Postgraduate Course: Dissertation in Individual Differences Psychology (PSYL11033)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Dissertation |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 60 |
ECTS Credits | 30 |
| Summary | The student will conduct a research project in a field relevant to the study of human individual differences (e.g., personality traits / process, cognitive abilities, or related areas). |
| Course description |
Students who have been progressed to the dissertation element of their programme are required to write a dissertation of up to 8,000 words. By the middle of the second semester (or fourth for part-time students), at the latest, students should have identified a potential dissertation project and agreed with a staff member on supervising it.
Although the supervisor guides students through the research process, students have to independently learn a number of skills to complete the dissertation.
Preparing for the dissertation, students are strongly encouraged to participate in the Psychology Poster Day that takes place in Spring.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Block 5 (Sem 2) and beyond |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
600
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 12,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
578 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Dissertation: 100%
We recommend that a typical dissertation is around 6000 words long, excluding any appendices and the abstract. However, it can be shorter or longer depending on what is most appropriate for the particular project (the supervisor can advise on this). The dissertation will be marked based on the quality of the work and not on the number of words, and being succinct is valued. The maximum word count is 8000; exceeding this requires the supervisor's permission |
| Feedback |
Supervisors, collaborating students and, where applicable, other staff members provide feedback on the rationale for the project, hypotheses / research questions, empirical work and data analysis. No formative feedback is provided on the discussion part of the dissertation as this will reflect students independent work.
Poster Presentation in the Spring.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- design and set up a research project
- manage data collection and apply appropriate analysis techniques to the data
- interpret and report data in the style appropriate for publication
- write up a dissertation
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Reading List
| Reading list depends entirely on the nature of the specific project and is agreed upon with the supervisor. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Skills for accessing, synthesizing and critical evaluation of academic literature
Skills for verbal and written communication, academic writing, and quantitative / qualitative data analysis
Autonomy, self-discipling and team-collaboration |
| Keywords | research project,Individual Differences,personality,intelligence |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Alexander Weiss
Tel: (0131 6)50 3456
Email: alex.weiss@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Olivia Coltman
Tel:
Email: ocoltman@ed.ac.uk |
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