School leavers
What is Psychology?
Broadly speaking, psychology is the study of how people feel, how people behave, and how people think. The kind of psychology that is taught in most universities is what we may call "scientific psychology" and the characteristic feature of this approach to psychology is the use of rigorous scientific methods to develop our understanding of these processes of feeling, behaving, and thinking.
If you go to any large bookshop you will find a section called "psychology" or perhaps "popular psychology". By and large, "popular psychology" is more personal and subjective as an approach, and because it usually lacks the scientific rigour that we take for granted at university, the conclusions of popular psychology are much more limited and circumscribed.
Many people are a little mystified as to what psychology is really about, and what a psychologist actually does. The Psychological Society of Ireland and the British Psychological Society have both written extensive web pages on this topic, so if you want to find out more, you are strongly encouraged to follow the links below.
- Psychological Society of Ireland: www.psihq.ie
- British Psychological Society: www.bps.org.uk
How is it taught in UCC?
You can see the full official guides to doing Honours in Arts, and Honours in Applied Psychology by following the links below:
However, you'll get a much clearer picture of what actually happens in first year psychology by following the links to the first year web pages for these courses:
A question frequently asked by intending students is: how much statistics do I have to do? There are several answers to this question! First of all, the kinds of statistics you will actually be doing don't involve any mathematical operations beyond those you learnt in primary school. The difficulty some students face is the idea that scientific psychology involves a process of objective assessment which often means expressing psychological observations in terms of numbers. It's not whether you are good at mathematics that matters. It's whether you are able to take on board this aspect of science. In your first year, we run courses that are specifically designed to help you make this kind of transition.
Once you get beyond first year, you'll be introduced to powerful computer programs which do what we call "number crunching" for you. You have to know what they're doing, of course! But the good news is that computer programs are getting easier to use by the year and we have special courses in second year to introduce you to managing this kind of information.
How do I apply?
Applications to undergraduate programmes in UCC must be made through the Central Application Office at www.cao.ie.
Information about entry requirements (including Leaving Certificate requirements), registration, and orientation is available from the Admission Office.
Last updated: 30/03/2009
