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Research Project

Module description

This module is the culmination of the practical training and learning on the Masters degree and allows you to demonstrate your competencies, incorporating many of the research skills and data analysis techniques you will have developed. You will negotiate your project topic through a structured process and be closely supervised throughout the duration of your research project by an academic member of staff whose personal research focus aligns with your topic.

You will usually work in groups of between two to four or more and typically will be engaged in the same piece of research,  depending on the nature of the project. Your supervisor will carefully manage this aspect, in order to ensure that each student recognises their individual responsibilities. The skills you learn in working as a member of a team add to the transferable skills valued by employers which you will develop and provide invaluable experience.

Although working in groups, you will write the final report on your own with support from your supervisor. You will prepare a lay summary and an individual research poster to be submitted with your Final Report.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The aims of the module are to enable you to develop your knowledge and understanding of the problems and complexities of conducting research in a particular area of Psychology. The project typically involves the collection of original empirical data from participants, or equivalent alternatives such as computational modelling of empirical data or secondary data analysis, such as a meta-analysis. In addition, this module provides you with opportunities to work alongside an experienced academic researcher, sometimes in a highly-specialised area. The nature of the supervision will vary over the course of the project, depending on the requirements at any given time; closely-supervised in the initial stages and data analysis phases, but more independent during the data-collection and writing-up phases.

In this module you will work towards developing the following academic and professional skills:

• problem solving (linking theory to practice, developing your own ideas with confidence, responding creatively to resolving problems, handling large amounts of diverse data critically, identifying, selecting, and using appropriate sources of information)
• structure (identifying key demands of the task, making decisions about task management, developing strategies to ensure individual and group progress, developing and implementing plans of action)
• time (managing time effectively as an individual and group member to meet short-term and long-term deadlines, juggling multiple priorities and competing deadlines effectively, setting and maintaining work priorities)
• audience (presenting information and ideas effectively in multiple formats, taking responsibility for acting in a professional and ethical manner, using a variety of means for engaging an audience, adjusting tone and style to suit the audience), and
• self and peer review (taking responsibility for your own learning and progress, learning from and using feedback from multiple sources, responding actively to feedback, dealing with and learning from criticism).

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Design and conduct an empirical study, analyse and interpret the findings and produce a scientific report
• 2. Produce an extended scientific report in the specific domain of your project and use a range of information technologies for information finding, research, communication and data processing at an advanced level
• 3. Prepare and deliver a scientific poster effectively to a specialist and non-specialist audience

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Acquire detailed, systematic and comprehensive knowledge within the discipline, with in-depth specialisation at the forefront of the discipline in certain areas, and demonstrate advanced critical understanding of this knowledge and of the limits and provisional nature of this knowledge
• 5. Review and critically evaluate published work at an advanced level and identify the strengths and weaknesses of this work, and at an advanced level structure this literature to present logical, coherent and sustained arguments to support conclusions at an advanced level
• 6. Understand and apply essential principles in designing novel research, and critically evaluate and analyse empirical evidence, and assess the reliability of empirical evidence using a range of defined techniques at an advanced level
• 7. Communicate ideas, principles and theories effectively, fluently, and professionally by written and graphic means
• 8. Illustrate the wider ethical issues relating to the subject and its application at an advanced level

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 9. Select and manage information, and to undertake competently study tasks with minimum guidance
• 10. Engage effectively in debate in a professional manner and produce detailed and coherent written work; identify complex problems and apply appropriate knowledge and methods for their solution with confidence and flexibility
• 11. Manage time effectively to meet deadlines

Syllabus plan

The module follows an apprenticeship model of research training, involving regular contact with the supervisor throughout the module. You will gain ethical clearance, conduct the research project, collect and analyse relevant data and report the findings in a scientific report. The exact form of the research apprenticeship will depend on the research field and the research supervisor. However, some general information is provided below.

Once the research topic is established, you investigate the literature relevant to the topic and submit a formatively assessed research proposal in the first term of the module. After discussion of the project design with your supervisor, you will then make a submission to the Psychology Research Ethics Committee. Data collection cannot begin until the project has received ethical clearance.

You may submit an early draft of the final report (excluding the Introduction and Discussion section) to your supervisor and will receive written feedback on the Method and Results section. The submission deadline for the early draft should be negotiated with the supervisor.

You will also prepare and submit an individual scientific poster, communicating the central features of your research in a concise manner.

You will also submit a lay summary of your research project.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The module mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to re-submit any referred work for a capped mark.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Indicative basic reading list:

• Harris. P. (2002) Designing and reporting experiments in psychology (2^nd edition). Open University Press.
• Sternberg, R.J. (1993) The Psychologists' Companion: A guide to scientific writing for students and researchers (3rd edition). Chapters 1, 3 (especially), 4, 5. Cambridge University Press.

Additional reading will be specific to the topic selected for the Research Project.

Key words search

Research project, major project, empirical research