Overview

Career Outcomes

Psychology graduates are highly sought after in a range of human services positions. These include employment in community and mental health, human resource management, policy development, research, welfare, journalism, marketing and advertising.

Professional Recognition

This degree has the status of conditional approval with the Australian Psychology Accreditation Council (APAC).

Eligibility

Students must successfully complete the three introductory units STA102, PSS110, PSS120 before applying for entry into this course with Swinburne. Students may complete the remaining open Level 1 units in the psychology major before applying for entry into this course, i.e. ABT13, CCJ16, PSS100, PSY130 and SSK13.

How to Apply

With the exception of Level 1 units, this is a restricted course. Continuing enrolment is only available to students who have been accepted into this course. Students are required to apply and be approved by Swinburne University before they can enrol in restricted units through OUA.

Transition Arrangements

From 2011 Swinburne University of Technology is offering two psychology degrees through Open Universities Australia: the new Bachelor of Behavioural Studies (Psychology) with a 16 unit psychology major and the revised Bachelor of Behavioural Studies with a 12 unit Psychological Studies major.

Students who have been studying units from the Psychological Studies major in 2009 and 2010 may be eligible to apply for entry into this new degree and should refer to the transition planning information. 

Swinburne_Bachelor_Behavioural_Studies_(Psychology)_2011_Transition (PDF, 78 KB)

Study Materials

For some units in the Bachelor of Behavioural Studies (Psychology) you are required to have access to the statistical package SPSS.

Award Requirements

To qualify for the Bachelor of Behavioural Studies (Psychology), from Swinburne University of Technology, students must complete 24 units and meet the following requirements: 

• At least 8 units must be Swinburne University of Technology units
• Complete the Psychology major consisting of 16 core units AND
• One Co-Major sequence (Sociology) of 8 units OR
• One minor sequence of 4 units and 4 electives OR
• Two minor sequences of 4 units each OR
• Eight electives

Recognition of Prior Learning / Credit

You may be eligible for credit for previous studies up to a maximum of 16 units. If applying for credit, you must send complete documentation, including original transcripts of academic records or certified copies, unit outlines and an explanation of the grading system, to the Open Universities Australia Coordinator: ouald@swin.edu.au. Please note that credit cannot be gained for subjects completed more than 10 years ago.

Registering in this Course

Students need to apply to Swinburne for entry into the course by completing an application form. Successful applicants will then need to register with Swinburne by completing a Degree Registration form and paying the required fee, in order to receive advice on credit, unit selection and degree information. The non-refundable $200 fee is payable when the form is submitted.
The Application and Registration forms can be downloaded from Swinburne's Open Universities Australia webpage.
 

Recommended Study Pattern

The Recommended Study Pattern reflects the pathway students should undertake to achieve this degree.

Students are advised to study the Level 1 major unit SSK13 early in their study program and students without previous university level mathematics or statistics are advised to include SSK17 Dealing with Numbers as an elective before enrolling in STA102 Foundations of Statistics (Previously STA15).

To successfully complete this degree, students are recommended to complete the following units in sequential order:

• PSS110 Introduction to Psychology 1 & STA102 Foundations of Statistics (Previously STA15)
• PSS120 Introduction to Psychology 2

If students are not able to study full time:

• Students must complete the following 3 units in the order specified below and may then apply to Swinburne University of Technology for admittance into the course:
  • STA102 Foundations of Statistics (Previously STA15)
  • PSS110 Introduction to Psychology 1
  • PSS120 Introduction to Psychology 2
• Students must be accepted by and registered with Swinburne University of Technology for the Bachelor of Behavioural Studies (Psychology) prior to enrolling in the eight Level 2 and 3 units of the psychology major
• Once accepted, the following 8 units must be completed in the order specified below:
  • STA210 Analysis of Variance
  • PSS250 Developmental Psychology
  • STA310 Multivariate Statistics
  • PSS240 Cognition and Human Performance
  • PSS310 Psychology of Personality
  • PSS320 Social Psychology
  • PSS330 Abnormal Psychology*
  • PSS350 Psychology Measurement Project
• Complete remaining core units in Psychology Major AND
• Complete optional Advanced Psychology Minor and Electives (8 units) OR
• Complete additional Minor and Electives (8 units) OR
• Complete Co-Major in Sociology (8 units)

* Retitled unit replacing PSS330 Psychology of Mental Health

Course Structure

Majors

Electives