Psychology

‌Creating Knowledge Together

Study PictureThe Department of Psychology offers a range of undergraduate (and postgraduate) degree programmes in which you can develop your skills and knowledge but also provides the opportunity to create new knowledge with us.  In addition to attending taught units in the core cognate areas of psychology (e.g. biological psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology) and research methods and statistics, you can also conduct cutting edge research with us as volunteers, as paid project support assistants, and as a research student on externally funded summer bursaries. This enhances our research programmes and you develop your research, project management, communication and problem solving skills.  We hope that this approach means that you perceive us as more than just teachers instead you are an integrated part of our academic community.

Get your work published

‌Compared to many other UK psychology departments you will have a huge amount of autonomy in what you investigate for your final year research project.  You can either choose your own research question or, if you are unsure, you can choose from a range of options that project supervisors advertise.  

Research papersHere are just a few examples of past project titles:

  • Are they faking it? Judgements of deception in footballers facial expressions of pain
  • Can the misinformation effect be reversed in eyewitness testimony?
  • Effects of learning in visual control of driving through a triple bend
  • "Are you a goodie or a baddie?": An exploratory study into how children use hero and villain figures in pretend play
  • School exclusion - a child's perspective
  • Action video games and sporting success: Is there a link?

By allowing students to design their own research and providing expert advice and guidance from project supervisors, our final year dissertations have consistently been praised by our external examiners as being of an extremely high standard.  This is probably why so many of our students feature as co-authors on publications developed from their dissertations.  Here are a few examples of recent work published:

  • Morris, P.H. & Lewis, D. (2011). Tackling diving: The perception of deceptive intentions in association football (soccer). Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 34, 1-13.
  • Drahota, A., Costall, C. & Reddy, V. (2011). The vocal communication of different kinds of smile. Speech Communication, 50, 278-287.
  • Akehurst, L., Burden, N. & Buckle, J. (2010). The effect of socially encountered misinformation and delay on children’s eyewitness testimony. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 205, 125-136