Find out more about our Psychology MPhil/PhD.

P-C8P1

MPhil/PhD

3-4 years full-time;
Up to 7 years part-time

3 October 2022

Psychology

University of Warwick

The Department of Psychology offers high quality doctoral training and supervision experience in the fields of Behavioural Science, Language and Learning, and Lifespan Health and Wellbeing. Under the guidance of enthusiastic and motivated academic staff, our MPhil/PhD students undertake exciting research in their chosen fields of study and complete a tailored programme of training courses and professional development opportunities.

Our postgraduate research degree (MPhil/PhD) in Psychology is awarded for a thesis reporting original research by a student under the supervision of, typically, two members of staff. Very occasionally, the department is also able to take on a student undertaking a PhD by Published Work.

Our programme can enable postgraduate training for a career as an academic researcher, but also serves as excellent preparation for a career as a professional psychologist (e.g., clinical, organisational, or school psychologist), or as a consultant or professional in different fields of industry.

In addition to subject-related knowledge, a Psychology research degree provides valuable transferable skills in data analysis and management, written and oral communication, teamwork and time management.

PhD students are initially registered for an MPhil (PhD Track) with the expectation that their registration will be upgraded to the full PhD contingent upon satisfactory progress. Such upgrades normally take place at the first annual review 9-12 months into your studies (18–24 months for part-time students).

Teaching and learning

All our postgraduate research students are strongly encouraged to engage with the Departmental and University-wide advanced training offered. Such training opportunities will be discussed with supervisors and will form part of the annual review process.

Our postgraduate research students are also offered an opportunity to gain teaching and marking experience during the course of their doctoral studies.

Behavioural Science

• Economic and consumer psychology
• Judgement, risk and decision-making
• Psychology and the law
• Computational modelling of human behaviour
• Attention, visual processing and emotional processing
• Folk economics, inequality, and behavioural political science

Language and Learning

• Reading; word recognition
• Computational approaches to language processing
• Historical language change
• Structure of the lexicon across life-span
• Big Data research on language
• Language and gesture development in infants and children
• Second language learning
• Language learning and change
• Gesture and non-verbal communication in adults and children
• Development of social cognition
• Animal (e.g., orangutangs, chimpanzees, birds) communication and cognition
• Language evolution
• Sleep and language learning
• Socio-economic status and child language development
• Language development and socio-economic status

Lifespan Health and Wellbeing

• Longitudinal epidemiology
• Experimental psychology and clinical studies, with common interests in the factors that determine and/or the mechanisms that underlie healthy living
• Child and adolescent development and ageing
• Mental health, sleep and pain
• Disaster recovery
• Culture, relationships, beliefs, personality, and well-being

Full details of our research interests are listed on the Psychology web pages.

You can also read our general University research proposal guidance.

Find your supervisor using the link below and discuss with them the area you'd like to research.

Explore our Psychology Research Directory where you will be able to filter by research group.

You can also see our general University guidance about finding a supervisor.

2:i undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in Psychology or a related subject.

• Band B
• IELTS overall score of 7.0, minimum component scores of two at 6.0/6.5 and the rest at 7.0 or above.

There are no additional entry requirements for this course.

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