“By creating we think, by living we learn” Patrick Geddes
At Dundee you will be a part of a vibrant and expanding School in which teaching and research are carried out to a very high standard. We are committed to providing you with teaching of the highest quality and were rated “excellent” in the latest Scottish Higher Education Teaching Quality Assessment. We feel that it is important that our students become an integral part of the School and this is reflected in all aspects of our teaching.
Our great strength at Dundee is human experimental psychology focusing on three core areas: language, cognition and perception; neuroscience and development; and social identity. We have built up one of the strongest visual cognition research groups in the world and are particularly renowned for our work on eye movements and reading.
Our psychology degree is accredited by the BPS (British Psychological Society), and covers all the core material necessary to obtain BPS recognition.
Level 1 provides the fundamental grounding that you need to become a psychologist which will be built upon in later levels. You will learn about the biological basis of behaviour, memory and cognition, child development, social behaviour, and human abilities and personality. You will also learn how to design and carry out experiments and how to use computers in research and data analysis.
Introductory Psychology 1 - PY11001 |
Semester 1 | Credits 20 |
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Introductory Psychology 2 - PY12002 |
Semester 2 | Credits 20 |
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| Research Skills 1 | ||
You will now explore more detailed aspects of psychology. You will learn how we perceive the world around us and carry out skilled tasks within it, what happens when things go wrong in the brain, how children develop psychologically, and how we learn and use language. You will acquire more advanced research skills, including methods for statistical analysis and you will have more opportunity to practice these skills in laboratory classes.
Neuropsychology and Language - PY21001 |
Semester 1 | Credits 20 |
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Perception and Development - PY22002 |
Semester 2 | Credits 20 |
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| Research Skills 2 | ||
Study Abroad students may take level 3 modules, however, evidence of prior knowledge may be required in the form of transcripts. To find out more about this contact us.
| Social Psychology and Individual Differences - PY30001 | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
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| This module explores research relating to the measurement of human personality and intelligence and examines some core issues in social psychology. Topics include: the concept of intelligence; theoretical approaches to human personality and abnormality; social interaction and identity; conformity and stereotyping. | ||
| Language and Cognition - PY30004 | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| This module aims to explore contemporary theories of language competence and performance with the goal of understanding how we represent and manipulate knowledge. Topics include: psychological processes in sentence interpretation; semantic memory; representation of information in perception, imagination, memory and thought. | ||
| Biological Psychology, Perception and Performance - PY30002 | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| This module investigates contemporary theories and research regarding biological and psychological aspects of visual perception and attention, the control of action, motivation, and language and cognition. Topics include: mechanisms and functions of vision; human motor control; motivation and emotion; cortical organisation of language and cognition; consequences of neurological trauma. | ||
| Developmental Psychology - PY30003 | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| This module aims to review current developmental theories and research and to present an account of the processes of development across a wide range of topics, such as children's cognitive abilities, social behaviour, schooling and literacy. Topics include: knowledge of the self and others; parent-infant communication; the development of problem solving and reasoning; the relation between spoken and written language. | ||
Study Abroad students may take level 4 modules, however, evidence of prior knowledge may be required in the form of transcripts. To find out more about this contact us.
| Cognitive Neuroscience: Network Models, Brain Imaging and Cognition | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
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| The aim of this course is to critically evaluate the impact of network models and modern functional imaging techniques on our understanding of the functional organisation of the brain. A range of current topics in the areas of cortical computation, neural coding, functional imaging, working memory and the guidance of behaviour will be covered. | ||
| Cognitive Science and Psycholinguistics | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| This module will introduce students to the study of language processes and provide an overview of this area of psychology. The course will also familiarise students with some of the range of methodologies used for studying language processing. A range of current topics in the areas of lexical access, syntactic and semantic parsing, language production and eye movements in reading will be covered. | ||
| Criminality | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| The aim of this module is to provide knowledge of the ways in which the theories and techniques of psychological inquiry can yield an understanding of some of the phenomena in the field of criminal behaviour. Topics include: explanatory theories of criminality, including the theories of Lombroso, Freud, Eysenck and theories of juvenile delinquency; also, specific contemporary issues, such as psychopathy, lie detection, serial killing, offender profiling, and genetic or biological causes. | ||
| Developing Theories of Mind | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| This module aims to promote knowledge of contemporary research concerned with children's emerging theories of mind and their understanding of the mental world as conceived within 'folk psychology'. Topics normally include: conceptual and theoretical issues in the study of folk psychology; false belief understanding; cognitive and social factors involved in promoting false belief understanding; comparative studies of theory of mind; theory of mind in infancy; pretence and autism. | ||
| Developmental Theories and Epistemology | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| This course is designed to explore developmental theories in depth, in particular the epistemological assumptions that theorists make about the nature of development, psychology, and science. What counts as 'fact'? How do historical and cultural contexts, and even personal characteristics, influence theorists' views? What makes a research programme 'scientific'? We will consider these kinds of questions by exploring one or more theoretical approaches and/or theorists. | ||
| Developmental Psychopathology | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| This course offers an introduction to abnormal brain and behaviour development, psychological, and neurological disturbances and disorders, which occur in infancy and childhood. Topics include: normal and abnormal brain-behaviour development, mental disorders in infancy and childhood, diagnosis and research methods of mental disorders occurring in early development. | ||
| Discourse and Social Psychology | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| This module aims to develop an understanding of the theoretical critique of social psychology associated with the use of qualitative data and the analysis of discourse. Topics normally include: mainstream social psychological perspectives on categorisation and stereotyping; alternative conceptualisations based on rhetoric, discourse and conversation; implications for discussion of prejudice, racism and national identity. | ||
| Eye Movements and Visual Cognition | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| This module aims to provide an understanding of contemporary research regarding the way in which successive snapshots of the visual world are integrated during inspection of scenes or texts. Topics normally include: movements of the eyes; frames of reference; gluing the world together; attention and eye movement control; blindness to change; eye movement control and reading; eye movement control and static scene perception; eye movement control in a dynamic environment. | ||
| Infant Development | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| This module aims to review key aspects of new and current research on infant cognitive development, and the alternative theoretical accounts that have been proposed. Topics normally include: development of visual attention and memory; individual differences in infant cognition and prediction of childhood IQ; the central origins of knowledge hypothesis; nativism and development of physical knowledge and reasoning. | ||
| Reading Development and Disability | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| The course adopts a cognitive neuropsychological approach to the analysis of reading development and disability. The aim is to localise the impairment in cases of reading disability and to pinpoint the phase of development at which things begin to go wrong. | ||
| Science and Psychology | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| The aim of this module is to examine the nature of scientific explanation, the characteristics of different types of explanation of human behaviour, and the contribution that psychology has made to an understanding of scientific progress. Topics normally include: the problem of consciousness; commonsense psychology; free will and determinism; the use of imagination in scientific thought; prediction and control in scientific and non-scientific cultures. | ||
| Vision and Art | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| This module aims to examine the relationship between visual perception and artistic representation. Topics normally include: illusions and allusions, early styles of representation, the nature of images, representing images, linear perspective, perspective distortions, optical image formation, and image formation in the eye. | ||
| Working with Cognitive Psychology | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| This module aims to train advanced psychology students some further strategies and rationale of psychological research into human performance, with a particular focus on everyday situations and their cognitive demands. Examples can include mental arithmetic, the perception of spatial relations for navigation, the relationship between perception and action, or the design of workplaces. Students will be taught to apply these research strategies skillfully to real-life issues. | ||
| Dissertation | Semesters 1 & 2 | Credits 30 |
| You will also carry out an investigation of a topic of your own choice, under the guidance of a member of staff, which you will write up as a dissertation. The research can take place “in the field” (for instance, schools, hospitals, businesses) or in laboratories specialised in the study of brain activity, eye movements, perception, motor control, reading, communication, infant behaviour and group dynamics. | ||
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