MSc Psychology (Conversion)

This module covers major topics in the area of cognitive psychology including:

• attention
• visual object recognition
• written language processing
• working memory: long-term memory and acquired memory problems
• everyday memory
• representation of knowledge.

This module covers concepts, theories and empirical research related to:

• human aggression
• attitudes and attitude change
• attribution and social judgement
• environment and social behaviour
• non-verbal communication
• interpersonal attraction
• intergroup processes

This module covers:

• concepts, models and theories of development
• the module of development from infancy to old age
• cognitive and social aspects of behaviour in childhood
• language development
• adolescence as a developmental period
• mid-life, and the effects of ageing

This module covers:

• identification and measurement of individual differences in temperament
• biological and environmental contributions to individual differences
• causal theories of personality
• the relationship between psychopathology and personality
• background to methods of description and classification in psychopathology
• genetic, constitutional and environmental aspects of disorders of personality and behaviour
• rationale of therapeutic techniques

This module is designed to introduce you to the use of statistics in psychological science. You will be learning the following topics: statistical thinking in psychology, data wrangling, describing and visualising data, statistical inference and hypothesis testing, statistical power and effect size, modelling categorical data, correlation and regression, comparing means, multiple regression and factorial ANOVA. 

In the weekly labs, you will have hands-on experience of using the statistical software package RStudio, and implement your analytic and reporting practices to encourage and facilitate open and reproducible science.

You will learn critical skills related to research design and analysis for quantitative and qualitative studies including psychology as science and the hypothetico-deductive account, basic concepts (e.g., validity, reliability, sampling, and measurement), experimental designs, quasi-experimental and specialised designs, survey design and analysis, single-case designs, introduction to key concepts of qualitative research, thematic approaches and methods of qualitative research (including, thematic analysis, grounded theory and IPA), and discursive approaches to qualitative research (including, narrative analysis and discourse analysis).

You will also learn to apply the above through the collection, analysis and reporting of quantitative and qualitative data. 

The module will introduce psychological and neurobiological theories of addiction, considering and evaluating the extent to which behaviours commonly described as ‘addictive’ – including not only dependence on drugs and alcohol, but also excessive engagement in behaviours such as gambling – are motivated by similar outcomes and reflect the involvement of similar processes.

The module will outline individual differences in risk for addiction and consider how these differences interact with features of social environments to predict addiction development and relapse. Lastly, the efficacy of different treatment approaches will be considered.

This module is intended to provide:

a) knowledge of a range of issues fundamental to understanding cognitive deficits following brain damage;

b) understanding of underlying theories of neuropsychology and cognitive neuropsychology;

c) understanding of research methods and application of this expertise in the clinical and research domain.

Topics include: methodology in neuropsychology and cognitive neuropsychology; main techniques of investigation in neuropsychology; cognitive impairments following brain injury to the following abilities: visual object recognition, facial recognition, memory, language, executive processes, attention and action control.

This module will allow you to engage with social psychological approaches to understanding major social problems of contemporary society.

You will learn how to apply social psychology to analyse and solve social problems in intergroup contexts. You will gain experience in applying social psychological knowledge to understand and explain such issues as social inequality, tyranny, revolution and collective action, conflict escalation and resolution, genocide, terrorism and war.

This module aims to give an overview of the contribution that psychology can make to education. This will include subjects of direct relevance to the classroom, including learning styles, development or mathematical and reading abilities, as well as challenges in the classroom (for example dyslexia, behavioural problems, gifted and talented pupils).

This module will also cover more broad contributions of psychology to education, including how brain development across childhood and adolescence might inform education practice and a critical view of education intervention programmes.

Policy-relevant topics like inclusion for special educational needs, gender differences and antisocial behaviour will also be covered. This module will develop your applied skills and will be relevant for those interested in a career in educational or clinical psychology.

This module will provide the opportunity for advanced study of psychological science applied to the investigation of crime and the process of criminal law. Research will be primarily, but not exclusively, drawn from applied cognitive psychology. It will be of interest to students considering postgraduate study in forensic psychology.

The module will cover current issues in psychology and law selected from: interviewing suspects, false confessions, detection of deception, interviewing witnesses, eyewitness identification, false memories, interviewing children, offender profiling, CCTV, decision making in forensic contexts.