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So psychology is an evolving science, and as a science it requires an evidence base,
but it is a young science and, like all adolescents, is both strongly influenced by its
early environment and also developing and changing fast.
Degrees in psychology
Psychology is one of the most popular undergraduate degree subjects, but the
degree can take a number of forms. It is essential to check that the course you
apply for carries Graduate Basis for Registration (GBR) if there is any possibility
that you might wish to become a professional psychologist (see the section on
this on page 169). Different degree structures include the following.
• Single honours: psychology is the main subject taught, but there may be subsidiaries,
particularly in the first year.
• Combined/joint honours: psychology is only one of the subjects that contribute
to the degree. This may be harder work in that you have to cope with the
language and conventions of two different subjects, and with two academic
departments that may operate rather differently, and you will have fewer
psychology options in the third year.
• Major/minor: two subjects, of which psychology must be the major to have
GBR status.
• Sandwich: one year of the course, usually the penultimate, is spent on a
psychology-related placement.
• Foundation degree: two year full time equivalent course without GBR, which
can lead into an honours degree.
The language of psychology
FIRST THINGS FIRST 13
Like most academic subjects psychology has a language all its own, containing
many acronyms and a good deal of jargon. Some of this jargon uses words
in everyday use but with a slightly different meaning. This is not done to confuse
you (though it may well do so) but because, to share ideas effectively in
psychology, we need to have exact definitions of the words we use. So ‘constancy’,
a word we are all familiar with in everyday life, has a very specific meaning
in psychology. It refers to the very remarkable ability we have to see
something as unchanging even when the stimulus generating the perception
changes radically – for example, when an object rotates or moves away from us.
The sooner you can start to familiarize yourself with the most common terms the
better. If you continually have to look things up, the conversation will have
moved on before you have established what is being discussed. This tendency to
talk in a kind of code is not malicious or probably even deliberate – it just saves
time when specialists talk to each other and is not unique to psychology.