Psychology, Master's Level

Contact Person
Andrejs Ozolins,
E-mail: andrejs.ozolins@vxu.se,
Telephone: +46 470 70 80 00
School of Social Sciences

This programme is only open for exchange students. If you as an exchange student have any questions about admission, prerequisites etc, please contact the International Office at internationaloffice@adm.vxu.se.

If you are a free mover, please contact the Admissions Office regarding possibilities to study at Växjö University: admission@vxu.se.

January 22, 2007 – June 10, 2007
20 credit points (30 ECTS), Full-time studies

The aim of this Master’s programme in psychology is to study in more depth parts of psychological theory and research methods. The main part of the course consists of an empirical investigation at an advanced level. The course is also a preparation for further research education and doctoral studies.

Contents
The course includes two parts:

Module 1: 5 credit points (7.5 ECTS)
This is a literature course with theoretical text analyses in an area chosen by the student for the Master thesis (the so called D report). It may be, e.g., cognitive psychology, organisational psychology, personality psychology or social psychology. This work will result in a paper (3,000–4,000 words) and an oral presentation at a seminar.

The subject of this literary review is chosen together with the supervisor, and is to be based on a literary search of new scientific articles. The paper must be based on at least 10 journal articles (one of which is a review article) from journals on the so-called impact list (or the equivalent), which is a list where a number of psychological journals are ranked according to how often they are quoted in other articles, a measure of the journal’s quality and an indication of how »hot« a certain area is.

As a result, some interesting and good journals may not be on that list. In that case, the student must make a qualified judgement of the value of the article. Literary searches may be done via, e.g., PsycInfo or EBSCO.

The student will also be appointed a supervisor, who will tutor the student during the rest of the semester. In the seminars, the student will receive responses to his work from a larger audience than just the tutor, as well as training in verbal communication.

Module 2: 15 credit points (22.5 ECTS)
The student conducts an empirical study as a continuation of Module 1. The research question is chosen together with the supervisor. The thesis is, in both quality and quantity, to differ from reports done in previous studies, i.e., in the control of the research process (e.g., the focus of the research question, intricate design, multivariate statistical analyses, etc.) and to contain sufficient data to answer the research question scientifically.

The goal is that the quality of the thesis has to be such that it may be considered for publication in a scientific journal. The report may be written in English or in Swedish. (Only psychological investigations using quantitative methods can be offered supervision at Växjö University.)

If the student fulfils the prerequisites, a Swedish Master’s degree can be obtained after completing the course. This degree has to be applied for separately.

Recommended reading
Information about the required and recommended readings will be given on the first day of class.

Teaching methods
Modules consist of lectures, workshops, exercises and seminars. As a rule, class attendance is required.

Prerequisites
For admittance to the programme, students are required to have a minimum of three semesters (60 credit points, 90 ECTS) of successfully completed full-time studies of Psychology at the university level, including a major theoretical and empirical thesis (C report).

In your application please include the grades on all the psychology courses, and a copy of the thesis.

Assessment methods
The examination is based on individual papers and reports.