Postgraduate Prospectus

Psychology | www.essex.ac.uk/psychology
Why study psychology
at Essex?
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Research-orientated environment
with over half our research rated
either ‘world-leading’ or
‘internationally excellent’ in the last
Research Assessment Exercise
(RAE, December 2008)
Extensive well-equipped
laboratories and state-of-the-art
computer equipment
New Cognitive Neuroscience
Laboratory with purpose-built
laboratories for neuroscientific
studies
International excellence in applied
and experimental social
psychology, cognitive psychology,
neuropsychology, cognitive
neuroscience, visual and auditory
perception
Excellent supervision of research
degrees, with an exemplary
completion rate for our PhD
students
Career prospects
With the skills and knowledge
you acquire from studying within
our Department, you will find
yourself in demand from a wide
range of employers. Our graduates
have been employed in clinical
psychology, educational
psychology, criminal and
forensic psychology.
We also have excellent links
with the research community
and our PhD students have
taken up post-doctoral positions
in other top UK universities and
internationally (including in the
US, Italy and Australia), as well as
being appointed to lectureships.
About our Department
We offer a stimulating and vibrant
environment that allows both our academic
staff, as well as our students, to successfully
shape the future of our ever-growing
research-intensive department. Our
research activity is diverse and broad-based,
with a variety of interests that fall into three
major research groupings: cognitive
psychology, sensory and cognitive
neuroscience, and social psychology.
Our interdisciplinary research includes
fundamental as well as applied research,
and our findings have had an impact on
society in general, and health and wellbeing
in particular. We have a long-standing
reputation for research excellence, which is
visible in the funding that we have received.
Our academic success is also mirrored in
the last RAE, with over half of our research
defined as either ‘world-leading’ or
‘internationally excellent’.
We provide state-of-the-art facilities for
study, with extensive laboratory space for
experimental psychology and special
facilities for visual and auditory perception,
developmental psychology and social
psychology, with our Hearing Research
Laboratory and our Visual Perception Unit.
We also have our Cognitive Neuroscience
Laboratory (CNL), a state-of-the-art
research facility dedicated to the study
of brain activity in relation to psychological
processes. This provides a dynamic
resource for psychology and neuroscience,
with specialised laboratories for
investigating brain activity and behaviour
including: four electroencephalography
(EEG) labs for recording cortical oscillatory
activity, event-related potentials (ERP) and
functional connectivity; two near-infrared
spectroscopy (NIRS) labs for measuring
changes in blood oxygenation levels; and
four neuromodulation labs including
transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS),
repetitive TMS (rTMS), transcranial
direct current stimulation (tDCS) and
neuronavigation facilities.
We are home to over 30 nationally and
internationally recognised academic
staff and several research staff. Our staff
enjoy excellent collaborative relationships
both within our Department and also with
renowned scholars across the world. Our
research findings are published in high
ranking academic journals and are often
reported about in the mass media.
Taught courses
Our Masters courses draw on our research
strengths and include a dissertation
individually supervised by an expert in
your chosen field.
Two of our taught courses are in
human neuropsychology, one of our
internationally recognised strengths,
so we have excellent links with local
neurological and neuropsychological
institutions and practitioners. Our new
MSc Cognitive Neuroscience reflects
our expanding expertise in this exciting
growth area and introduces you to a
range of new techniques to observe the
human brain in action.
Our MSc Psychology is a conversion
course leading to membership of the British
Psychological Society (BPS) by enabling
you to take a our one-year intensive
programme of psychology study.
MSc Cognitive Neuropsychology
Cognitive neuropsychology is a branch
of cognitive psychology that aims to
understand how the structure and function
of the brain relates to specific psychological
processes. It places a particular emphasis
on studying the cognitive effects of brain
injury or neurological illness with a view
to inferring models of normal cognitive
functioning. Evidence is based on case
studies of individual brain damaged patients
who show deficits in brain areas and from
patients who exhibit double dissociations.
From this, researchers infer that different
areas of the brain are highly specialised.
Our MSc Cognitive Neuropsychology
provides an advanced education in
the core subjects of cognitive
neuropsychological theories, plus
knowledge of appropriate statistical
methodology and neuropsychological
190 | Postgraduate Prospectus 2012