The challenges facing UK higher education are both well documented and controversial; however, pitted against this context is the requirement for psychology departments to provide an increasingly rich and diverse university experience for students, whilst ensuring progression and retention remain central to undergraduate provision. Despite the…

The aim was to explore the predictive ability of sources of stress and a range of dispositional and coping behaviours on student satisfaction and motivation. Most research exploring sources of stress and coping in students construes stress as psychological distress, with little attempt to consider positive experiences of stress. A questionnaire…

Psychology is a science-based discipline in which research is inextricably embedded in teaching and learning activities. Educators use different methods to help students in their learning of the nature of research and the practical skills required to conduct research, with students playing either a passive or more active role in the learning…

The aim of this action research was to explore the benefits of group work as a tool for engaging students with introductory material. It was the researcher's expectation that group work, would provide a means of reducing cognitive load (Kirschner, Sweller & Clark, 2006) and encouraging on task behaviour (Wentzel & Watkins, 2002). This would result…

Forty-seven psychology undergraduates volunteered to complete diaries outlining their daily academic and non-academic routine, covering semester one of their first year at a post-1992 university. The aim of the research was to investigate whether diaries were an appropriate method for exploring student engagement; also we wanted to measure whether…

A-level psychology teachers (N=109) responded to a questionnaire asking about their academic background, their experience of and views about A-level psychology. Teachers were also asked about the scientific status of psychology as a discipline and about the nature of science in general. Most respondents thought that the A-level course provides…

This study aimed to examine the concept of critical thinking, and implement and evaluate seminars to teach undergraduates critical appraisal skills. Participants were 140 undergraduate students on a Behavioural Medicine module. Four seminars were designed to teach and reinforce critical thinking with source material including research proposals…

This study examined differences in personality and mathematical ability between students studying Business, Psychology, Sports and Nursing. There were 286 participants who each completed a mathematics diagnostics test and a Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-R) during the first term of their first year of study. There was a significant…

The aim of this study was to examine an expanded integrative hierarchical model of test emotions and achievement goal orientations in predicting the examination performance of undergraduate students. Achievement goals were theorised as mediating the relationship between test emotions and performance. 120 undergraduate students completed…

Universities are encouraged to widen access to a broad range of applicants, including mature students taking Access qualifications. Admissions tutors can find it difficult to compare and choose between Access and A-level applications, and Access applicants for popular courses may be disadvantaged relative to students with good A-levels. In this…

Lecturers in psychology have many different roles that they must play. It is often very difficult to know what roles are the most important and which to focus on. This study assessed the perceived importance of seven different roles lecturers undertake according to psychology lecturers and students. Results indicated that assessor, course planner,…

Researchers (Jehng, Johnson & Anderson, 1993; Paulsen & Wells, 1998) have suggested that it is possible to divide disciplines into categories such as "applied" vs "pure". They believe that significant differences exist between the epistemological beliefs of students studying "applied" disciplines to those studying "pure" disciplines. This study…