Geography and Psychology

Geography and psychology are disciplines that examine, from very different but complementary angles, how humans experience and make sense of the world around them. Geography is concerned with the relationship between people and place, examining how physical environments shape human life and how human activity transforms landscapes and spatial patterns. Psychology investigates the mental processes through which people perceive, think, feel, and behave, using scientific methods to understand both individuals and social groups.

Bringing them together opens up questions about how environments affect wellbeing and behaviour, how communities develop and change, and what it means to belong to a place.

This four-year full-time MA at the University of St Andrews develops genuine expertise in both disciplines simultaneously. You will engage with the full breadth of geography, from physical geography and environmental systems to human geography, spatial analysis, and the social dimensions of place, while also building rigorous grounding in psychological science across areas such as perception, cognition, motivation, social psychology, and research methods. Practical classes and training in research techniques are emphasised from the outset in both disciplines.

A year abroad is integrated into the programme, giving you the opportunity to study in a different intellectual and geographical context. The typical entry tariff is 200 points.

Graduates from this unusual combination bring skills in spatial analysis, qualitative and quantitative research, and psychological reasoning to careers across a wide range of sectors. Environmental psychology, urban planning, public health, community development, educational psychology, and geospatial analysis are all areas where graduates may contribute. Postgraduate study in psychology, geography, environmental science, or public health is a natural continuation, and many graduates go on to doctoral research in fields that connect human experience and the built or natural environment.