Programme

The Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Social Sciences offers a four-year programme leading to the bachelor degree of Social Sciences in PSYCHOLOGY (PSYB). The BSS in Psychology is a dynamic programme that is nationally competitive and of international standard, and focuses on developing a good research base, critical knowledge application and flexible skills development.

Objectives

The BSS Psychology programme is designed to achieve the following objectives:

– To provide high quality academic education and training opportunities in the field of psychology so that graduates will have an excellent background for careers in human resource management, management in tourism or other business, marketing, sales, public relations, financial management, counselling, social work, law enforcement and education.

– To offer an international standard training in psychology that will enable graduates for postgraduate training locally, in China, or in other countries.

– To disseminate research findings to academics, policy makers and concerned professionals or organizations and citizens.

Unique Features

1. One of our unique features is to maximize students’ flexibility of choice in psychology courses and courses in other relevant disciplines. To provide a broad exposure to different areas in psychology and other disciplines, our programme allows for 66 credit units in compulsory psychology courses, 36 credits in General Education, 12 credits for diversity electives and a further 18 credits of free elective courses.

2. The proposed programme of compulsory psychology courses is designed to establish a solid and sufficient knowledge in psychology among graduates who might either pursue their career in psychology or go on to further postgraduate training anywhere in the world. The programme offers compulsory courses such as: Introduction to Psychology, Psychology Statistics, Developmental Psychology, and Sensation and Perception, Social Psychology, Learning and Cognition, Personality Psychology, and Psychology f Testing, as well as Abnormal Psychology, Cross-cultural Psychology, Psychology of Gambling and Addictive Behaviours, Systems and Theories of Psychology, and a Senior Thesis Research component.

3. There are also several elective courses such as: Personal and Social Competence, Biological Psychology, Community Psychology, Introduction to School Psychology, Psychology of Leadership, Qualitative Research Methods, as well as Introduction to Clinical and Counselling Psychology, Introduction to Clinical Neuropsychology, Multivariate Statistics for psychology, and Organizational Psychology.

4. The Senior Thesis Research is a capstone course that encourages high quality research in a multi-disciplinary framework focusing on local social issues or cross-cultural studies in applied psychology and to disseminate research findings to academics, policy makers and concerned professionals or organizations and citizens.

Degree Structure

The BSS in Psychology is offered by the Department of Psychology Programme in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Students are required to complete all the 132 credits in four years. Courses specified in the programme are designated as: (A) Compulsory Courses; (B) Required Elective Courses; (C) General Education Courses; (D) Distribution/Diversity Elective Courses; and (E) Free Elective Courses.

The structure is divided into ten groups over four academic years:

Component No. of credits % of total no. of credits
A & B
Major
66
50%
C
General Education
36
28%
D
Distribution / Diversity Electives (4 courses outside major*)
12
9%
E
Free Electives (minor = 18 to 24 credits^)
17-21
13%
Total no. of required credits
132
100%

* The 4 courses should be preferably from four different major programmes or disciplines other than the student’s own major programme.
^ Students who perform well in their major with a GPA of more than 3.0 would be considered eligible for additional credit units for a minor programme.

Admissions

Admissions to the psychology major programme are done in accordance with the University Admission Regulations. Applications through the Admission Examination will be required to excel in English and Mathematics in order to gain access to the programme.

Graduation

Medium of Instruction

All psychology courses are taught in English.

Supervisory Arrangements for Students in the Fourth Year