What is psychology?

Psychology is the scientific study of how people think, act, and react at an individual, group, organisational and community level. In other words, the discipline of psychology embraces all aspects of the human experience.

Psychologists apply their knowledge to assess, diagnose, prevent, and treat problems. They develop theories and test them, thus providing new information that adds to the body of established knowledge. In general psychologists are usually interested in two very important relationships: that between brain function and behaviour, and that between the environment surrounding the individual and his or her behaviour (APA 2009)


Undergraduate Resources

Where do I start from if I want to become a psychologist?

If you are interested in a career as a psychologist, you have to first complete a Bachelor (Hons) degree in Psychology. In order to be eligible for this at the University of Malta you are required to have an intermediate level pass at Grade C or better in Biology. Link to course outline www.um.edu.mt/sas/info

The Bachelor (Hons) degree in Psychology is a three year course. It is considered as an academic degree not a professional one, in other words it will not lead you automatically to professional status but it helps you to acquire knowledge and develop skills that are essential to be able to further on your studies in the field.

In order to advance in your career as a psychologist you would need to further your training through a Master’s and/or Doctorate degree.


Where could studying psychology at undergraduate level lead me to?

As established above, studying psychology does not mean automatically becoming a psychologist, but rather it is only one of the options available to take. Because the importance of psychology is today recognised in various scenarios and practices, a B.Psy (Hons) degree can lead you to other possible career paths. In reality, the more of these paths you will decide to consider, the easier it will be for you to find related employment after graduating. The non-core psychology fields a B.Psy (Hons) graduate can choose to work in are various; amongst others one can consider a career in human resources, sales and advertising, marketing, and management.