Sociology with Psychology BA Honours

Course content

What will you study on the BA Sociology with Psychology?

You will analyse the nature of social relationships between individuals, groups and social institutions. Your understanding of major concepts and themes in contemporary sociology and psychology will be developed and you will be able to relate them to life in the community. You will also examine a range of research strategies and methods in sociology and psychology and assess the appropriateness of their use.

Modules

This module provides an introduction for first year sociology and criminology students to the study of contemporary society. The module engages key issues and debates that constitute the subject matter, while introducing the themes and perspectives that inform social inquiry. You will also engage with core approaches to understanding contemporary society and the social relations that comprise it.

This module will equip you with key sociological tools to explore social experience, or ‘doing things together’. Focusing on the lives of young people, you will explore key transformations at work in contemporary social life, including individualisation, processes of inclusion and exclusion, transformations in socialisation, changing experiences of selfhood and embodiment, together with new forms of power. You will focus, each week, on a social practice from diet and eating together to new forms of digital collaborations and ways of sharing hopes and fears.

This module aims to instruct you on the skills required for undertaking an undergraduate degree in either sociology or criminology, and the basic components of social science research through researching the city. This module provides an engaging opportunity to be introduced to different research methods and approaches as well as more generally study skills while exploring from an academic point of view the city where you study in and live in. Many of these skills will have relevance beyond your degree, and will be attractive to future employers. You will also be introduced to a range of critical writing skills that link to other modules across the year. Many of these skills will have relevance beyond your degree, and will be attractive to future employers.

This module aims to introduce the five core areas of psychology as set down by the BPS: cognitive, social, biological basis, developmental and individual differences. In addition, you will also explore ideas concerned with definitions of psychology and how psychology developed as a separate discipline by considering its historical and philosophical beginnings and current issues.

This module aims to develop your evaluative abilities regarding quantitative and qualitative research methodologies as well as to introduce you to the underlying philosophical and ethical principles of social research. It aims to make clear the links between theory, method and data, to define what data is within different research paradigms and the various ways of generating and analysing it, and to understand and critique published research. Emphasis is placed on developing awareness and critique of secondary sources. The module also aims to prepare you for the development of a proposal for the final year dissertation project. Throughout the module, you will apply the various components of research methods to the specific subject of the programme you are studying.

This module develops your understanding of sociological theory by focusing on the key theories and ideas that have emerged from the late 20th to early 21st century. Specifically, it aims to develop your knowledge and understanding of the continuities and discontinuities within sociological theory during this period, and to explore the influences of classical and early modern sociological theory within contemporary sociological theory and debates. Throughout the module each of the theoretical approaches and ideas will be applied to contemporary social issues, thus underlining the relevance of the sociological imagination to an understanding of different features and social transformations which have occurred within the global world today.

This module takes as its focus the transformations of institutions, relations, experiences and identities brought about by the forces of globalisation. With a particular focus on political sociology, it examines the relationship between the contemporary nation-state and the forces of change operating above, below and alongside the state. The module explores the nature, dynamics and transformations of the state, and its relationship to society, in a globalising context also associated with important social changes in the fields of mobility, culture, the media, religion and security. You will gain the theoretical, conceptual and methodological tools to evaluate the implications of globalisation for understanding the nature of, and relationship between, state and society in the contemporary era.

This module provides an overview of the current research and core theoretical aspects of developmental psychology. In addition to the main topics, you will have opportunities to learn about extended topics of atypical developments, developments throughout the lifespan and applications to educational issues, as well as contemporary topics in applied developmental psychology. Understanding of these topics is enhanced through a series of interactive seminars.

This module aims to synthesize learning from your Sociology degree providing an opportunity for you to study independently and investigate a topic in depth. It fosters academic curiosity, an inquiry based approach, the employment and application of research knowledge and skills thus facilitating the development of a higher level of theorising. You will select a topic of personal interest you wish to study in-depth and manage your own learning with the support of an allocated supervisor for this period of independent study.

The module aims to explore the application of psychology to social problems in the areas of crime, conflict and violence, taking into account individual, group and social factors. It considers how individuals and groups become involved in, and perpetuate, these problematic behaviours, and also considers the consequences for victims, government and justice responses, and approaches to prevention. The module aims to extend your understanding of social psychology through its application to social problems facing modern societies and to develop your aptitudes for identifying pathways for social change through the understanding the psychological processes implicated in social problems.

This module develops your critical understanding of media, communication and society. In particular, it explores different aspects of the development of media and communication within a networked global world, media institutions and the economic, political, cultural and social consequences of media concentration and convergence; media audiences and effects; media as a institution and instrument of state and state policy; and various issues and debates related to the role of the media in societies. The module also looks at the development of new media technologies as providing alternative and oppositional opportunities and perspectives; as an autonomous public sphere; as a key mobilising resource used by collective movements and protest groups to challenge dominant ideological and hegemonic representations and common sense understandings of the world. This module will be of interest to those interested in examining the role of different media and media institutions in a transnationally communicative world.

This module aims to critically explore and understand violence in all its angles and meanings and from a global perspective - from personal violence, domestic violence and gender violence, to systemic violence and violence perpetrated by the state and its apparatus, from the street violence of riots and political radicalism to the inherent violence of globalisation, capitalism, fundamentalism and language. You will be offered the opportunity to develop a critical knowledge of a number of issues related to violence and to locate them both within a national and a global perspective.

Many contemporary nation states are increasingly characterised by diversity, to the point of being commonly referred to as 'cosmopolitan'. Such diversity may be presented as threat and/or opportunity, depending on the nature and extent of that diversity, and on the standpoint from which the diversity is being judged. This module seeks to explore some of the most significant dimensions of diversity, as experienced within the late-modern era. In so doing, it will examine the nature, dynamics, effects and conflicts surrounding these diversities, and consider both the commonalities and differences associated with them. The module will adopt a comparative approach, examining the varied ways in which diversity becomes significant in different national contexts.

This module provides you with the knowledge and skills to develop an in-depth understanding of the sociology of contentious politics. The emphasis of the module is on the social context in which social movements arise to articulate and address the problems and conflicts of their time. You will be introduced to the main theoretical and conceptual approaches to the study of social conflict and social change in an historical context, as well as the epistemological and methodological issues that pertain to the study of social transformation. The module culminates in a focus on the contemporary context of the global financial crisis and the social conflicts that have arisen in its wake.

This module explores gender and sexuality studies and relates theoretical debates to contemporary issues around this area. Drawing upon a range of theoretical frameworks, and the ways in which gender and sexuality have been positioned within the social sciences, this module will begin by exploring the history of feminism and its impacts on gender and sexuality studies, and continue looking at specific examples of issues related to gender and sexuality on a national and international level. Specifically, the module aims to develop your knowledge and understanding of gender and sexuality studies, recognising the important role that gender and sexuality have in regulating social life and beliefs.

This module will critically examine theoretical understandings of diaspora, its relationship with associated ideas such as migration, cosmopolitanism and transnationalism, and its significance as an analytical tool for understanding modern social and cultural formations. It centres on the analysis of the cultural and social concomitants of transnational migration and diaspora in the post-colonial world. Whilst issues such as globalisation, the international division of labour and the state remain important to this, the emphasis throughout the module is upon the lived experience: the ways in which different people experience and make meaningful migration, displacement, and difference. Here, home, belonging and identity are key phrases. Crucially too, you shall be investigating the implications of large scale movement for academic as well as more popular understandings of culture. Theoretical perspectives on migration and migrant communities have changed radically in the last twenty to thirty years, moving from consideration of assimilation, ethnic minorities and multi-culturalism, to contemporary debates concerning cultural hybridity, borderlands and the trope of mobilities.

Placements provide an opportunity for you to apply, consolidate and develop skills and knowledge gained in the classroom to the responsibilities of the placement and future employment. You will be assisted to find an appropriate placement with an organisation relevant to your studies where you will develop and apply critical and reflective capabilities in an employment context.

You can find more information about this course in the programme specification. Optional modules are usually available at levels 5 and 6, although optional modules are not offered on every course. Where optional modules are available, you will be asked to make your choice during the previous academic year. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, or there are staffing changes which affect the teaching, it may not be offered. If an optional module will not run, we will advise you after the module selection period when numbers are confirmed, or at the earliest time that the programme team make the decision not to run the module, and help you choose an alternative module.