This module will provide a unique opportunity for you to learn psychology alongside prisoners or ex-offenders. It will develop your understanding and critical consideration of factors that affect wellbeing such as sleep, stress, exercise. You’ll also consider evidence relating to wellbeing both in and out of prison and to reflect on people’s experience of wellbeing in different contexts.
Explore the role of applied health psychology in relation to medical illness and foster a critical understanding of the debates within the field. You will critically evaluate the application of psychological theory (social cognition, health behaviour change) to medical practice, specifically including the design and evaluation of complex health interventions, medical decision making, patient reported outcome measures (PROMs), electronic technologies, collaborative care and patient experience. You will develop your knowledge of applied health psychology in medical practice by exploring contemporary applications of psychological theory to supportive interventions to promote health and monitor disease and empower patients across a range of different health settings.
Learn and understand the psychology and physiology of stress, and its impact on health. You will explore the effects of stress on the immune system, sleeping behaviours, eating behaviours and cognitive performance. Various potentially stress-reducing interventions that may be beneficial to health (e.g. nutritional supplementation and diet; exercise; coping) will also be discussed in order to further encourage understanding of the biopsychological pathways linking stress and health.
Gain an introduction to clinical and counselling psychology specialisms. You will develop an understanding of a range of common mental health problems, their key symptoms and underlying theoretical explanations (for example, emotional disorders, schizophrenia, personality disorders, eating disorders and addictions) and the ability to critically evaluate the major approaches in the psychological therapies, which may be drawn upon in the alleviation of these problems.
Apply your knowledge of developmental psychology to real-life situations. You will focus on educational settings, special educational needs and educational psychology, although other careers and settings are considered: working with children will involve working in multidisciplinary teams to some extent. You will also have the opportunity to reflect on and develop ideas for future careers with children.
You will study forensic psychology, which can be thought of as the intersection between psychology and the criminal justice system. It typically covers psychology and crime, and psychology and law. The module also provides varied opportunities for you to apply your knowledge, understanding and critical thinking to fictitious and real-world contexts, and to celebrate your achievements with a wider audience at an end-of-module poster conference.
Health psychologists have expertise in understanding the things that influence people’s health and wellbeing. They use their expertise in psychology to develop interventions to change behaviour. The teaching team on this module have research expertise in several applied health areas: body image and eating disorders, reproductive health, quality of life, shared decision-making, stress, oncology, and health service interventions. You will explore different specialities in health psychology, covering both quantitative and qualitative approaches, to gain an understanding of why people behave the way they do and how to provide services that will meet individuals' needs and promote health and wellbeing.
Explore contemporary applications of social science theory to develop an applied anti-racist intervention relating to a specific institution such as the discipline of psychology, education and healthcare.
Study the development of human communication throughout the lifespan. With an emphasis on understanding the multi-faceted nature of communication, the module reviews the practical applications of communication theories.
Evolutionary psychology uses evolutionary principles to help us better understand human behaviour. Positive psychology focuses on the capacity for human growth and other positive aspects of the human experience. In this module, you'll learn how evolutionary psychology can inform positive psychology. You'll be introduced to key concepts of evolutionary theory relating to human psychology. You'll engage with current literature, including recent findings and theory within evolutionary psychology. We'll encourage you to relate key insights from evolutionary psychology to topics within the field of positive psychology, such as happiness, gratitude, love and resilience.
Gain an understanding of the applications of psychology in fields such as education, human relations and services, careers and employability, retail, business, the charity sector or another sector of your choosing. You'll begin to appreciate how psychology explains employment and careers outcomes and choices.
Explore how culture influences elements of human experience including behaviour, thoughts and emotions. This module will give you a comprehensive introduction to general theories and methods related to culture and diversity. You'll develop your cultural competence by covering areas in psychology such as motivation, human development, and cognition from a cultural perspective. You'll also explore the methodology used by cultural psychologists. This module will support the development of your critical thinking and analytical skills while enabling you to think about your own values and norms from a cultural perspective.