PRE-SEMESTER READING LIST Semester A: MSc Psychology

The MSc Psychology covers a broad range of topics that have been laid out by the British Psychological Society (BPS) to allow students to attain the Graduate Basis of Registration (GBC). One portion of the programme covers training in research methods and conducting your independent research project while the remainder covers a set of core areas. These are:

  • Cognitive Psychology – what are the basic mental functions such as memory, language & visual recognition and how do they work?
  • Psychobiology – what is the interplay between physical biology and human behaviour?
  • Individual Differences – what makes one person different from another in terms of their behaviour?
  • Developmental Psychology – how do humans develop physically, mentally and socially during childhood and adolescence?
  • Social Psychology – how are human behaviour and experience affected by social context such as in groups and relationships?
  • Conceptual & Historical Issues in Psychology (CHIPs) - how have psychological explanations changed over time and what are the key debates which shape its future?

In the coming semester (A), you will be studying Cognitive Psychology and Psychobiology (PYM 151; day time) and Research Methods (PYM154; evening), if full-time; or one of these if part-time.

When you start a module, you will have a module handout available which will give you the breakdown of lectures along with an accompanied reading list (all documents are available on our virtual learning environment, UELPlus. Access is explained in Induction). Before that, if you would like to prepare yourself for some of the debates you will be encountering, you could look at some background reading. There is no ‘set list’ for this as each lecturer will take a specific stance when they teach you—therefore you should not think of general reading as a kind of ‘syllabus’ that you must understand but instead to think of it as giving you a sense of the general areas. To get a basic idea of the above areas, you can look at general introductory textbooks. Any fairly recent degree level text would do, but currently on our BSc programme we recommend:

Martin GN, Carlson NR & Buskist W (2010) Psychology, 4th Edition. Allyn & Bacon (this is a ‘Europeanised’ version of a well established US text)

This is a generic introduction to the whole of psychology and covers areas beyond your course of study but it may give you an overall feel for the area.

It is possible to find second hand copies of most books (especially earlier editions) by looking at online websites such as:

or or you want to read beyond these introductory levels, the lecturers who run the module have suggested some non-compulsory further reading that you could do over the summer. In most cases, the material suggested is simply a higher-level introduction to the area. (Please note, though, that the Research Methods pre-reading is necessary! See below.)

PRE-READING SUGGESTIONS FOR SEMESTER A (from 2012-2013):

Cognitive Psychology

Braisby, N.R. & Gellatly, A.R.H. (Eds.) (2005) Cognitive Psychology, London, Oxford University Press – or the new 2012 edition!

Jansari, A. (2005). Cognitive neuropsychology. In Braisby, N. (Ed.). Cognitive Psychology: A Methods Companion. (Chapter 5) Oxford: OUP

Also recommended:

Gazzaniga, M.S., Ivry, R.B. & Mangun, G. R. (2008) Cognitive Neuroscience: the biology of the mind (3rd edition) Norton U.S.

Martin, G. N., Carlson, N. R. & Buskist, W. Psychology (4th edition). Pearson.

Eysenck & Keane (2010) Cognitive Psychology: A Student’s Handbook. Psychology Press.

Psychobiology (There are other Biopsychology texts, but you only need 1)

Pinel, J.P.J. (2009) Biopsychology, 7th Edition (NOTE: 4th, 5th or 6th editions are suitable too). Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

Toates, F (2010) Biological Psychology, 2nd Edition. Pearson.

Carlson (2012) Physiology of Behavior, 11th edition (much more detailed – requires a love or deeper fascination with biology).

NOTE: As mentioned above, you don’t necessarily have to read the textbooks recommended in the module guides over the summer before the term starts (exception is Research methods – see below). If you prefer you can read something “lighter” to get interested into the topics.

(Light reading):

Cognitive Psychology:Styles, E. (2005). Attention, Perception and Memory: An Integrated Introduction. Psychology Press

Evolutionary Psychology: Dennett, D. (1995). Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life. Barnes and Noble

PYM154 Research Methods

PRE-COURSE READING AND BASIC GUIDE

The Research Methods module is designed to fulfil the British Psychological Society’s (BPS) requirements for Research Skills, and to equip you with the skills necessary to complete your independent research project. Those of you who have not studied research methods in your undergraduate degrees may initially find the statistical content of the module challenging. This is why we have devised this guide to help you prepare. For those of you who do have some training in research methodology, we would still recommend the material as both a refresher and a guide to basic psychology research methods.

Unlike the information about the other modules, the pre-reading for the Research Methods module is ESSENTIAL (rather than introductory/taster). The more you are able to look at, the better—we realise that some students may not be able to access hardcopies of the books, hence we are also offering some alternatives such as reading from websites. Please note that based on your own background, you may find some material easier or harder than others so we are not expecting you to understand everything before you arrive—but the more you can understand, the better it will be easing you into this very important module. The web-based materials here will kick-start you into concepts of research design and statistics, but it is very important that you try to read the book chapters prior to starting the MSc. You may find some chapters more difficult than others and need to spend more time on those. This is normal, but do not dwell on the areas you find difficult for too long. We give support with a one-day research and statistics workshop during induction week (first week before formal teaching starts) and a lecturer recaps such materials at the beginning of the module.

The one-day research and statistics workshop will be on Friday 21st September. This will be a one-off Friday (the MSc lectures take place on Wednesdays); this is a voluntary workshop but we strongly urge you to make every effort to come since students who do not attend tend to be the ones who find the initial stages of the module challenging.

Reading:

The ‘core’ text recommended for this module is:

Dancey, C. P. and Reidy, J. (2011). Statistics without maths for psychology (5th ed.). Harlow: Prentice Hall.

(can be accessed online via Library Services with ATHENS password for existing students)

The lecturers that teach research methods involving statistics will recommend reading from chapters in this book through the module. It is important that you try to get a copy.

(depending on preference for style) students have also found other texts useful including:

Cooligan, H. (2009). Research methods and statistics in psychology. London: Hodder Education.

Gavin, H. (2008). Understanding research methods and statistics in psychology. London: Sage. (sample chapter: J. & D’Oliveira. (1999). Learning to Use Statistical Tests in Psychology. Open University Press.

NOTE: the texts and this guide focus exclusively on ‘quantitative’ research methods (those involving statistics) as students tend to find these more difficult. Towards the end of the semester, ‘qualitative’ (non-statistical/numerical) methods will be covered.

Guide:

Each section below guides you to the relevant chapters in the core text by Dancey & Reidy and links to online resources of information on the particular topic. At the end of each chapter you will find useful multiple choice questions (MCQs) and we also offer online series below. PLEASE NOTE that there will be irrelevant materials on the websites but do not get put off by what you find! Just concentrate on the areas that we are guiding you towards below.

1)The various research methodologies used by psychologists: Chapter 1, Dancey & Reidy

(from ‘language’ to ‘types of data’)

‘intro to design’ to ‘quasi-…’)

2)Basic concepts in psychological research: Chapters 1 & 2, Dancey & Reidy

  1. Types of variable: (look at ‘variables’)
  2. Populations and Samples (same as above: click ‘inferential statistics’ then the terms)
  3. Levels of Measurement: numbers to describe behaviour: Chapters 2-3, Dancey & Reidy

    1. Distribution of data: of central tendency: testing: Chapter 4, Dancey & Reidy

      1. Types of hypothesis: hypotheses: (from ‘ruling out chance’ go as far as you can comprehend)

      5)Statistical tests and inferential statistics, Chapters 5 & 6 Dancey & Reidy

      1. Testing for the relationship (correlations) between two variables: for differences (t-test) between two conditions: statistics to t-test)

      The statsoft on-line textbook provides an excellent summary of the topics covered above ( in the UK the Psychology discipline is controlled by the Code of Ethics and Conduct of the BPS ( should attempt those MCQs after the book chapters. Below are supplementary test-banks:

      Generic/theoretical: & distribution: stats: Methods and Statistics One day Workshop

      Friday 21st September, 10am - 5 pm latest (starts in AE1.01)

      This one-off workshop is recommended (though not compulsory) for MSc (who have not yet done the RM module) and other postgraduate students if they have little or no experience of statistics and experimental design. Students are also welcome if they wish to refresh their knowledge of research methodology and basic statistics.

      For the MSc, students would be expected to have some awareness and basic understanding at least of the methodology and statistics that are briefly covered in the workshop (see below).

      At the workshop, I will run a brief demonstration of an experiment with three conditions, and will use this to go over some terminology (e.g., independent and dependent variables, null hypothesis) and experimental design issues. We will collect some data, and then look at how we can summarise it using descriptive statistics. In the afternoon, we will analyse the data using the software SPSS, comparing two of the conditions with an inferential statistic (related t-test, Wilcoxon test).

      Do not worry about learning SPSS beforehand, as thispart of the session will be introductory.

      However, it is importantthat you cover some reading on basic experimental design (two conditions), and descriptive statistics (e.g., central tendency, measures of variation) and inferential statistics (up to and including t-test) before the workshop and before the Research Methods module starts. The one-off workshop is intended to be a practical session rather than a theoretical introduction. Some essential reading is detailed below, as already indicated in your Pre-course reading guide above (see other possible sources too).

      Dancey, C. P. and Reidy, J. (2011). Statistics without maths for psychology (5th ed.). Harlow: Prentice Hall. [Please attempt to read chapters 1-6 as per PYM154 guide.]

      (For existing students, this resource can be accessed online via Library Services your UEL account and ATHENS password – see Library Services webpages on students can access this service once they are enrolled.)

      I look forward to seeing you in September

      Melanie Vitkovitch

      Principal Lecturer