Postgraduate Certificate in Social and Psychological Inquiry

Knowledge and understanding

On completion of this qualification, you will have knowledge and understanding of:

• Key concepts, theories and methods relevant to the study of psychology and social science, demonstrating a critical and advanced understanding of them
• The complex interrelationships between theory and research, and related policy and practice in the field of psychology and social science. These include everyday applications, socio-economic and professional contexts
• The role of power, cultural values, and ethics for practices, concepts and assumptions that influence research and professional practice in psychology and social science.

Cognitive skills

On completion of this qualification, you will be able to:

• Define, critically examine and construct arguments about concepts, theories and evidence in Psychology and Social Science.
• Independently select, interpret, evaluate and use different forms of evidence and methods, with a clear awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of different data
• Interrogate Psychology and Social Science at an advanced level, to enable independent evaluation of evidence, method, research and policy
• Construct sophisticated, and explicitly reasoned arguments about complex real-life scenarios using appropriate concepts, theories and evidence
• Critically and independently review the existing research-policy evidence base in a specific subject area.

Practical and/or professional skills

On completion of this qualification, you will be able to:

• Independently plan, conduct and manage a sequence of work to meet agreed deadlines
• Make effective contributions to group work facilitating the collaborative completion of tasks to solve problems
• Recognize the relevance of reflective, analytic and evaluative skills developed through learning, applying these to other contexts such as the workplace
• Use and reflect on one’s learning to further develop knowledge and understanding, cognitive skills and other key transferable skills to achieve personal and/or career goals.

Key skills

On completion of this qualification, you will be able to:

• Apply self-direction to identify and generate key questions and issues in the field of psychology and social science.
• Develop writing skills appropriate to postgraduate work, including the use and citation of sources, appropriate referencing and the use of different forms of presentation
• Effectively use data of various sorts (numerical, textual), from diverse sources (academic, policy-research, secondary material), and from different media (print, electronic, verbal) in a sophisticated and critical manner
• Develop and display an advanced ability to learn through reflection, feedback and peer-to-peer review, using appropriate scholarly language and applying these to various situations.

To gain this qualification, you need 60 credits from the following:

• Principles of social and psychological inquiry (DD801)

You should note that the University’s unique study rule applies to this qualification. This means that you must include at least 20 credits from OU modules that have not been counted in any other OU qualification that has previously been awarded to you.

Teaching, Learning and Assessment Methods

The teaching and learning in this module have been designed with an applied focus and take students from a variety of undergraduate backgrounds and develop a series of critical evaluative skills about topics drawn from criminology, social and forensic psychology and case studies which have real-world relevance.

Learning and teaching will be delivered online only via virtual learning environment (VLE) and with tutor and peer support provided via marking feedback, module website and forums, as well as direct email support from tutors where appropriate. Forums will be tutor moderated.

The assessment strategy has been designed to promote increasing independence from the first tutor-marked assignment, through the development of an independent case study to the final two-component end-of-module assessment.

Completing the qualification will enable students to manage social and psychological evidence. In particular, students will be able to independently source, select and review social and psychological research, evaluate its relevance for complex real-life issues/cases, assess its validity and persuasively communicate their findings to academic and non-academic audiences.

The postgraduate certificate will be of direct interest to existing professionals who wish to advance their careers or those wishing a career in all areas of public policy, social justice, management, advertising and marketing. It provides professional development for all those working in professions that value research literacy, and analytic and communication skills.