PSY1065 Advanced Psychology Research Project Assessment Brief 2026

PSY1065 Assessment Brief

Learning Outcomes

1. Design and plan a research project, which is appropriate to NFQ Level 9 standard, and manage the time involved to complete the project, and related report(s), within given time constraints.
2. Source, read and critically evaluate the primary literature on the chosen topic.
3. Demonstrate the ability to work independently and also to recognise the need for, and to seek, appropriate academic supervision.
4. Formulate and communicate a research problem or aim.
5. Identify, justify and use an appropriate methodology in addressing the proposed research question or aim.
6. Consider ethical and professional issues that might affect the study and design a methodology that satisfies ethical and professional standards of psychological research.
7. Collect data via appropriate means in the laboratory or in the field.
8. Accurately record, interpret and report research findings in a manner that appropriately addresses the research question or aim.
9. Critically analyse, interpret and draw conclusions from the research findings in the context of the literature in the area in a manner which is appropriate to NFQ Level 9 standard.
10. Communicate results in a clear, concise and scholarly manner by means of a formal written report that follows the accepted conventions of the discipline.

What is the Advanced Psychology Research Project?  

The project is a substantial piece of research in psychology which you must undertake as part of the MSc. course.  Whichever member of staff you may have as supervisor, the topic must be primarily psychological in nature.

This research is conducted by you under supervision of a member of academic staff, written up and presented as a thesis for assessment. You will also be required to prepare a research proposal in Semester 1 and an oral presentation in Semester 2. Like any other piece of coursework, the thesis must be entirely your own work.

The project represents a summation or consolidation of your understanding of research methodology and it exercises and assesses a wide range of research-related skills. It also assesses your in-depth understanding of at least one area in the field of psychology, knowledge of which has been acquired throughout your year in the MSc programme and your previous studies. Many of the research skills will have been identified and developed throughout your Research Methods module. This experience will be supplemented by clinics and seminars run throughout the year.

Among the research skills the PSY1065 module assesses are your ability:

• to conduct bibliographic searches on a defined topic area;
• to read and critically evaluate the primary literature on a topic;
• to formulate clearly and concisely the aims for a research investigation;
• to develop and execute appropriate methods for investigating those aims;
• to collect useful, relevant data;
• to analyse the data collected and present the analyses so as to directly address the original aims and/or hypotheses;
• to interpret and discuss the meaning of the findings in terms of the original aims and the existing literature;
• to reflect intelligently upon the broader context, problems and implications of the study;
• to write up an account of your research in an appropriate manner

Selecting a Topic

Selecting a topic and being assigned to a supervisor are intertwined.  Your first priority is to select a topic or area of psychology that interests you the most. Make sure that your research topic is of interest to you and is psychological in nature.  From a practical perspective, it is imperative that your project is specific enough that it can be carried out in the time available, with the resources available and critically, it should not raise any ethical problems.  Projects involving vulnerable people are often not possible. If they are allowed, extra time may need to be planned in order to gain relevant ethical approval.

In order to locate a suitable area and refine your topic into something specific and practical, you will need to begin reading at the very beginning of the first semester and fully prepare for submission of your research proposal and ethical approval form. Your allocated supervisor can help you with this process.

Whichever option you choose you must be aware at the outset that it involves a considerable amount of effort on your part.  While reading and thinking about your topic, you should be looking for an aspect of past research that has the potential for additional investigation. For example, you may want to improve on or extend a previous study in some way; you may want to take an idea further or formulate new hypotheses from existing results or theory; you may want to test a new or neglected theory or application, or explore an aspect of previous research that has been overlooked.

Supervisor Allocation

When it comes to being allocated to a supervisor, although staff have their own interests and expertise, most members of staff are able and willing to supervise a wide range of projects.  In most cases, if not all, students are allocated to supervisors who have an interest and expertise in the topic suggested by the student. To assist students in selecting a topic, each MPC supervisor has suggested a number of topics/areas that they would be particularly interested in supervising a MSc project. These will be made available to student in Week 1 of the first semester and students will be able to rank order which projects they are most interested in.

Meetings/Contact Hours with the Supervisor

It is essential that you see your supervisor regularly throughout the year, for advice, and to keep him/her informed about your progress.  You may like to set up a regular meeting time, so that your supervisor can see what progress you are making. Your supervisor may choose to meet with you individually and/or with all his/her MSc students together. You can meet with your supervisor for up to 6 hours per semester. These meetings will be useful in making sure that you reach all of your targets and that any issues or potential problems with your project are addressed in a timely fashion. After completion of each of these meetings, a Meeting/Progress Monitoring Form will be filled in and signed by both you and your supervisor. Your supervisor is there to help and advise you, so please make sure that you keep him/her up to date on your progress. It is important to note that as a student engaging in fulltime psychological studies for the first time, it would not be ethical for you to undertake research without proper academic supervision. It is imperative that you consistently work with your supervisor throughout the year.

Responsibilities of the Student

• Establish, in consultation with your supervisor, agreed expectations of the supervision process, agree a timetable of meetings and identify a research plan;
• Attend arranged supervision sessions or reschedule ahead of time if a problem arises which deems this necessary;
• Be sufficiently prepared for supervision meetings, have an agenda ready, keep minutes of the meeting if required; sign (together with your supervisor) a meeting progress report at the end of each meeting; keep a copy of it;
• Follow updates on the PSY1065 Loop page regularly;
• Be enthusiastic, be responsible, and, where appropriate, take the initiative;
• Maintain progress consistent with the research plan agreed with the supervisor and ONLY him/her;
• Be candid with your supervisor when reporting progress and/or if difficulties are experienced or are anticipated;
• Take into consideration research and academic advice obtained from the supervisor;
• Submit work/material that you would like reviewed or comment on to the supervisor sufficiently far in advance of a supervision meeting (i.e., 1 week);
• Be respectful and reasonable when contacting and requesting time of your supervisor and any other external source, be it expert, participants or facilities;
• Take ultimate responsibility for the quality of your work;
• Ensure successful completion and submission of all pieces of written coursework by the submission deadline;
• Produce the final copies of the thesis required for submission, and ensure that their content and standard of presentation is in accordance with University requirements;
• Uphold the academic standards and reputation of the School of Psychology, DCU.

Responsibilities of the Supervisor

• Advice on the selection of the research topic and the nature and quality of the programme of research to be undertaken;
• Guidance about the standard expected for your Advanced Psychology Research Project;
• Initial direction for searching the literature and guidance in relation to recent research and development in your area(s) of interest;
• Guidance on the submission of the ethics application form. The supervisor is also required to sign off on this form before it is submitted.
• Advice on ethical issues, research governance matters and methodology;
• General academic support including constructive feedback on draft sections, style and presentation of the thesis;
• Encouraging compliance with agreed research plan and timely submission of material, thereby facilitating progress consistent with a timely submission of the thesis;
• Review one draft of each piece of coursework before submission;
• Advice on the readiness and appropriateness of the thesis for submission. However, this does not in any way indicate that the supervisor is guaranteeing that the thesis will pass. It is ultimately the student’s responsibility to prepare and submit their thesis in a timely manner;
• Completion and signature (together with the student) of a meeting progress report at the end of each meeting.

Research proposal

 The first assignment that students will be required to complete for their research projects is a research proposal. This assignment will require students to provide a lay description of the proposed project, as well as details regarding the rationale and methodology of the study. The completed research proposal will form the basis of the first three sections of the ethics application form; however, performance on this assignment will have no bearing on the outcome of the ethics review process. In other words, even if a student achieves a high grade on the research proposal assignment, their ethics application may still be rejected on first submission, as while the research proposal assesses the quality of the research project, it does not (necessarily) take into account any ethical issues associated with the research.

In preparing your research proposal, students will be given one opportunity to receive formal feedback (orally or in written form) on their proposal from their allocated supervisor. Students are encouraged to get the proposal as close to its final form before seeking feedback from your supervisor. The research proposal should be submitted via the PSY1065 Loop page before the deadline of 7^th November, 2025. The research proposal is worth 10% of the overall mark for the PSY1065 module.

Ethical Approval

Students should read the separate handbook(s) providing detailed information on preparing and submitting an application for ethical approval of your project (uploaded on Loop separately; see also School of Psychology Ethics Handbook). Ethics approval, from the School of Psychology Ethics Committee (PEC) is required for all Advanced Psychology Research Projects. With the exception of projects that have already been approved by the DCU Research Ethics Committee (REC) before submission of the Ethics Committee application form (e.g., research studies conducted as part of a larger project already running, such as an approved set of experiments in the Behavioural Neuroscience Laboratory at DCU), ethics approval from PEC must be obtained in advance, i.e., before contacting participants or collecting data. Where a project has already been approved by REC, with the student as a named researcher, an Ethics Committee application should be submitted with confirmation of the REC approval attached. The Ethics Committee will then confirm the approval. Ethics approval cannot be granted retrospectively, nor can your supervisor give or modify ethical approval.

Ethics approval is given only to a proposed project, exactly as described on an Ethics Approval Form. Any modifications to a proposed project after approval has been granted must also be approved before they can be implemented. The one exception is if the number of participants has changed; additional approval is not required for this change.  No thesis containing data that was gathered without Ethics approval, or not gathered exactly in accordance with what was approved, will be accepted for assessment purposes. In other words, it will be given a mark of zero.

Deadlines

1. Provisional Deadline for Research Proposal Assignment

First deadline: You must submit your completed research proposal on the PSY1065 Loop page by 7^th November 2025.

2. Provisional Deadlines for Advanced Psychology Research Projects Ethics Review Second deadline: You must submit a full draft of your Ethics Application Form to your supervisor by the end of Semester 1 at the latest.

Third deadline: Following supervisor feedback, the revised final fully completed Ethics Application Form, endorsed by your supervisor, must be submitted to the Chairperson of the School of Psychology Ethics Committee by 5 pm on Friday the 16^th January 2026. Applicants must also submit a copy of the completed application to their supervisor. You should work closely with your supervisor prior to this deadline because your supervisor may refuse to sign a form that is not of the required standard.  Reworking your application at this stage may seriously delay your project. Once your supervisor has signed off on your application and it has been passed on to Ethics Committee, the result of the Committee’s deliberations will be communicated to you as quickly as possible. You may not commence data collection until such time as your project has been approved by the Committee. Only after ethics approval has been received can you proceed with your project. Further details on the ethics approval application process are in the supplementary Ethics handbooks and a relevant figure can be found in the School of Psychology Ethics Handbook.

Table 1. Provisional Deadlines for Advanced Psychology Research Projects

 Fourth deadline: A draft of your Introduction and Methods sections of your thesis must be submitted to your supervisor by 5 pm on Friday the 5^th of June 2026.

Fifth deadline: A full draft of your thesis must be submitted to your supervisor by 5 pm on Monday the 22^nd of June 2026 to give your supervisor enough time to provide feedback. Please note that the last date for supervisor feedback on your project is 1^st of July 2026. From this date you will have one week to address feedback provided by your supervisor.

Sixth deadline: The revised, fully completed thesis must be submitted on Loop by 5 pm on Monday the 6^th of July 2026.

A table of these deadlines, and other important dates, is above (Table 1). You should use this table to devise a timetable for yourself and agree this with your supervisor.  Things that might be included are deadlines for commencement and completion of literature search, project design, data collection, data analysis, writing up. Make sure by checking on relevant emails, and/or announcements and updates on your Advanced Psychology Research Project Loop page throughout the year, as any of these deadlines may be subject to change.

Schedule for working on the Project

Throughout the Project, you should plan well in advance and allow plenty of time for absolutely everything.

The following steps, amongst others, may take a lot longer than you think:

• obtaining permission to work with a particular group of participants or in a particular organisation;
• obtaining or constructing questionnaires or other materials;
• obtaining copies of vital books or journal articles;
• obtaining permission from the Ethics Committee, particularly at a busy time of the year, if your Ethics proposal is referred back to you for alteration or additional information;
• recruiting participants.

Students often underestimate how long data analysis and the actual writing of the thesis will take.  It is essential therefore that you begin work on the Project from the very beginning of the academic year.  You should bear in mind that carrying out a Research Project rarely goes smoothly: equipment breaks down (especially computers and printers), participants go missing, things get lost and approvals may be delayed or denied. You will be expected to allow for and recover quickly from such setbacks: these kinds of problems are not grounds for an extension.

A suggested Timeline to work on different aspects of your Project is provided in Appendix I. However, as indicated above, you should discuss your individual timeline with your supervisor from the beginning of the academic year.

Resources 

We have a number of resources that may be useful to you in the completion of your project.  You should familiarise yourself with these and make use of them when appropriate.

• There is a Test Library which contains copies of some of the more commonly used questionnaires and related items; consult with your supervisor first who will make a request to the Technician, Mr Patrick Boylan, for which tests are held and are available for use.
• The School has a number of rooms that can be reserved for experimental work. Bookings can be made through the PSY1065 Loop page.
• The library is perhaps the most vital resource available to you. The electronic databases can be accessed remotely or through computers on-campus.  Researching the literature in your chosen area will be time consuming so you should get started early.

Support on Statistics and Advanced Request Form

All communication regarding statistics with a member of staff other than your supervisor, if deemed necessary or appropriate, will be initiated by your supervisor. It is  perfectly reasonable for supervisors to advise and direct students to statistical techniques that are within their capability and appropriate for the aims/methods of each student’s research project. You are strongly advised to do simple and appropriate statistics well and, if appropriate and relevant, to work up to multivariate and complex techniques.

It is important to note that when clinics related to dealing with student-led statistical queries are offered during the academic year, should you wish to avail of this support, you are required to submit a short Advanced Request Form (ARF) outlining your query on a dedicated PSY1065 Loop page section (please see Appendix II for the ARF). The ARF must be reviewed and approved by your supervisor for its appropriateness before submission and must be submitted at least 48 hours before the student-led statistical queries Clinic(s). No query will be addressed during the student-led Clinic(s) if an ARF has not been submitted in advance.   

Submission of Thesis

The provisional submission deadline for the research project is the 6^th of July 2026, which you should submit on the PSY1065 Loop page. Extensions will only be granted under exceptional circumstances. Extensions will not normally be granted neither for computer problems nor for delays in gaining approvals or permissions. If, for a genuine reason such as illness or bereavement, you are unable to make the deadline, you should submit a request for extension as you do for other project/module deadlines.  If the request is approved, your thesis will be marked exactly the same way as all other course work. If the request is denied, you will receive a maximum mark of 40%. You should note, however, that the decision will not be communicated to you until after the Exam Board and that you will be expected to submit your thesis no later than two weeks after the official deadline.

You are required to submit all your datafiles, all output files, and a soft copy of your thesis to your supervisor by the submission deadline. Further, you should submit, as appropriate, electronic audiofiles, electronic transcripts and Qualtrics downloads to your supervisor. Importantly, you should submit, as appropriate, all hard copies of your questionnaires and consent forms to your supervisor. Your supervisor will provide the

Evaluation/Review Committee with the original data (e.g., your completed questionnaires), if requested to do so, any time during the evaluation phase.

You should submit one password-protected soft copy of the thesis to your supervisor and one on the PSY1065 Loop page. The recommend word count for a quantitative research project is 6000 words with an upper limit of 6600 words and a lower limit of 5400 words. This figure of 6600 includes the ±10% leeway that is often permitted for continuous assessment word counts and therefore is the absolute ceiling. Qualitative projects may include up to an additional 1500 words if your supervisor recommends that this is required. As the introduction of the thesis acts as the literature review for your research project, the recommended word count for the introduction is usually 2000-2500 words making up approximately 30-40% of the thesis; however, your supervisor will give you guidance about what is appropriate for your research area.  The thesis is worth 80% of the overall mark for the PSY1065 module.

When submitting your thesis to Loop, please use the following naming convention for the submitted documents: “Surname_First Name_PSY1065_assignment” e.g. McGovern_David_ PSY1065_thesis.

Plagiarism and cheating/Other Issues

Please see your handbook for information about plagiarism and the penalties involved. Please keep in mind that the same regulations and disciplinary procedures apply to the PSY1065 module as to every other module.   

Appendix I

Suggested Timeline for Advanced Psychology Research Projects