This document provides information about conducting an applied psychology dissertation at PSYS 3012, including what a dissertation entails, the assessment process, how to sign up and choose a supervisor, and brief descriptions of several potential supervisors and their research interests. A dissertation requires students to conduct an empirical study through reviewing literature, formulating research questions, collecting and analyzing data, and discussing results. Students must submit an interim report and final dissertation of no more than 10,000 words. To sign up, students work in pairs, list supervisor preferences, and submit forms with research interests by mid-March. Several supervisors are described with examples of past student projects within their areas of cognitive psychology, educational psychology, judgment and decision making, and more

1. PSYS 3012
Applied Psychology Dissertation
Module Leader: Dr Daniel Smith

2. What is the dissertation?
• In-depth empirical study
• Requires students to
– Locate, read and review research evidence
– Evaluate different theoretical perspectives
– Formulate clear research questions
– Conduct experiment(s) to answer those questions
– Select and conduct appropriate analyses
– Critically discuss your results with reference to the
scientific literature

3. How is it assessed?
• Interim Report (formative feedback)
– Compulsory: make sure progress is OK
– End of November
• Dissertation Submission
– Supervisors can comment on one draft, excluding the
discussion
– Deadline is Mid March
• Length
– Maximum 10,000 words
– Excessive length will be penalised
– Most dissertation are ~7000 words

4. How do I sign up?
• Sign up in pairs
• List 3 preferences for supervisors
– Give some indication of your own interests (it makes it
easier for me to match students to supervisors)
– Pick supervisors from either campus
• Forms will be available on DUO
– Level 2 Methods course
– Submit forms to Applied Psychology Office
– Deadline is 16th
March
• You are not guaranteed to get your 1st
choice!

5. • Applied Psychology students who want a
supervisor who is based in Durham should
submit a form to Durham reception
• e-mail or fax is suitable
• Make it clear you are an Applied
Psychology student on the form
• Deadline is the 4th March .

6. Who are the supervisors and
what do they do?
(you should look at staff
webpages too)

7. Cognitive / Sports psychology
Dan Smith
• Attention, eye-movements, mental imagery,
motivation, visual working memory
• Past dissertations have explored:
– Can attention go where the eyes cannot?
– Inhibition of Return
– Social attention & gaze cueing
– Role of mental practice in sports performance
– Motivational climate in sport

8. Educational or Biological
Psychology
Bob Williams
• Past dissertations have explored:
– The thin ideal and its negative psychological
outcomes on males
– How parent’s marriage relationship affects
their children’s attitude towards marriage.
– A psychometric analysis of racism across
cultures and ages.

9. Judgement & Decision
Making
Judith Covey
• The roles of information presentation and/or individual differences
on judgment and decision making
Past dissertations have explored
• The impact of headline health claims on food on consumer choice
• The effects of celebrity endorsement and media presentation on
consumers’ purchasing preferences
• The impact of ‘Audio’ and ‘Audio-Visual’ presentation modalities on
intentions to follow a dentist’s preventative recommendations
• Individual differences (in need for cognition, motivational orientation,
risk perceptions) and message framing on attitudes and intentions
towards Chlamydia testing/ condom use/ binge drinking
• The relationship between mood, defensive pessimism, motivational
orientation, and risk taking

10. Evolutionary Psychology
Lynda Boothroyd
• Development of attraction to faces/bodies
– Comparing children and adults
– ‘Imprinting’: links between own facial preferences and parents’
facial features
– Cross cultural studies
• The meaning of masculinity
– Face structure and behavioural/fitness correlates
– Intercorrelations between masculinity preferences and
preferences for other facial traits
–
• Consider taking the Evolution module (Durham)
• Email Lynda with project ideas

11. Learning and Memory
Alex Easton (D)
• Past dissertations have explored:
– the effects of the emotional novelty of items
on memory
– the interaction of context dependent memory
effects with semantic priming.
• Students could develop these areas, or
approach me with related ideas

12. Social Cognitive
Neuroscience
Anthony Atkinson (2)
• Visual perception of social information from the face
and/or body, e.g.
– Emotional expressions
– Identity
– personality characteristics
• This work could involve measures such as
– Reaction time or Judgement accuracy
– Rating scales
– The recording of skin conductance
– facial electromyographic responses
• (although such measures can only be taken in my lab at Durham, as
this is where the equipment is installed).

13. Biological Psychology
Amanda Ellison
• Research Interests
– Attention
– How do we select targets from a visual
scene?
– How does attention modulate our perception?
– What is the effect of perception on the body?
– Visuomotor processing

14. Cognition and Emotion
Alex Schaefer
1) The effects of emotion on episodic and
autobiographical memory
2) The effects of emotion on working memory
performance
3) The relationship between personality
differences and patterns of online
behaviour.

15. Neuropsychology
Alison Lane
• The use of modern technology in therapy (Wii-
habilitation), particularly with older adults
• Rehabilitation
– How can we maximise the efficacy of training procedures?
• Visual perception and visual cognition
• Visuospatial attention
– How do we decide where to attend?
– How can we learn and improve our attention?

16. Development & Individual
Differences
John Adams
• Cognitive development (individual
differences) and its relation to educational
attainment.
• Projects in applied areas (either children
or adults)
– working memory
– mathematical cognition
– developmental/educational research

17. Forensic Psychology
Luna Munoz
• My main field of research is the development of
aggression and violence.
• Recently, I have also been investigating risk
taking
• My other line of research looks at personality
traits and particular relationships in women