Psychology

Your first class will be your School induction. This will help you prepare for the year ahead and provide you with useful advice on your course, as well as School contacts and information on getting the most out of your academic experience.

Your School Induction will be on your timetable, please make sure to check the date, time and location to ensure you do not miss it. The information about your School induction will also be available on MyAberdeen.

MSc Psychological Studies (Conversion) Induction 

Friday 23 January, 2.00pm, William Guild, Room T1

For students newly entering our course, we recommend the, 'Introduction to Psychology: The Full Noba Collection' textbook. It is free for anyone to use.

For those students wishing to purchase their own hard copy of a textbook, we recommend 'Psychological Science (seventh edition) by Phelps, Berkman and Gazzaniga (2022)'.

As students progress on our degree, the transition is made for a focus on academic articles, rather than textbooks. Information for these will be provided within lectures.

Director of Education 
Dr Helen Knight
helen.knight@abdn.ac.uk

Director of Postgraduate Education
Dr Sandie Cleland
a.cleland@abdn.ac.uk

Programme Coordinator for MSc Psychological Studies
Dr Zeshu Shao
zeshu.shao@abdn.ac.uk

Administration Contact
Psychology Admin
psy-pg@abdn.ac.uk

All psychology courses in the first term will be assessed through coursework and/or in-person exams. Coursework may include essays, reports, MCQs, presentations, discussion forums, and group projects among others. This will vary between courses, and there will be specific details in every course guide at the start of term alongside further advice from individual tutors/coordinators during the term. 

MSc Psychological Studies

For students studying an MSc in Psychological Studies, you will select, or be allocated to, a thesis supervisor in spring term (February/March). Detailed information about the process will be provided in the thesis allocation lecture in week 2 of teaching by the MSc thesis coordinator.

Completing a research-based thesis is a compulsory component of a BPS accredited degree. BPS regulations require students to demonstrate their methodological skills and knowledge by conducting and writing up an independent piece of research. To ensure you can do this, you will get regular and supportive supervision meetings which will provide students with continuous feedback throughout the project. It is a requirement of the BPS that the thesis report element of your thesis must be passed (and students must obtain an overall GPA of 12 or above) in order to receive an accredited degree.

The format and frequency of these will be decided jointly by you and your supervisor, for example you may decide that you will meet in-person, or online using Microsoft Teams, or a mix of the two. Whatever format is used, your supervisor will be there for you and will guide and support you in your research. Stay in regular contact with your supervisor and please refer to the thesis handbook for further guidelines and advice.

A lot of the teaching we value most is carried out in small groups where staff have the opportunity to work closely with students to develop their psychological skills and knowledge. This teaching may involve labs, tutorials and workshops. All teaching will be in person and small groups will be listed in your timetable with attendance monitored.

We are looking forward to welcoming you to campus to start your research journey with us. As a Postgraduate Research student you will have the opportunity to attend a University wide induction in addition to your school induction.

The University of Aberdeen Orientation programme has been designed to take you through all of the essential information you will need for your student life. You can get started now by working through the interactive modules.

There are a series of modules that you can work through before you arrive. Once you have registered you can access the remaining modules and complete your mandatory training programme through your bespoke PGR training platform on our virtual learning environment.

There will be a school welcome event for Postgraduate Research students. This will provide an opportunity to meet Postgraduate coordinators and PhD supervisors. There will also be time to answer any questions you may have. The welcome event will take place in early October 2025.

As a PGR student you may have the opportunity to audit Master's courses to augment your research training. Please discuss this with your supervisor and check out the postgraduate taught pages above.

The PGR College also offers a comprehensive training programme to support your research journey.

The PGR College training and development programme offers academic, professional, and personal development through a number of training workshops, resources and opportunities, all intended to support the PGR community at the University of Aberdeen.