Psychosocial Studies BA (Hons)

The modules listed below are for the full-time version of this course. For full module details, please visit the University Centre West Anglia website.

Year one, core modules

• Introduction to Psychosocial Studies
• Psychoanalysis of the Self
• Social Science and Society
• Social and Developmental Psychology
• Issues in Child Development and Social Psychology

• Comparing Social Lives

  This module will introduce you to the value of a comparative perspective in sociological study. By drawing on historical, anthropological and cross-cultural studies, you'll explore the material basis and constructed nature of social institutions, practices and belief systems. In particular, you'll consider the potential ethnocentricity of a perspective based on 'western' thinking. Drawing from a range of subjects including kinship and marriage, children and childhoods, health beliefs, settled and travelling cultures, and ways of thinking about time, you'll investigate how and why different societies are organised in particular ways. Focusing on the similarities and differences found across societies, you'll explore the impact of globalisation on these. You'll be encouraged to reflect on your own autobiographies to consider your own life in local, national and global contexts.
• Contemporary Sociological Issues

Year two, core modules

• Contemporary Social Psychology
• Lifespan Development
• Individual and Society

Year two, optional modules

• Health, Social Divisions and Inequalities
• Deviance, Social Control and the Construction of Crime

• Knowledge and Belief

  On this module you'll consider the argument that, since the turn of the 20th century, different forms of knowledge have transformed not only the way in which we understand the social and natural worlds but the very nature of our lives. You'll begin by evaluating Max Weber's distinction between formal and substantive rationality and his claim that, since the start of the last century, formal rationality has undermined other human value systems. In relation to this, you'll consider what consequences the rise of bureaucratic and rational processes has had upon traditional faith-based beliefs. In the second part of the module, you'll focus upon two issues of debate in contemporary social and philosophical theory: the progress of science and technology and debates concerning the modern and the post-modern. Your assessment will comprise of a group presentation and a 2,000 word essay.

Year three, core modules

• Major Project

Year three, optional modules

• Issues in Mental Health
• Gender Relations
• Self and Social Change