3-Term Pathway - Pre-Master's in Social Sciences and Law - Continue to Master of Science - Developmental Disorders

This program will prepare students for entry to a postgraduate degree in a wide range of subjects at Lancaster University, including law, design and a world top 10 linguistics program (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023).

Providing students with an advanced understanding of this specialist discipline, this programme ensures graduates are ideally placed to excel in your career. Whether they pursue research, practice professional psychology or something else, graduates will be in a strong position to advance into senior roles.

A developmental disorder is any process that affects typical development from conception to adulthood. It can arise as a consequence of genetic or chromosomal abnormalities, perinatal complications or environmental influences. In most cases, however, their aetiologies are unknown or poorly understood. In some cases, a disorder results in variations around a common outcome while in other cases the developmental trajectory is more heterogeneous. These consequences and outcomes will serve as a basis for illustrating the inherent difficulties in carrying out research on developmental disorders.

Lancaster is home to one of the world’s largest centres for developmental psychology research. Specialising in infancy and childhood development, the department is one of the UK’s leading research groups in the discipline. This programme will provide students with advanced insight into psychology and offer them the opportunity to gain hands-on experience that will be hugely beneficial in any career. Students will benefit from the world-leading research being conducted by our staff, and our Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) recognised PhD-level research training.

Throughout the course, students will study five taught modules and one substantial research project. This will ensure they receive the breadth of skills and depth of knowledge to engage with a wide range of careers, or to progress into further research and study.

Students will complete two compulsory modules to develop their skills and expertise. They will extend and enhance their ability to collect, analyse and interpret psychological data. A solid foundation in these skills will be invaluable as students progress into research or into specialist psychology roles, such as clinical or forensic psychology.

In three subject specialist modules, students will focus on enhancing their discipline-specific knowledge, providing them with a deeper understanding of developmental psychology, and of the disorders of development. As a result, students will graduate with a state-of-the-art understanding of developmental psychology.

Within the degree programme, students will be taught vocational skills that they will need to obtain and sustain a career in psychology and other fields, such as CV writing, interview skills, team work and presentation skills.

At the core of their experience, students will undertake an independent research project, supervised by a member of research-active staff. This dissertation will allow students to apply all that they have learnt to a dissertation topic of their choice. As well as developing their conceptual understanding, research design, data analysis, and communication skills, this project will be an exciting learning experience that will give students the opportunity to prove their skills, interests, and enthusiasm. What they achieve in their project will be important evidence of their skills and knowledge for prospective employers or postgraduate research student selection committees.