Applied Positive Psychology MSc

Buckinghamshire New University

Positive psychology takes a step away from the traditional aspects you’d expect from studying human behaviour and seeks to explore what it is that makes humans flourish, rather than languish. If you’re fascinated by human behaviour and want to explore exactly what it takes to fulfil our greatest potential in all areas of life, then our Applied Positive Psychology masters is for you. Not only will this course have an incredible impact on your career, you’ll experience a personal life-changing journey for yourself.

Why study this subject? Positive Psychology can be used in a wide variety of beneficial ways. You’ll immediately be able to apply what you learn and see how it can make a huge difference both in your professional performance, development and productivity as well as the pursuit of goals and fulfilment in your personal life.

Why study at Buckinghamshire New University? As one of the few universities that offer this course, we have strong expertise in Applied Positive Psychology. Taught by lecturers, visiting experts and practitioners, you’ll learn about personal strengths, coaching and positive emotions.

At BNU, our teaching approach is centred around you. We want to support you by showing you how to apply Positive Psychology to your life and career. As our course gains popularity in a time when wellbeing is thankfully being prioritised more than ever, we continue to value and encourage different ways of learning and teaching to make sure you get the personal support you need.

What will I study? Applied Positive Psychology focuses on the scientific study of happiness, wellbeing, purpose and strengths. Looking at these areas, we explore how different methods, techniques and ways of working improve performance in a range of settings, from education to organisational development to private coaching.

• You’ll learn how to analyse and interpret data and understand the application of research to individuals and organisations.

• You’ll discover how psychological research has explored the uses of Applied Positive Psychology and how theory has developed over time.

• You’ll also look at the realities of the journey of change and Positive Psychology processes and methods that support and create it.

We invite students to choose assignments on subjects that reflect their own goals and interests. In this way, the course becomes heavily tailored to your specific goals. As a course team, our wish is to relate to the goals and aspirations of individuals and to support them in that journey.

This course will take you on a journey to explore important areas in Positive Psychology like happiness, well-being and flourishing, strengths-based development, positive subjective emotions, hope and resilience, as well as important modules about research skills and data analysis.

How will I be taught and assessed? We don’t assume our students have a background in psychology, but we’ll ask you what goals you have for studying the programme and how you wish to apply the subject in your life. If you can answer these questions and have energy and focus in your studies, we can give you the grounding and skills you need to apply your knowledge in a critically reflective way.

We run this course predominantly online, with monthly virtual workshops where together we explore the important concepts in Positive Psychology, giving you a chance to listen and discuss in a formal teaching environment. Throughout the course, you’ll be assessed in a number of ways including reflective assignments, poster and oral presentations, online tests, case study reports and research proposals and analysis.

The full MSc takes two years, with some students opting to study on a three-year track meaning they have an additional year to focus solely on their dissertation project. You can also choose to complete just year one and receive a PGCert or two years without dissertation and receive a PGDip.