Health Psychology MSc

Course content

What will you study on the MSc Health Psychology?

We focus on supporting your future employability by helping you develop a range of professional, research and transferable skills, especially professional and clinical practitioner skills (e.g. smoking cessation, cognitive-behavioural therapy, motivational interviewing, health behaviour change and communication, ethical and reflective practice, and judgment and decision-making skills), through teaching, workshops and a placement.

For full-time students teaching is normally on Tuesdays and Thursdays and for part-time students it is normally on Tuesdays in year 1 and Thursdays in year 2.

For students wishing to undertake a placement, this may be full-time or part-time and will generally take place during the summer after the taught part of the course ends.

Coursework includes analysing case studies, a reflective log book, a health behaviour journal, designing health promotion materials, and a journal style article.

This module aims to provide students with an opportunity for an in-depth, advanced study in a specific area of applied psychology, pertinent to the degree for which they are registered, guided by, but largely independent of, tutor support. Students are encouraged to apply appropriate principles of empirical research to an issue of their choice within the subject area of their degree registration. Students will be guided to present their research study in the form of a written journal article, using appropriate styles and conventions.

This module aims to introduce students to the discipline of health psychology, setting it apart from other related disciplines. Students will be introduced to the concept of health and the main theories/concepts relating to the psychosocial determinants of health/illness, including stress and health behaviours. They will also be introduced to the applications of health psychology to health promotion and in particular, to behaviour change, including designing and evaluating interventions.

This module aims to introduce students to the physiological processes involved in the onset and progression of a variety of acute and long-term conditions. The process of health care delivery, from symptom perception through consultation to treatment/management from the perspective of both clients and health professionals will be discussed. The health care needs and experiences of clients across the lifespan will be considered.

This module aims to provide an insight into and help students develop the skills required to work in health psychology settings and students may undertake a placement as part of this. The module aims to help students’ development in three areas: a) personal development, including self confidence, self awareness, self reflection, and awareness of strengths and areas for improvement, b) development of professional skills, including clinical skills, analysing and appraising the usefulness and application of health psychology theory to practice, and becoming an ethical and reflective practitioner and c) preparation for future employability.

This module conforms with the statistics and methodology requirements of the British Psychological Society Divisions of Forensic and Health Psychology, and National Occupational Standards for Applied Psychologists Key roles 2 and 3. Successful completion of this module provides partial fulfilment of the requirements for Stage 1 exemption for practitioner psychologists Health/Forensic. The module extends psychology students' undergraduate knowledge of research methods, design and statistics with particular reference to advanced forensic and health psychology. It prepares them for conducting their independent research project, forthcoming supervised practice and enables them to choose appropriate methodologies and analyses for research.

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.