EVERYTHING You Need to Know About Studying Pychology (incl. Survey)

Choosing to attend university is a major life choice that will affect the rest of your life. Choosing which subject to study at university is no less daunting. Perhaps you studied it for your GCSEs and A levels and really enjoyed it, or maybe you have a personal interest in psychology and find it fascinating. Maybe you’re fed up of your mates asking you to read their mind, while you know there’s so much more to the subject.

If you're considering studying psychology at university, but either you’re not sure it’s right for you or you’re just curious and would like to learn what it’s all about, then read on. This article will cover what it means to choose to study psychology at university, from what you’ll learn to further education and career opportunities, including how much you can expect to make.

What can I expect when I choose to study psychology?

If you want to become a psychologist, then you’ll need a degree in psychology. This is true no matter what area of psychology you end up specialising in – whether it be clinical psychology, child psychology, developmental psychology, or you remain in academia. Psychology as an academic discipline is fairly recent, with its history really starting in the 19th century. It’s a subject that has straddled the line between art and science. A lot of early, famous psychologists like Freud and Jung were very influential in developing the subject in its early years, but their methods would not stand up to scrutiny in contemporary psychology. As such, psychology as a degree subject may be offered as either a BA or a BSc. However, the BA option is rarer these days and most places now offer it only as a BSc. Be sure to check what type of degree the course you are looking at offers.

What’s the difference between a BA and a BSc in psychology?

Whether you go for a BA or a BSc in psychology, it’s important that you check that the course is accredited by the British Psychological Society. This is necessary in order to be able to work as a psychologist, so no matter whether you choose a BA or BSc, it’s important. There are conversion courses if yours does not, but in general it’s recommended that you only choose to study at accredited courses.

A BA in psychology will focus more on psychology through the lens of liberal arts. You’re more likely to find yourself studying modules that are outside the core focus of psychology, as a BA is more general. You may have modules in general education and perhaps even foreign language study.

A BSc in psychology is more rigorous in terms of scientific discipline, which means you will learn how to conduct experiments using the scientific method. The course will involve some maths, largely focussed on statistics. You will learn about different research methods and you will conduct some experiments of your own.

A BA in psychology is rarer than a BSc nowadays, and generally it’s more advisable to study a BSc, so this guide will largely focus on a BSc. However, both types of degree have their merits and which one you choose will come down to personal preference and later career ambitions.

What do I need to study psychology?

The exact requirements of the course will naturally differ from university to university, but in general an A level in psychology is good to have but not always necessary. It’s recommended that your A levels be focussed on science and maths, but again this is not a necessity.

What’s it like to study psychology?

Most courses in psychology will last 3 years. As a discipline, psychology is relatively new. There is a lot of common ground that will be covered whatever specific course you choose. It will include a mix of famous figures in the discipline, theories of psychology and famous experiments. Those who take a BA will likely cover figures like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and cover topics like psychoanalysis. A BSc will include figures like Pavlov, B.F Skinner, Stanley Milgram and cover famous experiments like the Stanford prison experiment.

You will fully conduct experiments of your own during the course and likely as part of your dissertation. This will include learning to conduct and write about experiments using the scientific method. As part of this, you will also learn some statistics, which will include learning how to use a statistics software package. You will learn how to select the best statistical analysis method for the data set you have and how to use that to calculate important values, such as the statistical significance of your experimental results. It is an academic discipline, which will encompass a large amount of writing, as well as reading journals and text books to use as citations as part of your work.

Where can I study psychology?

Psychology is offered at many universities around the UK and there are plenty of reputable institutions to choose from. Of particular note is UCL, whose Psychology and Language Science department is the largest of its kind in the UK; it also has over 20 related master’s courses relevant to psychology undergraduates. Other universities with notable psychology departments include LSE and the University of Edinburgh.

What does a typical psychology syllabus look like?

Syllabuses will naturally vary depending on each particular psychology department, but an undergraduate course will typically be split into different modules to cover a range of disciplines, along with a mix of both learning theory and conducting experiments.

You will be expected to design and conduct several experiments of your own throughout the course. Sometimes the direction of the experiment will be provided to you, but other times you’ll be expected to create everything from scratch yourself, including the initial hypothesis. This means you will need to find your own participants as well! Make good use of your mates at uni as your little guinea pigs, as you’ll need quite a few to take part each time.

After conducting experiments, you’ll be expected to write up your results using the scientific method. Psychology as a subject involves a lot of reading and writing, so it’s not a good subject if you don’t like the idea of a lot of one or both of them. If you love the topic then it’s a fascinating endeavour though, and you’ll learn more about psychology and the human mind than you ever knew.

The work you do will be split across a variety of modules that give you an overview of the potential job opportunities you may wish to pursue. You will cover a variety of different areas within psychology, including but not limited to: developmental psychology, where the focus is largely on children and understanding how and why they behave the way they do, animal psychology, with a focus on understanding innate behaviours such as imprinting and cognitive psychology, where thought processes are broken down to better understand and use to develop therapy options for those struggling with mental health issues.

Your particular university may allow optional modules to be taken from other disciplines. If this is the case, then psychology is a good topic to pair with a range of different disciplines. Popular choices include sociology, criminology, law and business studies.

Studying psychology for a PhD

Those looking to take a PhD in psychology will be on the bleeding edge of psychology research. In almost all instances, a PhD will involve helping to create and/or conduct experiments, almost always using human participants. In addition to the scholarly aptitude expected of one looking to study for a PhD, a PhD prospect in psychology should also be a very patient and professional individual. You may be working with some of society’s most vulnerable individuals, so you may be required to submit to a CRB check prior to being accepted for a PhD. This also means that applicants with prior criminal records will be unable to undertake many psychology PhD programmes – particularly those prosecuted under the Protection of Children Act 1999 or the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000.

The reality of reading for a psychology PhD is that a lot of the projects you will find are self-funded. That means there is rarely any funding for living costs and other expenses provided by the project, and you will be expected to financially support yourself while undertaking the PhD. Money is unfortunately tight in psychology, so it’s important that you make sure you can secure appropriate funding to support yourself during your studies.

What job prospects do psychology graduates have?

Psychology is a very useful degree in the job market, as it can be applicable to a wide variety of different career paths. A psychology degree can be useful in HR, marketing, management, retail and business development to name just a few areas. Of course, there are also many options if you choose to stay within the discipline. A psychology undergraduate degree is a necessity if you wish to pursue psychology as a postgraduate.

A postgraduate qualification is a necessity if you wish to become a psychologist of some variety. There is a large variety of possible pursuits even within the discipline of psychology itself – you can become a clinical psychologist and work in the NHS or private practice to help patients, you can get into educational psychology and help develop courses and learning methodologies, or you could stay in academia and pursue a career as an experimental psychologist. These are just a few possibilities, as psychology also ties neatly into other relevant academic disciplines, like law and criminology, so an undergraduate degree in psychology is very flexible for prospective postgraduates even if you don’t intend to stay in the discipline.

What kind of salary do psychology graduates earn?

Because of the wide variety of career prospects a psychology undergraduate or postgraduate has, it’s very hard to give specific, accurate figures of what you can expect to make. There are multitudinous possible career paths, so it’s not possible to list them all, so instead some of the more popular or notable career paths will be listed, though it is by no means an extensive list.

The reality is that the starting salary for a psychology graduate is low. A graduate with a bachelor’s degree in psychology can expect to earn somewhere in the £20k range. This is not very good compared to other sciences and there aren’t that many jobs, so many graduates will be fighting for few positions. Typical positions you can apply for as a psychology graduate include teaching assistant, mental health worker and psychologist assistant.

What this means is that, if you’re looking to make a career in psychology, you’ll want to pursue at least a Master’s degree. Postgraduate studies are essentially required to be able to work as a psychologist of most disciplines. The average salary for a psychology graduate is £23k, but there is a lot of variation depending on the speciality, level of education and experience. Top level graduates with experience under their belt can earn as much as £40-60k.

What can you do with a psychology degree?

While there are unfortunately few opportunities for psychology graduates, there is a wide variation in the type of occupations you can expect to find. The variation really opens up once you pursue a Master’s degree or even a PhD and specialise in a particular discipline of psychology.

If you enjoy the act of conducting psychology research itself and enjoy the world of academia, then there are two potential avenues to pursue. One is staying in academia and becoming a teacher, eventually working your way up to professor. This is not unique to psychology of course, but it’s a rather popular career choice for those with psychology degrees. This means competition is fierce and there are few positions available, but if you love the subject itself then it’s a very satisfying career.

The other option is to pursue a career as an experimental psychologist. As an experimental psychologist, you will essentially carry on doing similar sort of things as you would be doing during your studies. Conducting research and experiments to confirm or disprove hypotheses. You will need a strong grasp of mathematics, particularly statistics, as well as a strong analytical mind.

If you’re interested in using psychology to help people with mental health issues, then clinical psychology is a good career path to pursue. Clinical psychologists are hired by the NHS (in addition to other employers) in order to help treat people. You will work with clients to help diagnose and treat any number of mental health issues, from anxiety and depression to combatting addiction and learning disabilities.