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RES7003 Advanced Research Project (Psychology)

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18 views4 pages

RES7003 Advanced Research Project (Psychology)

Uploaded by

Marina Meliá
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1. Module Title 2.

Module Code
Advanced Research Project (Psychology) RES7003

3. Module Leader Dr Sophie Ward

4. Level 7 5. Credits 60 6. Study Hours 600


7. Pre-requisites All taught modules on the programme (120 credits)

8. Module Description
The Advanced Research Project is an opportunity for students to apply their research skills and
subject knowledge by designing, implementing, analysing, interpreting, critically evaluating, and
communicating through formal means an empirical piece of research on a key psychological issue.

The topic and method undertaken by the student is conditional on agreement with a supervisor and
subject to the psychology supervisor’s areas of interest and experience; they will be encouraged to
consider issues related to prospective careers they may wish to pursue. The project must be an
empirical piece of research and can be presented as either a thesis or a journal article.

Each student is responsible for obtaining ethical approval for the recruitment of participants and
following the guidelines for ethical practice in psychological research. Using their research skills
acquired in Research Methods , and their knowledge and understanding within one or more of the
other modules, students develop a research question or (one or more) research hypothesis.

Each student is required to show a high degree of independence in learning for the project. However,
the appointed project supervisor will follow the progress and direction of the study at regular
intervals, communicated to them by the student. Carrying out the study and analysing the data is the
student’s responsibility, but as research is so diverse in psychology, guidance will be provided by the
supervisor. Interpreting the results and critically evaluating the study reveals the maturity of the
student’s development on the programme in terms of their knowledge and understanding of
psychology.

Ethical approval is needed prior to starting the collection of data and must follow Arden University’s
ethical approval process. A research proposal and an ethics approval form and additional
documentation such as a gatekeeper letter, participation information sheet, debrief form and
informed consent sheet as well as any data collection materials such as interview questions or survey
questions needs to be submitted by the student and is assessed on a pass/fail basis. In the event of
the proposal not being approved the student is required to re-design and resubmit.

The completed 12,000-word thesis report or 7,000-word journal article needs to be presented in APA
format (or where a journal article, should meet the guidelines for author details such as word count
and referencing). The completed thesis/journal article needs to be submitted by the end of the
agreed study period. The normal study period is 6 months. The supervisor can read and comment on
one draft of the final report. A period of three weeks should be allowed for the return of feedback on
the draft.

9. Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology


• Conceptual and historical issues are covered in depth by each student in their Literature
Review, which is assessed at the midway point of the module. The specific concepts and
histories will relate specifically to the student’s chosen topic area and branch of psychology.
• Ethical issues are covered in data collection from human participants. This relates to the BPS
and HCPC guidelines for offline/online research and Arden University’s ethics process. What
is also covered and assessed are professional standards for carrying out research in terms of
respect for participants and other key stakeholders, own competence awareness, in taking
responsibility for one’s own actions, and integrity in reporting research findings. These are
covered in the discussion forms and the ethics proposal for the student’s research and in
Arden University’s research governance document

10. Outline Content


The module begins with an overview of ethical considerations and health and safety issues in
psychological research, and how to evaluate a research proposal on ethical and H&S grounds.

Students are shown how to complete the ethics form and what factors to consider when completing
the form. Students are given extensive online resources that give advice about how to choose a topic,
how to use various technologies to design and implement the research, and how to recruit
participants. Knowledge and understanding gained from the Research Methods modules, and indeed
all modules on this programme, feed into how to analyse the data, interpret it, and write it up
according to the publication guidelines of the APA or relevant journal guidelines. The exact content
and research methodology will be agreed with the students and their assigned supervisors during
early discussions. A quantitative project must involve data collection, but interviewing, focus groups
as well as identifying and using existing text or discourse will be considered data collection in the case
of a qualitative study.

11. Key Texts/Literature:


Coolican, H. (2017). Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology. Taylor & Francis Group.

Willig, C. (2013). Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology. McGraw-Hill Education.

Evans J. (2005). How to do Research: A Psychologist’s Guide. Taylor & Francis Group.

McMillan K. (2012). How to Write Dissertations & Project Reports. Pearson Education UK.

Other specific literature depends on the chosen topic of individual students.

12. Specialist Learning Resources:


Students will be given licences to download and install (a) a copy of Statistics Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS), (b) a licence to use Gorilla for survey and experiment development.

13. Learning Outcomes (threshold standards):


On successful completion of this module the student will be expected to
be able to:
Knowledge and 1. Demonstrate a critical understanding and depth of knowledge of
understanding the core areas of psychology and the ability to assess their
relevance in the understanding of the contemporary world
2. Identify, research, critically summarise and apply key concepts in
psychology to a range of psychological issues
3. Evaluate and apply different methodological approaches to the
study of mental life and behaviour
4. Conduct an independent research project at a postgraduate level
with a reflective understanding of ethical issues in human
participation in research
Intellectual, practical, 5. Critically distinguish between different research approaches in
affective and psychology and their application, based on relevant theoretical,
transferable skills philosophical, practical, statistical, and methodological reasoning
6. Assimilate data and evidence to support a reasoned argument to
explain some aspect of human mental life and behaviour
7. Display competence in the execution of an individual research
project and the critical evaluation of its value in addressing some
aspect of theory and research method in psychology
8. Develop personal skills to increase the effectiveness of their work
and time management strategies
9. Demonstrate competence in the planning and execution of
research to a professional and ethical standard, act
autonomously, and demonstrate originality
10. Communicate arguments, evidence, and statistical information
thorough essays and reports in an effective way that is in
accordance with discipline-relevant publication guidelines
11. Use CIT to analyse and communicate data in an effective way and
in a variety of settings
12. Undertake independent, ethically sound research through the
acquisition of skills relevant to the context of human behaviour
Graduate attributes 13. Discipline Expertise: Knowledge and understanding of chosen
field. Possess a range of skills to operate within this sector, have a
keen awareness of current developments in working practice
being well positioned to respond to change.

14. Learning and Teaching and Assessment Strategies:


Each student is required to research, propose and design a study by carrying out a literature review
which will form the first chapter of the final report. The importance of ethical consideration of the
design is highlighted in the research proposal and possible subsequent improvement of the ethics
approval form. This approval process also reflects the real-world psychology research process. The
final report will reflect all aspects of the project from literature review, design, data collection and
analysis, results interpretation to discussion with respect to current theories and drawing logical
conclusions. The final submission is a 12,000-word dissertation report or a 7,000-word journal article.
For those students choosing the journal article route, if the submitted work is in excess of 7,000
words the work will be returned unmarked and the student will be asked to reduce it to within the
word-limit. This would be the same experience as submitting work to a journal.
This module represents the culmination of knowledge, understanding, and skills acquired on the
programme and implementation of an individual piece of research reveals the extent to which those
learning objectives of the programme have been met.

15. Module Assessment


Learning % Weighting &
Method Qualifying Final Length/duration and
Outcomes Fine Grade (FG)
See guidance Assessed
Mark Task other comments
or pass/fail (PF)
Research 8, 9 0% (PF) Research proposal
proposal
Ethics 4, 9, 12 0% (P/F) Ethics proposal
Report 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 100%(FG) 50% Yes 12,000-word dissertation
Or Journal 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, report or up to 7,000-word
article 11, 12 journal article dependent
on journal guidelines
In order to pass this module, students are required to achieve an overall mark of 50%.

In addition, students are required to:


(a) achieve the qualifying mark for each element of fine graded assessment as specified above
(b) pass any pass/fail elements

Last Updated: July 2020 (V10)

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