how much practical work in psychology BSc?

7

I’m currently in year 12 and looking to study psychology (or possibly neuroscience, or both) at uni, and I’ve always thought that would include some practical/lab work as conducting studies and experiments is a large part of psychology. however I’ve done some research and it appears that in a bachelor’s degree there’s actually not as much practical/lab work as I thought. obviously it depends on the specific uni but most I’ve looked into have just a couple of hours in the lab per semester, if at all. so I wanted to ask anyone studying psychology (or neuroscience), how much practical and lab work do you actually do? and how much does this vary for different unis? do russell group/more prestigious unis tend to have more practical work as they have better resources?

Reply 1

DerDracologe

Study Forum Helper

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@always-anxious do you know about this by chance?

Reply 2

UEA Rep Grace

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Original post

by ellsbells144

I’m currently in year 12 and looking to study psychology (or possibly neuroscience, or both) at uni, and I’ve always thought that would include some practical/lab work as conducting studies and experiments is a large part of psychology. however I’ve done some research and it appears that in a bachelor’s degree there’s actually not as much practical/lab work as I thought. obviously it depends on the specific uni but most I’ve looked into have just a couple of hours in the lab per semester, if at all. so I wanted to ask anyone studying psychology (or neuroscience), how much practical and lab work do you actually do? and how much does this vary for different unis? do russell group/more prestigious unis tend to have more practical work as they have better resources?

Hi @ellsbells144

I believe little to no lab work is typically the norm for most psychology undergrad courses, especially during the first two years. This was definitely the case for me. Any good psychology course is (and should be) accredited by the British Psychological Association, therefore they follow the same teaching structure in roughly the first two years. In the third year you get some optional module choices, which is where I would expect any lab work to be if it was offered. So definitely check third-year options as you look for unis to see if they offer that.

In terms of practical work like studies and experiments, that will definitely be there. At UEA we did a a lot of surveys and online experiments for our participants and had to recruit them all as well. We also did interviews. Our quantitative studies were analysed using Jamovi which is a statistical software to look for significance. It's not lab work per se, but you do recruit participants and take them through a study, and then write up the results. I would do a couple of these each year, and of course there's your final year project where you run your own study as well.

Hope this helps and let me know if you have any more questions 😊
UEA Rep Grace

Reply 3

Uni of Southampton Students

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Original post

by ellsbells144

I’m currently in year 12 and looking to study psychology (or possibly neuroscience, or both) at uni, and I’ve always thought that would include some practical/lab work as conducting studies and experiments is a large part of psychology. however I’ve done some research and it appears that in a bachelor’s degree there’s actually not as much practical/lab work as I thought. obviously it depends on the specific uni but most I’ve looked into have just a couple of hours in the lab per semester, if at all. so I wanted to ask anyone studying psychology (or neuroscience), how much practical and lab work do you actually do? and how much does this vary for different unis? do russell group/more prestigious unis tend to have more practical work as they have better resources?

Hello @ellsbells144,

Thats great to hear you are interested in studying psychology. I can’t speak for other universities, but I can tell you what I’ve experienced at Southampton!

In my first and second year, occasionally we would have a demonstration in a lab, but I didn’t do any modules that involved going into the lab and conducting research myself.

However, we had extra-curricular opportunities throughout first and second year which involved helping third years and researchers to collect and analyse data. For example, there is the voluntary research assistant (VRA) role that happens during term time or over summer. Lots of people I know did this, and some got to work with researchers in the labs, for example the pain labs or EEG labs, to collect data in proper research.

As well as this, I was involved in a big research project that involved everyone in psychology who wanted to get involved, where we were trained to use the eye trackers and used them to collect data. We wrote up the research paper and they are currently trying to get it published!

Finally, there is mandatory research participation in first and second year where you participate in the third year’s studies that they are doing for their dissertation. You can choose whether you do online questionnaires or studies in person (or a mix of both).

Hope this helped and let me know if you have any more questions!

Poppy, 2nd Year Psychology

Reply 4

Swansea Students

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Original post

by ellsbells144

I’m currently in year 12 and looking to study psychology (or possibly neuroscience, or both) at uni, and I’ve always thought that would include some practical/lab work as conducting studies and experiments is a large part of psychology. however I’ve done some research and it appears that in a bachelor’s degree there’s actually not as much practical/lab work as I thought. obviously it depends on the specific uni but most I’ve looked into have just a couple of hours in the lab per semester, if at all. so I wanted to ask anyone studying psychology (or neuroscience), how much practical and lab work do you actually do? and how much does this vary for different unis? do russell group/more prestigious unis tend to have more practical work as they have better resources?

Hi!
I am currently about to go into my third year of a Psychology BSc at Swansea Uni so can hopefully give you a little bit of insight!
I believe that for most undergraduate Psychology degrees there is limited to no scheduled lab sessions within the course this is due to timing and resources availability, however there are opportunities to experience psychology labs outside of scheduled study.

Swansea is proud of its vast array of labs within psychology, such as eye-tracking, Sleep labs and EEG machines. A great way for students to gain experience with these resources such as volunteering with academics that may need assistance with lab work for their research, or through participating in studies for students conducting their final year project which will help you get experience and insight into the practical work within psychology. 🎉

In your final year of the degree you will complete a 'final year project' which will consist of a research project that may mean you gain access to the lab resources. Of course this will depend on the topic that you chose and the academic you are working with, but a neuroscience project will allow you to have more likelihood of spending time in the lab doing practical work.

Hopefully this helps
-Ellie 🙂
Swansea Student Rep

Reply 5

University of Salford Student Rep

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Hi there 😊

Speaking from my experience studying a BSc Psychology and Criminology, psychology is indeed a very theory based subject involving lots of research which does mean lots of reading and the typical lectures and learning style. For my course we have a more interactive seminar following on from the lecture which often involve practicing various research methods or different techniques/concepts discussed in lectures. This could be stuff like quantitative and qualitative data analysis, practicing experimental concepts, learning to use statistical analysis software, different interactive activities put on by the seminar leader and also producing experimental reports. We've also had some lectures/seminars within our biological/cognitive modules focused on understanding the lab equipment at the uni. Running our own practice experiments and writing reports from start to finish has been a frequent assignment for us too which involves lots of practical work - however the style and components of this is relative to the module, e.g. social psychology involved more qualitative methods, quantitative methods involved more psychometrics, cognitive psychology involved more lab experiments.

For neuroscience in particular, check out the specific modules covered in each year and look out for any experimental practice where you could incorporate the relevant lab equipment. We have lots of chances to choose optional modules throughout the years for the BSc Psychology here at the UoS, linked here if you'd like to check it out, so look out for chances like these. The first two course years are dependent on covering all the core areas of psychology in accordance with BPS requirements but I've found there's lots of opportunities to engage in your personal interests along the way. However, your biggest chance to focus on your own interests will be your third year dissertation where you have the freedom to make your research project whatever you'd like it to be but there's no harm in enquiring about ways to do this before then. Contacting universities directly for specific course enquiries or to speak to psychology staff could be helpful too - for us this would be on an open day, or the Course Enquiries team.

Looking out for any opportunities like research internships over the Summer, work placements, sandwich years, volunteering opportunities or anything that comes up is a great way to get more practical too. I personally assisted in some cognitive research in the Summer of my first year involving Tobii eye tracking and interviews. I've also just completed a month of voluntary placement in Zanzibar where my fellow students assisted in assessments in the EEG suite. My best advice for finding similar things is enquire as much as possible beforehand, then as a student read every email and say yes to everything you can!

One last tip - I also booked the psychology labs for a couple hours in my first year over Summer and a technician spent some time showing me the different equipment and how/why it's used. I'd advise doing a similar thing yourself as a student to really get the most out of it and to get some inspiration early on! It was also super fun 😄

Hope that helps - and as I've mentioned, enquire as much as you can! It can be really worthwhile, plus you never know if you don't ask 😁🧠

Becky
University of Salford Student Rep

Reply 6

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

For psychology will vary a little between courses I suspect (some departments are very experimentally oriented e.g. Oxbridge and UCL). Note this has nothing to do with their membership in the RG nor their funding, it's simply the emphasis of their research which then shapes their undergraduate course (and in the case of Cambridge, how the department evolved to my knowledge, as I believe it evolved out of the natural sciences course to begin with?).

However as above, due to BPS accreditation requirements, all BPS accredited courses will include some degree of experimental and methodological work. That said I believe the "practical" work will be psychological experiment design and implementation then analysis - this may not be the same as "wet" labwork. I doubt you're going to be doing much zapping neurons or slicing brain samples or anything for example?

For a neuroscience degree there will be a lot more "wet" lab work because it is fundamentally a bioscience degree.

So the answer may be dependent on what you consider to be practical work.

Reply 7

Arden University

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Original post

by ellsbells144

I’m currently in year 12 and looking to study psychology (or possibly neuroscience, or both) at uni, and I’ve always thought that would include some practical/lab work as conducting studies and experiments is a large part of psychology. however I’ve done some research and it appears that in a bachelor’s degree there’s actually not as much practical/lab work as I thought. obviously it depends on the specific uni but most I’ve looked into have just a couple of hours in the lab per semester, if at all. so I wanted to ask anyone studying psychology (or neuroscience), how much practical and lab work do you actually do? and how much does this vary for different unis? do russell group/more prestigious unis tend to have more practical work as they have better resources?

@ellsbells144
Some very interesting posts on this thread, I had a very different journey in that I did a Sociology degree (a 1st!) and many years later I did an MSc Psychology. I had assumed when I had started the latter that those who had done psychology before would have lab experience, but everyone only had the bare minimum and I felt at no disadvantage. I didn't do any lab work in the masters either - it should be noted that many people had options, I would assume in their 3rd year of their degree to do a bit of lab work but chose not to do it - not my cup of tea really.

Marc
Arden University Student Ambassador