Frequently Asked Questions

What is the University doing about the swine flu pandemic threat?
How can I take part in an experiment?
Is there a prospectus that I can read on-line?
How can I study as a non-graduating student?
How can I find out which psychometric test to use?
How can I find out what facilities you have?
How can I get some information about the departmental library?
How do I go about finding out if there are any research posts available in the department?
How can I get in touch with some current postgrads at the department?
Do you offer any taught postgraduate degrees?

Psychology website Frequently Asked Questions
How do I change my password for the Psychology website login?
Why can't I see the editing tool bar when I want to update my Psycholgy home page?
Making links to my documents and files in my homepage is not working anymore, what am I doing wrong?
It takes a long time for some Psychology web pages to load, why is that?

What is the University doing about the swine flu pandemic threat?
The University has a range of contingency plans, policies and procedures in place to address public health issues. These have been developed over a number of years.  The current situation should be a cause for concern but not alarm.

The best advice we can give to members of the University community at this stage is to be guided by the general advice provided by the Scottish Government, The Health Protection Agency, the World Health Organisation and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Links for these are as follows:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Home
http://www.hpa.org.uk/
http://www.who.int/en/
http://www.fco.gov.uk

How can I take part in an experiment?
The department has a panel of volunteers. See the information for volunteers.

Is there a prospectus that I can read online?
Check out the links on our admissions and general enquiries page.

How can I study as a non-graduating student?
If you wish to study undergraduate Psychology at Edinburgh University as a non-graduating student, please see this page.
If you wish to study undergraduate Psychology at Edinburgh University and graduate from Edinburgh University, please see this page.
If you wish to study postgraduate Psychology at Edinburgh University and graduate from Edinburgh University, please see this page.

How can I find out which psychometric test to use?
Help is available to staff members, postgraduate students, and 3rd or 4th year psychology honours students in the Psychology Department. (See the Curator of the Combe Room). For others, a useful starting point for information about psychometric tests is the section of the American Psychological Association website on testing and assessment.

How can I find out what facilities you have?
Please refer to the facilities section in the shortcuts menu navigation box on the left.

How can I get some information about the departmental library?
Check out the library page at this site.

How do I go about finding out if there are any research posts available in the department?
It is probably best to identify individuals in the department who are involved in your area of interest, and get in touch with them directly. Have a look at the staff pages at this site. Have an up-to-date CV prepared so that they can easily be briefed on your background and areas of expertise. Vacancies, when they arise, are advertised in the national press or in journals such as the Psychologist.

How can I get in touch with some current postgrads at the department?
You could try email. The current postgrads are listed on the people page of this web site.

Do you offer any taught postgraduate degrees? (e.g. Masters courses in Counselling, Educational Psychology, Sports Psychology, Health Psychology, conversion courses in Psychology).

The Department offers various postgraduate degrees. A taught MSc in Psycholinguistics (two terms of teaching then a research dissertation, an MSc by Research (Psychology) (which despite its title involves two terms of teaching then a dissertation) and PhD or MPhil - which are both research degrees. All of the above assume a basic understanding of Psychology. We do NOT offer a conversion course in Psychology for people without Psychology backgrounds, and we don't offer any applied psychology courses at the postgraduate level. More details can be found here.

For information about the doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsychol) see the Department of Psychiatry.

For information about counselling studies, contact the Postgraduate Studies Office, Faculty of Education, Moray House Institute of Education, University of Edinburgh, Old Moray House, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AQ. Telephone 0131 651 6139.

For information about the MSc course in Health Psychology at Queen Margaret University College, contact Dr Vivienne Chisholm (vchisholm@qmu.ac.uk).

How do I change my password for the Psychology website login?
Logon to the web site using your UUN and password.
Once logged-on, enter the following URL to your browser: https://www.psy.ed.ac.uk/password_form
On the change password form:
Enter the current password, and a new password of your choice (twice).
Click "change password".
Logout.
Why can't I see the editing tool bar when I want to update my Psycholgy home page?
The default content editor may not have been applied when your account was created, to set the correct content editor (FCK) please:
logon as normal and go to
http://www.psy.ed.ac.uk/plone_memberprefs_panel
Click Personal preferences, and choose FCK Editor from the content editor drop-down menu.
Save the changes.

Making links to my documents and files in my homepage is not working anymore, what am I doing wrong?
Recent browser updates have changed the way they handle the javascript used by the website program and a workaround is required until a solution for this problem can be found. Briefly, the workaround to the javascript error is to make each link twice:
- select the text and use the link tool as normal, click OK
- the link tool box does not disappear automatically (check that it has not simply hidden itself behind your browser window)
- close the open link tool box manually
- deselect the text
- reselect the text and use the link tool again (You will notice a javascript error in the link text field (javascript:void(0);/*1239361136191*/), this will disappear when the link is recreated)
- click OK
- this time the link tool box will disappear automatically and your link will be set correctly.

It takes a long time for some Psychology web pages to load, why is that?
Occasionally the browser caches are not being refreshed correctly depending on various factors. Clearing the cache manually is simple, direct, and the effect immediate:
Safari: Safari menu > Empty Cache... then reload the page/s.
Firefox: Tools menu > Clear Private Data... and untick everything except Cache then click on Clear Private Data Now.
Internet Explorer:
- Right-click on the Internet Explorer desktop icon
- Select 'Properties' to open the Internet Properties window
- In the Browsing History section click on 'Delete'
- In the Delete Browsing History window click to delete the Temporary Internet files
- Click 'Yes' to confirm
- Close the window and then click OK to close the remaining window.
- Reload the page/s that were giving you the problem.

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