Program Description The Bachelor of Applied Arts degree program is geared towards helping students gain the skills and experience necessary to be job-skills ready. The Bachelor of Applied Arts also emphasizes research skills, and gives students a bit of the grad school experience and skills, without going to graduate school. The program is more rigorous and challenging than the more flexible Bachelor of Arts, but includes courses hand-picked by faculty and employers to target hard and soft job skills. The Bachelor of Applied Arts is ideally suited for students interested in workplace expertise, tests and measurements, and UX design.
Lower-level students establish a foundation of knowledge in psychology, before concentrating on applications of psychology to modern community and workplace settings for their upper-level work. Required courses provide students with general, transferable workplace skills (e.g., Interpersonal Relations), as well as specific knowledge and skills used in a variety of public and private sector jobs such as program evaluation and technical writing. Electives provide further training in additional areas selected by the student.
Students also participate in a workplace practicum coordinated by KPU and co-supervised by faculty and employers in relevant fields of employment. This practicum placement will assist students in gaining workplace experience and in meeting potential future employers.
Those interested in further study and graduate school or who prefer more extensive research experience may augment their knowledge and skills by taking the research-focused Honours program in Psychology. The Honours program affords students an opportunity to develop and report on a research project under the direct supervision of a faculty member within the Psychology Department.
The Bachelor of Applied Arts in Psychology was developed in consultation with employers throughout the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. These employers indicated that graduates of the BAA (Psychology) program are qualified for positions such as program evaluators, research analysts, project consultants, user experience designers, human resources advisors, and health planning consultants. Past graduates have found employment in such areas as health research, human resources, market research, psychological testing and crisis services, product usability research, autism intervention, education, and corrections. Graduates of the BAA (Psychology) with Honours have gone on to graduate studies in Clinical Psychology, Counselling Psychology, Gerontology, Education, School Psychology, Experimental Psychology, and Public Policy, to name only a few areas. Students in the program should consult with an Arts Degree Advisor to select courses best suited to their career objectives.
