Two Subject Moderatorship - Psychology and Economics

dcfac · 12-06-2009 01:25PM #1

I have been interested in psychology since third year in school. The ol wan did an evening course in psychology for a few months and every time she came home I would accost her, trying to find out all about what they had just covered in the class. In fourth year I did a week of 'work experience' in the Psychology Dept in Trinity. I loved it - went to lectures (mostly 1st year stuff) and a few tutorials. Got to talk to the professors and other students about the course ... and so up until the end of 5th year I had my heart set on doing pure psychology in Trinity

Then a spanner in the works appeared in the form of economics. I took up economics in 5th year and I adore the subject... and now I want to do THAT in college...

Luckily the remedy comes in TSM ... but I am well confused with what it is all about ...

Dividing myself across two faculties - will that mean that I won't have a spare minute to myself for the next four years? Workloads, assignments and lectures???

I know there is a hefty amount of statistics in psychology - and economics is pretty mathematical too obviously. To any students studying either of these subjects, what have been your experiences with the maths aspects ??? Overwhelming is an adjective I hope you won't be using.

I guess what I am asking, in a severely convoluted way, is:

What are your experiences of either subjects in Trinity (negative aaaand positive) ???

tolosenc · 12-06-2009 02:00PM

I don't do either course, or even TSM for that matter.

From what I know, from friends in courses that are offered as part of TSM as well as single honours courses, is that TSMs don't do all modules, so as not to have the burden of so much work.

TSM is well established and well catered for, it's not like TSM is the bastard child nobody interacts with. There, of course, are some interdepartmental issues that crop up from time to time (friends of mine have been approved for Erasmus by one and not the other, for example).

There are of course exceptions. I do French and can vouch that that department is really, well, I'm not gonna go there on this one. I've heard that Italian can be awkward too, but I've never heard of anything untowards regarding either Econ. or Psych., but I'll leave it up to someone with experience to let you know.

The Black Oil · 12-06-2009 03:00PM

Bear in mind I did the H Dip Psych (4 years into 2) so the set up and assessment may be slightly different, though we were bundled in with undergrads for lectures. The teaching of statistics within psychology is done through lectures, labs and seminars. The lecturer was generally well organised, prepared and on top of the material. However, he is very busy (as are most if not all in the dept) and personally, I found that he perhaps didn't have much of a sense of fair play in terms of getting feedback on exams, that is if you wanted him to point out where you went wrong. His teaching style was alright, though. Seminars and labs are taken by PhD students and these can be a very mixed bag. They are more interaction orientated than lectures which helps. Two of the girls we had for labs were somewhat lethal (read: bad) together, but a bit better if you spoke to them individually. They just ripped through some stuff...

The vast, vast majority of what you will be doing is quantitative, we only say a glimmer of qualitative material. What the lecturer is trying to get you to do is to become familiar with various statistical techniques, how you build them into your experiments, how they work, when they are applied etc etc. The labs and seminars are and opportunity to practice this (and hopefully clarify problems) through SPSS and written work. You will then be given an assignment at the end of the lab or earlier in the week and you've to write up a lab report (1,500-2,000 words) based on what you have learned and to show you can incorporate the stats effectively. We wrote quite a few reports over the years. These are corrected by PhD students, though the lecturer will generally review them before you get them back. Use the feedback so you can improve your next report. On paper the overall teaching time is 5-6 hours of statistics per week - 1 hour lecture, 2 hour lab, 2 hour seminar and sometimes a supplementary lecture for a Q&A (only in first year). Sometimes labs ran the full 2 hours, sometimes a little more. Seminars maybe only really ran for 1 hr 15 or 1 hr 30. You also have to sign in attendance at these, the lecturer has a system for that.

Don't forgot to check the website, there's not a lot there in terms of detail on the stats, but it may give you an idea of what's ahead of you. http://www.psychology.tcd.ie/undergraduate/junior-freshman/#PS1003

Any more questions, just ask.

Liquorice · 12-06-2009 07:28PM

There's only a hefty amount of stats in psychology if you're expecting a humanities-ish course, which you clearly aren't given that you're asking about stats. In economics you'll learn a lot of the theory behind stats tests you use in psych so you'll get an edge over others, once you're able to make the disconnect between economics stats reasoning, and psych stats reasoning.

Look for the thread on English lit and Psychology from a few weeks (months?) back, there's a bit of info there too.

Daithio · 14-06-2009 09:32AM

The workload for each of your subjects will be roughly half what it would be if you were just studying one subject alone. You will study both subjects for the first three years, and in the fourth year you have the choice to major in one and drop the other, or if you want, to continue in both, and double major.

I studied single honours Philosophy in Trinity, and kind of regret not doing TSM. I have gone on to do a masters in Economics, which I wish I'd studied earlier. But better late than never! I think that Economics and Psychology would be a fantastic subject combo by the way, you really will not be wanting for job offers at the end of it.

EGaffney · 14-06-2009 05:05PM

It is a frequently-chosen combination as TSM choices go, and there is much more of a connection between them than there is between many other possibilities.

The economics course itself is designed to be taken in tandem with other subjects (e.g. BESS or TSM) - there's no single-honours course, so you would be in the same boat as everyone else. They are both mathematical subjects, especially in Trinity, but there are ways to get around the most theoretical maths if you choose other modules later in the degree.

Two Subject Moderatorship - Psychology and Economics

Comments