MA Psychology Research Dissertation

• Credit value: 60 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Professor Denis Mareschal
• Assessment: a 10,000-word dissertation (100%)

Completing the dissertation module will provide you with practical experience of all aspects of conducting an extended critical review within an area of contemporary psychology. This will involve:

• formulating a research question
• conducting a literature review
• assessing arguments and available evidence
• writing up your study in a format suitable for publication.

Your dissertation must be supervised. This is usually done by a member of the school's academic staff. You will be provided with a list of potential supervisors and associated possible research projects at your masters' induction meeting. Where appropriate (e.g. with interdisciplinary research topics) you will be assigned a secondary supervisory.

You will be expected to write an extensive piece of scholarly work which critically reviews a focused area of the existing literature, identifies the state of the art and any unanswered questions. Your dissertation will conclude with a research proposal that addresses a pressing and currently unanswered question arising from your critical review.

This module has no scheduled classes, but you can book meetings with the module coordinator when needed. They can help you with topics such as:

• finding a supervisor
• dissertation formatting
• general dissertation-writing skills
• general study skills associated with the organisation and writing of a dissertation

All questions about the content of your dissertation or the background literature should be directed to your supervisor.