Psychology

Our MSc Psychology provides comprehensive coverage of contemporary psychological theory and research, designed to provide the Graduate Basis for Registration to the British Psychological Society (conversion course).

The course provides opportunities for you to develop knowledge and understanding of:

• key principles of psychological theory, including perception, attention and performance, developmental psychology, learning, memory and cognition, social psychology, neuroscience, and individual differences
• practical skills in research methodology, including the formulation of hypotheses, designing and reporting experiments using a range of research methodologies, and subject-specific IT skills
• transferable skills in critical thinking, learning how to evaluate hypotheses, presentation writing and delivery, and report and essay writing.

Our MRes Psychology covers:

• the critical appreciation of existing research and research methods in a chosen research area
• designing, managing and reporting on an extended research project
• subject-specific IT skills.

It enables you to conduct extended supervised research in a focused area within contemporary psychology, such as psychosocial studies, brain and cognitive development, or computational cognitive neuroscience. You will have the opportunity to attend research seminars organised by Birkbeck and other local research centres and institutes.

The course is designed for graduates in psychology and related disciplines who have prior research skills training and who are seeking to complete a specific, well-defined research project. If you would like to carry out research in any area of contemporary psychology, either at PhD level or in the private sector, it will prepare you with a range of appropriate research skills and experiences.

• We are consistently regarded as one of the top institutions teaching psychological sciences in the UK. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, and for the third time, we were ranked in the top ten universities in the UK.
• The MSc is a BPS-accredited conversion course designed for students with an undergraduate degree in another subject who want to gain a master's in psychology, and provides Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) of the British Psychological Society.
• The MRes course provides a possible route into the PhD Psychology at Birkbeck.