psychology vs psychology...?!?!? (1 Viewer)

[Michiru]

hello. i'm going to uni next year and i want to be psychology. I heard that macq is the best uni for psychology and that heaps of 2nd and 3rd year students from usyd and unsw transfer to macq. is that all true?

also..there seems to be A LOT of different psychology courses. can anyone give me a general idea of the differences in the courses (eg Science - Psychology vs Arts Psychology vs Psychology (honours) vs Psychology combined with Law)

are the psychology courses much the same no matter if it is science or arts, or are they drastically different?

i'm so confused >.<

 

[Tabris]

CHeck with clairegirl, or skittled or MJ or CYan Phoenix, they are the ones doing it and are into their 2nd and 3rd year of it, they have a good idea whats in it, they are all very well immersed into their psy units

I think the main difference are the units u do, but if u want to major in psychology then i think u do the same core units?

http://www.handbook.mq.edu.au/orgunit.php?edition=2005&id=19566

This hand book link shows what u can do and the differences in the different degrees

 

[fornstar]

hey i was doing arts-psych and from what i gather there is no real difference btw doing arts-psych, science-psych and psych(honours) in terms of the actual units you take, because doing arts/science-psych is doing a bachelor of arts/science and majoring in psych.

the degree combined with law will obviously be different because you are doing a double degree, so you will be doing both law and psych units (speak to MaryJane about this one, im pretty sure shes doing it)

oh and u can also do bba/arts-psych which is another double degree where you do bba units and psych units

about the quality of MQ and their psych degrees, my tutor who this year ran PSY105 (Intro to Psych II) actually came from UNSW to MQ to finish his degree because he heard how good MQ was.

i don't think theres anything to get that confused over. its good that they have so many different psych degrees that basically let you end up with the same thing. the uai for science-psych is lower than arts-psych (i think?) as is the uai for arts-psych lower than psych (honours), so you have options depending on the UAI u get

i dont know how useful this was and if its not im sorry, but heaps of ppl on BOS do a degree with psych in it, so im sure they can help

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

hello. i'm going to uni next year and i want to be psychology. I heard that macq is the best uni for psychology and that heaps of 2nd and 3rd year students from usyd and unsw transfer to macq. is that all true?

also..there seems to be A LOT of different psychology courses. can anyone give me a general idea of the differences in the courses (eg Science - Psychology vs Arts Psychology vs Psychology (honours) vs Psychology combined with Law)

are the psychology courses much the same no matter if it is science or arts, or are they drastically different?

i'm so confused >.<

Your right about their being a lot of psychology. There are many areas - social, personality, bio, neuro, cognitive and perception psychology.

I'm pretty sure Barts/science-psychology are the same, though you might have to do slightly more science units for the latter (i think there is a requirment for X amount of units being from the sciences if you were to do the latter, but given that psych is also a science it may end up being the same thing).

There is a difference between Barts/science psych and honours. In second year, honours requires you do an extra yearly unit - psy232 (which from 2006 onwards will be split into two half year subs). Plus you need to do 24 psych units in third year unlike the 16 units for arts/science.

basically if u do an Barts/science-psych and choose psy232 and do 24 psych units in 3rd year as elective, you can get into honours if your good enough-thats what i am hoping to do as i decided that i like psych enough (i only decided this year, its very hard to know if psych is your thing from the 1st year subs, which seem very general).

 

[clairegirl]

law/arts-psyche (yeah ask mj about that)

As for science/arts-psyche .... jamie's right you do have to do sciencey type subjects as your electives, whereas with arts-psyche u dont have to (i think... someone interpret this (its from the handbook)

Arts-Psyche
General Requirements
Number of credit points required for the degree 68
Minimum number of credit points required at 200 level or above 38
Minimum number of credit points required at 300 level 18

Specific Requirements
100 level
Core PSY104 Introduction to Psychology I (3) 3
Core PSY105 Introduction to Psychology II (3) 3
Core either STAT170 Introductory Statistics (3)
or STAT171 Statistical Data Analysis (3) 3
200 level
Core PSY234 Social and Personality Psychology (3) 3
Core PSY235 Developmental Psychology (3) 3
Core PSY236 Biopsychology and Learning (3) 3
Core PSY237 Cognition and Perception (3) 3
Core one of BIOL235 Biostatistics (3)
PSY222 Design and Statistics II (4)
STAT270 Applied Statistics (3)
STAT271 Statistics I (3) 3
300 level
Core PSY332 Principles of Psychological Assessment (4) 4
Core 8 cp from PSY units 8
Electives
Balance of credit points required 32
TOTAL CREDIT POINTS REQUIRED FOR THIS PROGRAM 68


BSc-Psych - Bachelor of Science-Psychology

PSYC04 - Psychology (Undergraduate Study Pattern)
Major: Psychology
Area of Study: Psychology
Degrees: BSc-Psych - Bachelor of Science-Psychology (UAC Preference 300129)
Offered By: Department of Psychology,
LP - Division of Linguistics and Psychology

General Requirements
Number of credit points required for the degree 68
Minimum number of credit points required at 200 level or above 38
Minimum number of designated science credit points required at 200 level or above 34
Minimum number of designated science credit points required at 300 level 18

Specific Requirements
100 level
Core PSY104 Introduction to Psychology I (3) 3
Core PSY105 Introduction to Psychology II (3) 3
Core either STAT170 Introductory Statistics (3)
or STAT171 Statistical Data Analysis (3) 3
200 level
Core PSY234 Social and Personality Psychology (3) 3
Core PSY235 Developmental Psychology (3) 3
Core PSY236 Biopsychology and Learning (3) 3
Core PSY237 Cognition and Perception (3) 3
Core one of BIOL235 Biostatistics (3)
PSY222 Design and Statistics II (4)
STAT270 Applied Statistics (3)
STAT271 Statistics I (3) 3
300 level
Core PSY332 Principles of Psychological Assessment (4) 4
Core 8 cp from PSY units 8
Electives
Balance of credit points required 32
TOTAL CREDIT POINTS REQUIRED FOR THIS PROGRAM 68

Anyway none of us are really following the exact Psychology (Honours) degree except Cyan I think..... the rest of us are doing double degrees, i don't know about mj or skittled and if they're aiming for honours but cyan is... theres compulsory subjects u need to take up as electives if you want to get into honours, which i'm not doing heheh yay.

If you want to be a registered psychologist the quickest/easiest way..is through a psychology (honors) degree. If you don't get the UAI, do Arts-psychology

If your not sure about psychology do a double degree, however doing a double degree makes it harder to get into honors... in my experience n e way, in terms of getting good consistent grades that are needed to get into honors.

Anyway im blabbing and im tired, i dont even know if that helped u or not, (i tried!)

Psychology is good! We here on BOS personally all love it

 

[televators]

an important thing for choosing psych degrees...

make sure it is APS accredited...if it is- then it should not matter what course at what uni you choose (BA-Psy, BSc-Psy and BPsy (hons), along with other double degree courses at macq are all APS accredited)

i think with a subject like psych, it shouldnt matter what uni you go- provided each degree meets APS requirements- ie there are certain specific subjects the APS requires you to do in each degree

( e.g. i think 2nd-3rd year stats would be an APS requirement, which is incorporated into macq psych degrees)... think of these as 'professional subjects'

therefore every APS accredited degree (regardless of the uni) would need to have the same material covered in order to receive the professional recognition- psychology is not like Law in the sense the 'university itself' matters (prominent academics in mq psych dept told me this if anyone tries to refute this)

btw- APS= Australian Psychological Society (you should be able to check up on all APS-Accredited degree on their site....i think!)

(disclaimer- i am aware of the fact professional psychology requires more things, but I am merely outlying the way to properly choose the undergrad progam)

 

[GoodToGo]

With a BA-Psy/LLB, you cannot become a registered psychologist...unless you do quite a few extra units (and honours and masters/placement ofcourse).

 

[Skittled]

Apparently Macq has its reputation because of the work of people like Doris McIllwain, John Cunningham, Peter Wenderoth, etc, who came a few years ago from Sydney uni becuase they had the S's with syd's atmosphere and restrictions -- while MQ is the "innovative" uni.

With a BA-Psy/LLB, you cannot become a registered psychologist...unless you do quite a few extra units (and honours and masters/placement ofcourse).

Correct -- along with every other Bachelor Psych degree anywhere in Australia. To become a registered 'psychologist' you've gotta do 6 years of study -- typically a Bachelor, Honours and Masters/Doctorate/whatever. PhD's don't count for the last bit, so you could have a PhD in psychology, and not be a 'psychologist'

...might have to do slightly more science units for the [b. science] (i think there is a requirment for X amount of units being from the sciences if you were to do the latter, but given that psych is also a science it may end up being the same thing).general).

Spot on.

an important thing for choosing psych degrees...

make sure it is APS accredited...if it is- then it should not matter what course at what uni you choose (BA-Psy, BSc-Psy and BPsy (hons), along with other double degree courses at macq are all APS accredited)

Good point -- I'd never thought of this. However, I'd imagine most of the uni's would make sure of this, or else the news of it would circulate pretty quickly and they'd get no enrolments... Macq is accredited, definetly.

 

[Watsername]

I really want to study psycholgy and Maquarie has been sounding really good for me, but it would be an hour travel each way to get there while unsw is like 15 minutes, so i do'nt know if mq is going to be worth it?

I got 93.3, so if I went to mq I would probably be doing Bsci(Psych) and if I went to unsw I would be doing adv science, I'm not sure what I could get into at usyd..so yeah, does anyone have any advice for me? I'm really confused

 

[Skittled]

I live about 25-30 minutes away from MQ by car. That sort of distance -- considering I drive -- is very convenient. When I didn't drive, public transport was a bitch.

It's awesome to be close to uni. That said, MQ is renowned for the quality of its psych courses. Science and ARts psych courses are the same, when it comes to the psych part. When you're talking about the other units (because only a portion of the course is actually psych -- the rest is specified units from other areas of study, or electives) they change -- a BSc requires you to do a minimum amount of science units; so, you'll be doing some chem, some bio, etc.

However, with the BA you can do whatever you like. If you want to do the sciences, you can, but if you want to avoid them and prefer history or sociology or anything else in the uni (Except for business and law, essentially), that's an option.

So: BA is slightly more flexible to what you want to do, with less strict requirements. From there, you can always change from a BA to a BSc, but not the other way around without losing credit for units.

 

[fornstar]

I really want to study psycholgy and Maquarie has been sounding really good for me, but it would be an hour travel each way to get there while unsw is like 15 minutes, so i do'nt know if mq is going to be worth it?

it takes me 2 hours to get to uni by bus and sure its a pain but it doesn't bother me that much. the only thing that gets to me is the freaks and weirdo's that seem to catch the 545.

when i was doing arts-psych i was only at uni 3 days a week so it isn't that bad. plus if you really enjoy your degree and want to be at uni than spending one hour on a bus shouldn't be a problem.

plus our psych is better than UNSW

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

The difference between BA-psych, Bsci-psych, and Bpsych (honours) is misleading when you first choose your course. I had no idea how similar they all are and how it is actually reasonably easy to go from a BA/Bsci-psych to Bpsych (honours). That is, if you miss the uai cut-off for honours there is always a chance of getting into it by doing the arts/science-psych with a few psych electives (and finish no later than had you done an honours to begin with). Although you need a certain gpa to get from arts/science-psych to honours, it is actually no different to someone who got into honours first off because even if you had gotten into honours you still need a similar gpa by 3rd year to complete it.

 

[clairegirl]

The difference between BA-psych, Bsci-psych, and Bpsych (honours) is misleading when you first choose your course. I had no idea how similar they all are and how it is actually reasonably easy to go from a BA/Bsci-psych to Bpsych (honours). That is, if you miss the uai cut-off for honours there is always a chance of getting into it by doing the arts/science-psych with a few psych electives (and finish no later than had you done an honours to begin with). Although you need a certain gpa to get from arts/science-psych to honours, it is actually no different to someone who got into honours first off because even if you had gotten into honours you still need a similar gpa by 3rd year to complete it.

really? i thought for psych (honours) u only needed a gpa of 3 in ur third year whereas with a arts-psyche (honours) degree u need a GPA of 3.25

hrrm not sure, so dont quote me on that, i just thought i heard it somewhere

 

[clairegirl]

I really want to study psycholgy and Maquarie has been sounding really good for me, but it would be an hour travel each way to get there while unsw is like 15 minutes, so i do'nt know if mq is going to be worth it?

People on BOS don't hurt me, i love psychology at macquarie jus as much as everyone else on here, but if i was 15 mins away from unsw.. I'de go there!

UNSW psychology is gooooood, they've got an excellent reputation for psychology. I've also been to their website and their grad stats are great and judging by our websites only.. unsw has programs to help u get jobs straight after u graduate... from what i looked at a while ago and macquarie hasn't (from what im aware of anywho)

I like UNSW.

 

[Cyan_phoeniX]

Hmm. if this were the case im almost positive it would be the other way around, because it is harder to get into Bpsych (honours) as far as im aware. Can we get a third opinion on that though..

People on BOS don't hurt me, i love psychology at macquarie jus as much as everyone else on here, but if i was 15 mins away from unsw.. I'de go there!

UNSW psychology is gooooood, they've got an excellent reputation for psychology. I've also been to their website and their grad stats are great and judging by our websites only.. unsw has programs to help u get jobs straight after u graduate... from what i looked at a while ago and macquarie hasn't (from what im aware of anywho)

I like UNSW.

traaaaaaiiittttorrrrr!!!!!!!!!