Course Catalogue

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This course is designed to give students the experience of carrying out a research project under the supervision of academic staff. This may involve working in psychological laboratories (or other settings where data collection takes place) or performing secondary data analysis of high-quality datasets, before analysing data and writing up the results appropriately.

This course will run throughout the year and will include individual supervision with an allocated member of academic staff and four one-hour taught general support sessions.

Standard University entry requirements for postgraduate courses apply.

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Three-Minute Treatise and Supporting Proposal Document

Students should prepare an audio, audio-video (or signed + captioned alternative) three-minute pitch of their Research Proposal. This should be accompanied by a completed supporting Proposal Template Document. This is weighted at 20% of the course grade (40% of this grade will be generated by the 'presentation' and 60% by the 'document').

Dissertation Report

A Report, written according to current APA standards, and in-line with the word count of leading, relevant journals in the field of research related to the project. The word count should be between 8,000 and 10,000 words. This includes all written text from the Introduction to Discussion, but would not include Tables, Figures, Full References, Appendices, Tables of Content, Title Pages, Declaration of Originality, etc. This would account for 64% of the course grade.

Project Skills

Supervisors will evaluate students' performance against the practical ILOs based on their regular meetings and interactions with students. This will take into account, for example: preparedness, ability to utilise feedback, ethical and analytical considerations, time and project management. This evaluation will account for 16% of the course grade.

The aims of this course are to:

To provide students with an appreciation of the issues associated with research design and an understanding of different methodologies (quantitative or qualitative).

To provide students with the opportunity for practical experience to complement the theoretical understanding they will attain in their core and optional modules.

To provide students with the opportunity to write up results at a quality expected of that of those appearing in peer-reviewed publications.

By the end of this course students will be able to:
- Demonstrate a clear understanding of issues related to research design, research methodologies (and statistics for quantitative projects).
- Apply appropriate methodologies relevant to psychological research.
- Apply theoretical understanding into practice
- Plan and execute a significant project of research, investigation or development.
- Demonstrate originality or creativity in the application of knowledge, understanding and practices.
- Identify, conceptualise and define new and abstract problems and issues.
- Assess the ethical and professional issues associated with conducting psychological research.

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