Celebrating 50 years of Psychology

Psychology at Herts turns 50 this year. We opened our doors back in 1970 with a mission to advance scientific discovery in this fascinating field.

That’s the same year that the half-crown coin ceased being legal tender, 18-year-olds were first given the right to vote, and Sir Paul McCartney revealed he was leaving the Beatles. If that makes us sound old, it’s because we are! But it also means we have decades of expertise under our belts.

We’re not quite old enough to have witnessed Albert Bandura conduct his famous Bobo Doll experiment in 1961; demonstrating the role of imitation in children’s aggressive behaviours. But we were around to watch Zimbardo’s controversial prison simulation experiment unfold at Stamford University, back in 1971.

It’s fair to say that we’ve made a few of our own significant contributions to the field of psychology since then; developing an outstanding reputation for teaching and research in areas such as mental health, behaviour change and public understanding of psychology. We’ve nurtured analytical and critical thinking skills along the way too and shaped the careers of both students and academics alike.

To celebrate, we’ve shared some of our success stories and accumulated experience over the last 50 years in this collection of videos, podcasts and interviews with students past and present. There are even two competitions for you to enter, for a chance to get involved.