{"id":751,"date":"2019-04-28T21:30:29","date_gmt":"2019-04-28T21:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/?p=751"},"modified":"2019-04-15T08:22:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T08:22:59","slug":"what-is-the-psychological-methods-mres-actually-like-a-student-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/2019\/04\/28\/what-is-the-psychological-methods-mres-actually-like-a-student-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the Psychological Methods MRes actually like? \u2013 A student perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Robert Avery is a student in the MRes in Psychological Methods. A dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Robert studied a BSc in Psychology at the University of Fribourg and is now planning to do a PhD. He is interested in the influence of gendered languages on adolescents\u2019 gender construct and job aspirations. We asked Robert about his experience studying our MRes and how the course has helped him prepare for his next career step.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What\nI like the most about my MRes in Psychological Methods is that it does what it\nsays on the box: most of our days are spent working on different statistical\nand research methods. The course includes several modules designed to broaden\nour methodological knowledge of specific areas of psychology, but the main\nfocus is on general research methods. I particularly enjoy the quality of the\nteaching: the School of Psychology at Sussex is a research-intensive\ninstitution and many of its faculty members are highly regarded for their\nresearch. All this transpires in their teaching. Being part of such a deep pool\nof keen and important minds is definitely inspiring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nexpected, this Masters course demands high discipline. This particular MRes can\nbe quite intense: the deadlines for the various assignments are spaced out, but\nthe work each one of them requires comes on top of the course content. This can\nbe hard to juggle and you need to stay focused the entire year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nteaching is of high quality, but I think that a 1-year Masters (as is the\ncustom in England) is not enough time for students to take modules that would\nhelp them cover psychology topics in more depth. In other words, this\nparticular Masters is a route towards a career in research, and not towards a\nthorough understanding of psychological areas (e.g. social psychology,\ncognitive, neuro, etc.). It feels like the MRes course has replaced those\ntaught psychology-focused modules with a year-long research internship; this is\nprecisely the hands-on experience that first attracted me to the course. A\nvaluable process for those like me who want to direct themselves towards\nacademia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nemphasis on research (that spans over both terms) required me to organise my\ntime and be pro-active. It is well-known that we get what we put into things\nand this is no exception: the more invested in the projects you are, the more\nexperience you get. Your own motivation combined with staff\u2019s proficiency\nprovides the potential to learn the required skills to conduct your own\nresearch. Time management is essential to complete the course, but the MRes\ndoes allow you to organise your time and there are always opportunities to take\npart in the various activities the University and Brighton have to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nfar, my time spent at Sussex studying Psychology has met my expectations. I\nhave made the most of the well-trained staff’s knowledge, and the course has\nalso enabled me to get to the forefront of current research methods (through\nthe multiple statistics modules, for example). The MRes has also given me the\nconfidence to write my own PhD grant application. Thanks to academic contacts\nfacilitated by faculty, I was able to reach out to several universities and\napproach potential supervisors.  I have\nended up writing a PhD project with one of them and submitting it to the Swiss\nnational fund for research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\ncourse well worth it for those who have the drive to take their academic career\ninto their own hands!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Avery is a student in the MRes in Psychological Methods. A dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Robert studied a BSc in Psychology at the University of Fribourg and is now planning to do a PhD. He…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pafdEV-c7","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":146,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/2016\/02\/15\/what-i-wish-i-knew-before-starting-my-pg-course\/","url_meta":{"origin":751,"position":0},"title":"\u201cWhat I wish I knew before starting my PG course\u2026\u201d","date":"February 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Zoe Hopkins: \u201cI did the Experimental Psychology (EP) MSc, since my undergraduate degree was not in psychology. My year as an EP MSc student was very demanding - I never felt like I'd manage all the work I needed to do. As it happens, I did manage to get things\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Masters\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1465,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/2022\/03\/02\/how-does-prior-knowledge-affect-learning-of-new-information\/","url_meta":{"origin":751,"position":1},"title":"How Does Prior Knowledge Affect Learning of New Information?","date":"March 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"By Petar Raykov, Psychology Research Fellow at Sussex. I am not one to enjoy promoting myself, yet I have been in Sussex for a while now and I quite like the research I have been doing here, so here it goes. Back in the day I started my PhD with\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/files\/2022\/03\/Picture1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":683,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/2019\/02\/18\/breaking-down-the-psychological-barriers-to-success-at-school\/","url_meta":{"origin":751,"position":2},"title":"Breaking down the psychological barriers to success at school","date":"February 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Looking into how carefully-targeted low-cost interventions can reduce the psychological barriers to success of some groups of school students and help them prepare for a happy and productive life. by Ian Hadden It only takes a quick glance at GCSE results across the country to see that some groups of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "PhD research"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/files\/2019\/02\/Psychological-barriers.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1574,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/2022\/06\/29\/michael-heap-interview\/","url_meta":{"origin":751,"position":3},"title":"Michael Heap Interview","date":"June 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Psychology MRes student, Kev Sheldrake talks hypnosis theory, therapy and dissociation with retired clinical and forensic psychologist, Michael Heap. I\u2019ve been aware of Michael Heap since I first came across the book The Highly Hypnotisable Person, of which Michael is joint-editor. It was one of the first scientific books Anthony\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Masters students"","img":{"alt_text":"Image of Dr Michael Heap","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/files\/2022\/06\/MH.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":583,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/2018\/10\/15\/grouping-by-attainment-in-schools-can-psychological-interventions-help-turbo-charge-poor-students-performance\/","url_meta":{"origin":751,"position":4},"title":"Grouping by attainment in schools: can psychological interventions help turbo-charge poor students\u2019 performance?","date":"October 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By Ian Hadden Last month I attended the impressive \u2013\u00a0and buzzy \u2013 sell-out researchED 2018 annual conference in London. The highlight for me was a fascinating piece of research presented by Becky Francis and Jeremy Hodgen of the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) on grouping secondary school students into classes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "PhD research"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/files\/2018\/10\/Unknown-1024x617.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1445,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/2022\/01\/11\/interview-with-professor-zoltan-dienes-leading-researcher-on-hypnosis\/","url_meta":{"origin":751,"position":5},"title":"Interview with Professor Zoltan Dienes - leading researcher on hypnosis","date":"January 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"University of Sussex professor, Zoltan Dienes talks cold control theory and phenomenological control with Psychology MRes student, Kev Sheldrake. I first heard of Zoltan Dienes (pronounced \u2018dee-en-es\u2019, or more correctly, \u2018dee-en-esh\u2019) when I devoured the theory section of the Oxford Handbook of Hypnosis. His chapter with Amanda Barnier described \u2018cold\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"cold control theory\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":754,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions\/754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}