Psychology

On the Psychology PhD offered at the University of Surrey, you’ll contribute to research that’s focused on the application of psychology in the real world and train in advanced and innovative research methods.

At the University of Surrey University of Surrey you’ll benefit from our expertise in a breadth of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies using both subjective and biological assessments. You will get to  join a team of researchers who collaborate with research councils including the Economic and Social Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences

Career opportunities

In your first year you’ll complete four compulsory training courses, covering quantitative and qualitative research methods, professional academic skills, and teaching and training. You’ll also familiarise yourself with relevant literature, create a research plan, develop your methodological and analytic skills, and complete your first study. Throughout your studies, you’ll gain a solid grounding in research methods and improve your communication skills to effectively convey your findings. You’ll collect and analyse data, complete a detailed literature review and then write your Psychology Psychology PhD thesis. Depending on your research project, data collection can take place in schools, hospitals, laboratories or online. Your final assessment will be based on the presentation of your research in a written thesis, which will be discussed in a viva examination with at least two examiners. You have the option of preparing your thesis as a monograph (one large volume in chapter form) or in publication format (including chapters written for publication), subject to the approval of your supervisors.

Research themes

• The brain and behaviour, including changes across the lifespan, learning, training and rehabilitation, and the effects of modulators of plasticity.

• Cognition, including the contribution of language, reason and decision making, and asymmetries in our thinking processes.

• Development and learning, including attention and behaviour, emotional development in childhood, and neurodevelopmental disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We also focus on colour perception and cognition across developments in infants and children.

• The environment, including when and how people interact with different types of environments and how these interactions affect both the quality of that environment and people’s own wellbeing.