“I enjoyed the smaller campus - it had a more personal and friendlier feel. The psychology students enjoy a collaborative relationship with their lecturers, and have autonomy over their own learning.”
Charmaine Bright, 2007 Graduate
What is Psychology?
Psychology studies the human brain:
- to understand how people think and feel in different situations;
- to clarify how people relate and behave in society, especially in different social environments and groups, and how these clusters affect behaviour;
- to understand modern life situations such as: mental illness and health, violence and trauma, drug and alcohol abuse, family issues, culture and ethnicity, gender, migrant status, political disorder, and not only how they affect individuals, but also how to help people through these traumas.
Undergraduate
Skills acquired?
- Effective communication
- Good writing skills
- IT skills
- Sound people skills
- An understanding of individual and group dynamics
- Analytical skills
- Think critically and solve problems
- Ability to tolerate ambiguity
- Respect the complexity of diversity
- Understand Psychology as applied to work, personal and real-world situations
- Principles of research design
Career opportunities
All undergraduate degrees provide graduates with a broad background. Psychology graduate careers might be stepping stones towards a police officer, family support worker, policy advisor or analyst, social worker, career advisor, communications co-ordinator, market researcher or youth worker.
Further study is required to qualify for a career in the field of Psychology.
With a Bachelor of Health Science graduates are more likely to work in a mental health or health related area.
Depending on the choice of papers outside a student’s major, Bachelor of Arts graduates would likely follow a career in human resources, recruitment and professional development and training, advertising, marketing and public relations for many types of public and private organisations and businesses.
AUT offers two types of undergraduate Psychology degrees:
Bachelor of Health Science in Psychology (BHSc)
This degree is part of the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences,School of Public Health and Psychosocial Studies located on the North Shore Campus. The BHSc programme is most suited to students who wish to combine mental and physical health from a holistic view.
Psychology students work alongside other health students (physiotherapy, occupational therapy, health promotion) in a number of shared/common papers.
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (BA)
This degree is offered through the School of Social Sciences and is delivered across both the city and North Shore campus’s.
It is a broader arts-based degree which gives students plenty of choice in the sense that they can elect to take Criminology, Sociology, Business, Communications, Languages, and so on and incorporate them into their Arts degree. The emphasis is on a sound grasp of theory and strong research focus.
Other options or combinations include:
NB: Part time pathways are available.
Postgraduate
The Postgraduate programme in psychology provides a pathway towards registration as a Counselling Psychologist in New Zealand (subject to New Zealand Psychologists Board approval). For more information on Postgraduate programmes click here.
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