MSc Health Psychology

Lectures: 12–14 hours per week in term time.

Outside speaker seminars: between six and ten hours per term over the duration of the programme.

Supervision: up to nine hours per term over the duration of the programme.

The programme is modular and is offered in both full-time and part-time modes. One module (20 contact hours) provides 15 credits. You will complete seven compulsory modules and one optional module. You will also be required to present a dissertation comprising an original piece of empirical research within an area of health psychology. This will be approved and supervised by one of the Department’s academic staff.

The core philosophy of Health Psychology at Surrey is to train students in the scientist-practitioner model. The MSc Health Psychology programme will lay the foundations for you to become a Chartered Health Psychologist, and will provide you with a thorough and critical understanding of the knowledge base, theories, findings and research methods relevant to health psychology. This includes an understanding of evidence-based science, the ability to design, conduct and analyse empirical psychological research, and the development of analytical and problem-solving skills.

As scientists, graduates must demonstrate a range of subject-specific and transferable skills and knowledge. These include competence in report writing, group-working skills, and the ability to think critically. This philosophy can be traced throughout all constituent parts of the modular programme offered to our students.

You will be encouraged to act as data gatherer, synthesiser and presenter. Teaching is delivered in both the traditional lecture format and by the less formal workshop style, by internal and external health professionals, and students are exposed to a variety of both qualitative and quantitative research methods.

The University of Surrey has developed a route to the Stage 2 Qualification in Health Psychology, which will fulfil the BPS criteria for the award of Chartered status in health psychology. This programme involves candidates undertaking a course of study leading to the Postgraduate Certificate in Health Psychology Practice, together with a PhD. Students who have successfully completed their MSc (Stage 1) are eligible to proceed to Stage 2 training. Students will further develop practitioner skills and learn to apply knowledge of research and theory to problems encountered in the wider context, including healthcare, home and work settings.

Some recent examples of dissertation topics include:

• The long-term physical and psychological health effects of spousal bereavement in older adults: a qualitative investigation
• Investigation to examine the effects of isometric exercise and body scanning on cigarette cravings and withdrawal in a real-world setting
• Patients’ experiences of having outpatient hysteroscopy: the impact of anxiety and seeing the procedure
• Predicting people’s experiences of health and illness following a cardiac event
• Discourses of evidence and experience: the professional construction of medical expertise and healthcare practice
• Do different health beliefs lead to seeking and taking complementary and alternative medicine? An explorative study into the beliefs of employees from a pharmaceutical background

The Department of Psychology at the University of Surrey is one of the most active and highly regarded psychology departments in the country. We specialise in applied and policy-oriented teaching and research within a strong theoretical context. The international, interdisciplinary, policy and applied strengths of the Department mean that students’ theoretical and methodological research puts them at the cutting edge of the discipline.

We are one of the highest ranked departments in the country for graduates entering employment, and also one of the largest providers of postgraduate training in the UK.

The University of Surrey Department of Psychology has been the centre for many cross-national studies and has attracted funding from research councils and local and national government departments, such as ESF, Defra, the MoD, the Home Office, the Environment Agency, the Countryside Agency, Surrey County Council and the EU.

If you choose to study psychology at the University of Surrey, you will be provided with a combination of opportunities that would be hard to match elsewhere. We offer you a degree that provides a thorough grounding in the theories, methods and practice of contemporary psychology. Our programmes lay particular emphasis on the application of psychology to real-world problems, and also consider issues related to professional practice in preparation for your career as a professional psychologist.

The basis of good postgraduate courses is the research activity of staff, the incorporation of current research programmes in teaching material and a reciprocal relationship between theory development and applied research in everyday contemporary issues. We believe in involving all postgraduate students in the research life of the Department through active participation in one of the research groups, by attendance at research seminars and, where possible, an attachment to ongoing research projects. As a student of the Department of Psychology, you will also have access to a number of conferences, seminars and workshops hosted throughout the year.

The Health Psychology Research Group is involved in research into a range of health-related areas including diabetes, obesity, exercise, smoking, diet, risk perception and communication.
There are a number of ongoing funded and unfunded projects within the Health Psychology Research Group which cover a range of areas.

Projects include:

• Food intolerance in primary care
• Exercise and smoking
• The psychological consequences of obesity surgery
• Choice and control: when is choice a good thing?
• Using Smartphone apps to assess how workers unwind post-work
• Sustained behaviour change
• The relationship between work-related rumination and evening and morning salivary cortisol secretion
• The role of the home environment in explaining children’s diets

The University is at the centre of international research projects in the areas of social, environmental, health, occupational, developmental and cognitive psychology, and neuroscience. The Department has strong links with European and other international researchers through the Social Psychology European Research Institute (SPERI), the Food, Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre (FCBHRC) and the Clinical Neuroscience Research Team (CNRT) which are based in the Department. A number of members of the Department are also members of the Surrey Sleep Research Centre, studying cognitive, health and occupational aspects of sleep restriction and its effects on performance.

Career prospects for students of this programme are very good, with graduates working in a variety of careers allied to medicine.

Some examples of where graduates of this programme have gone on to work include:

• Trainee clinical psychologist, Black Country NHS Trust
• Residential care officer, Community Homes – Intensive Care and Education, Reading
• Compensation analyst, Hewlett Packard, Bracknell
• Assistant psychologist, NE Essex Mental Health Services NHS Trust, Colchester
• Aids Council carer, Papworth Trust, Cambridge
• Trainee health psychologist at the Queen Elizabeth Foundation

Some students have remained in the Department of Psychology and undertaken research for a PhD. Other students remain in the Department and become full-time research officers, working on one of the many research projects we have which are supported by the research councils, government, industry or the charitable trusts.

Graduates have also chosen to move to other universities to undertake research (as PhD students or research officers), as the Surrey MSc provides students with a recognised and thorough grounding in research methods.