Psychology and Criminal Behaviour BSc (Hons)

• Learn about individual differences, psychological theories of criminal behaviour, the criminal justice system, assessment and treatment of offenders, social and developmental theories of criminal behaviour
• Study psychology within the larger context of law and economics with lecturers who are active practitioners or researchers in the field
• Develop your ability to apply psychological and criminological theory and research methods to the understanding of criminality, its consequences, investigation, management, treatment and prevention
• Gain a thorough understanding of the workings of the criminal justice system and the responses to behaviour labelled as criminal
• Benefit from a degree accredited by the British Psychological Society

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Throughout your degree you will encounter a wide variety of types of assessment collectively designed to suit the variety of individual learning styles. Each assessment will provide the opportunity to offer you feedback to help with your development and inform the completion of your future assessments. There will be an opportunity in each year of your study to develop and refine a number of key academic skills, many of which will be transferable to the workplace. These include team-working, report writing, oral presentations, constructing a coherent written arguments, the ability to analyse, synthesise and evaluate complex information from a range of sources, reflective writing and, personal and professional development planning. Whilst you will be expected to undertake a few examinations, the assessment diet is more heavily weighted in favour of coursework assignments. The assessments reflect to some extent Sternberg�s Triarchic theory of intellectual abilities and hence cater for a diverse student population. Analytic tests (e.g., essays, case studies, critiques, essay based exams) assess �traditional� academic abilities. Synthetic/creative tests are designed to allow students to apply knowledge and skills to problems that can vary considerably; for example, presentations require students to synthesize ideas, and reports and final project require both synthesis and creativity. Students who display a mainly practical intelligence have practical assessments in the form of a coaching logbook and a family information pack where knowledge and skills are applied to a particular procedure or artefact. The teaching reflects the BPS core curriculum with an emphasis on research and research methods as well as the other core areas of a Psychology curriculum. There is an introduction to the main areas of psychology in the Foundations to Psychology unit with examples of the application of psychology in Psychology in Everyday Life. The Introduction to Research Methods and Data Analysis unit introduces the student to the philosophy behind the scientific and interpretivist/constructivist approaches to research, the various methods used to examine human behaviour and an introduction to different types of qualitative analysis as well as statistical analysis and the software used to analyse data. At Level 5 the main aspects of the BPS core curriculum are delivered (social psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, biological psychology) along with some aspects of the measurement of individual differences incorporated in the Methods of Research in Psychology unit. Collectively, these enhance the topics and research skills introduced in Level 4 and allow the student to develop some autonomy by researching an aspect of behaviour in a group. The analysis of the experiments conducted in Biological and Cognitive Psychology are aligned to the statistics taught in the Methods of Research in Psychology unit. At the same time students perform both a qualitative and a quantitative study themselves with support and in a group. By the end of the year they will normally have chosen a topic for their honours project topic and have identified a supervisor. At Level 6 students will be in a position to engage in their own project, building upon the knowledge and skills learned up to this point. There is also a unit on Cultural and Individual Differences covering the final core BPS area of the curriculum and dealing with a topic that several staff members have published in. The students will also undertake another dedicated Forensic Psychology unit, which will complement the previous two and move on to consider treatment and assessment issues inherent in forensic practice. Alongside these there are a number of option units to give students a flavour of areas of applied psychology such as Applied Health Psychology and Coaching Psychology which could lead on to the Masters courses in those areas. There is also Occupational and Organisational Psychology giving an overview of psychological aspects of working in organisations. For students who may be interested in working with children particularly in education, child welfare are children�s mental health there is Atypical Child and Adolescent Development: Theories and Applications, and for those with an interest in the clinical or biological aspects of psychology there is the Psychology of Mental Health and Cognitive Neuropsychology. The assessment types are varied to reflect both a progression in terms of developing skills that assess the learning outcomes and to cater for different thinking styles. The portfolios in Social Processes and Psychology and Criminal Justice have an emphasis on employability which feeds in turn into the e-portfolio in the Honours Project.

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