Course summary
Positive psychology takes a step away from the traditional aspects you’d expect from studying human behaviour and seeks to explore what it is that makes humans flourish, rather than languish. If you’re fascinated by human behaviour and want to explore exactly what it takes to fulfil our greatest potential in all areas of life, then our Applied Positive Psychology masters is for you. Not only will this course have an incredible impact on your career, you’ll experience a personal life-changing journey for yourself. Why study at BNU? Positive Psychology can be used in a wide variety of beneficial ways. You’ll immediately be able to apply what you learn and see how it can make a huge difference both in your professional performance, development and productivity as well as the pursuit of goals and fulfilment in your personal life. Whether you’re a teacher, counsellor, coach or team leader, our Applied Positive Psychology programme will help you find ways to improve your own wellbeing and performance, as well as that of others. You’ll discover the nature of happiness and what makes people thrive. What will I study? As one of the few universities that offer this course, we have strong expertise in Applied Positive Psychology. Taught by lecturers, visiting experts and practitioners, you’ll learn about personal strengths, coaching and positive emotions. We value your aspirations and goals and seek to work with you as you achieve them. Our previous students have told us what a positive impact this course has had on their lives and described the experience as one of personal growth and transformation. Sometimes life can get busy and overwhelming, especially when you’re going through a period of transformation and growth. We’ll always work with you to make sure you’re comfortable and confident in your studies and our expert teaching team of Positive Psychologists will be there to support you every step of the way. At BNU, our teaching approach is centred around you. We want to support you by showing you how to apply Positive Psychology to your life and career. As our course gains popularity in a time when wellbeing is thankfully being prioritised more than ever, we continue to value and encourage different ways of learning and teaching to make sure you get the personal support you need. Career prospects Positive Psychology will change the way you look at the world. The course can provide you with a confident set of skills that will support you in any career. You’ll immediately be able to apply what you learn in your daily life as well as your professional environment. Some of our graduates choose to continue their education by completing a PhD which will give you the opportunity to develop your skills further whilst researching your area of interest to an even greater depth. Other graduates have used their degree to start a business, progress further in their current organisation, coach and train others and move into consulting. Our alumni include authors, teachers, entrepreneurs, coaches, academics, HR advisors and therapists.
Modules
Year one Core Crime, Criminology and Criminal Justice Making Sense of Society Policy and Society Media, Communication and Society Punishment, Justice and Victims
Assessment method
We don’t assume our students have a background in psychology, but we’ll ask you what goals you have for studying the programme and how you wish to apply the subject in your life. If you can answer these questions and have energy and focus in your studies, we can give you the grounding and skills you need to apply your knowledge in a critically reflective way. We run this course predominantly online, with monthly virtual webinars where together we explore the important concepts in Positive Psychology, giving you a chance to listen and discuss in a formal teaching environment. All course materials, resources and reading lists are posted on our virtual learning environment meaning you can work at your own pace across the course of each module. We also offer optional monthly weekend hybrid (face-to-face and online simultaneously) workshops to support your learning. These weekends are a great way to interact with your tutors and course mates to solidify your learning, get involved in fascinating discussions, present your work (and be presented to by other students), and build an invaluable network with other like-minded Positive Psychologists that will last well beyond the end of the course. Throughout the course, you’ll be assessed in a number of ways including reflective assignments, poster and oral presentations, online tests, case study reports and research proposals and analysis. In your final year, you’ll complete a dissertation in an area you feel particularly passionate about. Previous students have developed interventions to improve wellbeing, studied aspects of resilience, happiness and positive emotions, challenged current concepts within Positive Psychology and conducted important research within schools and organisations. The full MSc takes two years, and you can choose to study on a three-year track meaning you have an additional year to focus solely on your dissertation project. You can also choose to complete just year one and receive a PGCert or two years without dissertation and receive a PGDip. Please visit our Centre for Positive Psychology webpage for more information.
Professional bodies
Professionally accredited courses provide industry-wide recognition of the quality of your qualification.
- British Psychological Society
How to apply
International applicants
For further details of our international English entry requirements, please visit our international pages: https://bucks.ac.uk/applying-to-bucks/international
Entry requirements
Applicants would normally have achieved a 2.1 Honours degree in a social science degree; alternatively, candidates may have professional qualifications and/or directly relevant work experience; an Honours degree in psychology is not a pre-requisite.
Fees and funding
Tuition fees
No fee information has been provided for this course
Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .
Additional fee information
Provider information
Buckinghamshire New University
Queen Alexandra Road
High Wycombe
HP11 2JZ