Developmental Disorders - MSc

Providing you with an advanced understanding of the specialist discipline, this programme ensures you are ideally placed to excel in your career. Whether you pursue research, practice professional psychology or something else, you will be in a strong position to advance into senior roles.

Lancaster is home to one of the world’s largest centres for developmental psychology research. Specialising in infancy and childhood development, our department is one of the UK’s leading research groups in the discipline. This programme will provide you will advanced insight into psychology and offer you the opportunity to gain hands-on experience that will be hugely beneficial in any career. You will benefit from the world-leading research being conducted by our staff, and our Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) recognised PhD-level research training.

Throughout the course, you will study five taught modules and one substantial research project. This will ensure you receive the breadth of skills and depth of knowledge to engage with a wide range of careers, or to progress into further research and study.

You will complete two compulsory modules to develop your skills and expertise. You will extend and enhance your ability to collect, analyse and interpret psychological data. A solid foundation in these skills will be invaluable as you progress into research or into specialist psychology roles, such as clinical or forensic psychology.

In three subject specialist modules, you will focus on enhancing your discipline specific knowledge, providing you with a deeper understanding of developmental psychology, and of the disorders of development. As a result, you will graduate with a state-of-the-art understanding of developmental psychology.

Within the degree programme, you will be taught vocational skills that you will need to obtain and sustain a career in psychology and other fields, such as CV writing, interview skills, team work and presentation skills.

At the core of your experience, you will undertake an independent research project, supervised by a member of our research-active staff. This dissertation will allow you to apply all that you have learnt to a dissertation topic of your choice. As well as developing your conceptual understanding, research design, data-analysis, and communication skills, this project will be an exciting learning experience that will give you the opportunity to prove your skills, interests, and enthusiasm. What you achieve in your project will be important evidence of your skills and knowledge for prospective employers or postgraduate research student selection committees.

Course Structure

You will study a range of modules as part of your course, some examples of which are listed below.

Core

• Developmental Psychology
• Dissertation
• Analysing and Interpreting Psychological Data I
• Conducting and Presenting Psychological Research
• Developmental Disorders

Optional

• Literature review
• Analysing and Interpreting Psychological Data II
• Psychological Aspects of Advertising
• Mental Health: Theory, Research and Practice
• Analysing Talk and Text

Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, but changes may be necessary, for example as a result of student feedback, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes, and new research.

Assessment

We teach using a mix of lectures, seminars and practical lab sessions, encouraging increasingly independent study as your degree progresses. You will carry out regular web assessments to make sure your learning is on track, as well as practical work, essays, written examinations, practical lab reports, and presentations.

As a university, we commit to providing you with timely feedback on all aspects of your work.

Our community

Our students are key members of a thriving academic community. We offer an excellent staff-to-student ratio and an open-door policy to enable you to really get to know your lecturers. We believe this fosters a productive learning environment, helping you to achieve your potential.

In your time at Lancaster, your programme director will serve as your academic tutor. They will be here to make sure that you reach your personal goals. You will also be able to call on help, with any aspect of your studies, from the Director of Studies, from teaching coordinators, and from student learning advisors. We strive to inspire and encourage our future psychologists.

Careers

Our Developmental Disorders Masters will equip you with transferable skills valued by all employers: in communication; critical thinking; numeracy; and self-management. From research analysts to retail managers, a good grasp of human behavioural patterns and the science of the mind makes psychology graduates attractive to a wide range of employers.

Helping you to prepare for your future career is important to us. We will help you decide on your career path and give you the chance to develop the right skills. There are three Academic Employability Champions within the Psychology Department whose role is to ensure that our students become highly sought after, employable, graduates. This includes providing students with information about pathways to various careers inside and outside of psychology, and advice about further study. We offer one-to-one careers sessions, regular drop-in Psychology Careers cafés, and careers fairs.

Some psychology graduates go on to become chartered psychologists, specialising in clinical, educational, occupational, forensic, health or sports psychology. You will be equipped, also, to engage in opportunities in new and emerging areas such as environmental psychology, consumer psychology, and business intelligence. The workplace is a fiercely competitive field. In graduating with a Masters from Lancaster, you will be given a wider range of opportunities, and gain an edge when applying for new roles. This advanced qualification will also support your career progression as you move into more senior positions.

Visit the Developmental Disorders - MSc page on the Lancaster University website for more details!