Psychology subjects guide

When it comes to the most popular subjects to study at degree level, you'll almost always find psychology near the very top of the list. Don't believe us? In 2019 alone, one in 20 students who were accepted onto undergraduate courses in the UK chose psychology*.

What Is Psychology and Why Is It So Interesting?

There's a really good yet simple reason why so many people choose to study psychology: because it's all about us! So, what is psychology? It's about how our minds influence the way we think about things, how we behave around others, how we communicate with people and how we react to the challenges life throws our way.

Better still, it's a career with a bright future. In 2020, the US Department of Labor predicted over the next decade that US demand for clinical, counselling and school psychologists will grow by 3%, social scientists by 4% and occupational psychologists by 3%**. Google Trends data also shows UK searches for ‘become a therapist’ have increased by 77% over the past five years (May 2o17 – 2022).

UCAS (2019) Undergraduate End of Cycle Data (2019) UCAS

Arden University students with advisor at study centre

The disciplines of psychology

You might be wondering ‘what can you do with a psychology degree?’ and the answer is: so much! Psychology touches all parts of our lives, meaning if you have a particular passion, there's a good chance there's a career around the psychology of it.

That social media ad that persuaded you to buy your new trainers? Plenty of marketing psychology went into it. The people advising on how to turn aggressive dogs into bundles of calm cuteness? They're animal behaviourists. Those that help people come through dark periods of their lives? They're counsellors who'll have studied psychology.

Discover the disciplines of psychology

Find out more about each of these disciplines by clicking the cards below.

Behavioural psychology

Learn why humans behave the way they do and how you can use this information to make a positive impact on both an individual and societal level.

Find out more

Cognitive psychology

Discover how people process and make sense of information from the outside world, covering areas such as perception, thinking, memory, attention, language, and learning.

Find out more

Counselling psychology

Help people overcome adversity and improve their well-being through a thorough understanding of personality, cognition, communication, and modern counselling practices.

Find out more

Criminal psychology

Use psychology to understand the motives of criminals - their thinking, their motives, and their actions, all with a view to apprehending them.

Find out more

Forensic psychology

Understand the psychological underpinnings of criminal behaviour and their application to critical areas such as criminal justice, mental health and social services, and more.

Find out more

Industrial and organisational psychology

Apply psychological principles to help organisations achieve their goals, all while improving overall workforce performance and well-being.

Find out more

Social psychology

Uncover our perception of ourselves in relation to the world around us and the impact of social relationships and interactions on human behaviour.

Find out more

Sports psychology

Get inside the minds of sportspeople and understand how to help athletes reach and maintain peak performance levels.

Find out more

A very brief history of psychology

The origins of psychology go back thousands of years - to the Greek philosophers, Aristotle and Plato. They, with many other figures from early history, laid the foundations for what we know psychology as today.

However, it was Wilhelm Wundt's opening of the world's first psychology labe at the University of Leipzig (1879) that helped to set psychology up as the field of scientific study - separate from philosophy and biology - and one which thousands of you chose to study every year.

Arden University criteria for partnership

Why study psychology at Arden University?

So, why study psychology at Arden? One word: flexibility. And lots of it. We offer two options - online learning and blended learning.

Online learning lets you enrol no matter where you are in the world. That's right, you can sit your psychology degree with Arden, 100% remotely. This gives you the freedom to organise your study time around your life - childcare, work, and socialising.

Blended learning offers the best of both worlds. Think the traditional face-to-face learning mixed with online learning - via ilearn, our cloud-based uni campus. You can choose to study from one of our many learning centres across the UK or Germany.

Find out more about the benefits online learning and blended learning.