Psychology

Friday 1 August, 2008
Aberystwyth launches new Psychology department

Today, Friday 1 August, a new academic department is being launched by Aberystwyth University, the Department of Psychology.

The new department is offering seven joint honours degree schemes for September 2008: Psychology and International Politics, Politics, English, Marketing, Criminology, Genetics and Human Health, and Information Technology.

A single honours Psychology degree is scheduled for the 2009/2010 academic year along with additional joint honours combinations with Education, Economics and History.

Head of Department Dr Kathryn Bullen said:
“This is an exciting development and reflects the increasing popularity of Psychology amongst prospective undergraduates. All the Aberystwyth Psychology courses have been developed to build on the strengths of existing departments and degree systems and integrate psychology with them. Our innovative degrees benefit from the combination of established subjects with the dynamic contribution of psychology.”

“Whichever course a student opts for, the contribution psychology makes to all aspects of everyday life is immense. Psychology graduates are valued both for their knowledge of human behaviour and their transferable skills such as the ability to provide objective critical
analysis allied to valuable research skills.

“We live in a competitive world and employers demand employees with the ability to work both as a member of a team and as an innovative individual. A central focus for our undergraduate psychology degree schemes is to develop each student's potential so that they become highly skilled graduates with all the attributes required in the 21st century job market,” she added.

Dr Bullen's research interests are in psychology applied to health and medicine, with a focus on cancers specific to men. She has worked in the NHS for a number of years, is Vice-chair of the South West Wales NHS Research Ethics Committee and is psychology lead to the South West Wales Cancer Network.

Joining Dr Bullen are Dr Rachel Rahman, whose primary interests are in motivation and behaviour change in health and exercise psychology, Dr I-Chant Chiang, who is join the department from Stamford University and has research interests in psycholinguistics and how language influences thought, and Dr Gareth Hall, whose research focuses on social identity and inter-group processes.

The 2007/2008 academic year was the first year that the University offered psychology degree schemes. Because of the subject’s popularity, and the interest the new psychology degrees have generated, growth has been rapid.

Further information about the department and degree programmes are available online at http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/psychology/. The department will be based in the Llandinam building on the Penglais campus.