Psychology is a thought-provoking and exciting subject that develops your knowledge of forensic and investigative psychology, education psychology, critical social psychology and much more.
However, this subject-specific knowledge isn’t the only thing you’ll learn on a psychology course; you’ll also build a wide range of transferable skills that aid your personal and career development. Read on to learn more about how you’ll develop these important abilities…
1. Writing
At University of Essex Online, all of our degree programmes are assessed using assignments only. This means that every piece of work that you submit will receive feedback and advice on your written abilities, thus helping you to improve your everyday writing.
2. Critical thinking
Analysis of research and ideas is a key part of studying psychology as you must consider each source and theory that you reference or use. By developing this skill with the help of a tutor and your classmates, you can help to avoid costly mistakes later on in the workplace.
3. Time management
Studying online and part-time can be a challenging way to achieve a psychology qualification. But after fitting your studies around your work and family commitments for several years, you can be sure that you’ll develop an extremely strong sense of time management!
4. Reasoning
Applying logic and reason to non-quantifiable studies and theories is a key part of the analysis that’s required as part of a psychology degree. By practising this regularly through your studies, you’ll develop strong reasoning skills.
5. Communication
Whether you’re in the workplace or in the classroom, communication is key. Throughout your degree programme, you’ll develop the ability to communicate clearly and accurately as you interact regularly with tutors and fellow pupils in discussion forums and question and answer sessions.
6. Research
Carrying out research is a key part of many careers and the ability to find, collate and draw conclusions from your research is a valuable one to employers. Luckily for psychology students, this skill is also nurtured and developed in many modules.
7. Analysis
A large aspect of psychology study involves developing your own conclusions and arguments based upon previous studies and theories. Therefore, without even realising it, you’ll develop your analytical skills throughout the duration of your psychology course.
8. Problem-solving
The ability to logically assess a problem and then produce a solution is a valuable strength that many employers desire. This skill is developed naturally throughout the modules of a psychology degree as each assignment or task poses a particular problem or question to overcome.
9. Numeracy
While it might seem that psychology is a purely theoretical science, numeracy and statistics actually play a large role in many of the psychological theories. As you study, you’ll develop the ability to confidently organise and report on these figures and thus develop this extremely valuable transferable skill.
10. Prioritisation
A psychology programme is a demanding course, requiring you to read textbooks, write assignments and interact with fellow classmates. Staying on top of your workload, while also balancing your family and work commitments, will allow you to develop your ability to prioritise and focus on the most appropriate task.
Feeling inspired to study online?
Visit our course page to learn more about our BSc (Hons) Psychology or download a prospectus today.