MSc Health Psychology

School of Psychological Sciences

Faculty of Medical & Human Sciences

Module Information

Semester One

Compulsory Components

Research Methods 1 (15 credits)

Professional Issues (15 credits)

Facilitating Change 1 (15 credits)

Health and Society (15 credits)

Dissertation Planning

Semester Two

Compulsory Components

Research Methods 2 (15 credits)

Health Behaviour Change (15 Credits)

Illness and Health Care (15 Credits)

Mind and Body (15 credits)

Dissertation Planning

Summer

PSYC 60010: Dissertation (60 credits)

Please note that this is a sample guide to modules. The exact content and combination of modules may change without prior notice.

Research methods 1

The unit aims to:

  • Provide an introduction to the psychological sciences research process
  • Provide revision of background and practical experience in basic statistics
  • Ensure that students can interpret the ‘output’ of statistical analysis
  • Develop skills in designing research, including providing understanding of questionnaire development and issues of importance in interview and focus group designs.
  • Develop skills in critical evaluation and systematic reviews

Unit Description:

This unit is designed to ensure that all students have good understanding of basic statistical skills and to support students with the research skills they need in designing their research projects. This unit therefore covers a range of statistical procedures up to and including analysis of variance and multiple regression. The research skills covered include developing research questions and study designs, questionnaire development, interviews and focus groups, critical appraisal of research and systematic reviews.

Learning Outcomes:

Category of outcome / By the end of the unit, students should be able to:
Knowledge and understanding / Understand basic statistical techniques.
Understand the issues of importance in a range of research designs.
Intellectual skills / Be able to develop a research question and appropriate study design.
Be able to critically evaluate others research.
Practical skills / Be able to implement a range of statistical techniques and research skills, including interviewing in a research context.
Transferable skills and personal qualities / Develop a high level of ability in the understanding and critical evaluation of information.

Professional Issues

The unit aims to:

•Consider the importance of reflection in studying and professional practice

•Provide an understanding of potential career routes and provide opportunities for students to interact with people working or training in clinical, health, and research-related roles.

•Provide opportunities for students to develop job/training applications and to receive advice and feedback on applications and interview technique.

•Discuss issues related to professional working in research and practice settings, including ethical and statutory obligations.

•Understand goals of other disciplines, and the value of working in collaboration with other disciplines for example health economics.

Unit Description:

This unit addresses key professional and career development issues for working in clinical and health psychology. Topics covered include reflective practice and personal development, career routes in health and clinical psychology practice and research, development of job applications and interview practice, multidisciplinary working, and ethical and statutory obligations.

Learning Outcomes:

Category of outcome / By the end of the unit, students should be able to:
Knowledge and understanding /
  • Understand the importance of reflection on studying, practice, and personal development
  • Understand a range of potential career routes, and the pathways required for those career options
  • Understand the legal and ethical frameworks relevant to practice in clinical and health psychology
  • Understand the roles undertaken by people in other disciplines and the value of multidisciplinary working.

Intellectual skills /
  • Understand key aspects of the focus of other disciplines, e.g. health economics

Practical skills /
  • Develop skills in CV writing, job application writing and being interviewed.

Transferable skills and personal qualities /
  • Understand the importance of multidisciplinary working
  • Critically reflect on one’s own learning and practice
  • Make a positive impression in writing and in person

Health and Society

The unit aims to:

  • Provide students with an understanding of the importance of social, cultural and economic factors including neighbourhood, gender, age, religion, socioeconomic status and ethnicity on health outcomes and health behaviours
  • Inequalities in health outcomes and health behaviours due to social, cultural and economic factors will be examined
  • Provide an understanding of how social, cultural and economic factors impact on health seeking, and access and availability of health services
  • Inform students of how policies directly affect social, cultural and economic factors and shape the health of the nation
  • Highlight the importance of historical knowledge, global awareness and other disciplines, such as epidemiology, in the understanding of health and illness
  • Teach students that critical evaluation of the current knowledge, theory and evidence of social, cultural and economic influences on health is the basis for effective intervention to improve health outcomes
  • Explore theories of social and individual representations of health and illness to enable students to understand the impact of social, cultural and economic factors on an individual’s health
  • Facilitate understanding of the impact of prejudice, legislation and discrimination on health.

Unit Description:

This unit examines how the social, cultural and economic environment influences the presentation of different physical and mental health outcomes and ones experience of them. Students will explore and discuss health inequalities and the role of health psychology in understanding these. How these factors shape government policy, the availability and accessibility of health care services, health behaviour and the health of the nation will be considered. The unit also explores the role that prejudice and discrimination play in the relationship between these social, cultural and economic factors and health. The unit aims to show students that understanding the role of these social, cultural and economic factors is vital for understanding health and illness and provides an essential foundation for the design of tailored-interventions to improve health.

Learning Outcomes:

Category of outcome / By the end of the unit, students should be able to:
Knowledge and understanding / Describe how social, cultural and economic factors influence individual and societal health outcome and health behaviours
Discuss how social, cultural and economic factors impact on health seeking, and access and availability of health services
Understand how policy affects social, cultural and economic factors and shape the health of the nation
Understand of the impact of prejudice, legislation and discrimination on health.
Intellectual skills / Critically evaluate historic and multidisciplinary knowledge of social, cultural and economic factors impact on health seeking, and access and availability of health services
Critically evaluate the existing literature on social, cultural and economic factors impact on health seeking, and access and availability of health services
Understand how knowledge, theory and evidence of social, cultural and economic influences on health forms the basis for effective intervention to improve health outcomes
Explore theories of social and individual representations of health and illness.
Practical skills / Engage with the unit lead and fellow class members through in-class activities and the online discussion board
Present what they have learnt throughout the unit in a portfolio completed weekly.
Transferable skills and personal qualities / Reflect on their own position in society and the impact this could have upon their role as a health psychologist
Communicate their views and experience of the unit learning objectives in written form.

Facilitating Change 1

The unit aims to:

  • Provide an introduction to the core principles and features of contemporary, theory- and evidence-based approaches to facilitating psychological change in people with health problems
  • Encourage a critical analysis of the strengths and limitations of psychological interventions
  • Equip students with an awareness of the reciprocal links between theory, research and clinical practice in the development and evaluation of psychological interventions
  • Provide illustrative examples of a range of interventions such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
  • Encourage students to start developing an awareness of the factors that are common to different psychological interventions, and those factors that differentiate them.
  • Provide understanding of assessment and formulation.

Unit Description:

This unit covers the key interventions within clinical and health psychology that are designed to facilitate change, improve well-being and promote recovery. This unit is linked to Semester 2 course Facilitating Change 2 (for MSc Clinical & Health Psychology). Facilitating Change 1 involves understanding the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and motivational interviewing; assessment and formulation; CBT for several mental health conditions and the application of this approach to physical health conditions.

Learning Outcomes:

Category of outcome / By the end of the unit, students should be able to:
Knowledge and understanding / Understand the importance of assessment and formulation.
Understand the science and practice of CBT.
Gain knowledge of a range of issues and innovations in facilitating change in psychology.
Gain an appreciation of how a range of interventions are practiced.
Understand the features of good communication and interviewing skills
Intellectual skills / Critically analyse and evaluate the science and practice of interventions.
Practical skills / Apply writing skills to the task of writing a case report.
Transferable skills and personal qualities / Develop an understanding of human change processes within a range of settings.

Research Methods 2

This unit aims to:

  • Ensure that students have familiarity with qualitative research techniques
  • Provide hands-on experience of qualitative data analysis
  • Ensure that students have an understanding of selected advanced statistical techniques
  • Ensure that students understand the limitations of quantitative and qualitative techniques

Unit Description:

The first half of this unit focusses on qualitative methodologies. In these sessions, students will gain practical experience of the most commonly used techniques for analysing qualitative data in psychology (Thematic Analysis and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis). In the second half of the unit, students will gain an understanding of a selection of advanced statistical techniques, including mediation and moderation analyses, meta-analysis, and advanced techniques in questionnaire development.

Learning Outcomes:

Category of outcome / By the end of the unit, students should be able to:
Knowledge and understanding / Understand the concepts underlying quantitative and qualitative methods
Understand the scope of different data analysis techniques
Intellectual skills / Critically evaluate the scope of different analysis techniques
Identify which techniques are appropriate to address different types of research question
Practical skills / Gain experience of carrying out qualitative analysis
Correctly interpret output from advanced statistical analysis and be able to report findings appropriately.
Transferable skills and personal qualities / Gain understanding of qualitative and quantitative approaches which will be applicable to understanding and appraising research .

Health Behaviour Change

The unit aims to:

  • Provide an overview of current approaches to changing health-related behaviour at a number of levels, e.g. at individual level and at population level through changes to the physical and regulatory environment
  • Evaluate the level of evidence for efficacy and effectiveness of different approaches to health-related behaviour change, in relation to behaviour, population, and type of intervention.
  • Critically evaluate several key theories of behaviour change, to highlight the merits and drawbacks of these approaches
  • Provide an understanding of the process of developing and evaluating interventions to change health-related behaviour, from epidemiological considerations, through consideration of theory and evidence, through to evaluation and implementation

Unit Description:

This unit brings together the extensive literature on changing health-related behaviours, and considers the amount of evidence for currently popular approaches. The unit will consider the issues involved in developing interventions based on theory and evidence, and the different issues involved in interventions in clinical populations and “well” populations. It will consider the efficacy of several approaches, such as risk communication, targeting social cognitions, volitional strategies, and environmental interventions. Throughout, the importance of both theory and evidence in developing and evaluating interventions will be emphasised, as well as the importance of bearing in mind issues relating to implementation of behaviour change interventions.

Intended learning outcomes:

Category of outcome / By the end of the unit, students should be able to:
Knowledge and understanding /
  • Describe common approaches to changing health-related behaviour, and the merits and drawbacks of each
  • Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different levels of interventions

Intellectual skills /
  • Critically evaluate strengths and weaknesses of commonly used behaviour change theories

Practical skills /
  • Present verbally key issues in developing interventions to change health-related behaviour

Transferable skills and personal qualities /
  • Understand the importance of theory and evidence in evaluating interventions to change health-related behaviours

Teaching and Learning Methods

Teaching will be delivered in 10 x 2 hour weekly sessions which will usually involve a lecture and either seminar or group work. To assist in preparation for the sessions, students will be provided with electronic resources on Blackboard including PowerPoint slides, reading lists and web links. A discussion board on Blackboard will also be available for discussing issues and questions with staff and peers.

Illness & Health Care

The unit aims to:

  • Provide a strong grounding in understanding the experience of illness and receiving health care from a psychological perspective.
  • Drawing on theory and evidence, understand how psychological processes (e.g. forming illness representations) can influence (and be influenced by) response to illness, interactions with healthcare services and maximise positive health outcomes.
  • Develop students’ skills relevant to systematic reviewing: developing a protocol, searching the literature effectively, and synthesising relevant data.

Unit Description:

This unit focusses on the experience of being unwell and needing health care, and how psychology has a role in ensuring people access appropriate care and manage their illness to achieve the best possible health outcomes. The course will consider the role of illness perceptions in responding to heath threats; factors influencing help-seeking; and how psychology can help people manage chronic illnesses and reduce disability. The psychology of adherence to treatment, and how psychology can improve adherence and therefore treatment outcomes will be discussed. Patient satisfaction with health care, the impact of hospitalisation, and how psychology can contribute to preparing people for medical procedures will be considered. Students will have the opportunity to investigate an area relevant to the course in more depth, and develop research skills, in conducting this unit’s systematic review assignment.

Learning Outcomes

Category of outcome / By the end of the unit, students should be able to:
Knowledge and understanding / Understand the relevance of psychology to maximising health outcomes when patients and health care professionals respond to a patient’s health threat.
Understand the role of illness representations when a person is making sense of a health threat.
Intellectual skills / Critically evaluate evidence in understanding the patient’s response to health threats and the roles of health professionals in supporting patients seeking health care.
Develop a well-reasoned systematic review protocol and search strategy
Practical skills / Effectively conduct a systematic search of the literature.
Transferable skills and personal qualities / Develop systematic review skills which will be beneficial in studying in other areas, and vital to future professional training (e.g. stage 2 health psychology training).
Develop a sympathetic understanding of how patients may understand and cope with health threats.

Mind and Body

The unit aims to:

  • Provide an understanding of the role of psychological factors in disease and illness, for example, the roles of stress and psychoneuroimmunology, and a focus on medically unexplained illness.
  • Draw on recent research to critically discuss methodological issues which are important when we are trying to understand the relationship between mind and body.
  • Develop skills of critical reading of original research papers within the field.

Unit Description:

This unit introduces the topics of stress and psychoneuroimmunology, and examines how psychological processes may influence our health. The concept of medically unexplained illness will be introduced and the contributions of different approaches (biological, cognitive, emotion-regulation, interpersonal, socio-cultural) to our understanding of medically explained and unexplained conditions will be considered. This unit will also discuss psychological aspects of the experience of pain. Throughout, there will be a focus on methodological and measurement issues, and students will be encouraged to develop skills of critical evaluation.

Learning Outcomes:

Category of outcome / By the end of the unit, students should be able to:
Knowledge and understanding / Understand biological and psychological mechanisms by which stress may affect physiological processes
Describe current research on the role of psychological factors in the functioning of the immune system
Show how medically unexplained illnesses can be understood using biopsychosocial approaches
Intellectual skills / Critically evaluate research related to the relationship between psychological and physiological processes. Integrate ideas and concepts from several literatures (including cognitive psychology, biological psychology and medicine)
Practical skills / Practice communication and interaction in small groups and class discussions.
Transferable skills and personal qualities / Show a sophisticated and sympathetic understanding of illness without disease.
Be able to critically evaluate evidence, noting both positive and negative qualities.

Dissertation

The unit aims to:

•Provide students with a unique experience of designing, conducting and reporting an independent, original research project.

•Enable students to critically appraise and synthesise published research