places available per year across Experimental Psychology and PPL
Experimental Psychology
Why Pembroke?
It is possible to study Psychology at Oxford in two ways: as a subject on its own, Experimental Psychology (EP) or with Philosophy and/or Linguistics (PPL). Students study a diverse programme that spans the neural and psychological mechanisms of human behaviour, with formal teaching in statistics and experimental methods. Recent Pembroke graduates have gone on to a wide range of careers including teaching, clinical psychology, graduate medicine, marketing and further research.
Experimental Psychology at Pembroke is led by Professor Hannah Smithson whose research focuses on the neural mechanisms that underlie perception. Our other main Psychology Tutor is Dr Rebekah White, whose research interests lie in the field of Cognitive Psychology, and who is also the College’s welfare and wellbeing co-ordinator.
Pembroke has a friendly psychology community and an excellent support network that unites both undergraduate and graduate students. For undergraduate students, the close relationship with graduates provides a direct link to ongoing research, and opportunities to discuss, and be involved with, all stages of the experimental process.
What extra activities do we offer?
During term, the whole psychology community meets once a week for lunch. These informal lunches facilitate the sharing of information from practical discussions about the course and life in Oxford, through to conversations about exciting psychological discoveries. We also have regular research evenings where finalists, graduate students, tutors, and guest speakers present their research.
Could you become a Pembroke Psychologist?
In addition to a very good track record of academic achievement, students must be able to evaluate evidence, consider issues from different perspectives, and and cope with the quantitative demands of the course.
The selection process involves interviews at Pembroke college and a second college for shortlisted candidates. The Psychology interview provides an opportunity to talk about the subject. Candidates are not expected to demonstrate detailed pre-existing knowledge of topics in Psychology. As in most colleges, however, they are likely to be asked to think about the experimental problems that are often encountered in psychology and other disciplines.
If you are considering this course, please attend an open day where you can meet our tutors and students and find out more. This is the best way to get a feel for whether you should make an application. We look forward to meeting you!
Have you considered our joint honours courses?
We also offer Psychology as part of a joint degree with Philosophy and Linguistics (PPL)
Students can elect to graduate after three years with a BA degree. Alternatively, they can decide to remain for an optional fourth year composed of a research-intensive, clinically-focused or translation-focused extended project. Students who complete the fourth year will graduate with a Master’s degree in Experimental Psychology.
Experimental Psychology Course Video
The Rokos Internship Scheme provides full funding for academic summer internships.
Pembroke non-finalist STEM students are eligible for up to £1,000 funding for summer internships, allowing them to gain hands-on research experience. The award covers all academic and living expenses, including accommodation.
Below are some reports from Pembroke students who have used the award in past few years.
Lara Clarke (2020, Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics)
Thanks to funding from the Rokos Award, Lara had the opportunity to run a pair of experiments over eight weeks investigating how people manage their emotions through sharing them with other people.
She shares: "Being involved from start to finish taught me so much. Among other things, I learned how to get ethical approval for experiments with humans, build digital experiments and recruit people to take part online, and worked on coding skills to help me analyse the data we collected. I’ll be using all of these skills in my third year research project, and hopefully my future career.
I particularly enjoyed learning how to share my work with different audiences. Along the way, I helped write and edit a paper, presented my research in a lab meeting, have been invited to speak at another lab group in 2023 about this work, and I’m about to do a talk about psychological research at the University of Oxford for a local school."
Krisztina Jedlovszky (2018, Experimental Psychology)
Using the Rokos Awards, Krisztina took part in a summer internship at the Neuronal Network and Behaviour Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest.
She shares: “It felt great to be trusted with lab equipment and to be allowed to work independently on the set hypothesis, but with constant help and advice from my supervisor.”
Meet Our Academics
places available per year across Experimental Psychology and PPL
Experimental Psychology
Why Pembroke?
It is possible to study Psychology at Oxford in two ways: as a subject on its own, Experimental Psychology (EP) or with Philosophy and/or Linguistics (PPL). Students study a diverse programme that spans the neural and psychological mechanisms of human behaviour, with formal teaching in statistics and experimental methods. Recent Pembroke graduates have gone on to a wide range of careers including teaching, clinical psychology, graduate medicine, marketing and further research.
Experimental Psychology at Pembroke is led by Professor Hannah Smithson whose research focuses on the neural mechanisms that underlie perception. Our other main Psychology Tutor is Dr Rebekah White, whose research interests lie in the field of Cognitive Psychology, and who is also the College’s welfare and wellbeing co-ordinator.
Pembroke has a friendly psychology community and an excellent support network that unites both undergraduate and graduate students. For undergraduate students, the close relationship with graduates provides a direct link to ongoing research, and opportunities to discuss, and be involved with, all stages of the experimental process.
What extra activities do we offer?
During term, the whole psychology community meets once a week for lunch. These informal lunches facilitate the sharing of information from practical discussions about the course and life in Oxford, through to conversations about exciting psychological discoveries. We also have regular research evenings where finalists, graduate students, tutors, and guest speakers present their research.
Could you become a Pembroke Psychologist?
In addition to a very good track record of academic achievement, students must be able to evaluate evidence, consider issues from different perspectives, and and cope with the quantitative demands of the course.
The selection process involves interviews at Pembroke college and a second college for shortlisted candidates. The Psychology interview provides an opportunity to talk about the subject. Candidates are not expected to demonstrate detailed pre-existing knowledge of topics in Psychology. As in most colleges, however, they are likely to be asked to think about the experimental problems that are often encountered in psychology and other disciplines.
If you are considering this course, please attend an open day where you can meet our tutors and students and find out more. This is the best way to get a feel for whether you should make an application. We look forward to meeting you!
Have you considered our joint honours courses?
We also offer Psychology as part of a joint degree with Philosophy and Linguistics (PPL)
Students can elect to graduate after three years with a BA degree. Alternatively, they can decide to remain for an optional fourth year composed of a research-intensive, clinically-focused or translation-focused extended project. Students who complete the fourth year will graduate with a Master’s degree in Experimental Psychology.
Experimental Psychology Course Video
The Rokos Internship Scheme provides full funding for academic summer internships.
Pembroke non-finalist STEM students are eligible for up to £1,000 funding for summer internships, allowing them to gain hands-on research experience. The award covers all academic and living expenses, including accommodation.
Below are some reports from Pembroke students who have used the award in past few years.
Lara Clarke (2020, Psychology, Philosophy and Linguistics)
Thanks to funding from the Rokos Award, Lara had the opportunity to run a pair of experiments over eight weeks investigating how people manage their emotions through sharing them with other people.
She shares: "Being involved from start to finish taught me so much. Among other things, I learned how to get ethical approval for experiments with humans, build digital experiments and recruit people to take part online, and worked on coding skills to help me analyse the data we collected. I’ll be using all of these skills in my third year research project, and hopefully my future career.
I particularly enjoyed learning how to share my work with different audiences. Along the way, I helped write and edit a paper, presented my research in a lab meeting, have been invited to speak at another lab group in 2023 about this work, and I’m about to do a talk about psychological research at the University of Oxford for a local school."
Krisztina Jedlovszky (2018, Experimental Psychology)
Using the Rokos Awards, Krisztina took part in a summer internship at the Neuronal Network and Behaviour Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest.
She shares: “It felt great to be trusted with lab equipment and to be allowed to work independently on the set hypothesis, but with constant help and advice from my supervisor.”