Pre-Arrival Activity - Psychology

Welcome to the Psychology department.  We hope that you will enjoy your studies here at Staffordshire University, and we look forward to meeting you in September.

This website has been designed so that we can introduce ourselves to you, to give you a starting point for browsing the University website and to be able to access the Psychology department homepage where you can read about the courses we run, and read about the staff members who you will meet during your time with us.  This will all hopefully give you an idea about what studying Psychology at Staffordshire University is all about.

What do you have to do?

We have included a little task for you to think about before your arrival at University.  This has been designed in the form of a ‘quiz’.  The quiz includes some of the topics that will be investigated further during your degree.  It also touches on some applications of psychology, to give you an idea of how it can be used in everyday life.  We hope that this quiz will prepare you a little for some of the issues you will cover and some of the skills you will need.  There is also a prize for the person who gets the most correct answers, or is picked out of a hat if more than one person has the highest score! 

Please click here for the quiz (DOC, file size: 35KB) , have a look through and carry out some background reading which can enable you to complete it.  Also, don’t forget to take a trip around the Psychology department when you arrive to meet the members of staff.  Don’t worry if you’re not sure of some of the answers to the quiz, the answers to it will be made available after Welcome Week.

A few general textbooks that you may find useful as a starting point are:

Baddeley, A.D. (1997). Human Memory: Theory and Practice. East Sussex: Psychology Press.

Carlson, N.R., Martin, G.,N., & Buskist, W  (2004) Psychology (Second European Adaptation)  Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.  This book is also our recommended general text which might be useful for all Level 1 Psychology modules.

Eysenck & Keane (2005). Cognitive Psychology: A Students Handbook. London: Psychology Press.

Gross, R.D (2001).  Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour.  London: Hodder.

Hogg, M. A. & Vaughan, G.M.  (1998)  Social Psychology: an Introduction (3rd edition). Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall.

Sabini, G. (1995). Social Psychology.  New York: WW Norton. 

See you then!

If you have any questions or queries don't forget you can always contact your Faculty Student Guidance Advisor: