Psychological Research Methods

Course description

Throughout your course, you'll learn the latest techniques in cutting-edge psychological research from the psychologists who are using them in their published studies.

These include neuroimaging (EEG, fMRI), behavioural genetics, experimental methodologies, qualitative methods (including diary studies), systematic review and meta-analysis methodologies as well as specialist methods for working with infants, children and co-producing research with non-academic partners.

We'll teach you the skills you need and give you the opportunities to apply them to the area of psychology that you're interested in.

From week one, you'll begin training in a range of skills that are important for psychologists in academia and professional roles. You'll understand ethical issues in research, learn how to write a grant proposal, receive training in multivariate statistics, and develop your presentation skills ready to take part in our summer postgraduate students' conference.

The research project and literature review gives you the opportunity to focus on a chosen psychological research question in detail under the supervision of one of our world-class researchers. You can choose a supervisor from an area of psychology that matches your research interests and future career aspirations within cognitive, developmental, social or clinical psychology.

This project gives you the opportunity to put your new research methods knowledge into practice while addressing an issue at the cutting edge of psychological research.

Example research projects

• Identifying risk factors for poor treatment outcomes in clinical therapy
• The roles of self-control, ambivalence and decision-making in the context of health behaviour change
• The development of cognitive flexibility / inhibitory control in the preschool / school years

Example student publications

MSc research projects often form the basis of publications in peer-reviewed journals.

• Vaci, N., Stafford, T., Ren, Y., & Habgood, J. (2024). Experiments in games: Modding the Zool Redimensioned warning system to support players’ skill acquisition and attrition rate. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 46(0).
• Simmonds-Buckley, M., Osivwemu, E. O., Kellett, S., & Taylor, C. (2022). The acceptability of cognitive analytic therapy (CAT): Meta-analysis and benchmarking of treatment refusal and treatment dropout rates. Clinical Psychology Review, 96, 102187.
• Griffin, B., Conner, M., & Norman, P. (2022). Applying an extended protection motivation theory to predict Covid-19 vaccination intentions and uptake in 50–64 year olds in the UK. Social Science & Medicine, 298, 114819.
• Tait, J., Edmeade, L., & Delgadillo, J. (2022). Are depressed patients’ coping strategies associated with psychotherapy treatment outcomes? Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 95, 98–112.

Psychological Research Methods at Sheffield

In addition to Psychological Research Methods, at Sheffield we offer two other specialist masters courses in this area that allow you to specialise further and develop the skills you need for a successful career:

• MSc Psychological Research Methods with Advanced Statistics
• MSc Psychological Research Methods with Data Science

If you have any questions about entry requirements, please contact the school/department.

Your career

This course is great preparation for a PhD or the next step towards clinical training. Our graduates have gone on to PhD training in neuroimaging, health psychology and social psychology. Graduates also go on to work in:

• NHS trusts or other public health organisations, in roles including Assistant Psychologist or Research Assistant
• charitable and not-for-profit organisations such as the Alzheimer's Society, Mind and Righsteps in roles including Psychology Practitioner or Mental Health Support Worker.
• academia as a psychological researcher or lecturer.

Learn more about where your psychology masters could take you here.

By choosing the School of Psychology for your postgraduate study, you'll join our global alumni network, where hundreds of our employed graduates are working across academia, healthcare, and related fields, and completing further study around the world. Explore our interactive map of graduate destinations: