Psychology and Criminology Research Degrees

Are you fascinated by people and why they behave the way they do?

Psychology PhD Study

Psychology is the scientific study of experience and behaviour – why we do what we do, how we interact with other people and the emotional significance we attach to this. These studies have gained increasing importance across a wide range of professional activities, including human resources, education, sport, social care and the creative industries.

Criminology PhD Study

Criminology is the scientific study of understanding offending behaviour; how we prevent crime in the first place and exploring how to understand and evaluate the Criminal Justice System, including Police Investigations and how the Prison service functions.

We have a growing number of PhD students conducting innovative and original research across a variety of topic areas, including message framing in various health contexts, workplace integration, wellbeing in dance, policing and many more. For research queries specific to the Department of Psychology and Criminology please contact Dr Roy Spina on r.spina@chi.ac.uk.

South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership: funding available in this subject pathway

We are one of just four universities making up the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) – an exciting collaboration delivering the latest in research methods and skills training for social scientists.

Backed by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the South Coast DTP provides a range of funding opportunities to doctoral students, and fantastic opportunities for postgraduate and postdoctoral study.

Facilities

Use cutting edge research equipment and software

Our postgraduate researchers can take advantage of cutting-edge research equipment, across a wide-ranging suite of research labs.

Specialist advanced research equipment

• Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) neuroimaging equipment enabling us to image what is happening within the brain in real-time: NIRScout – NIRx Medical Technologies
• Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation equipment for facilitating or inhibiting cortical processing via electrical neuromodulation, useful for increasing addiction treatment efficacy
• Immersive Virtual Reality System for Neuroscience Research, used for simulating real-world environments, treating phobias and trauma: aLIAS Laptop, Biopac MP15, virtual reality development platform Vizard, Oculus Head set (DK2 and Rift), and 3D software
• Physiological data acquisition system for measuring physiological body responses: BioPac
• 12x neuro-anatomical brains and one anatomical Model of a torso – used for a range of modelling activities

We also boast an impressive range of specialist advanced research software, which we use for quantitative and qualitative data analysis, online surveys, and online experiments.

Specialist advanced research software

• AMOS
• CMA – Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software
• Data Miner
• E-prime
• Inquisit
• NOLDUS – The Observer XT: Software package for the collection, analysis, and presentation of observational data
• Nvivo
• Qualtrics
• SPSS
• SuperLab

Our Supervisors

Our PhD Students

Entry Requirements

The standard requirement for an MPhil/PhD is a first or upper-second honours degree and usually a relevant research related Master’s degree. Candidates with other qualifications are considered on an individual basis.

How To Apply

Once you’ve decided on your topic/area of interest, normally the first step is to identify a potential supervisor with expertise most related to your area of interest. You can contact them directly, asking if they would be available and interested in supervising your intended project.

We recommend checking individual staff profiles, including in our POWER Centre’s Psychology and Criminology research labs, to see if their expertise matches your interests.

All students are interviewed by their potential supervisor(s) and a Research Degree Coordinator or nominated other.

To apply: https://www.chi.ac.uk/research/phd-and-mphil-degrees/