UCL FACULTY OF LIFE SCIENCES

This is a one-year (full-time) or two-year (part-time) Masters degree which aims to equip students with the advanced training in research methods that will prepare them for a career involving psychological research. The course has ESRC accreditation, which means that it can form the first year of an ESRC 1+3 studentship.

Students complete courses on statistics, computing, and qualitative analysis, and have options to study methodologies in various fields of psychology, including clinical psychology, cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology and developmental psychology.

Training is provided in all relevant skills, including reviewing literature, developing hypotheses, writing research proposals, designing and carrying out empirical studies, conducting advanced statistical analyses, and presenting results.

Students learn to use a range of research tools such as databases, statistical software, computer-assisted qualitative analysis packages, and computer programming.

Teaching is in seminars and small-group lectures and practicals, and is assessed primarily by written course work and reports of empirical projects carried out individually and in groups.

By the end of this course, students will have acquired a wide range of practical research skills. They will have gained a knowledge of the nature and limitations of the scientific method and the main alternatives. In addition they will have knowledge of a range of general historical, theoretical, and philosophical issues underlying the discipline of psychology, including the philosophy of science

Programme Director: Dr Jenni Rodd
Teaching Administrator: Pete Buchanan

The course is divided into three components:

Empirical Projects conducted throughout the year, include two small-group projects and a main project

Special Research Methods, taught over the first two terms, includes a module on the philosophy of pychology, and a choice of two from five or six options in various areas of psychology.

Generic Research Methods, taught over the first two terms, includes modules on statistics, computer programming, qualitative analysis and core research skills.

More detailed information on the structure of the course is available here.

The programme will be assessed via a combination of coursework, examinations and project report.

Assessment information for the different modules is available here.

The programme aims to equip students with the advanced training in research methods that will prepare them for a career involving psychological research with human and nonhumans.

First destinations of recent graduates include:

• Hackney NHS: Psychologist
• South London and Maudsley NHS Trust: Research Assistant
• University of Exeter: PhD Psychology
• Tavistock Clinic: Assistant Psychologist
• UCL: PhD Psychology
• St Vincent Hospital: Research Psychologist
• Institute of Psychiatry: Research Worker
• SW London & St George's Mental Health NHS Trust: Assistant Psychologist

Please select the links below for further information

• Programme Specification
• UCL Graduate Prospectus
• UCL Graduate Prospectus entry for the MSc Research Methods in Psychology (incl fee information)

The following may also be of interest:

• Information for current students

This programme is accredited by the ESRC as part of the 1+3 studentship award.  This involves funding for one year of masters study followed by a three year MPhil/PhD.  The funding deadline for this year has now passed.

For information on general scholarship opportunities, please select the link below:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/scholarships/graduate

The deadline for applications for MSc Research Methods in Psychology in 2011/12 has now passed, all places available on the programme have been filled and new applications cannot be considered.  Prospective students are welcome to make applications for the 2012/13 programme.

Applications are invited from students wishing to take a one-year (full-time) or two-year (part-time) Masters degree in Research Methods in Psychology at University College London. Up to 16 places are offered to UK, EU, and overseas graduate students each year.

For the MSc Research Methods in Psychology we normally require a good 2nd class honours degree in psychology or related subject, or an equivalent overseas qualification. Usually this means a 2.1 level or above, but additional relevant experience or qualifications are also taken into account when considering applications.

Applicants must submit a completed UCL Graduate application form with the required documentation.