Postgraduate Course: Research 1 (CLPS12036)
Course Outline
| School | School of Health in Social Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 12 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 40 |
ECTS Credits | 20 |
| Summary | This course is mandatory for all DClinPsychol first year postgraduate students. Research 1 provides the trainees with the skills necessary to develop a doctoral thesis proposal, covering quantitative and qualitative research methods, common statistical methods and ethical principles for conducting research within the NHS. |
| Course description |
Research 1 is a 40-credit course over the first year of training. The teaching is spread over blocks 1 and 2. The teaching for this course focuses on the skills required to develop a detailed research proposal, which will form the basis of your thesis project. This is a compulsory course for all trainees in their first year of training. The teaching provides an introduction to the areas in which the academic team will supervise research projects, psychometrics, quantitative and qualitative research methods, research ethics, managing projects and data and literature searches using University of Edinburgh library facilities. Teaching is delivered through lectures, workshops and online materials. There is also an emphasis on learning through group discussion. Teaching may be face to face or via Teams / online e-learning technology. By the end of the course, trainees will be familiar with quantitative and qualitative research methods, have identified a thesis project area, a thesis supervisor, developed a research question, identified an appropriate methodology for testing the project's research questions and have devised a detailed proposal for the project, which can be easily adapted and submitted to the appropriate body for ethical approval. Information about session times and lecture notes can be found online.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Full Year |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
400
(
Lecture Hours 24,
Dissertation/Project Supervision Hours 10,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 10,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2,
Other Study Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 8,
Placement Study Abroad Hours 5,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
340 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Trainees will be required to submit a detailed written proposal for a doctoral level thesis. This will include a rationale for the study with appropriate reference to the wider literature, and a consideration of the ethical issues. |
| Feedback |
Summative Feedback
Feedback and provisional marks will be returned to trainees through Turnitin once all work has been returned from markers and the results collated. All coursework will be returned with detailed feedback and comments from the first marker.
Formative Feedback
Formative feedback from your academic thesis supervisor is expected to occur during the development phase of your project, prior to the submission of your research proposal. Timings regarding such feedback are to be agreed with your academic supervisor. There is also a Thesis Proposal workshop included within the R1 timetable to enable group discussion of issues arising during the development of your research proposal. The programme Research Director will separately implement a feasibility check of the proposed project, taking into account independent feasibility assessments from both academic and clinical thesis supervisors and any issues that markers may highlight. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of different quantitative and qualitative research methods and be able to reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of these methods for differing research questions.
- Demonstrate an understanding of common statistical tests and be able to choose an appropriate test for different types of data.
- Demonstrate an awareness of and ability to reflect on the ethical issues in conducting psychological research with human participants and of conducting research in the NHS specifically, and how these issues can be addressed.
- Apply the above knowledge and skills to the development of a detailed research proposal for a doctoral level thesis project.
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Reading List
Inherently some of the reading for Research 1 will depend on the specifics of the intended thesis project and trainees are expected to discuss with their academic thesis supervisors which texts and research papers would be relevant for their project.
Trainees are advised to buy a good research methods / statistics text book. The Main Library contains an excellent selection of text books, including an online subscription to many of the recommended books.
General Research Methods:
Barker, C., Pistrang, N. & Elliott, R. (2002). Research methods in clinical psychology: an introduction for students and practitioners (2nd edition). Chichester: Wiley. Physical and online versions available via library.
Bryman, A. (2015). Social research methods . Oxford: Oxford University Press. Physical 2015 and earlier versions available via library.
Miles, J. & Gilbert, P. (2005). A Handbook of Research Methods for Clinical and Health Psychology. Oxford. Physical copy available via library
Morgan, G.A., Gliner, J.A. & Harmon, R.J. (2006). Understanding and evaluating research in applied and clinical settings. London: Erlbaum. Physical and online versions available via library.
Navarro. Learning Statistics with R. Free online resource: https://learningstatisticswithr.com/
Quantitative Research:
Blunch. N. (2013). Introduction to structural equation modelling using IBM SPSS statistics and AMOS. Physical and online versions available via library.
Clark-Carter, D. (2004). Quantitative psychological research: a student¿s handbook (2nd edition). Hove: Psychology Press (good general text, but not as up-to-date as Field and others ¿ physical and online copies available via library).
Dancey, C.P. & Reidy, J. Statistics without maths for psychology. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. There is currently an 8th edition, but any version from relatively recent years is likely to be fine. Physical versions available via university libraries.
Field, A.P. (2017). Discovering statistics using SPSS (5th edition). London: Sage. (available as text and online versions via library. 4th version also fine, earlier versions mostly ok) *key text*
Hayes, A. (2022). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach. New York: The Guilford Press. 3rd edition (available as physical and online versions via library. Relatively recent earlier versions are likely to be ok for most purposes).
Tabachnick, B.G. & Fidell, L.S. (2018). Using multivariate statistics. Pearson. 7th edition (other recent editions probably mostly fine). This is a good text for multivariate stats and is well indexed, such that you can get to the section(s) you need. It is a large text and usually the online version will suffice. Available as physical and online versions via library.
Qualitative Research:
Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory: a practical guide through qualitative analysis. Sage. Physical and online versions available via library.
Flick, U. . Managing quality in qualitative research. London: Sage. Online 2018 and 2007 and physical 2007 versions available via library.
Silver, C. & Lewins, A. (2014). Using software in qualitative research. London: Sage. Physical and online versions available via library.
Smith, J.A. (2015). Qualitative psychology: a practical guide to research methods. London: Sage. Physical and online versions available via library. Smith is a leading figure in IPA approaches.
Smith, J.A., Larkin M & Flowers P (2021) Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: Theory, Methods and Research. 2nd edition (1st edition probably ok for most purposes)
Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (2008). Basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Physical and online versions available via library. Provides key tools for grounded theory
Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis:
Booth, A., Papaioannou, D., & Sutton, A. (2016). Systematic approaches to a successful literature review. London: Sage. Physical copy available via library
Borenstein, M., Hedges, L., Higgins, J., & Rothstein, H. (2009). Introduction to Meta-analysis. Chichester: Wiley. Physical and online versions available via library
Cooper, H. (2020). Research synthesis and Meta-analysis and research synthesis. London: Sage. Online version available via library.
Khan, K., Kunz, R., Kleijnen, J., & Antes, G. (2010). Systematic reviews to support evidence-based medicine (2nd edition). London: Hodder & Stoughton Limited. Physical and online versions available via library.
Schmid et al (2020) Handbook of Meta-analysis. Taylor & Francis. Online version available via library. |
Additional Information
| Course URL |
https://www.ed.ac.uk/health/subject-areas/clinical-psychology/postgraduate-taught/doctorate |
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Students that successfully pass this course will have demonstrated the required knowledge and understanding of different research methods applicable to an NHS/applied setting, that includes developing appropriate research questions, developing methods, choosing an appropriate form of analysis to answer those questions, and ethical considerations. |
| Keywords | Clinical Psychology,Research,Statistics,Thesis Proposal,Ethics,NHS |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Paul Morris
Tel: (0131 6)51 3956
Email: P.G.Morris@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Timothy Abbot
Tel: (0131 6)50 8498
Email: Tim.Abbot@ed.ac.uk |
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