DISSERTATION 8000-10000 WORDS - 2025/6

Module code: PSYM034

Module Overview

It is a requirement of the University that taught postgraduate programmes include a dissertation and/or major project module. For this module students will conduct their own piece of empirical research in an area relevant to their Masters course, under supervision of a member of academic staff. For the assessment students will subject either a qualitative or mixed-method research report of 10,000 words or a quantitative research report of 8,000 words (maximum).Overall student workload: 600 hoursThis includes 12 hours of tutor supervision. These hours will include development of theoretical framework, aims and hypotheses, recruiting samples, fieldwork and liaison with key personnel as appropriate, data recording and analysis, interpretation and writing up. Specific times for these subsections cannot be given as they vary from project to project.

Module provider

Psychology

Module Leader

FU Di (Psychology)

Number of Credits: 60

ECTS Credits: 30

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Overall student workload

Independent Learning Hours: 380

Tutorial Hours: 12

Guided Learning: 198

Captured Content: 10

Module Availability

Year long

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

The dissertation content must be appropriate for your MSc degree programme. Students must defer to their supervisor(s) before embarking on the research.Students whose projects are problem-driven and run in collaboration with an external party will receive supervision that ensures that rigorous, level-appropriate academic standards are maintained throughout. Such students may be obliged to produce an executive summary that can be attached as Appendix to the dissertation.The dissertation must be an original piece of work: students must demonstrate this throughout the project duration.It is expected that the dissertation will consist of new analyses of data to address a clearly specified research question. Normally students will be expected to collect new data of their own although secondary data analysis (including analyses of media data) and meta-analyses are acceptable and indeed encouraged by some members of staff. Dissertations that consist solely of reviews of the literature and contain no new analyses of data will not normally be acceptable. Your dissertation topic must be clearly identifiable as one appropriate for the degree course you are pursuing - if you have any doubts about the appropriateness of a proposed study, consult your supervisor or program leader.Student projects and available supervisors are advertised on the MSc dissertation pages on SurreyLearn in October. Students will then be asked to nominate supervisors (and/or projects) after which the module lead will allocate students to supervisors. Students will be given priority to staff who teach on their respective programmes. After students and supervisors have been matched the student should contact the supervisor to develop the research.The specific project¿s timetable is within the jurisdiction of the student but must be agreed up front with the supervisor.Below are a set of guidelines you should aim to work towards the deadlines in bold are formal deadlines.SEMESTER 1

  • Allocation of supervisors
  • Planning the research: submit a summary of the research proposal after discussion with the supervisor
  • Agree project plan with collaborating organisation (where applicable)
  • Contact ¿gatekeepers¿, or work with collaborators, for access to participants, and start preparing for ethical approval. Clear guidelines about ethics procedures are given in module workshops and in the student handbook.
  • Arrange data collection with gatekeepers/collaborators and participants
  • Prepare literature review
  • Start to prepare study materials
SEMESTER 2
  • Submit research proposal
  • Apply for ethical and/or governance approval by March. All students must apply for these approvals, and this needs to be discussed with the supervisor. Clear guidelines about ethics procedures are given in the workshops and in the student handbook
  • Data collection and analysis
  • Mid July: submit first draft of your results to supervisor
  • Prepare full draft of dissertation
  • End July: submit full draft of dissertation (without discussion section) to supervisor
  • Make changes and write Discussion
  • Early September: Hand in dissertation, submit executive summary to collaborating organisation (where applicable)
Please note that July and August deadlines need to be discussed with your supervisor as they may be away for some periods over the summer.

Assessment pattern

Assessment type Unit of assessment Weighting
Project (Group/Individual/Dissertation) WRITTEN DISSERTATION (8000-10000 WORDS) 100

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the ability to draw together the skills and knowledge they have developed over the academic year. It gives them the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to identify a viable research issue or question pertinent to the domain they are currently studying (in the introduction); to conduct and present a coherent literature review; to design a strategy for investigation (design, procedure, methods of data collection) that will address the research question (method section); to conduct appropriate statistical analyses that address the hypotheses, and/or qualitative analytic methods as appropriate to the research question (result section); to Interpret findings with reference to relevant theory and/or previous research (discussion); to coherently articulate the benefits and limitations of the research (introduction and discussion); to Identify the implications for future research and/or practice, as appropriate (discussion); to present these findings in accordance with APA guidelines (the whole dissertation); self-organisation and initiative (during the project); communicate with the supervisor in a constructive and proactive manner (during the project).The dissertation will be marked by two independent markers and will then be sent to the External Examiner for comment and moderation of marks if necessary.(addresses learning outcomes: 1 - 10) Submission: end of programme.Formative assessment and feedbackStudents will submit an initial draft of the dissertation for formative assessment.FeedbackStudents will receive feedback on an initial draft of their dissertation and on the final submission.

Module aims

  • The dissertation aims to provide students with the opportunity to undertake an in-depth, empirical investigation of an appropriate problem or topic. The process of preparing and writing a dissertation provides the student with the opportunity to pursue in depth a topic relevant to their degree program. It should allow them to apply and develop research skills acquired during the MSc program and to demonstrate a reflective understanding of the research endeavour through their own work

Learning outcomes

Attributes Developed
001 Identify a viable research issue or question pertinent to their field of study. This issue may be problem driven (arising from a real world setting) or theory driven (guided by a clear research question and/or leading to conventional hypothesis testing) or both C
002 Conduct and present a coherent literature review KCPT
003 Design a strategy for investigation (design, procedure, methods) that will address the research question and/or hypotheses, can be logically defended, and is in accordance with the BPS ethical guidelines CP
004 Conduct appropriate statistical analyses that address the hypotheses, and/or apply qualitative analytic methods as appropriate to the research question C
005 Interpret findings - whether numerical/statistical or textual - with reference to relevant theory and/or previous research, in an informed and defendable way acknowledging their own role in the analytic process. KCT
006 Coherently articulate the benefits and limitations of the research C
007 Identify the implications for future research and/or the practical implications, as appropriate, with due recognition of the scope and boundaries of these implications C
008 Present findings in accordance with APA guidelines P
009 Self-organisation (project planning and scheduling, time management) and initiative (in seeking answers to questions, in conducting the research), including the ability to work increasingly independently and with initiative throughout the duration of the project PT
010 Communicate with the supervisor(s) in a constructive and proactive manner about the above, and with view to developing a clear and workable modus operandi for supervision (that may mean discussing mutual expectations and process issues arising during the course of supervision) PT

Attributes Developed

C - Cognitive/analytical

K - Subject knowledge

T - Transferable skills

P - Professional/Practical skills

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategyStudents are entitled to 10 hours of contact time with their supervisor scheduled as required to suit both supervisor and student. Contact time includes face-to-face meetings, telephone conversations, e-mails and reading drafts with respect to the project. Students are entitled to have feedback on their draft from their supervisor before the final submission provided they organise a suitable time for this in advance. Supervisors are permitted to comment on one draft only; this excludes the Discussion section. Any additional supervision must be strictly negotiated by supervisor and student, but if there is no justifiable reason for this, heavy dependency could undermine the achievement of independent working and therefore also the final mark will reflect this.Students who work on projects run with external collaborators will need to meet with those collaborators, or representatives of the collaborating organisation, during the project. The amount of time spent with the collaborator representative will vary across projects, but students should expect to spend no more than 10 hours in such meetings throughout the project duration; these hours are additional to the time spent with the university-based project supervisor.Your supervisor will provide feedback and guidance on all elements of the dissertation but he or she will not read your Discussion. This will be an independent piece of work where students can demonstrate their own understanding and critical analyses of their work and the practical, theoretical and methodological implications of this work and their findings.Your supervisor can be expected to offer advice and guidance at all stages of completing the dissertation and it is normally expected that supervisors will read through a single complete draft of the dissertation before submission (except for the Discussion). The supervisor is not, however, responsible for the content of the dissertation nor can they be expected to correct typographical and grammatical errors. If you think you might have problems with presenting work in good English, you should discuss this with your supervisor early in the year so that appropriate help can be found.The supervisor will nominate an independent marker (with sufficient knowledge of the field of research) who will mark the dissertation along with another member of staff.Identifying a supervisorProjects and available supervisors are advertised on an MSc dissertation website on SurreyLearn in early October. Details on supervisor allocation procedures will be made available on SurreyLearn at the same time.Learning and teaching methods include:Independent research with an academic staff member; one-to-one facilitation and guidance, group supervision as appropriate (supervision time: 10 hours). In addition students are encouraged to attend departmental seminars to expose themselves to different types of academic research in their discipline. 

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: PSYM034

Programmes this module appears in

Programme Semester Classification Qualifying conditions
Environmental Psychology MSc(CORE) Year-long Core Each unit of assessment must be passed at 50% to pass the module
Health Psychology MSc(CORE) Year-long Core Each unit of assessment must be passed at 50% to pass the module
Psychology (Conversion) MSc(CORE) Year-long Core Each unit of assessment must be passed at 50% to pass the module
Social Psychology MSc(CORE) Year-long Core Each unit of assessment must be passed at 50% to pass the module

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.