NCI Blog

This is a guest blog post written by Dr Amanda Kracen, Associate Professor of Psychology at National College of Ireland. Unfortunately, cancer is still a leading cause of death in Ireland; the good news is that many people live with and beyond a cancer diagnosis. However, it may not surprise you that people are often affected by receiving a cancer diagnosis, coping with treatment, and learning to live as a “survivor.” People can feel scared and vulnerable. In addition to excellent medical care, it is now recognised that people with cancer benefit from excellent psychological treatment and social support.

The word psychology stems from Greek roots: “psyche” means soul or spirit; “logia” means “study of”. Psychology is the academic discipline that studies the mind and behaviour. At NCI, many different facets of psychology are explored, including biological, clinical, developmental, educational, comparative, evolutionary, and social and industrial psychology. The lecturers are all active researchers across these disciplines. We will share insight into some of this research in coming blogposts.

After completing her Leaving Certificate in 2015, Leanne Kelly felt that going straight to college was the right thing for her. However, she soon realised that joining a course she was unsure of in a big college wasn't working for her so she took a break from studying before starting her psychology journey at NCI in 2017. At that stage, she knew she had made a step in the right direction.

The BA Hons in Psychology at NCI is a psychology degree that is accredited by the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) and an approved course under SUSI’s tuition fees and grant award scheme.

At the most recent event in NCI's series, In the Psychologist's Chair, scientist, psychologist and writer Professor Ian Robertson expanded on the Actonian aphorism: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." His insights, and the mountain of data that he had to support it, were really quite impressive.

NCI was delighted to host Dr. Conor McGuckin of Trinity College Dublin today as part of the In the Psychologists’ Chair series in association with the Irish Times. Dr McGuckin spoke on the topic of applying psychology to education.

The NCI psychology department was delighted to host an international guest speaker at the college today with Dr Melissa Allen from Lancaster University giving a talk entitled Symbolic understanding of pictures in typical development and autism: divergent pathways? (Download the slides from the event

27th – 29th March Trinity Long Room Hub With a Guest Lecture by Keynote Speaker Melissa Allen in NCI on Friday 27th March at 11am. This international and interdisciplinary conference will bring together researchers in the field of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Speakers from psychology, linguistics and philosophy will discuss the nature of language and thought with regard to Autism Spectrum Disorder and other neurodevelopmental disorders. The conference is hosted by Trinity College Dublin’s Arts & Humanities Research Institute, and is a collaboration between National College of Ireland, and different departments and schools within TCD (The School of Psychology, The School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences, The School of Social Sciences and Philosophy).