Psychology
Course Co-ordinator:
Pre-requisite(s): An undergraduate degree in Psychology or cognate discipline. The course is restricted to students on the MRes in Psychology.
This course comprises the student-led research project that forms a major part of the MRes in Psychology. This involves close work with a supervisory team. Each project is distinct and is dependent on the work being pursued by research groups within the department at the time.
No formal teaching but attendance at weekly 1.5 hour research seminars is compulsory, along with attendance and presentation at student-led research presentation sessions.
Poster (10%)
Literature review (10%)
Oral presentation of work (10%)
Viva (10%)
Thesis (60%)
Course Co-ordinator:
Pre-requisite(s): An undergraduate degree in Psychology or cognate discipline. The course is restricted to students on the MRes Psychology.
Lectures, seminars, tutorials and practical classes. Reviewing the literature, research strategies and skills, statistics for psychological research, ethics, dissemination and writing skills.
2x 1 hour seminars per week.
2 x 1.5 hour tutorial/seminars/practical sessions per week
7 assignments for continuous assessment
Course Co-ordinator: Mr J. Urquhart
Pre-requisite(s): Acceptance on MSc in Social Cognitive Neuroscience
Note(s): Compulsory course for MSc in Social Cognitive Neuroscience
Taught and applied course in experimental computer programming for social cognitive neuroscience research.
A one hour lecture per week, plus one hour supported lab class and personal study time.
Two practical assessments.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Steven Yule
Pre-requisite(s): Degree level professional qualification or equivalent plus 18 months work experience in a healthcare environment (e.g. primary or secondary healthcare provider, healthcare management). MSc Patient Safety modules 1 & 2
The content will cover a theoretical and evidence-based background to the principles of patient safety in a range of healthcare settings. Taught by a multidisciplinary faculty from the College of Life Sciences and Medicine, specific topics to be covered include:
- Situation awareness
- Decision making
- Teamwork
- Communication (inter- and intra-professional)
- Leadership
- Stress and fatigue
- Workplace assessment
- Providing feedback and task debriefing
Block week release with 1 week of full-time teaching plus private study. Teaching will be in February for the first course, with coursework due in April. The format will be 10 3-hour workshops (2 per day) comprising lectures, small group work and interactive sessions.
Participants are expected to draw on and share their personal experiences of the topics covered and small group activities will be a prominent feature of this course. Some formal lectures will be used to introduce new material, but these are complemented by focussed discussion, practical exercises and group work.
Assessment will comprise continuous assessment (80%) and oral presentation (20%).
Course Co-ordinator: Professor Rhona Flin
Pre-requisite(s): Degree level professional qualification or equivalent plus 18 months work experience in a healthcare environment (e.g. primary or secondary healthcare provider, healthcare management).
The content will start with the history and rationale for the efforts to improve patient safety in an international context. This will be followed by an introduction to the methods used to assess the state of patient safety at national and organizational levels. With reference to models from safety science, the causes and effects of adverse events will be examined as well as techniques designed to address them.
Block week release with 1 week of full-time teaching plus private study. Teaching will be 5-9 October for the first course, with coursework due in by 13 November. The format will be 10 3-hour workshops (2 per day) comprising lectures, small group work, directed study and interactive sessions.
1st attempt: Assessment will comprise continuous assessment (80%), oral presentation (20%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Gordon Waiter
Pre-requisite(s): Completion of 60 credits from PG Certificate stage of Social Cognitive Neuroscience programme
Note(s): Compulsory course for MSc in Social Cognitive Neuroscience
Visit to fMRI centre. Classroom based lecture on the background and theoretical basis of fMRI research methods. Laboratory based practical session on data processing and analysis of fMRI data.
Two 2-hour lectures per week, plus independent study for practical classes.
One 3,000 word essay and one data analysis report.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Sandie Cleland, Dr Kevin Allan
Pre-requisite(s): An undergraduate degree in Psychology or cognate discipline. The course is restricted to students who have been accepted for postgraduate study by the School of Psychology.
Managing the staff-supervisor relationship. Teaching and assessment skills. Ethics and data protection. Historical and philosophical issues in psychology.
Two 2.5 hour seminars per week for the first three weeks of the block (these to comprise of lectures and practical sessions as appropriate for each topic), plus personal study time. The final week of the block is free of teaching time to allow full-time work on the written assignment.
One extended essay on seminar topic chosen by the student (100%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Sandie Cleland, Dr Kevin Allan
Pre-requisite(s): An undergraduate degree in Psychology or cognate discipline. The course is restricted to students who have been accepted for postgraduate study by the School of Psychology.
Reviewing the literature and reference management. Designing your own webpage. Funding sources and grant applications. Posters and academic talks. Scientific writing. Preparing and reviewing papers.
Two 2.5 seminars per week for the first three weeks of the block (these to comprise of lectures and practical sessions as appropriate for each topic), plus personal study time. The final week of the block is free of teaching time to allow full-time work on the written assignment.
Research proposal for the student's project, based on the ESRC guidelines for funding applications (100%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Sandie Cleland, Dr Kevin Allan
Pre-requisite(s): An undergraduate degree in Psychology or cognate discipline. The course is restricted to students who have been accepted for postgraduate study by the School of Psychology.
Principles of good research design. Strategy in quantitative psychology research. ANOVA and regression. Power, effect size and meta-analysis.
Two 2.5 teaching sessions per week in the first three weeks of the block (these to comprise of 2.5 hours lecture and 2.5 hours practical sessions each week), plus personal study time. The final week of the block is free of teaching time to allow full-time work on the written assignments.
Continuous assessment (100%) consisting of three assignments.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Alastair Ross
Pre-requisite(s): Degree level professional qualification or equivalent plus 18 months work experience in a healthcare environment (e.g. primary or secondary healthcare provider, healthcare management). MSc Patient Safety modules 1-4.
The content will cover a theoretical and evidence-based background, to examine the main accident analysis and reporting systems used in healthcare and other work settings. Specific topics to be covered include:
- Common reporting systems in healthcare
- How data is used to understand problems and improve safety
- Learning from past failure and sentinel events
- Accident analysis, root-cause analysis and systems analysis
- Taxonomies of failure
- Systems used in industry to report and learn from incidents
Block week release with 2.5 days of full-time teaching plus private study. Teaching will be in December for the fist course, with coursework due in January. The format will be five 3-hour workshops comprising lectures, small group work and interactive sessions.
Participants are expected to draw on and share their personal experiences of the topics covered and small group activities will be a prominent feature of this course. Some formal lectures will be used to introduce new material, but these are complemented by focussed discussion, practical exercises and group work.
Continuous assessment (80%); oral presentation (20%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Steven Yule
Pre-requisite(s): Degree level professional qualification or equivalent plus 18 months work experience in a healthcare environment (e.g. primary or secondary healthcare provider, healthcare management). MSc Patient Safety modules 1-4.
The content will cover a theoretical and evidence-based background to the principles of patient safety in a range of healthcare settings. Taught by a multidisciplinary faculty from the College of Life Sciences & Medicine, specific topics to be covered include:
- Macro-ergonomics methods
- System design life cycle
- Task analysis techniques
- Job design
- Human-computer interaction
- Workplace assessment
- Ergonomic solutions to safety problems
Block week release of full-time teaching plus private study. Teaching will be in December for the first course, with coursework due in January. The format will be five 3-hour workshops comprising lectures, small group work and interactive sessions.
Participants are expected to draw on and share their personal experiences of the topics covered and small group activities will be a prominent feature of this course. Some formal lectures will be used to introduce new material, but these are complemented by focussed discussion, practical exercises and group work.
Continuous assessment (80%); oral presentation (20%).
Course Co-ordinator:
Pre-requisite(s): An undergraduate degree in Psychology or cognate discipline. The course is restricted to students on the MRes in Psychology.
Methods in neuroscience and health psychology. Historical and philosophical issues in psychology, qualitative methodology, advanced statistical techniques.
2 x 1 hour lectures per week
2 x 1.5 hour tutorial/seminars /practical sessions per week
8 assignments for continuous assessment
Course Co-ordinator: Professor C N Macrae
Pre-requisite(s): 60 credit points from PG Certificate stage of Social Cognitive Neuroscience programme.
Note(s): Compulsory course for MSc in Social Cognitive Neuroscience
Seminars on current directions in Social Cognitive Neuroscience.
A 2-hour seminar per week, plus personal study time.
One essay on a seminar topic chosen by the student (50%), and the design of an experiment on a topic selected by the course coordinator (50%)
Course Co-ordinator: Dr David Turk; Professor C N Macrae
Pre-requisite(s): 60 credits from PG Certificate stage of Social Cognitive Neuroscience programme
Note(s): Compulsory course for MSc in Social Cognitive Neuroscience. This course is the precursor to a thesis in social cognitive neuroscience.
Together with the thesis supervisor, students will attempt to gain an understanding of the theoretical background to their thesis project.
Weekly meetings with project supervisor plus private study/preparation time.
Project outline (100%)
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Margaret Watson
Pre-requisite(s): 18 months work experience in a healthcare environment (e.g. acute medicine, hospital, primary care)PS5005, PS5506, PS5901.
The content will cover the application of research methods to explore patient safety in a range of healthcare settings. Taught by a multidisciplinary faculty from the College of Life Sciences and Medicine, specific topics to be covered include:
- Qualitative and quantitative research methods (including observation, interviews, surveys, case review)
- Statistics/medical statistics
- Literature review
- Critical review of published research
- Collecting, storing and using data in an ethical manner
Block week release with one week of full-time teaching plus private study. Teaching will be in the format of eight 3-hour workshops. The course will comprise lectures, practical work and interactive sessions. Participants are expected to draw on and share their personal experiences on the topics covered. Formal lectures will be used to introduce new material, and these will be complemented by focused discussion, practical exercises and group work.
1st attempt: Assessment will comprise continuous assessment (80%) and oral presentation (20%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Rachel Swainson
Pre-requisite(s): Acceptance on MSc in Social Cognitive Neuroscience
Note(s): Compulsory course for MSc Social Cognitive Neuroscience
Visit to EGG labs. Classroom assessed lectures on the background and theoretical basis to social cognitive neuroscience methods. Laboratory based practical session on data processing and analysis of EGG data.
Two 2-hour lectures per week, plus independent study for practical classes.
One 3,000 word essay and one data analysis report.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Sandie Cleland, Dr Kevin Allan
Pre-requisite(s): An undergraduate degree in Psychology or cognate discipline. The course is restricted to students who have been accepted for postgraduate study by the School of Psychology.
Logistic regression. Multiple regression. Confirmatory factor analysis and multidimensional scaling. Qualitative methodology. Designing and using questionnaires.
Two 2.5 teaching sessions per week in the first three weeks of the block (these to comprise of 2.5 hours lecture and 2.5 hours practical sessions each week), plus personal study time. The final week of the block is free of teaching time to allow full-time work on the written assignments.
Continuous assessment (100%) consisting of three assignments.
Course Co-ordinator: Professor Rhona Flin and Dr Steven Yule
Pre-requisite(s): Degree level professional qualification or equivalent plus 18 months work experience in a healthcare environment (e.g. primary or secondary healthcare provider, healthcare management). MSc Patient Safety modules 1-7 inclusive.
The content will depend on student's choice of thesis topic.
Initial meetings with supervisor during year one when the topic area will be identified. A research clinic titled 'setting up your project' will be arranged in year one. Because of the stringent requirements for ethical approval for studies involving NHS staff and/or patients, the ethical clearance will be required to have been submitted by the first module of the second year. Then supervision by meeting, telephone and email as determined by the location of the supervisor and student. Start in January, hand in completed dissertation in August. There are no deadline extensions.
Assessment will comprise research dissertation (100%), with viva voce for borderline cases.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Sandie Cleland, Dr Kevin Allan
Pre-requisite(s): An undergraduate degree in Psychology or cognate discipline. The course is restricted to students who have been accepted for postgraduate study by the School of Psychology.
Writing the 9-month report and MRes thesis. The viva process. Dealing with non-academic audiences; the press and non-academic users. Career routes for postgraduate students.
Two 2.5 hour seminars per week for the first three weeks of the block (these to comprise of lectures and practical sessions as appropriate for each topic), plus personal study time. The final week of the block is free of teaching time to allow full-time work on the written assignment.
Press release (40%) and report of their research suitable for non-academic users (60%).
Course Co-ordinator: Professor Lorna McKee
Pre-requisite(s): Degree level professional qualification or equivalent plus 18 months work experience in a healthcare environment (e.g. primary or secondary healthcare provider, healthcare management). MSc Patient Safety modules 1-3.
The content will cover a theoretical and evidence-based background, to the principles of patient safety in a range of healthcare settings. Taught by a multi-disciplinary faculty from the College of Life Sciences & Medicine, specific topics to be covered include:
- Organisational theories
- Theories of organisational change
- Organisational culture and leadership
- Team working in Health Care context
- Cultural assessment approaches for Patient Safety
- Managing Patient Safety and implementing change/quality improvement
Block week release with 1 week of full-time teaching plus private study. Teaching will be in April for the first course with coursework due in by June. The format will be ten 3-hour workshops (2 per day) comprising lectures, small group work and interactive sessions.
Participants are expected to draw on and share their personal experiences of the topics covered and small group activities will be a prominent feature of this course. Some formal lectures will be used to introduce new material, but these are complemented by focussed discussion, practical exercises and group work.
Students are expected to draw on their working knowledge of the NHS and undertake group work tasks.
Continuous assessment (80%); oral presentation (20%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr David Turl; Professor C N Macrae
Pre-requisite(s): 120 credits from PG Diploma stage of Social Cognitive Neuroscience programme.
Note(s): This course is the thesis research project for the MSc Social Cognitive Neuroscience.
Initial generic skills sessions to help direct the students to developing a research proposal, the initial degree stage (including research ethics). Conducting a research project will provide students with insight into the difficulties of conducting social cognitive neuroscience research. The students will each be conducting an individual project which will be written as a research thesis.
Teaching generic skills sessions run in parallel with the research project and regular one to one meetings with the thesis supervisor throughout the project. Most of the course will be individual tuition and support from the thesis supervisor.
Completion of thesis document and viva exam. Poster presentation (5%), thesis (80%), and viva voce exam (15%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Kathryn Mearns
Pre-requisite(s): Degree level professional qualification or equivalent plus 18 months work experience in a healthcare environment (e.g. primary or secondary healthcare provider, healthcare management). MSc Patient Safety module 1.
The content will cover a theoretical and evidence-based background, exploring the data available on the patient safety problem, focusing initially on the large-scale studies of adverse events to set a context. The psychology of error and error types will then be discussed. The second half of this module will focus on practices to improve safety in other high-risk industries such as aviation, energy sector and military contexts. Taught by a multidisciplinary faculty from the College of Life Sciences and Medicine, specific topics to be covered include:
- Closed claim studies
- Case review (i.e. Harvard Medical Practice Study, Vincent at al (2001) study, Scottish study)
- Medication/drug errors
- Methods of studying and classifying errors
- Lessons for patient safety from high-risk industry
- Methods used to manage safety in high-risk industries
- Reporting systems in aviation and energy sector
- Safety climate/culture
- Safety leadership
Block week release with 1 week of full-time teaching plus private study. Teaching will be in December for the first course, with coursework due in by January. The format will be 10 3-hour workshops (2 per day) comprising lectures, small group work and interactive sessions. Participants are expected to draw on and share their personal experiences of the topics covered and small group activities will be a prominent feature of this module. Some formal lectures will be used to introduce new material, but these are complemented by focussed discussion, practical exercises and group work.
Assessment will comprise continuous assessment (80%) and oral presentation (20%).
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Sandie Cleland, Dr Kevin Allan
Pre-requisite(s): An undergraduate degree in Psychology or cognate discipline. The course is restricted to students who have been accepted for postgraduate study by the School of Psychology.
Single case studies in research and clinical psychology. Conducting research involving children. Conducting research involving clinical populations. Conducting research in collaboration with industry. Conducting research over the internet. Conducting research with older adults.
Two 2.5 hour seminars per week for the first three weeks of the block (these to comprise of lectures and practical sessions as appropriate for each topic), plus personal study time. The final week of the block is free of teaching time to allow full-time work on the written assignment.
One extended essay discussing the issues surrounding research with special populations (100%).