1st Year Review: Psychology

NB: Please bear in mind that the course changes year on year baed on feedback, so the information in this post is a reflection of what I had experienced and should act as a rough guide only. Please see the website for updated information on the course structure and contact the department for more information if you're interested.

I realised the Psychology section of this is really long, so I will write up the Education Studies part in a separate post for next week.

I'm not sure if anyone is going to bother reading this as it's mainly for myself to look back on, and for anyone who might be interested in what a Psychology degree can consist of. I know that there are a lot of misconceptions about the general field. However, if you're thinking about choosing to take psychology as a degree, check out this post where I gave some pointers to why you should consider studying in the Psychology Department at Warwick.

Now, before I start freaking you all out with the amount of work we have had to do, there won't be as many assignments/ coursework-related pieces in Year 2 or Year 3. It seems like a lot, but it is manageable if you kept on top of your work, notes, and reading. If not, then you would have found yourself in a sticky situation but that generally applies to all university work in general. Personally, I think that it's really beneficial that we had so many assignments in 1st year. Which sounds crazy, because why would you want extra work when it's hard enough as it is? I'll talk more about that at the end of this post.

There's a lot of fit in here, so here's how I'm going to (try) to organise this:

• I will start with a brief overview of the terms at Warwick and how these were organised in Psychology,
• Then move onto giving you an insight into the contact hours, assessment, and content covered within each module followed by a brief personal comment at the end of each of them;
• Then I will move onto talking about what I thought about the way Year 1 was structured,
• Followed by some other general comments about the teaching/ lectures/ seminars, and
• Finally, I will end with what I enjoyed the most (and least!).

How are Terms/Trimesters/Semester Structured?

 

At Warwick we have 3 Terms (yes, we still call them that at Warwick) each lasting 10 weeks. Students taking a BA course usually get a reading week in week 6 of Term 1 and Term 2. However, Psychology is considered a science at Warwick, so we didn't get one.

For Psychology, Terms 1 and 2 covered all the content in every module and the majority of assignments were completed in those terms. In Year 1, all modules were compulsory and ran across both terms. Term 3 consisted of 4 weeks of revision lectures to recap content and to provide us with some exam techniques and tips. We also had a few assignments left to complete as well, but they were completed before exams started.

Psychology Modules

Psychology in Context

Contact hours: 1hr lecture per week + two 1hr seminars for each section (excl. History of Psychology - 2hr lecture).
Assessment: An assignment per section (noted below) + 1 essay per section in exam.

This was a quite a challenging module mainly due to the pace and structure of the lectures. It was one of those modules which you had to stay on top of. You miss a week of reading or notes it would have been difficult to make time to go over them amongst all your other work and content from the following lecture, causing a never-ending build up. To make this clearer I will give you a breakdown.

This module was split up onto 4 sections. We only had 5 weeks per a section as follows:

• DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY (assignment: essay)
  
  

  

  Echo Grid | Unsplash

  Of course, I loved this section! We focused on the principle debate of nature vs. nurture and different explanations (behavioural, cognitive, and biological) of physical and cognitive development prenatally, during infancy, and through childhood. Within that we explored Piaget vs. Vygotsky's theories of learning, visual preferences and perceptions (e.g.: violation of expectations and facial recognition), abilities to complete cognitive tasks (e.g.: classification and conservation tasks) with a focus on Piaget's stages of cognitive development, models of information processing, attachment theories, and the development of play and gender identities.
  
  I found the stuff on prenatal senses really interesting. We also touched a tiny bit on language development, which I found so intriguing. One study we looked at found that babies cry in rhythm and pitch of their native language! I'll stop there before I go on a tangent about how interesting I find language development, thought this does make a part of me wish I had chosen to take a part linguistics degree.
  
  
  
• HISTORY of PSYCHOLOGY (assignment: on-line test)
  
  This was the most content heavy section by far, which is probably why we had 2hr lectures for this one instead.
  
  We looked at the roots of psychology from philosophical theories from empiricism and rationalism to phrenology, the current view of Psychology as a scientific field, the study of intelligence and consciousness, paradigm shifts between Behaviourism and Cognitivism, artificial intelligence, and the current Replication Crisis.
  
  The pace of the lectures along with the amount of content involved was a struggle for me. That definitely showed in the on-line test, but I think (hope!) that I reclaimed myself in the exam! I did have to end up going over the content after every lecture. Despite that it took forever to do it was worth it to be able to dig a little deeper into how these theories came about and how the field has changed since its philosophical roots.



• CHALLENGING PERSPECTIVES in PSYCHOLOGY (assignment: content analysis report)
  
  Due to the view of psychology as a science, most of what we had covered in the Research Methods module was is quantitative methods.
  
  This therefore highlighted the use of the qualitative technique/paradigm in psychology, covering debates and critical analysis of the two contrasting paradigms. We covered ethnography, interviews, focus groups, content analysis, thematic analysis, and participant-generated textual data.
  
  It really helps you to appreciate how much skill and time is required in order to plan, conduct, and analyse data derived from such methodologies. It makes me wonder why the qualitative paradigm was focused on so much during A-Level without specifying just how complex it really is. Doesn't do it justice.



• PSYCHOLOGY of MEMORY (assignment: weekly on-line test)
  
  

  

  Rodolfo Clix | Pexels

  This was a mix of build-up of sections of cognitive psychology from A-Level and some completely new material.
  
  We looked at the classic approaches of memory (incl. Atkinson and Shiffrin's Model of Memory, Baddeley's Working Memory Model, Bartlett's Reconstructive view), philosophical analogues of memory, the causes and impacts of different types of amnesia (incl. childhood, psychogenic, and organic), different types of mnemonics centralised around imagery, and the role of emotion in memory (e.g.: flashbulb memories, and the impact of mood and states at retrieval and encoding).

I had covered none of this material before coming to Warwick, expect a few of the theories in the Memory section. However, a lot of my peers were familiar with a lot more of the content covered in Memory, Developmental, and Challenging Perspective modules than I appeared to be. The main reason for this is that the majority of students took AQA Psychology for A-Level or the IB Diploma, whereas I took it with Edexcel whose specification didn't cover as much breadth of topics. Additionally, I wasn't actually taught the qualitative research methods stuff. We were told to cover it ourselves using the textbook, and that's not enough considering its complexity. So, it was a challenge not already having a basis to work with, but it was all quite interesting!



Brain and Behaviour

Contact hours: 3hrs lectures per week
Assessment: on-line tests for each section (2-part multiple choice questions) + exam (same format)

As with Psychology in Context, this module was split up into 4 sections, consisting of 5 weeks each. It also provided us with an introduction to the biological basis of behaviour, which will then be built upon in Year 2.

• INTRODUCTION to PSYCHOBIOLOGY
  

  

  Ahmed Gad | Pixabay

  Covered the foundations of brain and behaviour. I found that those who took A-Level / IB Biology naturally found this section more straightforward than those (including myself) who didn't.
  We started with the basics of nervous systems, neurons, neurotransmitters, synapses, electrical and chemical transmission, information processing, and brain structures and their functions.
  We then delved into areas such as psychopharmacology, brain and neural development, implications involved in PTSD, critical periods in brain and skill development, and the impact of ageing.
  
  
• SENSING, RESPONDING, and LEARNING
  Firstly, we covered the basics of stimuli in eliciting behavioural responses, dispelling the myths of reflexes focusing on eye movements; types of learning and the neural mechanisms of them.
  Following that, we examined a lot on Pavlovian learning and dispelled some misconceptions about it, it's role in predicting behaviour, how it can be used in application to taste aversions and drug tolerance, and the neural mechanisms in how the theory is used to creates new stimulus-response relationships.
  
  
• NEIROPSYCHOLOGY of LEARNING, MEMORY, EMOTION, and LANGUAGE
  

  

  ElisaRiva | Pixabay

  This started with learning about types of memories, learning through reinforcement, punishment and trial and error, habit formation, skill learning, neurological conditions caused by damage to different cortex areas, and how we (appear to) unlearn things.
  We then looked into research into different theories of emotion with a focus on threat conditioning, and the role of cortical brain regions in creating specific connections.
  Finally, we extended to exploring lateralisation and how language differs between hemispheres, and learned about different types of aphasia (language disorders), models of language, and the impact of lesioned cortical areas on language.
  
  
• PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
  Half of this was pretty much in line with knowledge that most of us has already acquired prior to coming to uni, though some of it was new information (for me, anyway): Mood disorders (depressive and bipolar disorders), different types of anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and personality disorders (borderline and antisocial personality disorders).
  Within those we also studied a brief history of mental disorders and the stigma surrounding them, statistics surrounding specific disorders, symptoms as stated by the DSM-V for each specific disorder within the broader classifications, neurological impacts, risk factors, and past and current treatments (medical and psychological).

Despite not being too much of a science person, I did really enjoy this module. I didn't find Biological psychology at A-Level the most interesting thing, but this has defiantly changed my opinion. All the lectures organised the content really well. Although there was a lot of information to get to grips with, they were brilliant at explaining the content so clearly and concisely so that we wouldn't be too overly loaded. They would also stop at certain points to make sure that we were following okay, which was great.

Part 2 of the MCQs were a great way of testing how well we had understood the material by testing whether we could apply what we had learned to a range of unseen scenarios. This was helpful in helping us to identify areas in which we need to put more thought into.

A lot of Year 1 was also based on teaching us the fundamental practical and written elements of psychology, so there were quite a few modules which concentrated purely on research and psychological skills in comparison to Year 2 and Year 3.

Research Methods

Contact hours: 1hr lecture + 2hrs practical per week.
Assessment: 3 mini practical reports, SPSS class exam, 1st year research report, presentation of the report, and research experience.

We started with the basics of handling data using Excel and SPSS (a software used to analyse and create visual representations of data), data collection, how to write and format practical/research reports, referencing and researching, experimental design. We then moved onto reporting and conducting statistical tests using SPSS and learned how to choose the correct appropriate test to use. We studied correlations, chi-squared, t-tests, and ANOVA's. These were helpfully organised so that it also aligned with the statistical tests being taught on in our Statistics module that week.

For the practical reports, we conducted replications of studies. We started with ones whereby we simply had to analyse central tendency to get us used to writing reports and the structure of them, to having to conduct repeated measure ANOVAs. The mini reports allowed us to make mistakes, and we were given detailed and structured feedback telling us exactly what we did well and what we required improvement on. Therefore, by the time it got to having to research, implement, collect, analyse and present data, and write up our big 1st Year Report, we were well-practised.

I actually really enjoyed writing the reports up. Research methods used to be my weakest area of psychology, yet it shockingly turned out to be my best performing module. You learn so much about what psychology is about from this module and I'm so glad that we're given the opportunity to be able to practically explore such a principle part of the field rather than just sit and learn the theory.



Statistics

Contact hours: 1 hr lecture + 1 hr seminar following the lecture per a week.
Assessment: 2 assignments + research experience.

This followed research methods every Monday morning, so that was fun for our brains. However, this kept things very consistent so maybe it's not such a bad thing.

I don't really know how to tell you what content was involved. It's pretty much self-explanatory, but here's the link to the module page for a better outline than the one that I would have provided.

This must be such a challenging module to figure out how to teach when you have students with varying degrees of abilities when it comes of maths. The thing with stats is that it's one of those ones where there's only a limited way you can present the required information. It's just there. Explaining something to a student who doesn't quite understand a certain part must be hard to do also, as a result. Nevertheless, both the lecturers who taught it this year somehow managed it. There were points during the lecturers where the way in which they communicated to us lifted the mood and they even managed to make us laugh about stats! Of course, there are times when your brain goes a bit numb, but frequent practise and taking breaks when your brain goes foggy often does the trick! All in all, it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. (I'll see whether that opinion remains this time next year 😂!)



Research Experience

Contact hours: see below.
Assessment: 15 hours of taking part in psychology studies + mini essay

I promise that you will never underestimate the impact of the fatigue effect ever again when you take part in a study which appears to go on forever, but it has to be done. Saying that, a lot of the studies I took part in were quite interesting once you were given the debrief information on the aims of the studies. They ranged from looking at language structure, language recognition, gestus, predicting decisions, mental health, lie detection, gaming... The list goes on!

Things went a little bit wrong with some of the studies this year. The joy of technical issues! We also had a leak in one of the lab's due to the heavy rainfall we got in the Midlands, so studies would have to be cancelled and rearranged. This meant that in Term 3 some of us were still left with 50% of hours which still needed completing. Considering that they only ran in the first three weeks of Term 3, that was quite stressful as not completing a few studies (or the alternative tasks if they were missed) would have had quite a large impact on your mark. The mini-essay also caused some confusion and could have been a lot clearer, but that's now been made aware and I trust that it will be sorted for next year.

Nevertheless, props to the students/ academics running the studies as the majority of them did well with keeping us updated.

That being said, I do think that physically taking part in studies a great way to apply our analytical research skills and it gave us a good idea of how studies should be run and, in some cases, how they should not be run!



Academic Skills for Psychologists

Contact hours: 1hr lecture + 1hr seminar per week
Assessment: 2 on-line tests, blog post/video and interview schedule, and critical review.

Focused on critical thinking and scientific research in Psychology. We were taught effective note taking strategies, how to comprehend and analyse information presented in research articles, essay planning and writing, referencing and how to avoid plagiarism (there's a lot more to it than you would expect!), assessing the use of evidence in research, exam techniques, and how to manage exam stress. We also had lectures which looked into increasing practical skills and knowledge outside of contact hours such as work experience, volunteering, and study abroad options.

This was all incredibly helpful in addressing the massive leap between school and university academia. To be clearly told this and taught how to effectively practise academic skills at degree level eased that daunting transition.

Note: If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen this. One of the lovely PhD student's who taught a seminar group for this module kindly recommended this book to us. She called it her 'undergraduate bible'. After reading it, I can see why! Critical thinking is a is a vital skill that you will need to develop in essay writing and research. It's a complex concept to grasp, but this book makes it so much easier to understand!

Tutorials

Contact hours: 1hr every 2 weeks (+ individual meetings when necessary)

I will talk more about what tutorials are in a separate post, but it's a small group meeting with your assigned personal tutor and some of your peers. Every department and tutor will structure this differently and some may not even set tutorials at all. This year there was a mix between material which tutors were set, whilst other times it was a general meeting to covering anything that any of us wanted to bring up.

Pxhere | CC0 1.0

Set material was often related to delivering presentations, research skills, academic skills, and exam techniques. Sometimes we would talk about wellbeing, have a chat about in progress or upcoming assignments, or shared interesting bits of research with each other. Other times we had a general catch up to see what and how everyone was doing, whether that be talking about society/volunteering events, what we thought about current lectures, what we got up to during our break or the weekend; goldfish if we wanted to. Pretty much anything that came up.

Although my tutor was new to the department, she is brilliant at addressing any of our concerns. With every problem that we raised she would get into contact with the necessary member of department and get straight back to us with a solution. She was also on top of it when it came to signposting us to various resources in the department, university, and online, and constantly welcomed us into her office if we needed a chat. That's really helpful for those of us who need a bit more than a one-off encouragement. It was actually quite nice as we would be learning things together as a whole group.

Some people find group tutor meetings pointless and awkward, but I have a lovely group and we always had a conversation going. Personally, I think these tutor meetings are really useful and quite reassuring.


Additional Module(s)

1. Those taking straight BSc Psychology also had the option of either taking a module called 'Psychology in the Real World' or taking one from another faculty/ course. I can't speak for Psych in the Real World as...
2. Those taking Psychology with Linguistics/ Education Studies took compulsory modules from the relevant department.

Comments About the Structure of 1st Year

• By having all of these assignments, it gave us the chance to be able to make mistakes to then be able to improve in the next assignment of a similar nature, and probably make so more mistakes, and so on. I felt that I learned a lot more and a lot better this way.
  
  
• It also meant that we could apply all these new skills to see how much we had got to grips with them. With so many chances, it was okay if we made errors as it enables us to continue refining the way we applied them until we got it right.
  
  
• Additionally, this gave us the chance to keep refraining our writing style to meet academic requirements. You need the chance to be able to make mistakes and learn from them. If your grade for a module was dependent on a single assignment or exam and you hadn't received any previous feedback, there would be a lot of pressure to get it right as soon as possible, especially for 1st Year. I will talk about this more when I get to the Education Studies review.
  
  
• With research and statistics being an essential part of psychology, I think it is a really good thing that fundamental research skills and statistics are covered in depth during 1st Year. That way, by the time we get into Year 2, there's no need to worry about it all and the more complex stuff will follow on. For many new students, they are the areas which cause the most concern, so the earlier they are addressed, the better.
  
  
• The same goes for Academic Skills, which I've already explained. It's such a beneficial addition to the degree and made the transition more manageable. 
  
  
• We were still given a good sense into various topics which we may choose to cover in future modules through the Psychology in Context and Brain and Behaviour modules.

General Comments

• These modules alone have taught me so much more about what psychology is about and what is involved in the discipline.
  
  
• I really enjoyed the diverse range of assignments that we were provided with.
  
  
• Critical thinking. I finally understand what it means and what's involved.
  
  
• Learned how to structure and write better academic essays. This still needs work but we're making progress!
  
  
• I cannot account for one time that I was taught by a lecturer who did not seem engaged in what they were teaching. It's clear that they have enthusiasm for their specialised areas.
  
  
• There's a lot more next year, but the breadth of content just from this year has already given me a good gist of what areas of psychology are for me, and which aren't (see below)
  

What Did I Enjoy the Most and Least?

Whilst there wasn't anything that I completely didn't enjoy...

• Philosophy is not my thing. I can try, but I'm no good at it.
  
  
• Statistics isn't that bad once you know what you're doing (or maybe I'm just kidding myself?). Regardless, it's always a great feeling when you get a stats question correct!
  
  
• Same goes for research. Research methods used to be my worst performing area at A-Level psychology or not. Shockingly, it turned out to be my best this year! It's actually so fascinating to read up findings and apply those critical thinking skills!
  
  
• I'm still bad at writing essays which are research methods focused despite being quite capable at the practical elements.
  
  
• Biological stuff - it's great. A year ago, that wouldn't have been the answer. It goes to show how much difference the delivery and content can make.
  
  
• I can now confirm that memory and computational-anything is a big no no for me. I've never done well in those areas of cognitive psychology.
  
  
• Still love anything Developmental Psychology or language and communication related. I think it's safe to say that I enjoy those aspects the most, which is a relief as it's given me some direction.

That's my Psychology Review! As you can tell, there was a lot that we covered in just 20 weeks. Looking back at it like this, I don't know how we all managed it. I'm kind of looking forward to what's in store for 2nd Year.

Sometime before the new academic year starts, I'll do a post about my 2nd Year plans, academic and personal.

I'll leave it here for now as this is already too long!
Check back next week if you're interested to see what I covered in Education Studies. I promise you that it will be much shorter as I only took 2 modules!