Bachelor of Social Sciences in Psychology with a Second Major in Biological Sciences

Successful Polytechnic applicants will be exempted certain courses that will be confirmed before the start of their first semester.

curriculum is designed as a 4-year programme.  Over the four years, students complete core and elective psychology and biological sciences courses in conjunction with a series of broadening courses in other academic disciplines.

is designed as a four-year course. To graduate, students are required to complete 135 academic units (AUs) from the Psychology Major Requirements, Biological Sciences 2nd Major Requirements and General Education Requirements (GER). Students are required to maintain a CGPA of at least 4.0 throughout their programme. Students who do not fulfil the minimum CGPA of 4.0 will be transferred to the Bachelor of Social Sciences in Psychology programme, i.e. without 2nd Major in Biological Sciences. The distribution of the courses of study and the number of academic units are shown in the table below.

Course Type		AU
Psychology Requirements
Major-Core		27
Major-PE		42
GER-Core		17
GER-PE	Business and Management (BM)	3
Liberal Arts (LA)	3
GER-UE		10
Biological Sciences 2nd Major Requirements
GER-UE	Compulsory Courses	18
Prescribed Elective Courses	15
Total AU		135

A. Major Requirements (69 AUs)

The Major Requirements for Psychology Major consists of 2 components:

• Major Core Courses (27 AUs)
• Major Prescribed Electives (42 AUs)

Requirements of the Psychology Major:

A1. Major Core Courses (Major-Core)

The 9 Major Core courses (27 AUs) are compulsory foundation courses designed to provide broad overviews of major areas of psychology. They serve as the basic foundation for more advanced studies in psychology. Each course is equivalent to 3 AUs. Level 1000 courses should be completed in Year 1. The remaining core courses should ideally be completed by the end of Year 2.

HP1000 Introduction to Psychology
HP1100 Fundamentals of Social Science Research
HP2100 Research Design and Data Analysis in Psychology
HP2200 Biological Psychology
HP2300 Developmental Psychology
HP2400 Social Psychology
HP2500 Personality and Individual Differences
HP2600 Cognitive Psychology
HP2700 Abnormal Psychology
 
A2. Major Prescribed Elective Courses (Major-PE)

Major Elective courses provide students with opportunities to explore specialized areas of psychology in more depth and intensity. The students may select their courses of study according to their own interests and career goals.

Students must choose 10 electives (34 AUs) from the wide range of Psychology Prescribed Electives with 6 level 3000 courses and 4 level 4000 courses.

HP3001 Learning and Behavioral Analysis
HP3002 Positive Psychology
HP3003 Engineering Psychology
HP3100 Selected Topics in Basic Psychological Sciences
HP3101 Applied Statistical Methods for Psychological Research
HP3200 Selected Topics in Social and Personality Psychology
HP3201 Evolutionary Psychology
HP3202 Alcohol, Drugs and Behaviour
HP3203 Conservation Psychology
HP3300 Selected Topics in Applied Psychological Sciences
HP3204 An Ape's Guide to Human Language
HP3301 Issues and Concerns in Adolescence
HP3302 Cognitive Development 
HP3401 The Social Psychology of Human Communication
HP3402 Social Cognition
HP3501 Human Motivation
HP3601 Human Memory
HP3602 Reading Development and Disorders
HP3603 Sensation and Perception
HP3701 Psychological Adjustment and Mental Health
HP3702 Child Psychopathology
HP3703 Health Psychology
HP3704 Introduction to Clinical Neuropsychology 
HP3705 Clinical Community Psychology
HP3706 Biofeedback & Neurofeedback: Health and Performance
HP3707 The Psychology of Pain and its Management
HP3708 Biopsychosocial Criminology
HP3801 Psychology in the Workplace
HP3802 Personnel Psychology
HP3804 Psychological Testing 
HP3805 Managing Organisational Behavior
HP3806 Consumer Psychology
HP3807 Occupational Health Psychology
HP3901 Cultural Psychology
HP3902 Psychology in the Asian Context

Level 4000 courses are divided into four types: Laboratory courses, Professional courses, Seminars and Graduation Project/FYP (for eligible students).

• Laboratory courses
  Laboratory courses focus on the hands-on training of research skills in psychology. 
  All students who intend to complete a Graduation Project/FYP in Psychology are required to complete one laboratory course before starting the Graduation Project/FYP.
  The fulfilment of at least one laboratory course is a requirement for graduation regardless if students are eligible to do the Graduation Project/FYP.
  
  HP4021 Laboratory in Human and Animal Neuroscience
  HP4031 Laboratory in Developmental Psychology
  HP4041 Laboratory in Social Psychology
  HP4051 Laboratory in Personality and Individual Differences
  HP4061 Laboratory in Cognitive Psychology
  HP4062 Laboratory in Human Factors
  HP4081 Laboratory in Industrial and Organizational Psychology
  HP4091 Current Research in Cultural Psychology 
• Professional courses
  Professional courses offer students knowledge about the actual work of professional psychologists in applied settings.
  
  HP4101 Clinical Psychology
  HP4102 Trauma Psychology, Crisis Intervention and Management
  HP4103 The Forensic Psychology of Crime, Terrorism and Disasters
  HP4104 Evidence-based Practice in Clinical Psychology
  HP4105 Correctional Psychology
  HP4106 Mental Health in the Community
  HP4107 Industrial-Organisational Psychology in Practice

• Seminars
  Seminars are discussion-based courses on an advanced research area. These courses often involve both undergraduate and graduate students in in-depth discussion of the up-and-coming research in a specialized area.
  
  HP4002 Qualitative Methods in Psychology
  HP4012 Applied Multivariate Methods for Psychological Research
  HP4200 Seminar in Selected Topics  
  HP4201 Technology and Social Behaviour
  HP4211 Agent-Based Computational Psychology
  HP4221 Primate Psychology
  HP4222 The Neuroscience of Love
  HP4231 Social and Emotional Development
  HP4232 Development of Self-Regulation
  HP4233 Psychological and Sociomoral Reasoning in Infancy
  HP4241 Interpersonal relations and family studies
  HP4242 Advanced Topics in Social Cognition
  HP4243 Intergroup relations
  HP4251 Psychobiology of Creative Personalities
  HP4261 Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience of Vision
  HP4262 Multisensory Integration
  HP4263 Language in Perception & Thought
  HP4271 Cognitive Neuroplasticity
  HP4272 Neuropsychology
  HP4273 Introduction to Functional MRI
  HP4274 The Last Dance: Psycho-social-cultural perspectives of Death, Dying and Bereavement
  HP4281 Psychology of Leadership
  HP4282 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution

• Graduation Project/FYP
  The Graduation Project/FYP exposes students to the elements that are inherent in independent research work in psychology.  

    HP4099 Graduation Project/FYP (8AUs)

Note:

Students are recommended to take an average of 3 psychology courses every semester (except for the first semester of Year 1).

Students are strongly encouraged to read the Psychology Core courses as soon as they are offered. These courses form the pre-requisites for more advanced psychology courses. A failure to clear the core courses as early as possible will impose restrictions on the choice of courses in future semesters.

Students should complete one laboratory course in Year 3, before the start of the Graduation Project/FYP.

Important note to students going on exchange (both overseas and local)

1. Students must complete all Major Core courses at NTU.
2. Students are only permitted to complete up to a maximum of three courses during the exchange and have them count towards fulfilling their Major-Electives requirement.

B. General Education Requirement (GER) (66 AUs)

The GER-Core courses are specified by the School as being essential for the training of today’s Humanities and Social Sciences graduates. The courses cover areas such as communication and environmental sustainability.

B1. GER - Core (GER-Core) (17 AUs)

• Communication Skills
  HW0111 Communication: A Journey of Inquiry through Writing and Speech Last (2 AUs)
  HW0208 Academic Communication in the Social Sciences (2 AUs)
  • Digital Literacy
    HD0101 Digital Society (3 AUs)
    HD0102 Making Sense of Big Data  (3 AUs)
  • Sustainability (1 AU)** - to be taken in Year 1
  • Ethics & Academic Integrity (1 AU)** - to be taken in Year 2
  • Singapore Studies (3 AUs) - to be taken in Year 2
  • Career Preparatory Course (1 AU)* - to be taken in Year 3
  • Enterprise & Innovation (1 AU)** - to be taken in Year 3

     * Online courses that will be offered in Semester 1 of every academic year.   
   ** Online courses that will be offered in Semester 2 of every academic year.   

B2. GER - Prescribed Electives (GER-PEs) (6 AUs)

Students to choose 2 courses from 2 categories of studies

• Business and Management
• Liberal Arts

B3. GER - Unrestricted Electives (GER-UEs) (43 AUs)

To qualify for the 2nd Major in Biological Science, students must complete a minimum of 33AUs of courses from Biological Sciences under the General Education Requirement Unrestricted Elective (GER-UE) category.

The following 6 courses are compulsory:

BS1001 Introductory Biology
BS1005 Biochemistry I
BS1006 Principles of Genetics
BS1007 Molecular and Cell Biology I
BS2004 Molecular and Cell Biology II
BS2001 Physiology

Students have a choice of 5 electives from the Tables A, B and C with the following 2 courses highly recommended:

BS3001 Neurobiology
BS3014 Biological Foundations of Behavior

Refer to Table A, B and C

Students can read an additional 10AUs in GER-UE courses outside of their Psychology Major and Biological Sciences 2nd Major. There are no restrictions on the selection of courses to make up unrestricted electives. Students can choose any of the following:

• Earn AUs under an International Exchange programme.
• Earn AUs under the optional Professional Attachment programme offered under HSS.
• Any course offered by any School as long as the pre-requisites are satisfied.

For information about the University Academic Unit System, Grade Point Average System and calculation of Honours Classification, please refer to the AUS Handbook:

http://www.ntu.edu.sg/Services/Academic/undergraduates/Pages/AcademicUnitSystem(AUS).aspx

With a rising emphasis in Singapore on the awareness of mental health, there is increasing demand for professionals with interdisciplinary background in biological sciences and psychology. Graduates from this programme can explore further education leading to careers in professions such as counselling psychologist, occupational psychologist, clinical psychologist, educational psychologist and neuropsychologist. This is an interdisciplinary programme between the School of Social Sciences and School of Biological Sciences that incorporates existing Psychology courses and Biological Sciences courses. Students will read courses from both schools.

The Minor in Psychology provides students with a broad understanding of the major principles in psychology, as well as knowledge and skills related to research methods commonly used in psychology. The Minor in Psychology can be combined with a major in a related field and will provide valuable skills for engaging with others and for understanding and analysing complex individual, group, and social processes. With the growing local and international interest in this field, a minor in Psychology provides an excellent background for students planning careers in a wide range of areas. This includes business (advertising, service sectors, human resources, management, marketing, and organisational behaviour), education, the military, the police, the media, in public affairs, the health sciences, social work, and psychology related professions.

Eligibility 

To take psychology as a minor, students must have taken HP1000 and obtained a B- grade or better. 
 
Requirements

To be awarded a Minor in Psychology, students must complete two Psychology core, one Psychology foundation, and two Psychology elective courses.

Psychology Core

Students must complete the following two Psychology Core courses. These two courses are prerequisites for most other Psychology courses.

HP1000 Introduction to Psychology
HP1100 Fundamentals of Social Science Research

Psychology Foundation

Students must complete one Psychology foundation course from the following list of courses.

HP2100 Research Design and Data Analysis in Psychology
HP2200 Biological Psychology
HP2300 Developmental Psychology
HP2400 Social Psychology
HP2500 Personality and Individual Differences
HP2600 Cognitive Psychology
HP2700 Abnormal Psychology

Psychology Elective

Psychology electives are level 3000 courses. Students must complete two Psychology elective courses.

For list of courses, please click here.

Important notes to all minor students

Please make sure that you complete HP1100 as soon as your schedule allows. Almost all Psychology courses require HP1100 as a pre-requisite.

Important notes to students going on exchange (both overseas and local)

• All Minor courses must be read as GER-UEs.
• All Psychology Core courses must be completed at NTU.
• Students are permitted to complete up to a maximum of two courses during the exchange and count them towards fulfilling their Psychology Foundation/Elective requirement.
• Students are not allowed to read level 4000 courses.

• To be awarded a minor, students must not opt for the Minor courses to be graded Satisfactory (S) /

     Un-Satisfactory (U).