Psychology post-grad

orestes

Hey hey! Was just wondering if anyone here might be able to help me out.

I just finished a degree course in philosophy and am thinking of doing psychology next year, I'm aiming at eventually studying forensic psychology. I was wondering if a can do a post grad or if my philosophy degree might be any use to me in applying for courses?

Any advice or recommendations for courses would be really appreciated.

And if anyone could suggest any books that might be useful to start studying in my spare time to get a general ground knowledge on psychology (the different schools of thought, influential theories, modern theories, that kind of thing) it would be a great help to me since I have no idea where to start

Cheers!

LilMrsDahamsta

AFAIK you'll need to do the HDip conversion course to psychology (assuming you did some psychology as an undergrad) before you can do a Master in Forensic Psychology. As the only Forensic postgrad is currently in UCC, you'd probably have a better chance of gaining entry if you did the HDip there too. See department website for more info.

The Black Oil

I think there's 4 H Dip Psych conversion courses in Ireland though the NUIG one may be limited to their own students...not 100% sure. My understanding is that there are question marks over the accreditation of the MA in Forensic in UCC and the general vibe is that the UK is where you need to go to do it. I'm interested in Forensic too, currently working my way through one of the conversion courses.

Teraflop

orestes wrote: »

And if anyone could suggest any books that might be useful to start studying in my spare time to get a general ground knowledge on psychology

Forensic psychology? Grad school? Brush up on research methods. Isaac and Michael have an excellent paperback Handbook of Evaluation Research that goes way beyond evaluation and provides an excellent resource on research methods applied to psychology and related behavioral sciences.

mc-panda

Hi,

I'm currently doing the M.A in Forensic Psychology at UCC.

It's a brilliant course and I wouldn't hesitate in recommending it to anyone.
Modules covered include:

Criminal Behaviour
Legal and Professional Issues
Research and Statistics
Treatment and managemnet of violent offenders
Treatment and management of sexual offenders
Policing and Investigative Psychology
Psychological Assessment
Forensic IT

In addition to core lectures, a series of seminars, workshops and training batteries are included which are given by experts in fields such as:

FBI (offender profiling)
An Garda Special Detective Unit (SDU)
Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) training and selection
Hostage Negotiation
Risk Assessment
Irish Prison Service
Forensic Hosptials (such as Broadmore, UK)

The course is excellent, is one year full time and is secheduled as follows:
Monday: 1 hour tutorial
Tuesday: 10am to 5 pm
Wednesday: 2 hour tutorial
Thursday: 10am to five pm
Friday: 10am to five pm.

Assessment is conducted on six modules by way of:
One 5,000 word essay per module, and five 1,000 word essays.

Also, 25/60 credits is awarded for the completion of a 25,000 to 30,000 word thesis.

An additional two years supervised practice is needed to attain Chartered status after successful completion of the course, and, due to the deart of qualified supervisors in Ireland, it is necessary to go to England for this. However, alternative routes include doing the DPsych Clin in Irealnd and progressing to work in Forensic settings.

Best of luck.

eroo

SDU/ERU?
why would you deal w/ them?Didn't think they'd have much to say to you about forensics.

mc-panda

By them, I'm presuming your referring to the ERU?

In answering, I'm cautious you may have mixed my course up with forensic science. It's actually forensic psychology. Thus, there's no ballistic tests or fingerprint dusting. It's psych assesment and risk appraisal.

For instance, only certain people are psychologically fit to carry an automatic rifle. Issues around impulsivity, for instance, play effect here. Thus, members of the ERU would be subject to rigorous trials and fitness-for-duty evaluations. After all, they form the armed response of our civil power.

Secondly, imagine having a barricaded suspect(s). S/he (or they) may have hostage(s), may be mentally unstable, may be political in motivation etc etc. Dynamic risk assessment would be important. What's the best course of negotiation. Is the person likely to respond to dialouge. The critical feature of hostage incidents is time. The longer they go on for, the less likely harm will come to victims, and the more likely the suspect will surrender. However, given the political agenda of terrorists for instance, the issue of time is almost reversed. They may be using the incident to achieve maximum media exposure for their cause, and as time goes on they may be more likely to kill.

These are all extremely relevant issues I feel. Of course, the list is far from exhaustive.

eroo

oh right,i misunderstood the course!:o
my apologies!

mc-panda

Don't be silly, there's no need to apologise.