Psychology

The Foundations of Psychology

You'll start with where psychology actually came from, from Wundt's first laboratory through to behaviourism, psychoanalysis and humanism, and what ties such a theoretically diverse subject together. From there you'll get to grips with the main approaches psychologists use today, including developmental, social, biological and cognitive psychology, and how research methods separate genuine evidence from opinion and guesswork.

• The origins of psychology as a science, and its major schools of thought
• How psychologists design research, and why correlation doesn't prove causation

Emotion, Stress and Personality

This section looks at what actually happens when we feel something, covering the competing theories of emotion and the biology behind them, before moving into stress and anxiety and what makes some people more resilient than others. You'll also explore personality, from trait models like the Big Five through to the psychodynamic, behavioural, humanistic and biological explanations of what makes each of us who we are.

How We Take In and Store the World

Here you'll cover sensation and perception, including how illusions reveal the brain's habit of constructing our experience rather than simply recording it, followed by a closer look at each of the senses in turn. You'll then move into memory, exploring how it's encoded and stored, why we forget, and why eyewitness testimony is far less reliable than most people assume. This section finishes with intelligence, including how it's measured and the real controversies around testing and cultural fairness.

• Why perception is closer to a "best guess" than a live recording
• The reconstructive nature of memory, and what that means for real-world evidence

Learning, Attachment and Development

This part of the course covers how we learn through classical and operant conditioning, and how those same principles are applied in real settings such as classrooms and therapy. You'll also learn how we pick things up simply by watching others, before moving into attachment theory, the parent-child relationship, and sexual development and gender identity. If child development is a particular interest, this pairs well with our Child Psychology course.

The Social World

The final stretch turns outward, looking at how we form impressions of others, why prejudice and discrimination occur and how they can be reduced, how attitudes are formed and changed, and why we so often conform and obey even against our own better judgement. Anyone drawn to this section in particular might also enjoy our dedicated Social Psychology course, which goes further into these same ideas.

By the end of the course, you'll have a genuinely broad understanding of psychology as a science, and a CPD-accredited certification you can add to your CV or use towards further study.

Please note that audio courses do not include certification.

This course in psychology is ideal for anyone curious about the mind and human behaviour, whether for personal interest or professional development:

• People considering a future career in counselling, coaching, or mental health support.

• Teachers or educators looking to better understand their students.

• Parents or caregivers who want insight into emotional development and behaviour.

• Life coaches or wellbeing practitioners adding depth to their skillset.

• Those working in social care, youth work, and support roles.

• Students exploring psychology before committing to further academic study.

• Anyone passionate about human nature and self-development.

• Anyone considering a more specialised path afterwards, such as our Criminal Psychologist or Educational Psychology courses.

This course is for educational and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) purposes only. It does not provide a professional qualification or licence to practise as a psychologist or mental health professional.