Postgraduate Taught

For psychology graduates, this MSc provides taught content and research training in a range of areas of psychology, building on areas of staff research expertise at Keele. It prepares students in readiness to undertake a PhD in Psychology and other psychology-related careers.

The training provided on the MSc in Psychology is based closely on our staff research interests and strengths in cognitive and social psychology. Strengths in cognitive psychology include time perception, memory encoding and retrieval processes, environmental context-dependent recognition memory effects, implicit and explicit memory, false memory for words, false memories for brand names, the mechanisms underlying language processing, influences on human cognitive performance (particularly alcohol hangover, mild head injury and repetitive movements such as chewing) and cognitive control processes (i.e., executive functions). Strengths in social psychology include the social psychology of reputations, and group processes, particularly the acquisition of new members to groups.

This course aims to build on our research expertise by providing structured training in psychology so that those successfully completing the course can proceed to undertake psychological research in a variety of settings.

If you are interested in health psychology, clinical psychology, and social development then please see the course details for our other MSc courses in these specific areas.

Career Destination Information

Doing an MSc in Psychology is an excellent way to prepare for a variety of research-based and vocational psychology careers. Keele Psychology MSc students have gone on to PhD study and other professional psychology appointments.

Through a combination of subject-specific and broadly-based modules, students are trained in psychology, relevant research methodologies and in transferable employment-related skills.

The course aims are:

• To provide students with a range of opportunities to engage with advanced research in substantive areas relevant to their own research interests and to the discipline of psychology
• To provide students with opportunities to enhance and develop their written and communication skills, independent learning skills, and critical reflection and evaluation skills
• To enable students to understand the strengths and weaknesses of different research methods and different forms of data, and to evaluate their appropriateness for different research problems
• To enable students to define and formulate research questions and testable hypotheses, and to design appropriate research to answer these questions using relevant methods of data collection, consistent with British Psychological Society principles of ethics and research governance
• To provide students with knowledge of quantitative and qualitative approaches to research and data analysis techniques

This course is open to graduates with a first or upper second-class degree in psychology or overseas equivalent. Individuals without such qualifications but with other relevant experience should contact the course director to discuss whether they would benefit from the course.

In order to obtain a Masters degree, students are required to obtain 180 credits, including a 60-credit dissertation. The course modules are set out below.

Credit value for each module is given in brackets.

Course Modules

Core Modules (70 credits)

• Theory and Methodology in Psychology (30 credits): Focuses on philosophical issues in social science and psychology and specific research techniques in psychology
• Qualitative Data Analysis (20 credits): Covers practical application of interpretative methodologies through the exploration of content, discourse and narrative analysis of interview and textual data
• Quantitative Data Analysis II (advanced) (20 credits): Covers a variety of analytic methods including extensions of the regression model, analysis of variance and multivariate data reduction techniques such as factor analysis

Specialist Modules (50 credits)

• Special topics in Psychology 1 (15 credits): Students choose from currently available Level 3 modules, such as Research in Music Psychology, Social Development in Children, Influences on Human Cognitive Performance, Disclosure Processes in Children and Adolescents, Thinking about Knowledge and the Mind, Peer Relationships in Childhood & Adolescence, Psychology of Time, The Social Self, Ecopsychology, Recognising and Remembering words, Cognitive Neuropsychology, Societal Psychology, Health Psychology, Behaviour Analysis in Clinical Psychology, and Group Processes and Group Dynamics
• Special topics in Psychology 2 (15 credits): The second special topic is based on independent study, leading to the preparation of an essay under one-to-one supervision of a Special Topic supervisor
• Research Apprenticeship (20 credits): Students work on a staff-led research project as an apprentice, gaining experience of designing and conducting psychological research

Dissertation (60 credits)

Students may select any appropriate Psychology research topic, providing that specialist supervision is available. It is normally expected that Psychology students will undertake an empirical dissertation, designing, conducting, and reporting on an original piece of psychological research using appropriate design, methods, and data analysis strategies.

The course is assessed through coursework, verbal presentation of research, unseen examination and independent research written up as a final dissertation (15,000-20,000 words). The pass mark in each module is 50%, and all modules must be passed to obtain the MSc.

A distinction will be awarded for exceptional performance (broadly an overall average of 70% or more including 70% in the dissertation). A merit will be awarded where overall performance is in the range 60-69% (including 60% in the dissertation).

• Home/EU = £3,900 (full-time), £2,150 (part-time).
• International: £11,300

There are a number of bursaries on offer to both home and overseas postgraduate students. Please see this page for details and eligibility.