Clinical Psychology BSc (Hons)

Understand key aspects of clinical psychology and consider what kind of practitioner you want to be. Develop the skills necessary to work with people who have mental health problems. Graduate with a comprehensive view of what clinical psychology is and what it can achieve.

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Overview

Through our integrated modules, you will gain an understanding of all aspects of psychology (such as developmental, biological, cognitive, and evolutionary), considering the overlaps and how this can explain and help to treat different mental health problems.

You will be introduced to key concepts in clinical psychology such as patient assessment, formulation and professional and ethical conduct. There is an emphasis on practical skills and reflective practice throughout the course in addition to studying topics such as addiction, psychosis, cognitive and emotional impairments, and depression.

Learn about mental health in depth, considering ethical and current issues around policy and politics of diagnosis and assessment. With further modules based around patient care and assessment, formulation, and professional and ethical conduct, you will develop the skills to become a reflective practitioner.

Why us?

Our undergraduate Psychology courses are ranked 1st (of 12 institutions, 31 respondents) for Overall Engagement (UKES, 2020)
The School of Psychology was awarded an Athena Swan Bronze Award in 2021, in recognition of its commitment to supporting and transforming gender equality
This course is accredited by the British Psychological Society (BPS). Students who graduate with a 2:2 or above have Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership to the BPS which is an essential step to becoming a Clinical Psychologist

Our teaching staff have their own varied clinical experience, so will integrate many real-life examples of their practice and research into the teaching programme.
Opportunities for clinical or therapy-based placements and to take part in multi-disciplinary team collaborations with other local University students.

Course structure

Teaching methods include lectures, small-group seminars, but also student-centric models such as problem-based learning, using your own psychological knowledge to address realistic issues. We also offer optional professional placement opportunities to students in their second and third years. Students are required to complete a clinical or therapeutic placement as part of a core stage three module.Assessments include essays, exams, and case studies. You will also have the opportunity for creative assessments, including presentations, reports, art pieces and podcasts. Our feedforward system will help provide extensive feedback to identify the key components for you to work on and how you can achieve this.

Year 1 (national level 4):

Core modules

Being a Psychologist (40 credits)

Learn the essential skills needed to study psychology at degree level including academic skills, personal development and research studies. Broaden academic and psychological literacy via a series of research projects and practicals supported by personal tutors.

Connect the twin themes of research methods/statistics and academic development and appreciate how research and statistics are designed, performed and interpreted in light of the complex theories that are created by the researcher with an emphasis on the process of becoming an ethical co-creator of knowledge alongside academic staff.

Genes to Mind (20 credits)

Consider the relationship between biology and the human mind. Examine how DNA ultimately gives rise to thinking, conscious and complex human beings. Explore genetics and evolution, as well as the core areas of biological psychology, cognitive psychology and individual differences across topics as diverse as addiction, altruism, and sexuality.

Mind to World (20 credits)

Learn the story of how single units of personhood (or ‘minds’) interact with one another and come together to create societies. Focus on the way in which humans communicate with each other and operate in their social world. Explore the core areas of developmental psychology, cognitive psychology and social psychology across topics such as perception, language, interpersonal relationships, emotion, autism, and psychopathy.

Introduction to Mental Health (20 credits)

Examine biological, cognitive, and social models of mental illness and mental health. Consider a number of mental health problems including mood disorders (such as depression and anxiety), psychotic disorders (such as schizophrenia), eating disorders, and personality disorders. Analyse behaviours that pose a risk to physical and mental health, including alcohol and drug use, poor diet, and a lack of physical activity. Discuss public health approaches to mental health and wellbeing and how we can aim to improve the mental health of the general population and/or lower risk of mental illness, by considering social networks, social inequality, and happiness.

Introduction to Clinical Psychology (20 credits)

Study the core skills of clinical psychology – assessment, formulation, multi-disciplinary team-working, evidence-based practice, professional ethics, engaging with patients/service-users, and reflection. Learn about the set of competencies that a Chartered Clinical Psychologist must meet and will learn why these competencies are required including the value of a formulation-based approach to treating mental health problems. You will also be encouraged to begin developing some of these core skills through a series of workshops which will involve role-playing and input from other health care disciplines.

Some modules have prerequisites. Read more about what this means in our Help and Advice article.

Year 2 (national level 5):

Core modules

Psychological Research Design and Analysis (20 credits)

Work on a number of research projects across core areas of psychology. Develop more advanced skills in research methods, and gain opportunities to have input into research design as you become more skilled. Learn more advanced data analysis skills and apply these in the research projects.

Skills for Life: The Psychology of Personal and Professional Development (20 credits)

Explore your own potential as a lifelong learner and leader. Develop your understanding of the importance of agency and self-advocacy in relation to life and career transitions and how lifelong learning can enhance social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development, but also self-sustainability and employability.

Use research techniques that include psychometric measures, narrative and storytelling. Undertake volunteering opportunities to provide an additional context in which to consider your lifelong learning and leadership characteristics – and to develop a sense of your future professional self.

Cradle to Grave: Integrated Perspectives on Development (20 credits)

Meet a fictional family as you learn about the psychology of the human journey through the lifespan, from parent-offspring conflict in the womb to explanations for ageing and death. Explore topics including attachment, the 'teenage brain' and challenges in adolescence, personality development and cognitive change.

Twenty-Four, Seven: Everyday Motivations and Biases (20 credits)

Apply social, cognitive and biological psychology to understanding everyday motivations and biases in, for example, perception and memory. Explore topics including vision and sensory perception, social group processes, aggression, eyewitness testimony and eating disorders.

Investigating Complex Issues in Psychology (20 credits)

Explore specialist psychology routes such as clinical skills, health and wellbeing, counselling and forensic psychology. Draw on your own knowledge of psychology and apply different perspectives to current, real-world psychological issues in a problem-based learning context. Work in groups with other students to learn from one another about the role of the different specialisms, and how these can be successfully integrated and applied.

Assessment, Formulation, and Evidence-based Practice (20 credits)

Focus on three core skills of clinical psychology. Examine methods used by psychologists to assess a service user including psychometric tests, interview and taking a history. Learn how a clinical psychologist integrates the results of assessments with different psychological models to develop hypotheses and interventions tailored to the individual. Evaluate the effectiveness of practice based on existing evidence, for example through reading systematic reviews, and learn how to design your own research to evaluate the effectiveness of psychological practice.

Final year (national level 6):

Core modules:

Empirical Research Project (40 credits)

Work with a supervisor to apply what you have learned in research methods modules to your own research project. Report your findings in an extensive research report, and present your project in the form of an academic poster at our poster conference.

Mental Health and Illness (20 credits)

Explore the various psychological approaches to mental health problems and the therapies and treatments which arise from these models. Take into account the perspectives of users of mental health services. This module will be of interest to those hoping to enter clinical or therapeutic work as well as those interested in psychological perspectives on mental illness.

Professional Practice (20 credits)

Learn about key current issues in Clinical Psychology and discuss whether clinical psychologists should take a more political role and whether there is a problem with a lack of diversity in clinical psychology. Learn about the key ethical and legal obligations people who work in mental health care deal with.

Patient Engagement and Reflective Practice (20 credits)

Develop your ability to build an empathic relationship with someone who is in contact with clinical services, and critically reflect on your experience of this process. Learn about the ways in which service-users/carers can shape mental health services and evaluate how well engaging service-users/carers in service development works.

Optional modules (choose one):

Please note, the full list of optional modules may change from year to year.

Occupational Psychology (20 credits)

Focus on the scope of occupational psychology and its application to work, employees and organisations. Cover topics aligned with the British Psychology Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology such as psychological assessment at work; learning, training, and development; leadership, engagement, and motivation; wellbeing and work.

Research to Reality (20 credits)

Engage with, and evaluate, some of the ‘big issues’ at the cutting edge of psychology, including free will, the nature of consciousness, the interface between psychology and politics, and cybercrime. This module will encourage you to look beyond your university experience and to engage with psychological aspects of current culture and society.

Development and Neurodiversity (10 credits)

Learn about the development of our understanding of Neurodiversity and the historical progression of how we have characterised Neurodiverse populations, including Autism Spectrum Conditions and Williams Syndrome, from early diagnostic formulation to current day. Examine biological aspects of Neurodiversity such as brain differences, as well as their relevance to cognition and behaviour. Critically engage with topics of current relevance in Neurodiversity, including relationships, healthcare and education.

Environmental Psychology (20 credits)

Gain specialist knowledge of Environmental Psychology, an applied sub-discipline of Psychology which bridges a range of core areas and related disciplines such as architecture, planning, and geography. Cover topics which include the role of the environment in social development and relationships, the relationships between environments, health and wellbeing, place attachment, place identity and the importance of home.

Psychology of Addiction (20 credits)

Take an introductory look at the psychology of both substance and non-substance-related addictive behaviours. Examine a variety of addictive behaviours such as alcoholism, addiction to psychoactive drugs, gambling, and sex addiction, as well as theories relating to the development, persistence, control and treatment of addictive behaviours. Link these behaviours to various areas of psychology such as the biological effects of drug use, how cognition plays a role in addictive behaviours and the social implications of addiction.

Optional modules continued:

Clinical Neuropsychology (20 credits)

Look at the nature of cognitive and emotional impairments following brain damage in adults. Cover topics including the causes of brain damage in adults, cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's Disease, neuropsychological assessment procedures and rehabilitation following brain injury.

Health Psychology and Behaviour Change (20 credits)

Examine how psychological concepts, principles and theories can be applied to understand and alleviate problems associated with health and health-related behaviours. Cover topics which include personality, health and illness, sociocultural aspects of health and illness, and stress and health. Focus on psychological interventions aimed at changing health-related behaviours.

The Psychology of Serious and Violent Offending (20 credits)

Apply psychology to understanding offenders and a number of common forms of serious and violent offending encountered in forensic settings. Draw on approaches from across the discipline of psychology, applying psychological theory and research to aspects of serious and violent offending, for example gang violence and crime, intimate partner violence and other forms of domestic violence, sexual violence, murder, terrorism, financial and corporate crime, cybercrime.

Digital Humans: The Psychology of Online Behaviour (20 credits)

Study cyberpsychology, the psychology of how humans interact with technology and online environments. Look at the online world and its impact on human behaviour. Explore how humans have adapted to a world with increasing amounts of technology: becoming digital humans in the process. Study the rise of artificial technology, and its impact on human behaviours. Consider how we interact with virtual environments, explore virtual identity, online vs. offline behaviours, and how we approach privacy and self-disclosure in an increasingly digital world.

Advanced Quantitative Methods (10 credits)

Further develop your research design and data analysis skills, building on the foundations provided at Years 1 and 2. Cover advanced quantitative research design and acquire a number of advanced data analysis techniques.

Male Psychology (10 credits)

Examine male psychology supported by the Male Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society. Find out about key psychological issues that affect men and boys, such as physical and mental health issues, grief, suicide, trauma, male stereotypes and archetypes, intimate partner violence, sexual assault and fatherhood. Learn about the impact of acknowledging and understanding sex differences for full understanding of the human condition, and how this may enable us to tailor support and interventions to men facing issues. Critically consider modern conceptualisations of masculinity such as toxic masculinity and positive masculinity.

Professional Placement (10 credits)

Enhance your employability by completing a placement with a professional organisation, possibly, but not necessarily, related to psychology. Past placements have included conducting research and analysing data for NHS trusts and private clinical organisations or working as psychology teaching and research assistants.

Dark Personalities (10 credits)

Explore the dark side of the human mind by engaging in the psychological study of dark personality. Learn about the ‘Dark Tetrad’ traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy and sadism. Consider why men with dark personality are often attractive to women. Learn about dark personality disorders, focusing on psychopathy. Discuss ethical issues raised by psychopathy, and consider questions such as: Are psychopaths born or made? How are the brains of psychopaths different, and how does this affect how they think and feel? Why do some psychopaths commit violent crimes? Are psychopaths natural leaders? Why are psychopaths so prevalent in popular culture?

Memory and Life (10 credits)

Study real world issues and problems relating to memory, for example, recovered and false memories, post-traumatic stress disorder and memory, memory closure and expressive writing, childhood amnesia, pregnancy and memory, life stories and post-traumatic growth, mindfulness and memory, role of memory making in mental health after perinatal loss, simulation of future experiences and anxiety.

Helen McArdle House is based on our City Campus and has benefited from multi-million pound investment in modern facilities in recent years.
Many of our healthcare courses are taught here, including Nursing, Paramedic Science, Medicine and Healthcare Sciences, and our School of Psychology is also based here.
The building is made up of a variety of teaching and learning spaces, including mock hospital wards, OSCE suites, the Patient Diagnostic Suite, Mental Health and Wellbeing Suite and seminar and IT classrooms.
A lot of academic staff offices are based here, with an open-door policy in place.
Helen McArdle House
The Living Lab boasts a unique immersive simulation room, that allows participants to experience a range of simulated scenarios in a safe environment. The space is designed to make scenarios feel as close to reality as possible, to enable students to practice their clinical skills safely. An adjacent debrief room allows groups to observe the scenario in the immersive suite through a live stream (projected onto TV screens) and provide peer feedback and group discussion following the completion of the scenario.
Immersive Suite
The University boasts a collection of more than 430,000 books with many more titles available through the inter-library loan service. There are nearly 9,000 journal titles, mostly in electronic format. Each year the University invests around £1 million in new resources. Resources for Counselling and Psychology include:
- PsycARTICLES - This is an American Psychological Association (APA) database containing full-text articles from over 50 peer-reviewed Psychology journals covering 1985 to the present
- Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection - This database provides nearly 575 full text publications and covers topics such as emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry and psychology, mental processes, counselling, and observational and experimental methods
- Science Direct - This provides some full text access to scientific and technical peer-reviewed journals. Coverage is all aspects of science, including Psychology and Counselling
- Web of Knowledge - Provides access to ISI Web of Science, a multidisciplinary database of journal abstracts and citations from 1981 to date
Library Services - counselling and psychology
The Mental Health Ward is designed to feel like a real Mental Health Ward, with bedrooms, a day room, seclusion room and treatment room, and is suitable to run a range of mental health scenarios.
Mental Health Ward
Our Psychology courses are based on City Campus. There are a range of classrooms and teaching spaces, including: Silent Labs (including a sound proof booth) and 1-2-1 interview rooms for research work; Powerlabs; the Sandbox, a communal space for Psychology students to relax and study; plus dedicated laboratories for specialist research work.
School of Psychology
We have specialist psychological and computer laboratories for our counselling, forensic, clinical and psychology courses, plus the ‘Sandbox’, a dedicated space for you to develop ideas collaboratively.

Our specialist facilities include:
- High specification research cubicles, including a soundproof cubicle
- Visual psychophysics laboratory
- SkillsLab, a 30-seater IT suite
- Powerlab psychophysiological measurement equipment
- A transcranial direct-current brain stimulation machine (tDCS)
- Eye tracking laboratory
- Private interview booths
- Simulation and behavioural observation suites
- Multimedia and games research room
- Specialist data analysis and experiment building software
Specialist psychology laboratories
Map and directions

Facilities

The School of Psychology is based in the Murray Library on City Campus, close to the city centre and a three-minute walk from the University metro station.

You’ll find a range of specialist laboratories and excellent library resources here.

Entry requirements

Our typical offer is:

Qualification	Minimum grade
High School Diploma along with one of the following at the required grade: SAT I and SAT II, ACT or Advanced Placement	GPA 3.0 or above and: Sat score of 1100/1600 from SATs AP (Grades 3+ in at least 2 subjects) ACT (score of 26+)

If you don't meet our standard entry requirements, you can take one of the foundation pathways at our partners ONCAMPUS Sunderland. Find out more information and whether your course is eligible on our ONCAMPUS page.

If your qualification is not listed above, please contact the Student Administration team at studentadmin@sunderland.ac.uk for further advice.

If English is not your first language, please see our English language requirements.

Is your qualification not displaying here? For international qualifications, search our full list of international entry requirements for this course.

Fees and finance

The annual fee for this course is:

£9,250 if you are from the UK/Europe*
£14,000 if you are an international student

*European Union (EU), EEA (European Economic Area), and Swiss nationals who do not qualify for the EU Settlement Scheme are classed as international, however, for 23/24 admission you will receive a European student fee scholarship and will pay the home tuition fee rate for the duration of your studies. The discounted fee will be reflected in your offer letter. Learn more in our Help and Advice article.

Take a look at the Your Finances section to find out about the scholarships and bursaries that may be available to you.

This information was correct at the time of publication.

The Sir Tom Cowie Campus at St Peter's by night

Career ready

Graduating from any of our psychology programmes will provide you with a varied set of skills and attributes, valued by employers. Our graduates aspire to undertake doctoral post-graduate study and employment in a range of professions allied to Psychology and the Social Sciences.

Career options

Clinical Psychologists are usually employed in hospitals, health centres and community health care teams. However, many of our graduates go on to follow non-psychology career routes in social work, public services, HR and teaching due to the highly transferable skills you will gain.

Our clinical programme specifically focuses on developing skills valuable to obtaining assistant psychology positions or evidencing competencies for the clinical psychology doctorate.

Clinical Psychologists can be employed in hospitals, health centres, community mental health teams, and in social services. Graduates have had successful careers in public and private-sector organisations with roles including Therapists for autistic children, Project Officers in Social Services, Assistant Psychologists, Education Welfare Officers, personal fitness coaches, Recruitment Officers and more.

As of October 2022, Prospects suggests that graduates that go on to become trainee clinical psychologists start at £32,306 (Band 6) of the NHS and after qualification start at £40,057 (Band 7). Experienced psychologists can earn between £47,126 and £63,862 (NHS bands 8a and 8b).

Meet the students

During my time here I have found the School of Psychology to be like a little community.

Chloe Bradbury
For anyone wanting to start their career in psychology, I would definitely study at Sunderland.

Lauren Arnison

Related courses

Contact

Contact the Student Helpline for further information about studying at the University of Sunderland:

0191 515 3000

student.helpline@sunderland.ac.uk

View Programme Specifications for the Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellbeing.

Page last updated: 05 April 2023

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Clinical Psychology BSc (Hons)

Overview

Why us?

Course structure

Year 1 (national level 4):

Core modules

Year 2 (national level 5):

Core modules

Final year (national level 6):

Core modules:

Optional modules (choose one):

Optional modules continued:

Facilities

Entry requirements

Fees and finance

Career ready

Career options

Meet the students

Chloe Bradbury

Lauren Arnison

Meet the team — BSc (Hons) Clinical Psychology

Related courses

Contact

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