Course overview

Students with an MSc in research methods are among the most highly valued and employable graduates, so as well as being perfect for you if you're aiming for a career in research, this course is also ideal for professions in clinical, forensic, health, sports, and occupational psychology as well as government jobs, businesses, marketing, advertising, and economics. 75% of graduates from our course are undertaking PhDs, DClins, or working as research assistants.

Professionals in clinical psychology are explicitly looking for students with the research experience and advanced statistical skills that you'll gain from our course. Professionals in advertising and marketing are also explicitly looking for students with experience researching consumer behaviour that you will gain from our course.

Studying at the UK's top-rated psychology department in a new university for quality of research, you'll develop skills by attending a large number of practical workshops, and by using our fantastic facilities, such as our electroencephalography (EEG) lab, eye-trackers (including our head-mounted eye-tracker ideal for advertising and consumer research), perception lab, psychoimmunology lab, consumer laboratory, and our sound-proofed psycholinguistics lab.

You'll have the opportunity to conduct research on children, adults, atypical populations, conduct survey and archival research and can use any of our equipment or methodology available (qualitative and quantitative).

On completion, you'll have proven transferable skills in presentation, grant writing, peer review processes, self reflexivity, analytical skills (logical and statistical), poster presentations, and awareness of extensive research cultures.

This course will also give you personal development opportunities in:

• training in areas including neuroimaging training (including designing and data analysis in fMRI, EEG, eye-tracking)
• experimental and computer programming (using MatLab, E-Prime)
• diagnosis and treatment of clinical disorders
• use of clinical and psychometric tests
• researching any area of psychological study: from clinical to neuroscience to consumer psychology and forensic psychology.

You'll be studying at our Cambridge campus, a world-renowned city for academic excellence and an invaluable location for psychological contacts. Staff at Anglia Ruskin have long term productive links with the University of Cambridge and other associated units, which have led to internships, jobs, research assistantships, collaborations and further postgraduate studies at internationally recognised institutions.

This course will play a very large part in shaping your career; giving you superb research skills and theoretical knowledge, and equipping you with highly employable and desirable skills for your future.

On successful completion of this course you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• recent advances within your field of research and in related areas
• relevant research methodologies and their appropriate application within your field of research
• the research context (at the national and international levels) in which research takes place
• issues relating to the rights of other researchers, research subjects, and of others who might be affected by the research (e.g. ethical and legal issues, confidentiality, copyright, malpractice)
• good research practice in psychology
• the relevant health and safety issues and responsible working practices
• the processes for funding and evaluation of research
• the process of academic and commercial exploitation of research results
• the scientific basis of the discipline of psychology; its philosophical, historical, and epistemological context
• the relationship between hypotheses, research design, data collection, interpretation, and theory
• a range of research methods, both qualitative and quantitative, assessment techniques, and statistical analyses.

Assessment

A broad range of assessment methods will be used to measure every aspect of your understanding and skilled application of the relevant techniques. These will include essays, portfolios, exams, presentations, poster presentations, debates, data analyses and a final dissertation module worth one-third of the total course assessment.

Special features

This course complements other postgraduate psychology courses offered by our Department. You have the opportunity to study clinical child and neuroscience modules on this course.

Study in Cambridge

Cambridge a world-renowned city of learning with many public lectures given by world-leading researchers held each week. Anglia Ruskin students, due to the location of our Cambridge campus, have easy access to all of these talks.

Facilities

You will have access to several dedicated, sound attenuated research laboratories, equipped with networked computers. Additional specialist laboratories exist: an observation laboratory, including a two-way mirror (this can double as a baby-lab); an electroencephalography (EEG) laboratory; an eyetracking laboratory; state-of-the-art head mounted eye-trackers; a psycholinguistics laboratory; a psychometrics laboratory; consumer laboratory; a psychoneuroimmunology laboratory.

Student achievements

To see examples of our Masters students' dissertation work presented at our Annual Conference, click here.

Associated careers

Graduates of this course typically go into:

• Research careers - including becoming a research officer or embarking on a PhD;
• Clinical psychology - including studying for a DClin or working as an assistant psychologist;
• Business - including advertising and marketing;
• Forensic psychology - including working as a psychological assistant or further study;
• Government posts - including official statisticians, and conducting polls.

The skills obtained from completing this course are highly employable in many other research environments.

Links with industry and professional recognition

Our course meets the research training requirements of DClin and PhD courses. In addition, this course fits the ESRC remit for postgraduate study. The ESRC is highly regarded in the UK, EU, and internationally as the gold standard in postgraduate research methods training. It covers generic transferable skills in addition to quantitative and qualitative research methods training.

Entry Requirements:

EITHER 2.2 in BA or BSc Psychology with Graduate Basis for Recognition (GBR) for the British Psychology Society (BPS)OR 2.1 or above in non-accredited BA or BSc Psychology (or closely related discipline, e.g., Health Psychology, Joint honours Psychology, or Neuropsychology)

Our published entry requirements are a guide only and our decision will be based on your overall suitability for the course as well as whether you meet the minimum entry requirements.

We welcome applications from International and EU students. Please select one of the links below for English language and country-specific entry requirement information.

• International students
• EU students
• English language requirements