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Psychology

Psychology has a daily impact on people’s lives.

Key Information

Curiosity about people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour is at the centre of this course. You’ll be encouraged to keep asking questions, and develop the scientific, analytical and research skills you need to become psychologists of the future.

Key information

Undergraduate course

Duration

  • Foundation (4 Years)
  • First Year (3 Years)

Intakes

  • January
  • May
  • September

Location

  • Cambridge

Psychology overview

Psychology affects everything we do. While on this course, you’ll learn about the science of mind and behaviour, covering the breadth of discipline, from applied, social and clinical psychology, to cognitive neuroscience and biological psychology. Our core modules will give you a solid foundation in the main principles of psychology, and our optional modules the freedom to concentrate on your own interests in more depth. By the time you graduate, you’ll be able to follow your interests into specialised further study, or find a career perfectly suited to you.

Our staff are actively engaged in research, and they’ll support you all the way. Plus, there’s the opportunity to go to extracurricular weekly seminars, which feature guest presentations from specialist academics and researchers.

While you’re here, you’ll take advantage of our excellent research facilities, including specialist laboratories for measuring electrical activity in the brain, eye movement, psychoneuroimmunology, emotions and communication, psychometrics, human behaviour, consumer reactions, and much more.

Pathway progression

Successful completion of this pathway will lead to the award of the following from ARU:

Please see our International and UK course matrix for entry point, intake and study location information.

Course structure

Interactive Learning Skills and Communication (ILSC)

Interactive Learning Skills and Communication (ILSC) will help you to develop your academic, research, communication, and literacy skills in preparation for your undergraduate degree. ILSC covers reading, writing, speaking, and listening and will give you an understanding of institutional culture, practices, norms, and expectations of UK higher education. You will develop transferable skills such as effective communication to support ongoing study, career, and professional development skills.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

Information Communication Technology (ICT) provides you with the practical computer skills needed for university. In this module, you will cover fundamental topics surrounding the use of technology and discuss these together with societal and ethical perspectives. This will allow you to reflect on and discuss the main challenges facing society and consider the implications of your technology use. This module requires no previous technical experience and will introduce you to practical ICT skills that will be needed for academic success across many areas of higher education. By the end, you should have sufficient proficiency in the Microsoft Office productivity suite for planning and producing presentations, using functions, and writing formula to display, formatting and analysing quantitative data, and producing written assignments to a standard appropriate to higher education.

Critical Thinking

This module aims to enable you to participate in and practice independent learning tasks for deeper thought and investigation as needed for Higher Academic pursuits. You will participate in a Socratic Discussion based around Conspiracy Theories and Source Checking to encourage presentation and debating skills. You will be encouraged to invest in strategies that will deepen understanding and interpretation of processes, motives, argument, rationale, credibility, and possibilities which will then be applicable to a range of studies. You will also undertake research, based on an issue related to your degree programme, to review the main points of examining an argument in depth. You will then learn to create a personal response that analyses the content of the issue under study.

Maths for Scientists

Maths for Scientists will ensure that you have the necessary basic mathematical skills required for entry to level 4 on various science related degree programmes. By the end of the course, you will be able to carry out the basic mathematical manipulations and understand the relevant key concepts required to progress on to your chosen degree course. Each mathematical concept is introduced by a lecture, in which examples of how to use and apply the concept are demonstrated. The subjects covered are a range of arithmetic skills, algebra, areas and volumes, trigonometry, and basic statistics.

Psychology

Psychology will teach you about the brain and psychosocial contexts within the humanities and sciences. Within this module, you will look at how research has informed theories about how we think and behave, and how this applies in a variety of contexts. You will learn about the main psychological approaches (cognitive and behavioural; psychodynamic; developmental, social and biological) which will be discussed in relation to current psychological theory. You will also be given an introduction to psychopathology through the discussion of mental health disorders. By applying psychological principles to current events and common situations, you will gain a greater understanding of human actions and motivations.

Biology - Physiology

Biology is the study of living organisms and Physiology is an aspect of this which looks closely at the functions and mechanisms in a living system. In this module, you will study the science of body function and its relation to the structure, or anatomy, or the organism (physiology). You will learn how the main organ and regulatory systems work to enable the body to function and respond to change, whilst maintaining a constant internal environment. You will also gain foundation knowledge of organ systems and different regulatory systems, as well as learning to classify organisms and their major components. You will also be introduced to classification and the basic principles of genetic inheritance and consider this in the context of Darwin’s theory of natural selection.

Ethics

Ethics is all about making decisions based on what you consider to be correct and not correct which is a discipline that is fundamental for students in higher education. Within this module, you will discuss the complexity of ethical theory and will investigate the status of several major ethical theories and claims and consider some practical ethical issues which are impacted by these theories. You will be encouraged to use critical thinking and research to discuss descriptive, normative, and analytic approaches to ethical problems and you will also look at how ethics is applied within the humanities, technology, business, medical and legal contexts.

Intercultural Studies

Intercultural Studies explores differences between cultures and subcultures around the world. Within this module, you will draw from your own cultural experiences as well as learning from other people and lecturer-led case studies. The aim of this module is to increase your awareness and help you to further develop an understanding toward other cultures and value systems. You will gain the skills required to explore and articulate comparisons between different cultural practices, institutions, beliefs, and analytical frameworks.


Related links

For more information about intake semesters and campus location please see our course matrices.

Find out the academic entry requirements for our courses listed by country. Unless stated, requirements are standard across all courses.

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