Research Methods in Psychology (MSc) 2026 entry

Course information may change. Module information and course content, teaching and assessment may change each year and after you have accepted your offer to study at the University of St Andrews. We display the most up-to-date information possible, but this could be from a previous academic year. For the latest module information, see the module catalogue.

• Compulsory

  • Generic Research and Professional Skills in Psychology and Neuroscience: Introduces students to the various skills and issues that are of importance to academic psychologists and neuroscientists
  • Quantitative Research in Social Science: Provides an introduction to the fundamental concepts of quantitative analysis - underlying principles, research design, sampling strategies, uncertainty and missing data, and some statistical approaches to data analysis
  • Philosophy and Methodology of the Social Sciences: introduces students to the basic theoretical approaches in the social sciences, covering the methodological and epistemological issues involved in conducting social scientific research.
  • Qualitative Methods in Social Research: offers both a theoretical and practical introduction to the collection, analysis and writing of qualitative social science research.
  • Methods of Data Analysis in Psychology: advanced training in research design, statistics, qualitative methods and modelling.
  • Psychology Master's Research Project: Provides an opportunity to perform an empirical research project under the guidance of a member of staff in order to gain experience at the planning, implementation, data analysis, and interpretation of psychological research.

• Optional

  Students must choose two optional modules.

  • Animal Models in Neuroscience and Psychology: focuses on the animals frequently used in psychology and neuroscience research; discussing key physiological and behavioural characteristics of the animals, why these characteristics make them good or bad models for given areas of research, and how these behavioural and physiological characteristics must be accounted for when designing experiments.
  • Data Science for Psychology and Neuroscience: introduces modern data science methods such as machine learning and data mining, with emphasis on the practical utilisation of these methods in the context of psychology and neuroscience.
  • Research Methods in Cognitive Neuroscience: explores the technology that allows us to observe the brain in action and to understand the physical bases of behaviour.
  • The Narratives that Shape Psychology and Neuroscience: critically explores the narratives that shape Psychology and Neuroscience, while examining alternative narratives that broaden the canon.
  • Psychology and Neuroscience Colloquium: involves engagement with a lecture series that is interdisciplinary and international by design, featuring research from cells to minds and groups while covering different theories and methods.

  Optional modules are subject to change each year and require a minimum number of participants to be offered. Some may only allow limited numbers of students.

• Dissertation

  Student dissertations will be supervised by members of the teaching staff who will advise on the choice of subject and provide guidance throughout the research process. The completed dissertation of not more than 15,000 words must be submitted by a date specified in August.