PY0767 - Research Experience: Design and Development

You will participate in research planning and design meetings with your research supervisor(s) in order to develop a realistic and feasible research project. You will engage with practical and applied aspects of research as necessary for your study. These may include but are not limited to: evaluating specific techniques and protocols in relation to your proposed piece of research; establishing relevant contacts and networks for recruitment; developing key methodological skills and undertaking any necessary training. Learning will take place in one-one sessions with supervisors as well as in a group context during research meetings and presentations. Skills will develop through engagement with research team members including academics, research staff and PhD students. Attendance at research group meetings will give you the opportunity to learn about the wider context of your research and to understand more about the timeline of the research process from ethical planning through to dissemination. Your participation in research group meetings will offer the opportunity for feedback on your ideas. Independent study will give you further opportunity to enhance skills in critical analysis and explore key theoretical underpinnings in addition to practical considerations. Finally, some of the learning on this module will be experiential, including some student led-sessions based around a journal club. This will provide you with an opportunity to lead a session and to practise your discussion and evaluation skills in a peer context supported by a tutor.

Resources will be available via the e-learning portal, including journal articles for the journal club. Discussion boards will be used to support general research issues and current information will be presented to help you to explore a range of potential employment pathways, PhD opportunities and further study options.

You will be encouraged to keep a research logbook in which you can record relevant journal and conference articles, planning notes and ideas and feedback on discussions with the rest of your research team as well as your personal reflections on these. Your entries can form the basis of supervision meetings, act as a reminder and assist with design and planning, as well as enhance your employability options.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. Critically evaluate knowledge, theory and evidence relevant to the psychological discipline of the research group.
2. Make reasoned judgements about different types of data sets including those that are complex, incomplete or sensitive.


Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
1. Individually conceptualise and plan a psychological research study that addresses a current issue with the clear intention of advancing understanding within the domain.
2. Communicate effectively with different stakeholders.


Personal Values Attributes:
1. Recognise and apply the relevant ethical guidelines to the design of a psychology based research project.

Formative assessment:
The research team will provide feedback during supervision meetings and where appropriate during group research meetings.

Summative assessment:
The module assessment will comprise of two parts:

Part 1 – 50%:
A journal club presentation
K&U1; K&U2; IPSA2

Part 2 – 50%:
A poster presentation based around the project proposal K&U1; IPSA1; IPSA2; PVA1

Individual written feedback will be provided for both assessments

N/A

N/A

The aim of this module is to provide you with an opportunity to design and develop an independent piece of psychological research whilst working collaboratively with one of the active research teams in the Department of Psychology. You will have the chance to work with state of art facilities in a research rich environment as part of a team interacting with academics, research staff and PhD students in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the research environment. The module will enable you to formulate research plans, become familiar with relevant skills, techniques and methodological approaches and to engage with the wider academic community through evaluation of current literature and attendance at research meetings and seminar talks.