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1. Admissions/ Management Information
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Title of the programme – including any lower awards
Please provide the titles used for all awards relating to this programme. Note: all programmes are required to have at least a Postgraduate Certificate exit award.

See guidance on programme titles in:
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https://www.york.ac.uk/media/staffhome/learningandteaching/documents/programmedevelopment/Framework%20for%20Programme%20Design%20-%20PG.pdf
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Masters Masters of Research (MRes).
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Postgraduate Diploma Posgraduate Diploma in Psychology.Please indicate if the Postgraduate Diploma is available as an entry point, ie. is a programme on which a student can register, is an exit award, ie. is only available to students exiting the masters programme early, or both.Exit
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Postgraduate Certificate Postgraduate Certificate in Psychology.Please indicate if the Postgraduate Certificate is available as an entry points, ie. is a programme on which a student can register, is an exit award, ie. is only available to students exiting the masters programme early, or both.Exit
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Level of qualificationLevel 7
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This document applies to students who commenced the programme(s) in:2018
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Awarding institutionTeaching institution
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University of York University of York
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Department(s):
Where more than one department is involved, indicate the lead department		Board of Studies
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Lead Department PsychologyProf. Paul Bishop, Chair of Board of Studies.
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Other contributing Departments: N/A
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Route code
(existing programmes only)		PMPSYSPSY1
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Admissions criteria
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A degree or equivalent qualification, normally in Psychology or related sciences and normally at the level of an upper second class honours award. IELTS 6.5, with no less than 6.5 in each component. PTE: 61, with no less than 61 in each component, CAE and CPE: 176, with no less than 176 in each component, TOEFL: 87, with no less than 23 in each component, Trinity ISE: level 3 with Merit in all components.
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Length and status of the programme(s) and mode(s) of study
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ProgrammeLength (years/ months) Status (full-time/ part-time)
Please select		Start dates/months
(if applicable – for programmes that have multiple intakes or start dates that differ from the usual academic year)		Mode
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Face-to-face, campus-basedDistance learningOther
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Masters of Research (MRes).1 year full-timeFull-timeN/APlease select Y/NYesPlease select Y/NNoN/A
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Language(s) of study
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English
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Language(s) of assessment
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English
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2. Programme accreditation by Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Bodies (PSRB)
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2.a. Is the programme recognised or accredited by a PSRB
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Please Select Y/N: Noif No move to section 3
if Yes complete the following questions
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3. Additional Professional or Vocational Standards
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Are there any additional requirements of accrediting bodies or PSRB or pre-requisite professional experience needed to study this programme?
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Please Select Y/N: Noif Yes, provide details
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4. Programme leadership and programme team
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4.a. Please name the programme leader for the year to which the programme design applies and any key members of staff responsible for designing, maintaining and overseeing the programme.
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Dr Silvia Gennari, MRes Director
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5. Purpose and learning outcomes of the programme
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5.a. Statement of purpose for applicants to the Masters programme
Please express succinctly the overall aims of the programme as an applicant facing statement for a prospectus or website. This should clarify to a prospective masters student why they should choose this programme, what it will provide to them and what benefits they will gain from completing it.
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The Master of Research in Psychology offers an exciting opportunity to study at one of the world’s top experimental psychology departments. The degree is particularly suitable for students who wish to pursue doctoral research in psychology, but is also suitable for those with enthusiasm for the subject and wish to acquire advanced research skills applicable towards a broad range of career paths. It provides you with the opportunity to tailor the programme to your interests in psychology, and study the theoretical and empirical grounding of specialist topic areas within the fields of perception, memory, language, cognition or social psychology. The degree offers multiple opportunities for hands-on training in undertaking experimental research in psychology. As a result of the programme, graduates will be able to independently design and carry out independent empirical projects in psychology.
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5.b.i. Programme Learning Outcomes - Masters
Please provide six to eight statements of what a graduate of the Masters programme will be able to do.
If the document only covers a Postgraduate Certificate or Postgraduate Diploma please specify four to six PLO statements in the sections 5.b.ii and 5.b.iii as appropriate.
Taken together, these outcomes should capture the distinctive features of the programme. They should also be outcomes for which progressive achievement through the course of the programme can be articulated, and which will therefore be reflected in the design of the whole programme.
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PLOOn successful completion of the programme, graduates will be able to:
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1Knowledge: Demonstrate a deep and systematic understanding of knowledge in a chosen specialist topic area in psychology, and practical knowledge of current research paradigms and methods.
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2Critical Evaluation: Critically evaluate theories within and beyond the fields of psychology, using empirical evidence to support their reasoning and arguments.
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3Data Analysis: Demonstrate a systematic knowledge of how a range of advanced research paradigms, research methods, measurement and programming techniques, including advanced statistical analysis, can be used to investigate mental processes and behaviour.
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4Research Skills: Design, conduct, analyse and interpret systematic, scientifically rigorous and ethically sound studies, using a combination of advanced quantitative and programming methods and statistics, and supported by state-of-the-art software and facilities, in the context of gaining extensive research experience and theoretical knowledge in a specialist domain of psychology.
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5Solve complex problems: Solve complex problems in a chosen specialist topic area of psychology using evidence-based and scientific reasoning, to identify and pose new research questions, devise new methods to address them and to consider alternative approaches to their solutions and evaluate these.
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6Communication: Communicate complex concepts effectively using written, oral and graphical means appropriate to the discipline, adapting the context and presentation style for diverse audiences.
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7Management skills: Demonstrate that they are able to work autonomously in planning and implementing tasks at a professional level, making decisions based upon complex and uncertain information, take responsibility for their own learning and professional development, and work effectively as part of a team.
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5.c. Explanation of the choice of Programme Learning Outcomes
Please explain your rationale for choosing these PLOs in a statement that can be used for students (such as in a student handbook). Please include brief reference to:
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i) ... in what way will these PLOs result in an ambitious, challenging programme which stretches the students?
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The PLOs have been developed to train you in your chosen area of psychology, including general research practice and analytical methods in experimental psychology. Through your choice of Specialist options, you gain in-depth knowledge of a particular research field, including current findings and outstanding issues, and provides you with the opportunity to practice scientific writing within the field as well as critical analysis of current research (PLO1, POL2, PLO6). Through Practical Skills in Psychological Research, you gain hands-on experience of experimental research practice, and have to opportunity to reflect on the methods, measures and analysis techniques used (PLO3, POL2). Through the core programme components, you gain essential knowledge and practice of various statistical techniques and experimental design (PLO3, PLO4). Through your choice of Empirical project, you gain hands-on experience of experimental design and analyses in hypothesis testing (POL3, 4), as well as the management skills involved in conducting a piece of research from beginning to end (PLO7). Our main goal is to provide you with a full range of techniques and practical skills you will need to pursue a career in experimental psychology or to apply experimental techniques in the work place.
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ii) ... in what way will these PLOs produce a programme which is distinctive and advantageous to the student?
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The MRes programme has been designed to fit your individual needs, based on your prior background. While providing basic training in statistical methods and experimental design (PLO3-5), the programme is suitable for students with a variety of backgrounds and training needs. It allows you to specialise in an area of experimental psychology (PLO1) or to acquire experimental skills new to you, for example, if you have studied a related disciplines such as education, linguistics, sociology or computer sciences. Practical Skills in Psychological Research and the Empirical project provides you with hands-on experience of research in a area of your choice, an opportunity to reflect on current research, and the opportunity to analyse and manage complex data sets and effectively communicate research findings (PLO2 and 6-7). The distinctive feature of this programme is its flexibility, as it provides you with the opportunity to choose your specialist modules. In your project, you can make use of many of our state-of-the-art facilities, including virtual reality, EGG, eye-tracking and polysomnography, alongside traditional behavioural techniques.
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iii) ... how the design of the programme enables students from diverse entry routes to transition successfully into the programme? For example, how does the organisation of the programme ensure solid foundations in disciplinary knowledge and understanding of conventions, language skills, mathematics and statistics skills, writing skills, lab skills, academic integrity
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The MRes programme has a unique structure. It contains a core component and an elective component. The core component provides fundamental and advanced knowledge of statistical methods and experimental design, starting with basic content in the first term and transitioning into more advanced topics in the second term. This allows students from a diverse range of backgrounds to obtain a solid foundation in experimental design and statistical analysis of data. Likewise, the elective component allows students to make choices about their area of study.
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iv) ... how the programme is designed to enable students to progress successfully - in a limited time frame - through to the end of the award? For example, the development of higher level research skills; enabling students to complete an independent study module; developing competence and confidence in practical skills/ professional skills. See QAA masters characteristics document http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/Masters-Degree-Characteristics-15.pdf
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The programme has been designed to progressively introduce you to higher levels of research skills, starting with fundamental knowledge and skills (first term) and advancing into more complex skills (second term). At the same time, the elective component allows you to focus on areas you want to specialise on. The culmination of this training is the empirical project you conduct in the summer term, in which you would apply the knowledge and experimental skills acquired up to that point. Under the guidance of your supervisor, you will design studies, test participants, analyse data and write a thesis. By the end of the programme, you should be able to produce research of publishable standards.
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v) ... how this programme (as outlined in these PLOs) will develop students’ digital literacy skills and how technology-enhanced learning will be used to support active student learning through peer/tutor interaction, collaboration and formative (self) assessment opportunities (reference could be made to such as blogging, flipped classrooms, response 'clickers' in lectures, simulations, etc.).
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You will develop your digital and technical skills in the core component of the programme. Two of the modules (Practical Skills in Psychological Research, Experimental Design and Statistics) are specifically designed to teach you software as well as programming skills relevant to psychological research. All core modules and Specialist Options use technology-enhanced learning through on-line class interactions (discussion forums), in addition to face-to-face interactions with teachers and classmates. The programme also includes opportunities to enhance your leaderships skills via group-based assignments, numerous online tests and quizzes for you to practice and a variety of formative and summative assessments (essay writing, multiple choice questionnaires, practical exercises online, etc.).
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vi) ... how this programme (as outlined in these PLOs) will support and enhance the students’ employability (for example, opportunities for students to apply their learning in a real world setting)?
The programme's employability objectives should be informed by the University's Employability Strategy:
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http://www.york.ac.uk/about/departments/support-and-admin/careers/staff/
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From the beginning of the course, you will receive advice on academic and non-academic career destinations during regular meetings with your academic supervisor and the course director. You are also welcome and encouraged to attend talks on a range of career destinations organized by the Department. You will be encouraged to complete and receive feedback on the York on-line Strengths Test and apply for the York Award Gold. Many of the students on this course go on to get funded PhD positions at York and elsewhere. Other students have gone into industry where experimental and analytical skills are used (e.g., marketing, research analyst, personnel training and management, product development and testing).
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viii) ... how learning and teaching on the programme are informed and led by research in the department/ Centre/ University?
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Researchers in the department play a critical role in supervising students in their fields of expertise and teaching the research methods, techniques and practices current in their fields. This provides a unique opportunity to be supervised and taught by experts at the forefront of their research fields.
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5.d. Progression
For masters programmes where students do not incrementally 'progress' on the completion of a discrete Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma, please summarise students’ progressive development towards the achievement of the PLOs, in terms of the characteristics that you expect students to demonstrate at the end of the set of modules or part thereof. This summary may be particularly helpful to students and the programme team where there is a high proportion of option modules and in circumstances where students registered on a higher award will exit early with a lower one.

Note: it is not expected that a position statement is written for each masters PLO, but this can be done if preferred.
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On completion of modules sufficient to obtain a Postgraduate Certificate students will be able to:
If the PG Cert is an exit award only please provide information about how students will have progressed towards the diploma/masters PLOs. Please include detail of the module diet that students will have to have completed to gain this qualification as an exit award.
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A PG Cert will be given to students who have satisfactorily passed 60 credits from the core module set (Research Design and Statistics, Issues in Applied Research, Practical Skills in Psychological Research, and Specialist Option). Students will have completed PLOs 1, 2 and 3 and will have made good progress towards PLOs 4, 5, 6 and 7.
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On completion of modules sufficient to obtain a Postgraduate Diploma students will be able to:
If the PG Diploma is an exit award only please provide information about how students will have progressed towards the masters PLOs. Please include detail of the module diet that students will have to have completed to gain this qualification as an exit award.
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A PG Diploma will be given to students who have satisfactorily passed 120 credits from the core module set (see above) plus a Literature Review. Students will have completed PLOs 1, 2, 3 and 4 and will have made good progress towards PLOs 5, 6 and 7.
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6. Reference points and programme regulations
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6.a. Relevant Quality Assurance Agency benchmark statement(s) and other relevant external reference points
Please state relevant reference points consulted (e.g. Framework for Higher Education Qualifications, National Occupational Standards, Subject Benchmark Statements or the requirements of PSRBs): See also Taught Postgraduate Modular Scheme: Framework for Programme Design:
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https://www.york.ac.uk/media/staff home/learningandteaching/documents/programmedevelopment/Framework%20for%20Programme%20Design%20-%20PG.pdf
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http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/Masters-Degree-Characteristics-15.pdf
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http://www.qaa.ac.uk/assuring-standards-and-quality/the-quality-code/subject-benchmark-statements
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http://www.qaa.ac.uk/publications/information-and-guidance/publication?PubID=2843#.VthM1fmLS70
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6.b. University award regulations
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The University’s award and assessment regulations apply to all programmes: any exceptions that relate to this programme are approved by University Teaching Committee and are recorded at the end of this document.
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7. Programme Structure
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7.a. Module Structure and Summative Assessment Map
Please complete the summary table below which shows the module structure and the pattern of summative assessment through the programme.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
If the structure of your programme does not fit the usual academic year (for instance students start at the beginning of September or in January) please contact your Academic Quality Team contact in the Academic Support Office for guidance on how to represent the structure in an alternative format.

To clearly present the overall programme structure, include the name and details of each invidual CORE module in the rows below. For OPTION modules, ‘Option module’ or 'Option from list x' should be used in place of specifically including all named options. If the programme requires students to select option modules from specific lists by term of delivery or subject theme these lists should be provided in the next section (7.b).

From the drop-down select 'S' to indicate the start of the module, 'A' to indicate the timing of each distinct summative assessment point (eg. essay submission/ exam), and 'E' to indicate the end of teaching delivery for the module (if the end of the module coincides with the summative assessment select 'EA'). It is not expected that each summative task will be listed where an overall module might be assessed cumulatively (for example weekly problem sheets).

Summative assessment by exams should normally be scheduled in the spring week 1 and summer Common Assessment period (weeks 5-7). Where the summer CAP is used, a single ‘A’ can be used within the shaded cells as it is understood that you will not know in which week of the CAP the examination will take place. (NB: An additional resit assessment week is provided in week 10 of the summer term for postgraduate students. See Guide to Assessment, 5.4.a)
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http://www.york.ac.uk/about/departments/support-and-admin/registry-services/guide/
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Full time structure
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CreditsModuleAutumn TermSpring Term Summer Term Summer Vacation
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CodeTitle1234678910123456789101234567891012345678910111213
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20PSY00019MResearch, Design & Statistics.SSEAEA
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20PSY00078MAdvanced Issues in Experimental, Cognitive and Social Psychology.SEEA
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20VariousSpecialist OptionSEEA
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20VariousSpecialist OptionSEAEA
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20PSY00077MPractical Skills in Experimental, Cognitive and Social Psychology.SEEA
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80PSY00016MEmpirical ProjectSAEEA
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Full-time Route: Please indicate when the Progression Board and Final Exam board will be held and when any reassessments will be submitted.
NB: You are required to provide at least three weeks notice to students of the need for them to resubmit any required assessments, in accordance with the Guide to Assessment section 4.9
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Progression BoardSummer Term, Week 6
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ReassessmentSummer Vacation
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Exam BoardAutumn Term, Week 0
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Part time structures
Please indicate the modules undertaken in each year of the part-time version of the programme. Please use the text box below should any further explanation be required regarding structure of part-time study routes.
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7.c. Explanation of the programme and assessment design
The statements should be in a form that can be used for students (such as in a student handbook). It should make clear to students why they are doing the key activities of the programme, in terms of reaching the PLOs.
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i) Students’ independent study and formative work Please outline how independent study and student work has been designed to support the progressive achievement of the programme learning outcomes (for example, the use of online resources which incorporate formative feedback; opportunities for further learning from work-based placements).
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 The course has been carefully developed to provide students with progressively higher levels of research skills that they will need for the empirical project. In Research Design and Statistics, students learn basic principles of research design and statistical analysis. Advanced Issues in Experimental, Cognitive and Social Psychology provides students with an overview of methods used in experimental research as well as tools to develop critical thinking. Practical skills in Psychological Research is focused onexperimental design and programming skills needed for conducting experiments and analysing complex data sets.These modules provide many opportunities for formative work in the form of internet-based exercises and weekly homework assignments, and provide students with the confidence to generate new research questions and choose the appropriate methods to answer them. The Emprical Project then provides students with the opportunity to apply this knowledge to a specific research area, under the supervision of an experienced researcher. Through the projects, students become exposed to the methods and analysis procedures of a particular field. Students are supported during their projects by regular meetings with their supervisor. This allows students to engage in debates and discussion about experimental designs, analyses and interpretation of data, as well as exposure to stimulus presentations software, analysis packages and techniques, data mining, etc. In these projects, students engage with the supervisor in discussions and are supported throughout the different stages of the research (design, data collection, data analyses, reporting). Together, the skills obtained over the course of the year will allow students the competence and confidence to complete an independent piece of research.

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ii) Contact with staff
Please explain how the programme’s design maximises the value of students’ contact time with staff (which may be face-to-face, virtual, synchronous or asynchronous), including through the use of technology-enhanced learning. For example, giving students resources for their independent study which then enables a class to be more interactive with a greater impact on learning.
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Students have contact with staff during lectures and practicals, as well as in small group seminars and tutorials. Students are assigned to an academic supervisor who meets with them regularly during the course of the year. Students also have a Lab placement supervisor and a project supervisor who meets with the students regularly during the course of the placement or project.
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iii) Summative Assessment
Please outline how summative assessment within and across modules has been designed to support and evidence the progressive achievement of the programme learning outcomes. (For example, the use of different assessment methods at the ‘introduction’ stage compared to those used to evaluate deeper learning through the application of skills and knowledge later in the programme).
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The core modules cover a range of assessments that includes MCQ exams to test breadth of knowledge, computer-based tests showing the ability to analyse data using appropriate statistical tests, writing of practical reports, oral presentation of complex scientific issues, writing scientific reports and writing computer scripts do demonstrate skills in programming. Finally, students use the theoretical and practical skills they have learnt on the core modules to help design and perform a piece of empirical research in both in the Lab placement and the Empirical Project.
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8. Additional information