skills

This unit builds on the progress you made during its partner semester 1 unit 'English Language Foundation' and increasing your level from that which you had achieved by the end of semester 1. 

We will recycle the tense system in English and other elements of the grammar system, but you will  now learn how to use other aspects of the grammar, including the passive voice, as well as linking words and phrases and devices which enable you to write longer sentences but retain grammatical accuracy. 

You will notice that we gradually introduce more specialist language that you need in preparation for your degree and we will expect you to use and develop the skills that you gained in the previous units so that you are able to work more independently.

Academic Skills Development

This unit builds on the skills learnt and practised in its partner semester 1 unit 'Foundation Academic Skills'. We will add more skills to the list, including summarizing and synthesising, argumentation, critical thinking and referencing and citation skills, as well as several others and practise and test them in the same way as with the semester 1 unit.

We will also investigate the research skill and you will learn how to prepare a research proposal and conduct a literature review, and how to plan a research project, learning about the research tools available and how they can be used to conduct research in your chosen field. 

You will continue to broaden your knowledge of key current issues and theory in your chosen subject area, and apply the critical thinking and argumentation skills you acquire in this unit to argue for and against propositions you have studied in the form of in both essays and presentations and in seminar situations, ensuring that you are ready to step up to your chosen undergraduate course with a base level of subject area knowledge from which to continue your academic development as you progress to level 4 study.