Psychological and Behavioural Sciences

Psychological and Behavioural Sciences covers the full range of psychology, including behavioural and cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, social psychology, as well as the study of atypical development and adult psychopathology.

Along with a number of core psychology papers, you will have plenty of choice with options such as the development of social behaviour, psychopathology, cognitive psychology, memory and language, brain mechanisms, gender, family relationships and influences, personality, and group social behaviour. A research project and dissertation also enable you to study in greater depth the topics that interest you most.

In the first year, students study two compulsory papers introducing psychology concepts and methods, and two other papers selected from a wide range of options associated with psychology (for example Biological Anthropology, Evolution and Behaviour, Metaphysics and Logic, Politics, Sociology).

The second year follows a similar pattern, with two compulsory papers providing coverage of classic and contemporary theory and research in social and developmental psychology, and in cognitive neuroscience and experimental psychology, and two optional papers that allow students to begin to specialise in those areas that interest them. In the third year, students undertake a research project in one of the Department's laboratories, as well as selecting three further papers on advanced psychology topics.

A gap year is acceptable, if you have a clear objective in mind for it. It can help to broaden your outlook on life, and for many people it proves to be very valuable, but it may carry the risk of losing touch with the academic way of life, and some people find when they finally get to university that they have lost the habit of studying and have forgotten some of their scientific knowledge. However, it rarely takes very long to get back into the swing of things.

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