University home > Unit and programme catalogues in 2016/17 > Programme catalogue > Faculty of Arts > Centre for Innovation > Psychology with Innovation (MSci) > Specification
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Programme code | 1INOV011U |
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Programme type | Single Honours |
Programme director(s) |
Jan Noyes
Kirsten Cater |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
School/department | Centre for Innovation |
Second School/department | School of Psychological Science |
Teaching institution | University of Bristol |
Awarding institution | University of Bristol |
Accrediting types: |
Accredited against the requirements for the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) of the British Psychological Society (BPS). (http://www.bps.org.uk/) |
Relevant QAA subject benchmark groups | Psychology (2023) (benchmark statement) |
Mode of study | Full Time |
Programme length | 4 years (full time) |
The digital and creative innovators of the 21st Century will bring together arts and humanities, design, science, engineering and enterprise to deliver new products, services and ways of working and living. This degree combines an in-depth subject specialism in Psychology with interdisciplinary breadth, creative teamwork and entrepreneurial skills. Students undertaking this course will spend half their time studying Psychology to gain a solid discipline strength whilst spending the other half of their time applying that knowledge to innovate and translate their ideas into plans for digital and creative enterprises, both social and commercial. The psychology and understanding of ‘being human’ applied to digital and creative innovation can unlock truly innovative products and services and make sure that these innovations actually meet the human need. Psychology with Innovation students will recognise that human diversity holds multiple problems as well as creative solutions. In light of this, designing is not just for the next generations in industrialised nations – where the key legal, social, and political implications of a generation ‘born digital’ will be important – but design must be for (and from) the rest of the world – those who are not ‘digital natives’.
The Bristol Psychology degree is renowned for its robustness and integrity in providing students with a thorough understanding of science with regard to the testing of hypotheses through an experimental research paradigm. It also provides students with a number of transferable skills which cover both literacy and numeracy as well as presentations, independent and group working. A natural progression of this is to extend the degree programme to encapsulate innovation. Psychology is all about understanding human behaviour, and thus is appropriately placed to allow students to develop their skills in terms of designing for people.
The programme aims to develop the student’s interest in and knowledge and understanding of the mind, brain, behaviour and experience whilst applying that specialism knowledge to innovate. Multiple perspectives are presented enabling students to develop a critical evaluation of the complex interactions between different areas of psychology.
The knowledge and techniques developed will lead to an ability to appreciate and evaluate theory, research findings, and their function in understanding theoretical ideas and the real life applications of psychology whilst applying that specialism knowledge to innovate. The wide range of transferable skills acquired is highly valued by employers and provides an excellent preparation for a number of careers, including creating their own enterprise and further postgraduate study in psychology.
Programme Intended Learning Outcomes | Learning and Teaching Methods |
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Lectures, group seminars, and individual presentations of students. Tutorials across years, laboratory work in small groups in Years 1 and 2, major projects in Year 3 and 4. Acquisition of knowledge and understanding for innovation, design and entrepreneurship occurs through lectures, workshops, seminars and tutorials (9, 10, 11 & 12). Workshops and demonstration to develop student practical innovation skills acquisition (9, 12) Innovation challenges to develop students’ skills in practical innovation and entrepreneurship (9, 10 & 12). Innovation project supervision and design challenge mentoring meetings to provide formative feedback (9, 10 & 12) |
Methods of Assessment | |
Testing of the knowledge base is through a combination of unseen examinations (1-4, 6, 8), assessed coursework (1-4, 6, 8), experimental write-ups (5, 7, 8) and a Year 3 and Year 4 empirical project (2-8). Although 7 is not formally assessed in isolation, it forms a component in the assessment of experimental and project work (5). Individual and group innovation coursework portfolios (including rapid prototyping and proof of concepts) and presentations (9-12) Reflective accounts of practical work and learning (9-12) Iterative and agile practice based innovation and entrepreneurship challenges (9-12) |
Programme Intended Learning Outcomes | Learning and Teaching Methods |
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|
Lectures, group seminars, and individual presentations of students. Tutorials across years, laboratory work in small groups in Year 1 and 2, major projects in Year 3 and 4. Acquisition of skills to innovate, design and create enterprises occurs through lectures, workshops, seminars and tutorials (11 - 14). Workshops and demonstration to develop student practical innovation skills acquisition (11 - 14). Innovation challenges to develop students’ skills in practical innovation and entrepreneurship (11 - 14). Innovation project supervision and design challenge mentoring meetings to provide formative feedback (11 - 14) |
Methods of Assessment | |
Testing of the knowledge base is through a combination of unseen examinations (1-3, 6, 10), assessed coursework (1-4, 6, 8-10), experimental write-ups (5, 7, 10) and a Year 3 and Year 4 empirical project (2-7, 10). Individual and group innovation coursework portfolios (including rapid prototyping and proof of concepts) and presentations (11-14) Reflective accounts of practical work and learning (11-14) Iterative and agile practice based innovation and entrepreneurship challenges (11-14) |
Programme Intended Learning Outcomes | Learning and Teaching Methods |
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|
Lectures, group seminars, and individual presentations of students. Tutorials across years, laboratory work in small groups in Year 1 and 2, major projects in Year 3 and 4. Acquisition of skills to innovate, design and create enterprises occurs through lectures, workshops, seminars and tutorials (12-17). Workshops and demonstration to develop student practical innovation skills acquisition (12-17). Innovation challenges to develop students’ skills in practical innovation and entrepreneurship (12-17). Innovation project supervision and design challenge mentoring meetings to provide formative feedback (12-17) |
Methods of Assessment | |
Testing of the knowledge base is through a combination of unseen examinations (1-3, 5-6, 11), assessed coursework (1-6, 11), experiment write-ups (2, 5, 8-10) and a Year 3 and Year 4 empirical project (2- 10). Individual and group innovation coursework portfolios (including rapid prototyping and proof of concepts) and presentations (12-17) Reflective accounts of practical work and learning (12-17) Iterative and agile practice based innovation and entrepreneurship challenges (12-17) |
Statement of expectations from the students at each level of the programme as it/they develop year on year.
Level C/4 - Certificate |
There are 80 credits of mandatory Psychology units at Level 4 that are designed to enable the student to acquire, and be conversant with, core aspects of research methods, research skills, conducting psychological experiments, theories and perspectives in biological, cognitive, developmental and social psychology. Students are initially provided with clear guidance on how to identify, locate and use materials from a wide range of sources. Comprehensive references are provided for each unit at the outset, as are guidelines for the production of written work. Oral communication skills are developed primarily within tutorials and laboratory related work. Students are expected to understand and demonstrate the scientific underpinnings of psychology, its historical origins, development and limitations and an awareness of the ethical context of psychological research. Students are also expected to demonstrate good communication skills by written, oral and visual means. An integral component of work at this level is basic statistical competence and the integration of this with the report of laboratory experiments. They will also have gained an understanding to how design and systems thinking can be applied to problems to innovate and unearth novel and creative solutions that may have been missed from undertaking a purely analytical approach whilst gaining experience in working in multidisciplinary teams. |
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Level I/5 - Intermediate |
80 credits are mandatory Psychology units and are designed to continue the development of a more in-depth knowledge in all the above areas where students are expected to take a more critical stance to the theories, findings and approaches to the discipline. There is a progression from initially supported and guided study to more active forms of self-learning. They are expected to be able to reason scientifically and demonstrate the relationship between theory and evidence and adopt multiple perspectives. Students are expected to demonstrate a shift from knowledge to conceptual understanding, competence in research skills and a broad range of statistical methods through practical laboratory activities, and be able to work effectively individually and in groups. Student will be expected to critically reflect on past and present case studies and develop further their transdisciplinary working to real world digital and creative client problems. Students will be encouraged to broaden their perspective beyond the subject provisions in Psychology with Innovation and take either an open unit, learn how to program or design specifically for human computer interaction. |
Level H/6 - Honours |
60 credits are taken in Psychology Units. There is a mandatory 40 credit unit (independent research project) and another 20 credit optional unit. The emphasis on independent active learning and self-directed study in the acquisition of both generic and specific skills reaches its conclusion. Students are expected to have acquired detailed and extensive knowledge of several specialised areas and applications of psychology, some of which are at the cutting-edge of the discipline, research paradigms, research methods and measurement techniques (including statistical analysis) and be aware of their limitations. They are also expected to be able to analyse systematically the relationships between multiple perspectives in the light of theory and evidence, show incisive critical evaluation, an impressive grasp of theory and creative insight. These skills are expected to be demonstrated in well-presented and structured discussion of topics in all assessed work. Within the transdisciplinary group project the students will be expected to innovate for their own chosen problem by exploring the potential of new technologies to enable disruptive innovation to change the way people work and live. They will be supported by mentors and coaches to explore how their proposed solutions may be turned into an enterprise. |
Level M/7 - Masters |
At level M, students are expected to pull together all that they have learnt in prior years to create an enterprise; this may focus on an innovative digital and creative product or service, or a social innovation. Students will be required to assess the market, feasibility, IP, sustainability, finance and desirability of the proposition and create a proof of concept prototype to test with real world users. 40 credits are taken in Psychology with one mandatory 40 credit unit (Research Project). Students are expected to initiate, design, conduct, and report an empirically based project under appropriate supervision by an individual member of academic staff. Demonstration of ethical issues in connection with project work and applied units is also expected. |
The intended learning outcome mapping document shows which mandatory units contribute towards each programme intended learning outcome.
For information on the admissions requirements for this programme please see details in the undergraduate prospectus at http://www.bristol.ac.uk/prospectus/undergraduate/ or contact the relevant academic department.
Workload Statement
In common with the rest of the University, units in the Faculty of Arts
adhere to the credit framework which sets out that 20 credits normally
equates to some 200 hours of student input. Some of this time will be spent
in class, with the remainder divided between preparation for classes and
preparation for, and completion of, the assessment tasks. Some of this
activity may occur within the University’s online learning environment,
Blackboard, which you may use to prepare wikis, to interact with other
students, to download tutorials or to receive feedback.
Assessment Statement
Please select the following link for a statement about assessment. This is University of Bristol access only.
https://www.bris.ac.uk/arts/current/under/assessment.html
Students studying across the different specialisms on the innovation degrees come together as a cohort to learn and apply design and systems thinking for digital and creative innovation and put it into practice their working in transdisciplinary project teams. Students in their second year expand on their understanding of how to design to meet real human needs, learning from past and present success and failure case studies to help them think about future opportunities. The transdisciplinary project work in the second year works with real world clients where students develop empathy for the people they are designing for, explore solutions, iterating to develop an unexpected range of possibilities, and create prototypes to take back to the client to test with real customers or users. In their third year students explore innovative and disruptive ideas, potentially designing things that people don’t yet know they want by exploring the potential of new technologies to enable disruptive innovation, changing the way people live and work. Students will learn about different ways to generate ideas, ranging from brainstorming to crowd-sourcing, exploring project opportunities and creating prototypes to test with real people. Alongside this students will learn about different kinds of enterprise that can be used to take forward their ideas supported by mentors and coaches. Students develop an advanced understanding of the role of empirical evidence in the formation of theory and how theory guides the collection and interpretation of empirical data. This is achieved by acquiring a range of research skills and methods for investigating psychological topics that culminates in the conduct of a major independent research project in Year 4. The final year also pulls together all the students have learnt to create an enterprise which may be an innovative digital and creative product, service or social innovation.
This Integrated Master's programme has been designated as type III: Professional in accordance with the QAA descriptors for Master's programmes. Please see the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes for further information on this type of programme.
Minimum requirement of pass mark 40% in each unit
Unit Name | Unit Code | Credit Points | Status | ||
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Foundations of Psychology | PSYC10004 | 40 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
Introduction to Psychological Experiments and Statistics | PSYC10002 | 40 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
Design and Systems Thinking for Innovation | INOV10001 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
Transdisciplinary Group Project 1: Being Human | INOV10002 | 20 | Mandatory | TB-4 | |
Certificate of Higher Education | 120 |
Please note: This specification provides a concise summary of the main features of the programme and the learning outcomes that a typical student might reasonably be expected to achieve and demonstrate if he/she takes full advantage of the learning opportunities that are provided.
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