Psychology or Psychology and Sociology.

MyKeyG

There are two courses on offer in UL. One is a BA in Psychology and Sociology and the other is a BS in Psychology. They both seem similar. I was wondering what peoples opinions were on one or the other. What will the Sociology element give in comparison to just Psychology? I'm making my application Monday. I have a fair idea what I want to do but am open to opinions.

http://www3.ul.ie/courses/PsychologyAndSociology.php
http://www3.ul.ie/courses/Psychology.php


Thanks in advance.

TrollHammaren

I haven't looked at the link, but my undergrad in TCD was a TSM in psychology and sociology. I passionately hated sociology due to its completely unscientific nature and lack of any real, practical value. It might just be me, given my interest in neuroscience, but it was very hard to reconcile my knowledge of psychology with some of the crap that was theorised in sociology. My advice is to think about what you want to do as a career, and base your decision on that.If you're looking for a career in psychology, sociology will be basically no value to you. It has actually been a hinderance for me in my pursuit of neuroscience postgrads.

WesternNight

If it's psychology you want, then go with that. I don't find sociology any benefit whatsoever to my study of psychology, unfortunately.

MyKeyG

TrollHammaren wrote: »

I haven't looked at the link, but my undergrad in TCD was a TSM in psychology and sociology. I passionately hated sociology due to its completely unscientific nature and lack of any real, practical value. It might just be me, given my interest in neuroscience, but it was very hard to reconcile my knowledge of psychology with some of the crap that was theorised in sociology. My advice is to think about what you want to do as a career, and base your decision on that.If you're looking for a career in psychology, sociology will be basically no value to you. It has actually been a hinderance for me in my pursuit of neuroscience postgrads.

Now that's quite helpful. I asked my nextdoor neighbour. I didn't realise he was home this weekend. He told me he dropped Psychology for Sociology and Philosophy because Psychology was what he considered 'trying to be a hard science when it's not'. Now that's just his opinion but I like your explanation of Psychology and it's scientific practical nature. I'm very much about the logical as opposed to the theoretical. Incidentally Psychology was what I was heading towards in the first place.

Thanks for your input!

lavie

i did sociology as part of my electives in my undergraduate degree and i deeply hated it , as it not based on a scientific grounds, so its up to you to decide what u r pursuing from this course .

best of luck

Gilldog

Im in my second trimester in the first year of a psychology degree, and we had to do a sociology module last semester. I hated it, as did a lot of people in my tutorial group - like the above posters have said it seems very abstract and not based on any real evidence. Our actual tutorials were ok sometimes, just because we had interesting debates about social issues, and I did well in assignments but I never really felt like I had learned anything. It just wasnt for me.

One thing you might ask about is if you can start off in the sociology and psychology class, with a view to transferring after your first trimester if you really hated it. I only say this because in our university both degrees have the same modules in semester one, so there is an option to transfer after christmas.

Good luck.

Gilldog

Hi McKEyG, have just checked out the module description and the BA Soc and Psych does indeed cover the same three core modules that the BS Psych one does, so you could try it for one semester with the sociology modules and see how you liked it. If at the end of the semester you wanted to change then you would probably be allowed.