Psychology and Management BA Hons - 2020 Entry

Course Structure

Many of Lancaster's degree programmes are flexible, offering students the opportunity to cover a wide selection of subject areas to complement their main specialism. You will be able to study a range of modules, some examples of which are listed below.

Year 1

Core

• Investigating Psychology

  This module will equip students with important practical skills and knowledge in conducting research in psychology such as: using different methods of data analysis from descriptive statistics through to inferential statistics, critically evaluating research and disseminating research findings through report writing and presentations. Students will also discuss key research and theoretical issues surrounding some of these areas and learn to evaluate psychological literature. They will gain this knowledge through both lectures and laboratory classes.

  Investigating Psychology runs in parallel with Understanding Psychology and the different components of conducting research will be expanded on in Part II.

• Management and Organisation in Context

  The aim of this course is to introduce students to the fascinating world of management and organisation(s) via a series of lectures and seminars and reading groups.

  Over a period of ten weeks, we will attempt to familiarise ourselves with some of the main themes and issues that make up our ‘organised’ world. Our main objective will be to map out the ways in which we understand ourselves in relation to work, management and organisations. In order to so, we will attempt to trace how the meaning we give to these important themes has developed historically. To do so, we will analyse the thought of some of their main critics and contributors.

  The course begins by providing a perspective on capitalism (as the social order in which the forms of managing and organising we are interested in takes place), before moving on to look at management more concretely and ends with a focus on people (both managers and workers) in contemporary organisations and society.

• Management, Organisations and Work: Key Issues and Debates

  This module aims to provide you with a broad introduction to management covering a wide range of topics that are relevant to work, business and organisations.

  The module begins by exploring the basis of all management activities – human resource management and development which fundamentally contributes to the development of employee-engaged and productive organisations. The module is constructed to encourage you to think critically and to reflect upon taken-for-granted assumptions about the world of work and management’s role in relation to it.

  As a means to achieve this, the second part of the course introduces different metaphors through which we can understand and analyse organisations.

  The final part of the module continues this theme of encouraging critical reflection and explores key issues and debates related to technology, globalization, sustainability and ethics that are intimately related to management. Many of these debates and issues will be explored in greater depth in subsequent OWT modules (e.g. OWT.226 Management and Information Technology, OWT.328 Work and Employment Relations).

• Understanding Psychology

  The fundamental principles of psychology that underpin this degree will be introduced during this module: Developmental and Social Psychology, Brain and Behaviour, Cognitive Psychology, Individual Differences and Historical and Conceptual Issues.

  Through a mixture of lectures, seminars and practical classes, students will learn about the theories and findings in each of these areas. They will be taught about different research approaches, how to access and evaluate scientific journal articles, and how to construct arguments formally in essays.

  Students will be exposed to cutting-edge research conducted within the Psychology Department at Lancaster, with techniques such as virtual reality, developmental EEG, eye tracking, and behavioural measures.

  The module runs in parallel with Investigating Psychology.

Year 2

Core

• Cognitive Psychology

  Taught by internationally recognised researchers, this module concerns the study of mental processes; how people perceive, think, talk and behave. Students will explore the current issues, debates and approaches in the key areas of cognitive psychology: human memory, attention, language and perception under the guidance of lecturers who are experts and innovators in this field. Up to date theoretical debates and their evaluation in terms of conceptual coherence and empirical support will also be examined.

  By the end of the module, students will show a critical appreciation of research methods, approaches and outcomes in cognitive psychology; and will have written about a topic in cognitive psychology in an informed and reflective way.

• Developmental Psychology

  This module will explore cutting-edge topics in developmental psychology, including the latest development in foetal research, new theories of communication and learning in infants and children, social cognition, face perception, perception of elementary physic and the theory of the mind. The presented empirical research in the lectures, spanning from foetal research to toddlers, will provide students with an invaluable insight on how to conduct research into issues concerning developmental psychology.

• Organisational Psychology

  This course is concerned with major theories in social psychology and related social sciences that have guided the organisation and design of work.

  In this module students should develop an understanding of the importance of the role of psychology in the development of people management techniques and practices. They will also develop an understanding of the historical development of psychology, with specific reference to the relevance of psychological expertise to the effective management of organisations.

• Research Methods I: Experimental Methods in Psychology

  Whilst aiming to expand on students’ knowledge and skills on research methods acquired in the Part I modules, this module aims to develop knowledge and skills on experimental research methods employed across the different topics in psychology, such as social, developmental, cognitive and neuroscience approaches. This will involve learning about how to plan, conduct and report research and how to evaluate research studies. Students will be accustomed to research methods and APA style. They will also look at the effects of sleep on learning as well as addressing the complexities and confounds in experimental studies.

  This module will develop the ability to be clear, accurate, complete and concise in writing up research. There is also a strong emphasis on collaborative work. Students will develop the ability to generate and explore hypotheses and research questions, and will carry out empirical studies drawing on a variety of psychological methods. Additionally, students are required to plan, conduct and report empirical research including defining a research problem, formulating testable predictions, choosing appropriate methods, planning and conducting data gathering, demonstrate evaluation of data and producing a professional report. Students will employ evidence-based reasoning when presenting, interpreting and evaluating psychological research, and will use some psychological tools such as experimental software and computer packages including at least one statistical package.

• Research Methods II: Asking questions, analysing responses

  This module provides students with an introduction to non-experimental methods by which psychological research is conducted, data collected and analysed, whilst also addressing the ethical issues relevant to a range of experimental and non-experimental methods. Students will undertake blocks of exercises in which they design, report and evaluate different forms of psychological research through questionnaires and surveys, in addition to interviewing and qualitative analysis.

  Working in small groups, students will design and implement research projects on a given topic, followed by independent analyses and interpretation of the results, which are then written up in the research reports. Students will also engage with the various ethical issues affecting psychological research on human participants and the strategies for addressing those issues in ethical psychological research. The module will support further development of the ability to be clear, accurate, complete and concise in writing up research. Students will also develop the ability to use appropriate software and online resources in the generation and analysis of data.

• Social Psychology

  Expanding on the knowledge gained in Part I, students will further develop their knowledge of theory and research in a number of core areas in this field. Starting with the history of social psychology, they will explore topics such as social beliefs and judgements, intergroup relations, and applying social psychology to everyday life.

  Lectures will cover contemporary and empirical developments in the key areas, and the accompanying seminar programme will help develop a range of academic skills in relation to social psychological subject matter including: use of technical language, integrating knowledge, analytic skills, argument construction and presentation.

• Statistics

  Students will gain the knowledge and skills to understand how psychological research findings reported in journals and textbooks have been obtained; carry out their own analysis of data collected during practical classes and report the results; and analyse and report the results of their own research project.

  Students will come to identify the appropriate form of analysis for different data types, and will use the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) to conduct the analysis of variance (ANOVA) appropriate for standard research designs.

  The module will teach pupils how to evaluate the reliability and generalisability of research reported in the media, and how to apply the analysis skills to research in other areas beyond psychology.

Year 3

Core

• Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience

  The fundamental neural principles of brain and behaviour relationships will be introduced, with particular emphasis on the perceptual and cognitive functions that underpin many psychological processes. Students will explore in more depth neural transmissions both within the neuron and at synapses, and gain a basic knowledge of the anatomy, physiology and functions of the central and peripheral nervous systems.

  They will also learn about a range of theories and research methods in cognitive neuroscience, and demonstrate how knowledge of the psychological processes can aid an understanding of a wide scope of human behaviour.

• Organisational Change

  The aim of this course is to provide students with a critical understanding of organisations and the management of change. Management gurus and media commentators have heralded a break with earlier ways of organizing and managing and yet change is often more difficult than they suggest.

  This course introduces different ways in which to understand change. It pays particular attention to management gurus and asks why their prescriptions are so popular? Overall, the course examines some of the problems and obstacles that companies face when attempting to introduce a variety of new change initiatives including teamwork and knowledge management and it draws on case study material to enable students to explore change in different organisational settings.

• Personality and Individual Differences

  This module introduces the key topics and debates relating to personality and individual differences. It blends learning the important theoretical questions with discussion of the research implications for practice at work and across society as a whole. Current views will be explored and placed within their historical context. Notions such as trait and type on psychological accounts of human behaviour will be critically evaluated.

  The theoretical and practical insights into psychometric testing and other methods for capturing individual differences in behaviour and performance will also be explored. The module further examines the impact of individual differences in particular areas, including cognition, thinking and development.

• Project

  The project is a piece of empirical work that will be completed under the guidance of a member of the lecturing staff. Exploring a topic of their choice, students will gain significant knowledge and understanding of how to develop and conduct psychological research, and will learn how to operationalise a manageable research problem.

  In collaboration with a supervisor, they will develop the ability to formulate specific research hypotheses and carry out and write up an independent piece of research. This will equip students with in depth and specialised expertise in a specific area of psychological inquiry.

• Psychological Approaches to Managing Change

  Organisational change is widely accepted as a defining feature of contemporary life. Most of the topics covered in management courses, for example, structure; technology; people; power; culture; strategy; leadership and learning, to name a few, assume the need for changes of one kind or another. This course of lectures and the associated seminar programme review some key ideas associated with approaches to change. Seminal approaches to the field that can be said to conceptualise change management are introduced and compared, particularly those at the micro - that is the individual and group level.

  Material included in the course will help you understand your own and other peoples' reactions to changes. It will help you develop informed opinions about theories of change and will help you to understand how changes might be managed effectively. Expressed more formally, the course will

  • introduce you to some key management and social, and behavioural science contributions in the field;

  • help you to compare different orientations and to appreciate their relative strengths and weaknesses;

  • help you to relate such ideas to actual events in organisations; and,

  • help you to understand and evaluate your own approaches to the management of change and to evaluate management practices in this area.

Optional

• Organising in the Digital Age: Power, Technology and Society

  Technology is widely regarded as an unstoppable engine of change that is driving the advance or progress of the modern world. It would seem that no corner of the planet is left untouched by the transformative power of technology: from computers and telecommunications technology to biotechnology, from genetic engineering to the production of designer drugs to control and reshape human behaviour, the technological (re)ordering of the world would appear to have no limits. Against this background utopian or dystopian depending on your viewpoint OWT.326 aims to explore the (inter)relationship between technology and organisation.

  The lectures place a strong emphasis on the examination of accounts and representations, visions of technology, technologically mediated change in organisations and society (including issues of identity, power and surveillance), and the ethical dimensions of technology.

  No prior knowledge of technology is assumed.

• Technology and Organisation: Society and Risk

  Technology is widely regarded as an unstoppable engine of change that is driving the advance or progress of the modern world. It would seem that no corner of the planet is left untouched by the transformative power of technology: from computers and telecommunications technology to biotechnology, from genetic engineering to the production of designer drugs to control and reshape human behaviour, the technological (re)ordering of the world would appear to have no limits. Against this background – utopian or dystopian depending on your viewpoint – the module aims to explore the (inter)relationship between technology and organisation.

  In the Michaelmas term the lectures place a strong emphasis on the examination of accounts and representations, visions of technology, technologically mediated change in organisations and society (including issues of identity, power and surveillance), and the ethical dimensions of technology.

  In the Lent term, students will also address the literature on the social construction of technology. Not only is technological development managed and subjected to processes of organising but it also has to be understood in relation to the influences of politics, culture and gender, risk and the management of risk in the context of technology, together with an exploration of future technological developments, are also key themes of of the module.

Lancaster University offers a range of programmes, some of which follow a structured study programme, and others which offer the chance for you to devise a more flexible programme. We divide academic study into two sections - Part 1 (Year 1) and Part 2 (Year 2, 3 and sometimes 4). For most programmes Part 1 requires you to study 120 credits spread over at least three modules which, depending upon your programme, will be drawn from one, two or three different academic subjects. A higher degree of specialisation then develops in subsequent years. For more information about our teaching methods at Lancaster visit our Teaching and Learning section.

Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, but changes may be necessary, for example as a result of student feedback, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes, and new research.