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School of Psychological Sciences

Welcome to the School of Psychological Sciences

Psychology takes a scientific approach to understanding human behaviour and cognition. It helps us understand the mechanisms that drive people to make choices, think, act, and learn, in a variety of contexts.

Psychology at the University of Tasmania looks to solve some of the most challenging issues the Tasmanian community faces. Whether these are global issues which we investigate in our backyard, providing specialist training to Antarctic expeditioners on the human condition in isolated environments or providing clinical services to members of our community – we are embedded in Tasmania.

— Professor Lisa Foa
Head of School

Learning and Teaching

Human behaviour lies at the heart of many regional and global challenges. Our vision is to empower students to tackle these challenges and help them promote a healthier and smarter society through research and understanding of human behaviour.

Working with their natural curiosity, we encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning and become discerning consumers of information. We aim to equip students with transferable critical thinking and leadership skills to analyse problems that are locally important and globally relevant, translate knowledge into action, and provide people-centred solutions in a socially-responsible manner.

More about studying psychology

Our Courses

Our highly flexible offering (accredited or non-accredited pathways) allows you to take Psychology in a wide range of degrees including:

  • Bachelor of Psychological Science
  • Bachelor of Arts
  • Bachelor of Science
  • Bachelor of Business
  • Bachelor of Laws
  • University College Pathway (associate degree)
  • Bachelor of Psychological Science and Bachelor of Law

If you want to be a registered psychologist you need to do the following

  • Completion of our three year accredited sequence
  • Complete fourth year in psychological science (honours) pre – professional coursework and honours thesis as well as two additional years of training studying our Master of Professional Psychology or our Master of Clinical Psychology.

Research

Research in Psychological Sciences aims to unravel the global challenges faced by contemporary society.

We take a scientific approach to study human behaviour and cognition: to understand the mechanisms behind how people think, act, and learn.

More about our research groups

Our research specialities are diverse and answer important questions for the wellbeing of both our community in Tasmania and the wider world.

This includes understanding and enhancing decision-making and learning, language and lifespan development, psychopathology and chronic illness, family relationships, work in extreme environments, and the impact of new technologies and forms of communication.

We are also leaders in many areas of behavioural and cognitive neuroscience, from animal models of mental disorder to understanding attention, motor control and social cognition, through to the way substances and medications affect the brain and behaviour.

ERA
4
Our Psychology research is rated as

Above

World Standard
ERA
5
Our Cognitive Science & Neuroscience research is

Well Above

World Standard