Modules

This module aims to provide a background for the student to understand principles of research design and strategy, including an understanding of how to formulate researchable problems and an appreciation of alternative approaches to research. Students are introduced to techniques for data collection and initial stages of analysis.

A strong understanding of qualitative methods of analysis and statistics is essential for understanding as well as performing clinical research. The aim of this module is to provide a background for the student to not only understand but apply a variety of methods of qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The module explains the analyses that researchers perform (e.g., thematic analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis, t-tests, regression analysis etc.) with a focus on the clinical field.

Along with child and adolescent specialties, adult and older adult mental health is one of the key areas of specialisation for professional Clinical Psychologists. This module will provide students on the MSc in Clinical Applications of Psychology with a broad theoretical background and introduce them to key professional issues in the adult and older adult specialisations. The module will evaluate of the main theoretical approaches to adult psychological distress, and consider the repercussions of the increasing importance of evidence-based practice. The module will consider the distinctive contribution Clinical Psychology can make in a multi-disciplinary workplace alongside other professions such as counselling, psychiatric nursing and specialist psychotherapists.

Child and adolescent mental health is one of the key areas of specialisation for professional Clinical Psychologists. This module will provide students in the MSc in Clinical Psychology a broad theoretical background and introduce them to key professional issues in this specialisation. First, the module will consider vulnerability and resilience to psychological dysfunction in early life. Second, it will address major psychological disorders of infancy, childhood and adolescence, with particular emphasis on contemporary developments in evidence-based psychological intervention. Sessions will be led by both academics and clinicians to provide a broad range of perspectives on child and adolescent mental health.

This module has been developed to enable students to develop their skills at integrating psychological theory with clinical practice. It will build upon the theoretical teaching and learning associated with the other taught modules by using real life clinical cases to demonstrate how psychological theory is utilised when working in a range of clinical settings.

This module will enable the MSc in Clinical Applications of Psychology students to gain practical experience of working with Clinical Psychologists within clinical psychology services. Students will be assigned to 6-month long placements during which they will complete 2 pieces of academic work. They will each write up a review of literature relevant to a topic encountered on the placement and they will each carry out a Small-Scale Service Project. Their assigned project work in the field will be supervised onsite by a Clinical Supervisor, and their analysis and report-writing work will be co-supervised by an assigned academic supervisor. A report of how the student functioned in the placement setting will also be obtained from the Clinical Supervisor.

The choice of small-scale service projects to be allocated to students will be pre-agreed with placement organisations, and reviewed for uniformity of workload and task difficulty. The small-scale service project will focus on some aspect of a clinical service and must address problems of relevance to the clinical service.