You’ll specialise in understanding the psychological factors involved in mental and physical health, their causes, treatment and prevention. In clinical psychology, you’ll study behavioural problems in children, mental illness in adults, and psychological problems in old age including important contemporary issues such as eating disorders and drug misuse. In health psychology, you’ll examine the psychological factors that lead some individuals to behave in health-damaging ways and what happens when individuals become ill or disabled.

On this course, as well as gaining a thorough understanding of the broad range of topics relevant to modern day psychology, you’ll specialise in understanding the psychological factors involved in mental and physical health and you’ll develop clinically relevant skills and knowledge. In clinical psychology, you’ll study behavioural problems in children, mental illness in adults, and psychological problems in old age. This will include important contemporary issues such as eating disorders, body dysmorphia and drug misuse. You’ll analyse, not only what causes these problems but also how they can be treated, or, even better, prevented. In health psychology, you’ll examine the psychological factors that lead some individuals to behave in health-damaging ways, such as eating unhealthy diets, not taking enough exercise, or engaging in unsafe sexual behaviour. You’ll study what happens when individuals do become ill or disabled, with diseases such as heart disease and cancer, and how stress can impact general health. As well as understanding how things can go wrong, you’ll analyse how the situation can be improved through psychological interventions such as counselling and mindfulness, as well as the positive benefits of the science of wellbeing.

Psychology at Bangor University was founded in 1963 and is one of the UK's oldest and largest psychology departments. We regularly rank among the top 10 in the National Student Survey for overall student satisfaction and with over 1,000 students we're also one of the largest departments in the UK. Not only are we highly ranked for our teaching but we also have a global reputation for the quality of our research. In the most recent Research Exercise Framework, we ranked in the top 20 in the UK with 89% of our research considered either 'Internationally Excellent' or 'World leading'. This research feeds directly into our teaching ensuring a fresh, vibrant learning experience and a large and varied range of modules studied with academics who have an international reputation in their specialist area.

We have a cosmopolitan feel and a global outlook that attracts staff and students from all over the world to work and study with us. A key aspect of our success is our focus on both the academic and pastoral sides of the student experience and this effort is led by academics in the teaching team who provide high levels of support to our students. All of this combines to provide you with what we believe is a uniquely supportive, exciting and rewarding environment in which to study Psychology with Clinical and Health Psychology.

Why choose Bangor University for this course?

• 92% Student Satisfaction (National Student Survey 2020).
• 2nd (of 115) for Course satisfaction (Guardian Good University Guide 2021).
• Top 20 for Research Quality (Complete University Guide 2020).
• Specialist research labs including an MRI scanner, TMS, ERP, EEG and a Brain Anatomy lab.
• Academic expertise in clinical and health psychology and an exciting array of dissertation topics e.g. investigating student drinking behaviour, adverse childhood experiences, personality disorders and eating behaviour.

You’ll learn through a variety of lectures, seminars, tutorials, and practical's as well as self-guided learning. As an undergraduate student, you’ll gain an excellent grounding in various research methodologies used in the field by participating in current cutting-edge research being conducted in the school. We make extensive use of technology in order to enhance the learning experience including recording podcasts, and an innovative range of online assessments that, amongst other advantages, provide instant feedback. An increasing number of our modules can be followed through the medium of Welsh and students can choose to have a Welsh speaking tutor and complete their project in Welsh.

There is a wide range of continuous assessment on offer across the modules including essays, weekly homework, multiple choice tests, presentations, blogs, quizzes etc. throughout each semester and many modules include end of semester examinations.

What will you study on this course?

In your third year you will carry out a major research project in the area of clinical and/or health psychology. The project will be individually supervised by a member of staff who is a specialist in the appropriate research field giving you the opportunity to exercise your skills and knowledge alongside an expert. Our students regard the project as one of the most challenging, but also most rewarding elements of their course and our graduates have amongst the most highly developed research skills of any UK psychology graduates.

In years 1 and 2 you’ll take compulsory modules as for the BSc Psychology degree. These will give you a strong foundation in the wide-ranging reach of psychology before you go on to specialise in your third year where you’ll take at least half of your taught credits in clinical and health psychology specific modules.

Each year you study a total of 120 credits and the modules build up over the years to provide both breadth and depth of understanding with a focus on clinical and health psychology.

All graduates who achieve at least a 2:2 will be eligible for Graduate Based Chartered Membership (GBC) of the British Psychological Society (BPS).

Your Research

We put great emphasis on developing your research skills. Right from the start of your course you’ll begin to build an understanding of how to undertake research and you’ll also act as a participant in our ongoing research programmes. In this way, you’ll gradually acquire the skills you need to design and conduct your own research project in year 3. Your project will be related to clinical and health psychology in an area that fits with the research strengths of our staff. Recent projects include studies of how topics such as personality, how childhood experiences may contribute to psychopathology, the impacts of social media use on mental health and motivations for caregiving.

We have a wide range of specialist research laboratories including MRI, ERP, TMS, Eye tracking, etc.

Psychology with Clinical and Health Psychology focuses in developing skills suitable for a career in clinical practice, but is still suitable for students who want to follow any of the main psychological professions (clinical psychology, educational psychology, counselling psychology, health psychology etc). In addition, there are careers open to graduates and postgraduates from any discipline. These include, for example, careers in management training, accountancy, teaching, nursing, social work, the police and the armed forces. Employers are usually looking for general or transferable skills, and a psychology degree provides a unique combination of these as it is both a literate and numerate discipline.

Previous graduates from the BSc Psychology with Clinical and Health Psychology course have gone into a wide range of career paths including, but not limited to, assistant psychologists and clinical psychologists, research and academia, working in schools and prisons as well as data scientists in industry.

Employability is a key theme of all the psychology programmes you can follow at Bangor and we have embedded a large number of opportunities within our degrees that provide you as strong a CV as possible and equip you with a host of transferable skills that are relevant to both psychology and non-psychology related careers. The simple fact that you’ll graduate from an internationally renowned, research intensive psychology department adds additional value to your degree and improves your employability.

Psychology is the scientific study of how people behave, feel, think and learn. As a science and as a profession, Psychology makes a difference to people in the real world, by improving quality of life across a wide range of areas. We are proud of our strengths in teaching, learning and research, ensuring that you’ll be learning the science and application of psychology from world class researchers and lecturers