BSc (Hons) Psychology

Why study this subject?

Whether you’re simply fascinated by Psychology, or you have your sights set on becoming a professional Psychologist, gaining a Psychology degree is a great choice. A Psychology degree gives you a strong foundation for a variety of careers, utilizing your knowledge of human behavior and societal trends.

A Psychology degree helps you gain an understanding of the root cause of behaviors, thoughts and emotions and explains them within the scope of scientific theory and evidence. You can expect to build a deep understanding of yourself and how we operate within our social structures, and develop your analytical mind, nurture your curiosity and understand communication and relationships.

If you choose to become chartered with the British Psychological Society (BPS) you can go on to practice Psychology as a scientist, analyst, researcher, commentator, advisor or as a clinician. Psychology is a wide field, and there are a lot of opportunities to choose from, including links with medical science, clinical practice, business and more.

Why study at Buckinghamshire New University?

Studying Psychology at BNU means you’ll begin to understand aspects relating to mental health, wellbeing and performance of yourself and those around you. We want you to ask questions of us, develop your core skills, build your analytical mind, and more. When you graduate from BNU you will have gained the mindset you need to be empowered and confident in your future. You will have gained a good grounding in those fields of Psychology which excite you, inspire you, and motivate you to push boundaries.

Choosing BNU means choosing to go on a journey of discovery. As one of our students you will continually grow as a professional psychologist and discover our amazing and welcoming community, meet lifelong friends and gain knowledge from expert tutors who are actively engaged in the profession. We are home to an incredibly passionate community of Psychology lecturers and Social Science students, and it shows in the quality of our teaching.

Studying at BNU means you can take advantage of the specialist facilities that professional psychologists use day to day, including virtual reality facilities, laboratory facilities containing equipment that tracks eye movement, emotions, communication, brain activity and more.

Our hands-on practical approach to teaching is designed to impart the skills needed to experiment and excel, developing your own understanding and knowledge, and helping you to push the boundaries of Psychological research, whether this is based within the fields of medical science, counselling, forensics, sport, business or society.

What facilities can I use?

On our BSc (Hons) Psychology degree, you will benefit from hands-on learning, using our state-of-the-art facilities.

In our laboratory and computing workshops, you’ll use software and equipment that social scientists use in the field to present research data. You will use industry standard equipment as part of these programmes to build your own experience using a range of professionally recognizable equipment.

You can use our observation laboratory for the measurement of psycho-physiological responses using eye trackers as well as the activity of the cardiovascular system, brain, autonomic nervous system and more. You’ll use our eye tracking equipment and virtual reality software to test what happens when our local conditions change, and how the brain reacts to those changes.

The facilities at BNU are always here for your use, and we have heavily invested in them with the goal of providing the best space for your own experiments. We want you to use them to push your skills and gain all the experience you feel you need to go on and get a job, as what you do here is what you could be doing when you start work in Psychology.

We’ll also sign you up to our Virtual Learning Environment which means you’ll have access to lots of online resources wherever you are! The VLE is an additional online learning platform that supplements your core degree content.

What will I study?

As part of BPS accreditation, you will study a core of psychology which is designed to set you up with the foundational knowledge needed in the profession. Some of the optional modules we provide in the course are tailored to give you a pathway into several popular psychology careers.

You can approach this course with the intention of specialising in a specific career or to get a general feel and choose to specialise with postgraduate study or go straight into work with the knowledge you gained on this degree course.

The course covers many aspects of psychology and explores the complex interactions between individuals, society and biology. The factors that influence our psychological understanding are best explored through analytical research, scientific experimentation, data analysis and lab work, which you’ll undertake with the guidance of our experienced lecturers.

During your time at BNU, you get to study fascinating subjects like developmental psychology, cognitive processes, biological psychology, positive psychology, business psychology, social psychology, criminological and forensic psychology and the historical issues which have helped or hindered the progress of psychology.

Our course will also give you the skills and awareness to tackle the issue of mental health and wellbeing within society. We’ll give you the opportunity to discuss the place of psychologists in our world and explore our ethical and social responsibilities. You will get to grips with how to run your own experiments through our research skills and methodology modules, and the process of implanting and applying these theories within psychology.

You will get the chance to study modules which give you an introduction to personality, research methods, developmental psychology and cross disciplinary psychology. You’ll get the chance to understand your personality and how learning can be applied for beneficial effects. You’ll get to grips with the necessary framework needed to practice psychology at a higher and more professional level.  

You’ll continue to develop your understanding of personality, and dive into the complexities of human behaviour as you progress in the course. In addition, there will be modules exploring cognitive processes, conceptual problems, biopsychology and developmental psychology at a higher level.

In your final year, you’ll have the opportunity to deep dive into a specialist area you’re passionate about by completing an empirical dissertation. With the support and guidance of your personal tutor, along with the facilities available to you here at BNU, the possibilities for this project are endless – this is your time to shine and show off what you know to prospective employers.

How will I be taught and assessed?

This course is designed to enable you to combine studying psychology with of the opportunity to branch into other applied and theoretical areas.

All of the specialisms except the Psychological Studies specialism are accredited by The British Psychological Society (BPS). This is a recognized accreditation by employers throughout the country. Upon graduation, you’ll be eligible for the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) and from there you can take steps towards becoming a Chartered Psychologist, which is a highly desired accreditation.

As a part of BPS accreditation, a course must teach specific modules chosen by the BPS. Psychological Studies forgoes this accreditation so although you won’t have the BPS accreditation, you will have more freedom to choose a range of different modules that suit you.