Psychology and Language Sciences BSc (Hons)

University of Reading

Discover the inner workings of the human mind, how language develops and the disorders that can arise, all through this exciting and challenging BSc Psychology and Language Sciences degree.

This course is accredited by the British Psychological Society and enables you to move on to further training as a professional psychologist. Our staff are actively engaged in world-class research in psychology and language sciences, and you will benefit directly from discoveries made in areas such as linguistics, language development, language pathology, and bilingualism.

The first two years will give you a grounding in psychology and linguistics. This enables you to analyse and understand typical speech and language, together with a range of disorders. During the final year you will be able to choose from a wide variety of optional modules, allowing you to tailor the degree to your specific interests.

Throughout the course you will be able to learn a modern language, such as French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic or Russian. No prior language knowledge is required in order to do this. In addition, you can further your professional experience by undertaking a work placement.

During the course you will gain practical experience, and learn how to devise and run your own experiments. During the final year you will carry out an original piece of research on a topic of your choice. Past examples have included the effects of emotion on cognition, the effects of Huntingdon's Disease on quality of life, and projects examining bilingual and multilingual language comprehension. You may even have the opportunity to present your work at conferences, and a number of past projects have won awards from the British Psychological Society.

Furthermore, the School houses state-of-the-art facilities to support research and learning including eye-tracking and specialist equipment for electrophysiology and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We also have three NHS clinics and the world-renowned Charlie Waller Institute for evidence-based psychological treatments on site.

For more information, please visit the School of Psychology website.

Placement

You will have the chance to put your skills and knowledge to use through work placements. These take place in non-NHS settings, such as schools or nurseries. The Psychology Department has a dedicated placements officer who will support you in finding a placement, and can provide guidance for writing a CV.

Additionally, in your second year you can apply for a summer vacation placement, which will be spent working with a member of staff on a piece of research.

Careers

As a graduate of this course you will be qualified for further training as a professional psychologist, for example clinical or educational psychologist. It is accredited by the British Psychological Society and provides you with the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership. The degree is also ideal if you wish to enter postgraduate study and training to become a speech and language therapist.

You could go on to work for organisations such as the NHS, civil services, schools, or charities. Skills learned on the course also open up many doors within the private sector, within areas such as HR, recruitment, management consultancy, publicity, finance and journalism.