Module

This module offers an accessible and engaging introduction to classic and contemporary psychological theory and research applied to a broad range of contexts. You'll encounter core areas of psychology as set out by the British Psychological Society (e.g. social, cognitive, developmental, biological) and applied aspects of professional practice (e.g. forensic, counselling). You will learn how psychologists have studied topics that directly affect people's lives in areas such as criminal justice, family life, ageing, and brain injury. You'll also explore how psychology can inform our understanding of magic and misdirection, performance, and how people develop across the lifespan.

Ready to take your first steps into the world of psychology and counselling? This module introduces you to the fundamentals of these distinct but related disciplines. It explains how you can apply them to real-world problems – in contexts such as mental health, personal relationships, crime and education. You’ll begin to think like a psychologist or counsellor – scrutinising evidence, interrogating data, and questioning how our brains interpret the world around us. Along the way, you’ll explore research concepts and develop your communication and problem-solving skills, giving you a solid foundation for your future studies and career.

This module examines how psychology helps us understand and respond to real-world issues such as crime, climate change and the digital world. You’ll explore psychological theories that address these challenges, with particular attention to social processes and forensic contexts. Your perspectives will be broadened by introducing cognitive, social, cultural and applied approaches, encouraging you to question conventional explanations. Alongside developing knowledge of core psychological areas and research principles, including ethics, you’ll build confidence in evaluating evidence and communicating with different audiences. Interactive online activities also support your development of academic, digital and employability skills for higher-level study and future careers.

This module locates counselling within the broader field of mental health and provides a comprehensive and engaging introduction to the often controversial debates around mental health/illness and the main theories and practices in counselling. The module will critically examine the definitions and understandings of mental health issues and the ways they are treated in the related fields of practice, especially in counselling and psychotherapy. You'll be presented with recent theoretical debates and contemporary international research to inform and help you develop a critical understanding of the themes and issues related to mental health and counselling.

This module takes an integrative approach, focusing on the everyday questions that psychology can help us to answer. Why do we help one another? Do you see what I see? How do we know what’s right? Investigating how we understand others and the world around us, the module draws on biological, cognitive, developmental and social research in psychology to help you answer questions such as these. You will also learn how to design and conduct your own research, covering a number of different methods for gathering and analysing evidence on psychological processes.

This module draws on recent theoretical debates and research to critically explore the fascinating relationship between counselling and forensic psychology. You will learn about media representations of crime and therapy and the role of sociocultural issues in both forensic and therapeutic work. You will be introduced to the most common and effective therapeutic approaches for working with offenders/victims of crime, and explore therapeutic and forensic aspects around sex and sexuality. You will develop an understanding of the dichotomies and emerging themes in this area and the challenges of providing therapy in a forensic setting.

This module builds on Investigating psychology 2 and takes a critical and creative approach to methodology in psychology, with a substantive empirical project. Experimentation, survey methodology and text-based qualitative analyses (discourse analysis and phenomenological analysis) are explored through the topics of memory, language, creativity, personality, child development, emotions, and relationships. These topics are also used to present research in the core domains of biological, cognitive, developmental individual differences and social psychology. In addition, quantitative and qualitative methods are taught. Students can express a preference for the method to be used in their independent project: text-based analysis, experimentation, or survey.

In this module, you’ll explore the key issues shaping life in today’s fast-moving, digitally mediated, crisis-ridden world. You’ll discover how people make sense of themselves and others in situations of uncertainty, from conflict and violence to the navigation of misrecognition by young migrants. You’ll learn why political activism arises and how happiness and disgust are socialised. Drawing on current research at the OU and beyond, you’ll learn how social psychologists develop theories and methods to make sense of sense-making today, and you’ll develop sense-making skills to better equip you in your own future life, work and learning.

This module examines how cognitive, social, counselling and forensic psychology research fosters understanding and helps to solve real-world problems in three domains - the home, workplace and society. In this module, you'll focus on socially-relevant topics that showcase the research and methodological expertise of the School of Psychology. You'll become equipped to evaluate psychological knowledge claims, theories, research (studies and methods) and applications, creating educated consumers/commissioners of psychological research. You'll also have the opportunity to engage in an independent project. By the end of the module, you'll have gained the confidence to use advanced psychological knowledge to participate in public debate and policy development.

This module is available from Oct. 2018.

This module follows several criminal cases to explore forensic psychology and its application to understanding, preventing, and detecting crime. Topics include investigative decision making, witness memory, profiling, lie detection, terrorism, violent crime, sexual offences and cybercrime. You'll explore how psychological research is conducted and applied, critically evaluate its contribution to practice, and learn to communicate this to lay audiences. This module suits students who work in related areas, want to extend their knowledge in forensic psychology, and are not pursuing BPS accreditation in forensic psychology. While advantageous, you do not have to have a psychology degree to study this module.

This module is available from Oct. 2018.

If you work in a context which makes considerable use of social or psychological research or are fascinated by social research then this module, taught entirely online, equips you with the knowledge, skills and confidence to appraise research and communicate your assessment to academic and non-academic audiences. Combining topics from criminology and psychology, it adds value to your career by providing professional development in research literacy, managing research and conceiving of new studies. Upon completion of this module you will have the professional research appraisal skills needed to support your continuing postgraduate studies in psychology, forensic psychology or crime and justice.