Psychological and Behavioural Sciences

Psychological and Behavioural Sciences

Subject overview 

Why Study PBS at Cambridge?

Psychological and Behavioural Sciences (PBS) is an exciting course that offers a broad and flexible degree covering all aspects of Psychology. The core psychological content grants the course accreditation from the British Psychological Society (allowing further postgraduate study of psychology without the requirement for a conversion course) while the optional modules allow students to build a degree that caters to their specific interests.

PBS gives students the opportunity to study cognitive, social, developmental and biological psychology within the broader context of the behavioural sciences, drawing on related disciplines such as biological and social anthropology, sociology, philosophy and natural sciences. Students also gain experience of psychological research, with projects offered from the diverse faculty within the Department of Psychology and other related institutes.

‘All teaching for PBS follows the same course outline set by the Faculty/Department. Read more about the structure of the course. 

The PBS degree allows entry into many different types of career. In addition to further study in psychology (whether academic research by pursuing an MPhil or PhD, or more applied training in educational, occupational or clinical psychology), our graduates have also gone on to careers including working for the civil service, non-profit organisations, behavioural consultancies, and management consultancy. 

Why Study PBS at Downing?

The PBS community at Downing is a supportive and cohesive one. We typically have between 12-16 students studying PBS across all three years, with good interaction between years. The Downing PBS Society will launch in 2023, which will organise talks and social events for those studying psychology at Downing.

Professor Amy L Milton is the Director of Studies for PBS. Her research focuses on the biological mechanisms underlying the persistence and updating of maladaptive emotional memories, their contribution to mental health disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, drug addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the development of new treatments for mental health disorders based upon the disruption of these maladaptive emotional memories.

"PBS is a course for those interested in the brain and behaviour, across multiple levels of analysis and across species. Spanning biological to social psychology, PBS gives students an outstanding grounding across all disciplines of psychology and their associated research methods, while also allowing the flexibility for students to follow their interests with the optional papers.” 

Professor Amy Milton, Director of Studies

Who is PBS looking for?

We are looking for students who are passionate and motivated to understand the mind, who are comfortable in handling data and in understanding and constructing complex arguments. These skills can be gained from a number of different A-level and IB combinations, though we find that most students benefit from having studied Maths, Biology, or both, at a higher level. Approximately half of our students have studied Psychology at higher level, but it is not required to do well on PBS.

We do not ask for any submitted work.

Currently there is no pre-admissions test for PBS, but this is being kept under review at the University level and we will follow the recommended advice from the University.

We conduct a single interview that covers both biological and social psychology questions, but we adapt our questions to take into account the subject that applicants have studied at A-level. We may show you some graphs or figures to interpret, and we may also ask you to think about how you would test hypotheses about data. We are most interested to see how you think, and how you approach problems, rather than what you have been taught.

How can I find out more about PBS?

The best way to prepare for PBS is to read some of the material that interests you on the reading list. There are some excellent popular science books covering psychological material, spanning biological to psychological psychology. If you have some experience of coding in R, that can also be useful preparation (but it is covered on the course if you do not have this experience).

Students often ask us about appropriate work experience. We do not expect students to have experience of working with people with lived experience of mental health conditions, or of working with vulnerable populations. However, there are many types of work experience to which psychological principles are applicable, whether that is working with the elderly, children, or looking at how employees are motivated and incentivised to perform in a corporate environment. Think creatively about how you can bring psychology into different work experience situations!