In your third year, you can tailor the course to your personal interests by choosing advanced modules from a wide range of options.
You will also complete a year-long large-scale independent research project, during which you will design and carry out the research yourself with supervision from one of our academic staff.
In the third year, you will have one seminar per semester, as well as individual meetings with your personal advisor.
Psychology research project
This module will give you the chance to carry out an extended piece of research based on your interests.
A member of academic staff will supervise you in designing, carrying out, analysing, and writing up your project.
The work will be either empirical or computational in nature to test a hypothesis which can be original, or you can extend or replicate an existing study.
Altruism, Cooperation and Helping
You will cover theories and models of altruism, cooperation, and helping from the perspective of psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology.
The module will consider why people sometimes don’t help and actively try to benefit at others' expense (e.g. free-riding) and apply these models to anti-social behaviour, and how we cooperate to inflict injury on other groups. You will also examine models of helping, and consider why people ask for help. You will look at how charities implement some of these principles and whether they are successful.
You will have two hours per week of lectures for this module.
Clinical Psychology
An introduction to the concepts of clinical psychology and the application of psychology in clinical settings.
The module illustrates how psychological models are developed and how they are applied in developing interventions. You will examine theory and evaluation of interventions for a number of disorders/clinical issues.
During this module you will have two hours of lectures weekly.
Educational Psychology
An introduction to the contexts in which educational psychologists operate by examining the historical development of the profession within a set of major legislative and policy contexts, such as the drive to increase social inclusion.
The module will concentrate on assessment and intervention work with specific populations such as young people who display challenging behaviour in schools, vulnerable adolescents, and bilingual learners.
You will also examine psychological approaches to group work with teachers and pupils as well as the application of system theory in helping transform aspects of schools and other organisations.
There will be two hours of lectures per week.
Forensic and Mental Health
You will receive an introduction to this growing area of psychology, with a focus on criminality. The module will concentrate on offending behaviours, typical categorisation of those who commit crimes or harm themselves, standard interventions for offenders, and the neuroscience of offending.
The module will also cover the current research on specific offending behaviours, and examine the role of the criminal justice system and health service in dealing with individuals who offend.
You’ll have two hours of lectures per week for this module.
Mechanisms of Learning and Psychopathology
Supported by lectures, seminars and tutorials, this module aims to provide you with an understanding of the mechanisms of learning and memory in human and non-human animals, and an analysis of pathological conditions involving these systems.
You’ll study topics that include:
- perceptual learning
- the contextual and attentional modulation of learning and behaviour
- neuroscience-focused topics such as the role of the hippocampus in memory
Clinical topics include:
- the acquisition of phobias
- memory discords
- the psychological side effects of cancer treatment
- depression
Neuropsychology and Applied Neuroimaging
You will examine the deficits seen in individuals who have suffered brain damage. You will learn about the impairments to language, memory, perception, attention, motor control, executive control, and emotion.
This module evaluates both the clinical and theoretical aspects of these syndromes. In particular, you will evaluate the implications regarding how the healthy brain functions.
Neuropsychology of action: The body in the brain
Examine the psychological and neural basis for the planning and control of human action. Students will be introduced to scientific research, through their guided exploration of the neuropsychological bases for human action.
During the module, you will experience the multi-disciplinary nature of research into human behaviour, and by the end of the course, you will understand how a single issue can be addressed from multiple perspectives including:
- experimental psychology
- neurophysiology
- neuroanatomy
- neuropsychology
- functional brain-imaging
The above is a sample of the typical modules we offer but is not intended to be construed and/or relied upon as a definitive list of the modules that will be available in any given year. Modules (including methods of assessment) may change or be updated, or modules may be cancelled, over the duration of the course due to a number of reasons such as curriculum developments or staffing changes. Please refer to the
module catalogue for information on available modules. This content was last updated on