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Psychology and Health Inequalities - MSc

Mode of study: Full time, Part time
Entry months: September
Duration of Study: 1 year (Full time) / 2 years (Part time)

Subject Area: Psychology
FEES (2022/23 academic year): UK - FT £9,500/PT £5,200; International - £17,900

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Programme specifications

Course Overview

This programme has been developed for students who are interested in gaining an advanced understanding of psychological methods and theory as well as an appreciation of health inequalities from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Course structure

Our MSc Psychology programmes are designed to foster a vibrant and collaborative peer culture amongst our MSc students. We know it’s vital that you develop the advanced specialised skills you will need to pursue careers in your chosen fields. Throughout your MSc degree you are supported and encouraged to focus your work to help you conduct in-depth explorations of Psychology and Health Inequalities and your personal interests.

Our MSc Psychology programmes aim to:

Equip you to formulate and conduct psychological research projects
Develop your knowledge of different theoretical perspectives, philosophical traditions and methodological approaches to psychology
Enable you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of different research methods and different forms of data, and to evaluate their appropriateness for different research problems
Enable you 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
Provide you with knowledge of quantitative and qualitative approaches to research and data analysis techniques
Provide you with a range of opportunities to engage with advanced research in substantive areas relevant to their own research topic and to the discipline of psychology
Provide you with opportunities to enhance and develop your written and communication skills, independent learning skills, and critical reflection and evaluation skills

You will develop these skills under the guidance of a faculty member with expertise in this area.

Taught modules

Over the course of the MSc, you will complete 180 credits across 9 modules (including a dissertation). You will study a diverse programme, including specialist content in psychology and health inequalities, advanced research methods, a dissertation, research apprenticeship and two optional topics from other relevant Schools across the university.

Semester one	Semester two
Dissertation - PSY-40045 (60 credits)
PSY-40085 Critical Approaches to Health, Social and Political Psychology (15 credits)	PSY-40083 Using Research to Influence Policy and Practice (15 credits)
PSY-40095 Advanced Research Skills, Design and Analysis (15 credits)	PSY-40081 Advanced Studies in Health Inequalities (15 credits)
PSY-40109 Approaches and Methods in Health Inequalities (15 credits)	PSY-40038 Research Apprenticeship (15 credits)
Optional module (15 credits)	Optional module (15 credits)

Semester one core modules

PSY-40085 Critical Approaches to Health, Social and Political Psychology (15 credits)

This module aims to critique mainstream psychology, and to introduce you to topics and methods that serve to increase social justice. You will be encouraged to reflect on your own assumptions and values, and those of organisations and social influencers, through perspectives offered by, for example, discourse analysis and social representation theory, around topics such as LGBTQ+, loneliness, and infant feeding.

PSY-40095 Advanced Research Skills, Design and Analysis (15 credits)

You will gain an overview of advanced methodologies, including both quantitative and qualitative. In addition to covering content that is core for all psychology students, students can specialise within this module so they focus on methods, design and analysis that is most useful for them in the context of the MSc Psychology and Health Inequalities.

PSY-40109 Approaches and Methods in Health Inequalities (15 credits)

This module will extend your research skills from PSY-40095 with a specific focus on health inequalities. You will learn about engaging the public in research, sampling, and a range of both qualitative and quantitative research methods and analysis, including randomised clinical trials, epidemiology, discourse analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Semester two core modules

PSY-40083 Using Research to Influence Policy and Practice (15 credits)

In this module, we will explore how research can be used to influence policy and practice in a range of different settings such as education, health, government, charity sector, social change, legal system and so on. Where relevant, this will be done using real examples from staff and also external contributors where possible. For example, staff members in the School have experience of working with organisations both in the UK and internationally to influence healthcare policy, policing, educational, and legal practice.

The assessment will give you the opportunity to write a policy briefing in the format used to help Members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords and UK Parliament staff navigate complex research. You will be asked to select an issue of your choice in one of the domains covered in class and drawing on research from psychology and cognate disciplines, you will write a briefing based on the format of the POST (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology) Note.

PSY-40081 Advanced Studies in Health Inequalities (15 credits)

Using a guided independent learning approach, this module aims to develop your knowledge and understanding of key concepts, theories and research evidence relating to health inequalities and to develop your critical awareness of current issues and new insights in this interdisciplinary area of research. Some sessions will be tutor-led, based on staff research interests and some sessions will be student-led to enable you to explore topics of interest to you. The assessment will be a critical review of literature on a health inequality topic of your choice.

PSY-40038 Research Apprenticeship in Psychology (15 credits)

You will work with members of staff as part of their research teams on active research projects. These will complement and extend your areas of specialist knowledge and interest.

Dissertation

PSY-40045 Dissertation (60 credits)

You will design, develop, conduct, and report Psychology and Health Inequalities research under the supervision of staff with expertise in this area.

Optional modules

PSY-40089 Psychology Placement (15 credits, in either Semester 1 or 2)

This is an optional module to facilitate you in gaining work experience and reflecting on the applications of psychology within your chosen professional setting. We encourage all students to take this module if possible, but if for any reason you prefer not to, you are able to choose another option module (see below) instead.

Other optional modules (15 credits each)

The optional modules will be selected at the beginning of the academic year. Students will be able to choose from more content-based options or engage with more research methods modules.

These modules will be offered from within the School of Psychology, for instance PSY-40107 Enhancing Reproducibility in Research or or PSY-40087 Action Research: Co-Creating Research to Make a Difference, or from other relevant Schools across the university: for instance, selected modules from the MSc courses delivered in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (e.g. Behaviour Change for Health and Wellbeing; Mental Health; and Statistics and Epidemiology) or the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment (e.g. Health Inequalities).