The Department of Psychology, established in the mid-1960s, is committed to excellence in both teaching and research. We are an expanding department, currently with 31 full-time academic staff plus research staff and a distinguished panel of visiting tutors.
We combine mainstream academic and applied psychology with particular research strengths in:
- Cognition and Culture
- Cognitive Psychology, Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
- Individual Differences & Psychopathology
- Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Social Relationships
- Work Psychology
We have a diverse student population, comprising around 450 undergraduate and 90 postgraduate students.
Psychology programmes:
- BSc (Hons) Psychology
- Integrated Degree in Psychology (including Foundation Year)
- MPhil & PhD in Psychology
- MSc in Cognitive & Clinical Neuroscience
- MSc in Foundations in Clinical Psychology & Health Services
- MSc in Music, Mind & Brain
- MSc in Occupational Psychology/MSc in Organisational Behaviour
- MSc in Research Methods in Psychology
News and events
- Forty-two months after graduating, Goldsmiths' Psychology graduates have the highest median salary (tied with graduates of 3 other universities) out of more than 50 English universities offering an undergraduate psychology degree. This conclusion is based on the most recent data (from 2009-2010) collated by Unistats.
- The Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths has been acknowledged as one of the top Psychology departments in the world (placed between 101 and 150th in the table of QS World University Rankings). The rating is based on a number of measures, one of which is citations. Focusing on this latter metric, the Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths is placed 10th within the UK.
- Dr Yulia Kovas has been awarded £3 million by the Goverment of the Russian Federation to carry out cutting edge interdisciplinary cross-cultural research in the field of cognitive psychology and behavioural genetics. The research will be focused on the cognitive underpinnings of individual differences in STEM fields, and in particular on the origins of individual differences in mathematical ability.
- Dr Elisabeth Hill and Dr Antonia Hamilton at the University of Nottingham have been awarded £34,925 from The Waterloo Foundation to investigate whether autism and dyspraxia share a common cognitive cause.
- Dr Lauren Stewart and colleagues from the Music, Mind and Brain group have been awarded £250,000 from the Leverhulme Trust to investigate Involuntary Cognition, using 'Earworms' (tunes in the head) as a model
Examples of research conducted by members of the Department of Psychology
Dr Elisabeth Hill’s research focuses on neurodevelopmental disorders. An example of one strand of her recent research is the Autism & Employment Study. This study addresses employment issues experienced by people with Autism, Asperger Syndrome and other conditions.
For links to this study, see: http://www.gold.ac.uk/psychology/staff/hill/ and for an HR factsheet that has recently been published, see http://www.gold.ac.uk/media/ASD%20employment%20mental%20health.pdf
Dr Lauren Stewart’s expertise focuses on music, mind and brain. Together with Dr Daniel Mullensiefen she is currently involved in a study whereby she is developing and launching a test battery measuring musical expertise and engagement. It is hoped that this research will increase our understanding about which types of musical expertise and engagement go together in the general population. For an online version of the test battery, see: https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/musicality/