This course is designed to prepare psychology graduates for the next stage of their career in research or applied areas of developmental psychology.
Keele has a vibrant, well-established and ever-expanding community of researchers in child development. Students will benefit from their expertise across a wide range of areas including child social development (e.g. bullying and peer relationships), child cognitive development (e.g. theory of mind, attention in autism and ADHD), education (e.g. girls and science and enhancing collaborative learning in the classroom) and religion and supernatural beliefs.
MSc students are made to feel part of this research culture both through the formal modules and through involvement in research seminars and meetings. Students also become members of the Children and Young People’s Research Network.
DURATION: 2-year full-time
SUBJECT AREAS: Natural Sciences, Psychology, Science
FEES (2021/22 ACADEMIC YEAR): £16,500
SCHOLARSHIPS: £1,000 to £10,000
Key Features
- Strong focus on your personal skills development throughout the course to help you pursue your career goals
- Opportunities to pursue your personal interests in Child Development with support from experts in Child Development
- A broad range of research methods training to maximise your employability skills
- Small group specialist teaching Child Development from research-active tutors
- A large cohort of MSc students sharing the core Psychology modules provides a lively and supportive peer community
The programme provides taught content and research training in a range of areas in Child Development, building on areas of staff research expertise.
We have well-established links with local schools and have created research partnerships where students come to the university to experience learning in a university setting as well as allowing our students to gain valuable experience working and collecting data in a school setting. We work with local primary, secondary, SEN and other youth groups such as with looked after children.
Overall Aims
- To equip you to formulate and conduct psychological research projects;
- To develop your knowledge of different theoretical perspectives, philosophical traditions and methodological approaches to psychology;
- To enable you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of different research methods and different forms of data, and to evaluate their appropriateness for different research problems;
- To enable you to define and formulate research questions and testable hypotheses, and to design appropriate research to answer these questions using relevant methods of data collection, consistent with British Psychological Society principles of ethics and research governance;
- To provide you with knowledge of quantitative and qualitative approaches to research and data analysis techniques;
- To provide you with a range of opportunities to engage with advanced research in substantive areas relevant to their own research topic and to the discipline of psychology;
- To provide you with opportunities to enhance and develop your written and communication skills, independent learning skills, and critical reflection and evaluation skills.