MSc Applied Positive Psychology

Why study this subject?

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.

Why study at Buckinghamshire New University?

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.

What facilities can I use?

Learning materials are uploaded monthly onto our virtual learning environment for you to go through at your own pace. No matter where you are, you can access useful resources like podcasts, academic journals, presentations and online lectures.

Our library is packed with all the information you need for your assignments – you’ll have access to hundreds of specialist books, articles, industry publications and specialist online resources. Not to mention there’s plenty of room to knuckle down for some quiet study time.

What will I study?

Applied Positive Psychology focuses on the scientific study of happiness, wellbeing, purpose and strengths. Looking at these areas, we explore how different methods, techniques and ways of working improve performance in a range of settings, from education to organisational development to private coaching.  

You’ll learn how to analyse and interpret data and understand the application of research to individuals and organisations.

You’ll discover how psychological research has explored the uses of Applied Positive Psychology and how theory has developed over time.

You’ll also look at the realities of the journey of change and Positive Psychology processes and methods that support and create it.

We invite students to choose assignments on subjects that reflect their own goals and interests. In this way, the course becomes heavily tailored to your specific goals. As a course team, our wish is to relate to the goals and aspirations of individuals and to support them in that journey.

This course will take you on a journey to explore important areas in Positive Psychology like happiness, well-being and flourishing, strengths-based development, positive subjective emotions, hope and resilience, as well as important modules about research skills and data analysis.

How will I be taught and assessed?

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, with some students opting to study on a three-year track meaning they have an additional year to focus solely on their 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.