Developmental Psychology is the scientific study of how and why individuals change over time, with a focus on infancy, childhood and adolescence. Applying our knowledge of developmental psychology in real world settings is crucial and has positively impacted a variety of sectors including education, health, clinical and social settings.
This master's degree will equip you with the skills to engage critically with the core theory and research in developmental psychology and psychopathology, while providing a critical understanding of the relationship between theory, research and practice. You'll gain the skills to work effectively with the developmental population, particularly in teaching learning and education, mental health, health and community settings, and for further postgraduate training.
Focusing on key issues, theories and topical research in relation to the application of developmental psychology to real-world settings, this course is uniquely cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary.
You will benefit from the experience of our dedicated and enthusiastic staff, as well as state-of-the-art facilities for teaching and research, including the baby lab (dedicated to infant research), with observation facilities, AV digital support, sound-isolating booth and Tobii eye-tracking.
This programme is ideally suited to those who may wish to extend their research interests to doctoral level or who work in developmental settings. This course also has step-off points at Postgraduate Diploma and Postgraduate Certificate levels.
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This programme will equip you to critically evaluate contemporary theory and research in developmental psychology and consider areas of application to real-world settings. You will gain a critical understanding of the spectrum of child development, including key issues concerning core and extended topics covered in developmental psychopathology.
You will develop your understanding of quantitative research techniques and research designs in developmental psychology, embedded by theoretical perspective, as well as challenges associated with conducting research with infants and children.
You will graduate with a ‘toolbox’ of knowledge that will enable you to develop a portfolio of research skills specifically relevant for working with the developmental population and related environments.
You'll focus on:
This module aims to provide your with core skills and knowledge in quantitative research methods in Psychology. The focus is on understanding how research questions relate to design and appropriate analyses. Across the suite of MSc programmes in Psychology, it provides you with advanced skills in a variety of statistical analyses and enables you to conduct psychological research at master’s level. The module enables you to understand and critically evaluate published quantitative psychological research. It prepares you for your dissertation and enables you to choose appropriate methodologies and analyses for research.
This module aim to provide you with an opportunity for an in-depth, advanced study in a specific area of applied psychology, pertinent to the degree for which you are registered, guided by, but largely independent of, tutor support. You will apply appropriate principles of empirical research, and present your research study in the form of a written journal article, using appropriate styles and conventions.
On this module, you will develop a critical understanding of current research evidence and perspectives on psychological trauma and its effects. The impact of trauma on different groups and at different stages of the lifespan will be reviewed. Models of intervention for psychological trauma will be critically examined and the current debates around ameliorating factors and developmental outcomes will be explored.
This module is designed to provide you with an understanding of the developing relationship between human brain and behaviour. It will draw on evidence from physiological, cognitive and neuroscientific research to examine the development of key cognitive processes including sensory processing, learning and memory, language, action perception and production, and emotion processing at different stages of life. Typical cognitive functioning will be considered alongside atypical functioning in individuals with developmental disorders or acquired pathology.
This module will introduce you to advanced level study of topics in neuropsychology, with a particular focus on cognitive neuropsychology. The foundations of the approach will be outlined, followed by examination of neuropsychological case studies and related research in several areas of cognition, including memory, language processing, and visual and perceptual disorders. You will also be encouraged to develop a critical awareness of the controversies that exist within this field and how these link to controversies in neuroscience.
Module aims:
Module aims:
The “reproducibility crisis” in Psychology (and in science more generally) has been vigorously debated in recent years in terms of its existence, nature, causes and possible solutions. Many changes to research practice have as a result been introduced and proposed, commonly referred to collectively as “Open Science”. In broad terms these changes aim to promote and support greater openness and transparency at all stages of the research process. These changes are also evolving and contested as new concerns are identified.
This module aims to familiarise you with these debates so that you can navigate your way through these rapidly developing changes. The module will also introduce you to current tools that support Open Science.
You can find more information about this course in the programme specification. Optional modules are not offered on every course. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, or there are staffing changes which affect the teaching, it may not be offered. If an optional module will not run, we will advise you after the module selection period when numbers are confirmed, or at the earliest time that the programme team make the decision not to run the module, and help you choose an alternative module.
We are regularly reviewing and updating our programmes to ensure you have the best learning experience. We are taking what we have learnt during the pandemic and enhancing our teaching methods with new and innovative ways of learning.
We aim to model a wide range of teaching strategies and approaches on the course which you can adapt to your own setting.
You will attend laboratory sessions, lectures, seminars and workshops, where you will take part in class discussions, and work on research projects, group assignments and critical analyses.
You will supplement all this with your own independent study and will submit a dissertation.
There is a specific module on research methods, and the course also aims to improve your analytical, statistics and IT skills.
Assessments will include pratical tests, projects, statistical assignments, essays, reports, logbooks and case study analyses. A major part of your assessment will be your 7,000 to 10,000-word report in the style of a journal article. You will receive regular feedback on your work, including your assessed coursework and your dissertation.
You have a strong support network available to you to make sure you develop all the necessary academic skills you need to do well on your course.
Our support services will be delivered online and on campus and you have access to a range of different resources so you can get the help you need, whether you’re studying at home or have the opportunity to come to campus.
You have access to one to one and group sessions for personal learning and academic support from our library and IT teams, and our network of learning experts. Our teams will also be here to offer financial advice, and personal wellbeing, mental health and disability support.
We are regularly reviewing and updating our programmes to ensure you have the best learning experience. We are taking what we have learnt during the pandemic and enhancing our teaching methods with new and innovative ways of learning.
We are currently reviewing our approach to teaching and learning for 2023 entry and beyond. We've learned a lot about how to give you a quality education - we aim to combine the best of our pre-pandemic teaching and learning with access to online learning and digital resources which put you more in charge of when and how you study. We will keep you updated on this throughout the application process.
Your timetable will be built around on campus sessions using our professional facilities, with online sessions for some activities where we know being virtual will add value. We’ll use technology to enhance all of your learning and give you access to online resources to use in your own time.
The table below gives you an idea of what learning looks like across a typical week. Some weeks are different due to how we schedule classes and arrange on campus sessions.
This information is likely to change slightly for 2023 entry as our plans evolve. You'll receive full information on your teaching before you start your course.
Learning structure: typical hourly breakdown in 2022/23 | ||
Live in-person on campus learning | Contact hours per week, per level: | 6 hours |
Live online learning | Average hours per week, per level: | 4 hours |
Tutor set learning activities | Average hours per week, per level: | 3 hours |
With the strong combination of contemporary and applied child psychology, the programme paves the way to a wide range of careers and employment contexts.
It is particularly targeted at individuals wishing to pursue careers with the developmental population, particularly child practitioners, cognitive neuropsychological assessment, mental health services, health and community settings, teaching and education, as well as academic research and other related real-world settings requiring further PG training (e.g. paediatric clinical neuropsychology, PhD).
The programme is designed for students who wish to apply for further PhD studies in Psychology/Human Development, Educational Psychology/Neuroscience or who plan to progress to Clinical Doctoral and Post-Graduate training with a focus on the developmental population.
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Dr. Reynolds’ key research interests lie within atypical childhood development, with a particular focus on cognitive and learning mechanisms. Currently, her research focuses on two main areas. Firstly, investigating the development of emotions such as fear, anxiety and disgust during childhood, exploring mechanisms and mediating factors associated with the development of such emotions, and identifying interventions that could be used to prevent such emotions developing in a dysfunctional way. Secondly, exploring the associative mechanisms and remediation of stimulus over-selectivity; a common characteristic of individuals with autism spectrum conditions, general learning disabilities, and acquired neurological damage. She is a Co-Director of Research in the Psychology department and an advocate of experimental research designs.
Dr Franco’s main research focus is on infant communication and the development of language. In the course of her career she has studied the development of a first sound-meaning system based on nonsegmental features in infant prelinguistic vocalisations; infant-directed speech; and joint attention. More recently she has begun to study the relationship between language and music in the development of human communication. She established the Middlesex babyLab, a research laboratory dedicated to infant research, and the Music Cognition and Communication Lab, which studies various areas on interaction between music cognition and communication across the lifespan. She is also interested in a number of other aspects of developmental psychology concerning young children's cognition and emotion in typical and atypical groups.
Dr Franco is an advocate of science and arts interdisciplinary research, which you can find out more about at the Music Cognition Communication Lab.
Professor Bifulco’s research is focused on social and lifespan influences on psychological disorder and she has investigated childhood experience, adversity and attachment style intergenerationally. She is an advocate of intensive interview measures and together with the CATS team runs training courses for researchers and practitioners on attachment style, childhood neglect/abuse and parenting.
We’ll carefully manage any future changes to courses, or the support and other services available to you, if these are necessary because of things like changes to government health and safety advice, or any changes to the law.
Any decisions will be taken in line with both external advice and the University’s Regulations which include information on this.
Our priority will always be to maintain academic standards and quality so that your learning outcomes are not affected by any adjustments that we may have to make.
At all times we’ll aim to keep you well informed of how we may need to respond to changing circumstances, and about support that we’ll provide to you.
Start: October 2023, EU/INT induction: September 2023
Duration: 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Code: PGL713
Start: October 2023
Duration: 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Code: PGC860
Start: October 2023
Duration: 1 year full-time, 2 years part-time
Code: PGC845
