Course description
COURSE INFORMATION
The Graduate Diploma in Psychology offers a fast track route to eligibility for Graduate Basis for Registration with the British Psychological Society, and is therefore the first step towards further postgraduate training in psychology aimed at professional status.
(Please note: Students entering on or after 1 September 2006 must pass the programme with a final overall average mark of 50% to be eligible for Graduate Basis Registration for the British Psychological Society.)
In order to be accepted onto approved conversion degrees students must first possess a degree in any discipline. A second requirement is that they have studied the equivalent of half a year, or 60 credits of psychology, at undergraduate or postgraduate degree level.
Programme Aims
The programme aims to provide students with a comprehensive examination of theories, research and practice in psychology. Students develop a sound understanding of the core subject areas of psychology, along with an awareness of professional practice, ethical issues, and practical applications. Through their taught experience, students gain the knowledge base to employ critical judgment and engage in independent psychological research.
Successful graduates will be given the opportunity to:
* Demonstrate conceptual knowledge of the broad areas of psychology
* Show critical understanding within and across core areas
* Demonstrate knowledge of research paradigms, methods and statistics
* Make critical judgments about the nature of argument in psychology
* Adopt multiple perspectives
* Evaluate the significance of meaningful patterns of behaviour
* Pose, operationalise, and critique research questions
* Demonstrate competence in research skills
* Reason statistically, using a range of statistical methods
* Initiate, design, conduct and report an empirical study under supervision
* Show understanding of ethical issues and the ways in which these may be addressed
Programme structure
The Graduate Diploma in Psychology is a modular course consisting of 120 credits, covering 12 months of study. It is designed to provide generic knowledge and skills through common taught modules (100 credits) and research (20 credits).
Units across Semesters 1 and 2
* Advanced Social and Developmental Psychology (20 credits)
* Psychological Laboratory Skills and Research Planning Skills (20 credits)
* Research Methods and Data Analysis in Psychology (20 credits)
Semester 1
* Conceptual Perspectives in Psychology (10 credits)
* Psychobiology (10 credits)
Semester 2
* Cognition (10 credits)
* Personality and Intelligence (10 credits)
Semester 3
* Psychology Project (20 credits) -
This provides students with an opportunity to carry out an independent empirical investigation related to a topic of their own choice. It is completed between June & September.
COURSEWORK AND ASSESSMENT
The delivery methods are diverse, including lectures, seminars, tutorials, laboratories, workshops, and independent (directed and undirected) learning. These ensure opportunities to engage in individual and group/team work, student-staff and student-student dialogue and consultation to facilitate attainment of a range of knowledge, intellectual, practical and key skills learning outcomes. Student experiences are planned to facilitate the transition from dependent to independent learning across the programme. Lectures provide basic information and frameworks, drawing attention to important and controversial issues in order to stimulate student interest. Laboratory workshops offer a forum for a wide variety of activities such as design and conduct of experiments, familiarisation with specialist tests and equipment, discussion and critique of research articles, and general discussion of academic and ethical issues.
The assessment strategy aims not only to achieve alignment with learning outcomes, but to provide formative feedback on attainment of outcomes. All units are assessed at level 6. At this level, students are expected to exercise individual responsibility for their studies. Their ability to reason critically about theories and empirical evidence (and their relationship) is assessed by means of essays, seen and unseen exams, laboratory reports, portfolios, case studies, group and individual oral presentations, IT (e.g., powerpoint, web) materials, and a dissertation. The skills demonstrated in the latter are particularly emphasis as they include skills in the planning of an individual piece of empirical work and also the skills required to conduct such a study, analyse the resulting data, and reflect on the adequacy of the methodology and the implications of the results for psychological theory.
