BA Applied Psychology
2015-2016
First Year Handbook
School of Applied Psychology
UCC
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School of Applied Psychology
BA Applied Psychology First Year Handbook 2015-2016
Welcome to first year students!
We hope that your time at the School of Applied Psychology will be productive and happy. This
handout gives essential information about the BA Applied Psychology Year 1 for the current
academic year. Other useful information can be obtained from student guides available from
the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences (CACSSS) CACSSS Information Guides for
First Years.
School of Applied Psychology
Head of School:
Professor John McCarthy
Head of First Year:
Ms. Anna O’Reilly-Trace
The School is located in the Cork Enterprise Centre about 10 minutes walk from the main
campus if you use the walkway and footbridge over the river which is located opposite the
College Gates on Western Road. This walkway is normally closed during the hours of darkness
(at around 16.30 in winter). Alternatively you can walk along the Western Road and then turn
left going towards the Mercy Hospital. The Cork Enterprise Centre is just over the footbridge
having left the Mercy Hospital to your right. You will find a map at How to get to the School of
Applied Psychology.
Main Office opening hours:
09.00-11.00 and 14.00-16.00
Term Dates Academic Year 2015-2016
Semester 1
Semester 2
7 September - 27 November 2015
11 January – 15 April 2016
Review Week: 30 November – 4 December 2015
Review Week: 18 – 22 April 2016
Exams: 7– 18 December 2015
Exams: 25 April – 6 May 2016
Your email address, Blackboard and other means of keeping you informed
You will have been issued with a student number and student email at registration. It is very
important that you check your student email on a regular basis as this is how the School and
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BA Applied Psychology First Year Handbook 2015-2016
the University communicates with you.
Vital information on course content is held on the Blackboard system at:
http://blackboard.ucc.ie and is regularly updated by your lecturers. You will submit all of your
course work via Blackboard. Details on logging on to Blackboard can be found in the Learning
Technologies Guide to Blackboard at
http://www.ucc.ie/en/media/support/computercentre/ltu/bbstudentguide.pdf. If you are
experiencing any difficulties please email the Student Helpdesk at sit@ucc.ie or the Learning
Technology Unit at ltu@ucc.ie.
The School website is at http://apsych.ucc.ie. It has course timetables, and other useful
information.
Mentoring Meetings
In addition to lectures, first year students attend practicals and tutorials throughout the year.
You will also be required to attend mentoring meetings with a designated member of the
academic staff twice in the year, once in each semester. These mentoring meetings will
provide you with opportunities to discuss your progress, to raise any difficulties and also to talk
about your future career plans. Attendance at these mentoring meetings is compulsory and
dates will be emailed to you during the year.
Contacting Academic Staff
In order to ensure that all students are treated equitably, it will not be possible for academic
staff to enter into individual email correspondence about issues of course content, structure or
assessment. If you have a question, your first action should always be to check your handbook.
It is very likely that your question has already been answered there. If you can’t find the
answer, then please bring your query up with the lecturer immediately after the lecture or on
Blackboard—to which everyone has access. If you have personal issues to bring up with a
mentor or tutor then it would probably be best to arrange a meeting during their office hours.
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All members of academic staff have student consultation hours. If you wish to discuss your
work then you should arrange to meet them during these hours.
Attendance
Every student is expected to attend all lectures, tutorials, laboratory classes etc. In the case
of absence through illness, a student must, if possible, give notice of each absence in writing
to the Lecturer responsible. In the case of such absence for more than four lecture days the
student must, on resuming attendance, notify the Lecturer concerned in writing and, if
required by the Lecturer to do so, lodge a medical certificate with the main office, who in
turn will send a copy to the Student Records and Examinations.
Note for AP1108: Practical report(s) for which the student has not attended the requisite
classes will be assigned a mark of zero.
A student will not be permitted to enter for an examination at the conclusion of a module if
attendance at that module is not considered satisfactory by the Registrar and Senior VicePresident Academic following a report by the Lecturer concerned and/or Head of School
responsible for the module. The decision of the Registrar and Senior Vice-President
Academic is subject to the appeal of Academic Council.
Course Content
Module descriptions can be found at the following link
http://www.ucc.ie/modules/descriptions/AP.html
Set texts for First Year

Holt., N., Bremmner, A., Sutherland, E., Vliek, M., Passer, M., and Smith, R. (2015).
Psychology - the Science of Mind and Behaviour (3rd Ed.). McGraw-Hill Education, UK.

Pettijohn, T.F. (Ed.) (2007). Classic Edition Sources - Psychology (4th Ed.) McGraw-Hill
Education, UK.
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
Field, A. (2013). Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics (4th ed.): Sage.
These recommended texts are by no means the only source of knowledge about psychology
that you are expected to consult. Your lecturers will put reading material on the relevant
Blackboard pages, and your tutors will introduce you to other material through tutorials.
Excellence is achieved by going beyond the given information and by doing your own
research using the library and the internet.
Modules
AP1105 Experimental Design and Statistical Application (5 credits)
AP1108 Research Methods in Psychology (10 credits)
*AP1110 Psychology as Science (5 credits) – online module
AP1223 Introduction to Biological and Cognitive Perspectives on Psychology (5 credits)
AP1349 Introduction to Developmental and Social Psychology (5 credits)
*AP1110 module consists of online lectures (by your lecturers Dr. Annalisa Setti and Laura Lee)
and tutorials with your tutors. The aim of the module is to introduce you to the topics studied
and methods used in Psychology. The lectures are complemented by online material, which
you can explore by yourself. The tutorials have the purpose of helping you own the online
material and foster discussion on different topics related to the science of Psychology.
Tutorials
Tutorials start in the third or fourth week of term and are held every second week. For AP1110,
students take 5 tutorials in semester 1. For AP1349, students take 6 tutorials in semester 1. For
AP1223 students take 6 tutorials in semester 2. There are a number of tutorial groups available
each week and we will email you shortly with details of how to sign up online for a tutorial
group. Attendance at tutorials is compulsory.
Importance of Tutorials
Tutorials provide you with vital support and guidance in working towards completing your
essays and preparing for exams. Tutorials are also an opportunity to discuss topics raised in
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lectures as well as to raise questions about material you have found difficult. Importantly, they
provide a forum to get into discussion and debate on psychological ideas with peers and tutors,
thus allowing you to develop your knowledge of theory and research. Tutorials also support
exam preparation.
Submitting Course Work
All continuous assessment must be submitted electronically via BlackBoard only (except for
continuous assessment for AP1105 which is given to your tutor in hard copy each week).
Blackboard links for each piece of continuous assessment work will be open two weeks before
every deadline. Full instructions on how to submit your work will be emailed to you. Work
submitted late should also be submitted via Blackboard (except for AP1105 where late work is
not accepted). Please note that we do not accept work submitted via email under any
circumstances. Work submitted by email will not be acknowledged or recorded.
Please ensure that you include a front sheet to your work clearly giving

Your name and student number

The code and title of the module

The title or number of your essay/practical

Due date for your essay
You are also required to put the following declaration on this front sheet:
DECLARATION OF ACADEMIC HONESTY: I declare that the content of this assignment is all my
own work. It has not been submitted in respect of any other course/module. Where I have
used the work of others it is acknowledged and referenced accordingly.
A Warning about Plagiarism
The declaration is a statement from you that the work you are submitting is entirely yours. In
the writing of your continuous assessment assignments, you will of need to refer to both
printed and online books, papers and resources. The work you submit however must be in
your own words, with direct quotations or reference to other people’s work supported by
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proper references and a bibliography. Direct copying or paraphrasing of another person’s
words or ideas without appropriate acknowledgement, constitutes plagiarism. In order to
maintain academic integrity, the School of Applied Psychology takes plagiarism very seriously.
If you are found to have plagiarised other people’s ideas or words you will lose some or all
marks for the relevant piece of work. The School follows UCC policy on the issue, and you will
find an outline of this policy at
http://www.ucc.ie/en/policiesandprocedures/examinationsandstudentrecords/studentrecords
registration/uccplagiarismpolicy/ When you are under pressure with competing deadlines it
can seem very easy and very tempting to cut and paste material directly from the internet into
your own work. Please do not do this; not only will a change of style be immediately obvious
to the lecturer/tutor correcting your work, but the School also avails of an electronic checking
system (TURNITIN) which will detect and give a full report on the source that has been copied
from, be that a paper already submitted by another student, or a chunk of text copied from
Wikipedia or some other online journal or resource.
Useful guides to avoiding plagiarism also available on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUSaQ5-mDRI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptHIA5bMnio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNg94ebLGzY
Best Practice in Academic Writing
Our aim is to promote best practice, and also of course to help you in developing and
improving your academic writing skills, so please feel free to contact your tutor for clarification
on any issue surrounding writing. There are many excellent student guides, which deal with
the issue, including The Good Study Guide by Andy Northedge (OU, 2005). Please note that
there are copies of this book in the library.
Late Submission of Assignments
Work received after the deadline will not be marked and you will be awarded a mark of 0. If
you feel you have mitigating circumstances (eg illness, accident, bereavement) then you can
submit your assignment to Blackboard and then complete a ‘Late Assessment Form ’ which
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can be downloaded from our website and submit it along with any supporting documentation,
to the School Teaching and Learning Committee. No penalty will be imposed in cases of illness
or family bereavement as long as appropriate documentation, such as a doctor’s certificate
covering the time specified, is provided. In respect of other reasons for late work, the
committee will consider each lateness application on a case-by-case basis.
Special Circumstances/Long Term Difficulties
Our aim as a School is to provide you with the resources and support to ensure that your
experience of studying psychology is productive and enjoyable. If, for any reason you are
having unforeseen or on-going problems or doubts about your studies, we invite you to let us
know as soon as they arise. We are here to support you in working through personal or work
difficulties in any way possible. Be assured that your privacy will be respected and any
documentation you submit to the School will be treated as confidential. Also, don’t forget that
you have recourse to a variety of support agencies in UCC, details of these are given below.
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Resources and services for students
Name
Service
Website
Phone
PASS (Peer
students provide information and
http://www.ucc.ie/en/pass/
021 420 5188
Assisted Student
support to first year students
Support)
Student
Professional and confidential
http://www.ucc.ie/studentc
021 490 3565
Counselling &
counselling service. Regular
ounselling/
or Text: 087
Development
workshops on study and life skills
Nite Line
Listening service operating 21.00
http://www.ucc.ie/en/pass/
– 01.00 on Tues-Thurs in term.
niteline/
Open to student of all religions
http://www.uccchaplaincy.c
offering a variety of activities.
om/
UCC Chaplaincy
Disability Support Practical supports and counselling
215 2505
1800 32 32 42
021 490 2459
http://www.ucc.ie/en/dss/
021 490 2985
Service
to students with disabilities.
UCC Careers
Careers advise, work experience
http://www.ucc.ie/careers/
021 490 2349
clubs and societies
http://www.collegeroad.ie
021 90 3218
Service
Students’ Union
Information on Exams
Resource
Web Link
Exam Procedures
http://www.ucc.ie/en/exams/
Past Exam Papers
http://booleweb.ucc.ie/ExamPapers/applied_psychology.html
Examinations
End of semester exams will be held in December and in April/May. Details of how each
module is examined can be found in the module descriptions and the examinations office will
email you a timetable of the written exams.
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We expect all students to pass the examinations at the first attempt. However, if you fail a
module (from either semester) you will have one other opportunity to reach the pass standard
at the Autumn Supplemental Exams (also known as the ‘Repeats’) in August. If you fail a
module overall at the first attempt but pass the continuous assessment part, then the
continuous assessment mark will be carried forward to the Autumn and you will only have to
repeat the examination. Failed continuous assessment must be repeated. An email will be sent
to your student email with details and a deadline for submission of failed continuous
assessment. Marks for the Autumn Supplemental Exams are capped at 40%.
It is not possible to repeat the practicals in AP1105 and AP1108 in the Autumn. Therefore,
failing these practicals and modules means that you will have to repeat the year.
Mitigation
If you fail or do not sit exams and this is due to medical or personal circumstance, which you
feel adversely affected your performance, then you can make an application to the
Examinations Office for Mitigation. Further details and application form are available at the
following link.
http://www.ucc.ie/en/media/support/recordsandexaminations/documents/MitigationApplica
tionForm.pdf If successful the capping of 40% will be waived for the Autumn Supplemental
Examination and/or for a repeat year.
Graduate Membership of the PSI for graduates of the BA Applied Psychology - UCC
Having completed your BA Applied Psychology you will be eligible to apply for Graduate
Membership of the PSI (Psychological Society of Ireland), a prerequisite for most professional
training courses and programmes in psychology. Further information at www.psihq.ie
Boole Library
A series of workshops for 1st year students will run in the Boole Library throughout
September. No need to book, just turn up on the day.
Venue: Room G.18 (Library Learning Zone)
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BA Applied Psychology First Year Handbook 2015-2016
Unit 1: Discover UCC Library Online
(Layout and content of the library website and the catalogue)
Date
Time
Monday
Sept 7th
10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
Tuesday
Wednesday
Sept 15th
Sept 23rd
10:00,12:00,13:00, 10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
15:00
Thursday
Oct.1st
10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
Unit 2: Get Ahead: E- Resources for Your Assignment
(Overview of library e-resources)
Date
Time
Tuesday
Sept 8th
10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
Wednesday
Sept 16th
10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
Thursday
Sep 24th
10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
Monday
Sept 28th
10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
Unit 3: Explore the Web for Your Assignment
(Tips on how to search the internet more effectively when doing research for assignments)
Date
Time
Wednesday
Sept 9th
10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
Thursday
Sept 17th
10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
Monday
Sept 21st
10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
Tuesday
Sept 29th
10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
Unit 4: Give Credit, Get Credit: Referencing & Plagiarism
(How to cite and reference in assignments)
Date
Time
Thursday
Sept 10th
10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
Monday
Sept 14th
10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
Tuesday
Sept 22nd
10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
Wednesday
Sept 30th
10:00,12:00,13:00,
15:00
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BA Applied Psychology First Year Handbook 2015-2016
BA Applied Psychology YEAR ONE
Monday 7th September – Friday 27th November 2015
Semester 1:
Time
Monday
10.00
AP1349*
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Boole 4
A O’Reilly
Trace/R. King)
14.00
AP1349*
Boole 4
(Marcin
Szczerbinski)
16.00
AP1108
CEC 7&8
(Samantha
Dockray)
17.00
AP1105
AP1108
CEC 7&8
CEC 7&8
(Jason Chan)
(Samantha
Dockray)
* AP1349: Students attend six tutorials
Note: AP1110: This module is online with no lectures and 5 tutorials.
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Monday 11th January – Friday 15rd April 2016
Semester 2:
Time
Monday
10.00
AP1223*
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Boole 4
(Mike Murphy)
14.00
AP1223*
Boole 4
(G. Murphy)
16.00
AP1108, CEC 7&8
(Samantha
Dockray)
17.00
AP1105 CEC
AP1108 CEC 7&8
7&8
(Samantha
(Jason Chan)
Dockray)
*AP1223: students attend six tutorials
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Deadlines
Code
Name
AP1110 Science and Practice of Psychology
Semes Exam
Continuous
Deadline for Continuous
ter
Assessment
Assessment
50%
Essay 1: 11am, Tuesday, 27
1
50%
Co-ordinator
Annalisa Setti
October 2015
Essay 2: 11am Monday, 23
November 2015
AP1349 Introduction to Developmental and
1
50%
50%
Social Perspectives on Psychology
11am, Monday, 30 November
Marcin Szczerbinski
2015
AP1223 Introduction to Biological and Cognitive 2
50%
50%
TBC
Mike Murphy
1&2
50%
50%
Weekly assignments
Jason Chan
1&2
N/A
100%
8 practical dates
Samantha Dockray
Perspectives on Psychology
AP1105 Experimental Design and Statistical
Applications
AP1108 Research Methods in Psychology
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BA Applied Psychology First Year Handbook 2015-2016