Psychology - Consumer Psychology

The MSc in Consumer Psychology is a dynamic, employment and skills-focused programme suitable for recent graduates or current professionals. You will learn how to investigate and enhance the experiences of consumers including retail consumers, service users, employees, clients and more.We also train you to identify and communicate decision-grade information and tangible solutions to a variety of stakeholders.

Consumer Psychology
Consumer psychology is the study of how we relate to the transaction of goods and services we use every day. Our goal is sustainable consumption, the basis of long-term mutually beneficial relationships.In the MSc in Consumer Psychology, we train students to become practical and powerful problem-solvers in a variety of industry and organisational contexts. You will be ready to identify insights from consumer theory and data analysis and you will be conscious of the constraints on solutions (cultural concerns, sustainability) in your context.

Work-Based Research
The MSc in Consumer Psychology will empower you to transition to a role focused on consumer experience and data analysis. In order to do this, we provide opportunities to apply your skills to genuine industry issues. In the International Business Project, you will work on Global Virtual Teams addressing issues provided by multinational companies. In the Work-Based Research Project, you will work with our industry partners here in Galway and beyond to apply data analytics and consumer insights to their challenges. We will empower you to improve yourself, your organization and society. Our recent graduates work in a variety of settings including consumer research, sales, recruitment and the public sector.

The Programme Team
Our interdisciplinary programme is based in the School of Psychology at University of Galway and integrates contributions from our IdeasLab, the Irish Centre for High Performance Computing, and the J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics. You will work on global virtual teams solving business problems through X-Culture and learn from guest lecturers from local and international companies and organisations.

Course Outline
The MSc programme content is concentrated into three pillars:

consumer insight and understanding,
data collection and analysis and
the development of employability and transversal skills.
Consumer Insight and Understanding
The top line of modules in the graphic provide training on consumer psychology, human decision making, the effects of culture and the challenges of encouraging and supporting sustainable consumption. These modules and our module on brand management address up-to-the-minute research and include applied coursework addressing real-world challenges.

Data Collection and Analysis
Industry is more data-focused than ever before. You will be trained to use R, a statistical language that enables data collection and cleaning and complex data analytics. You will also become familiar with a variety of means of accessing consumer data, whether through digital tools (such as Google Analytics), surveys, focus groups or in-person experiments (e.g., eyetracking).

Employability and Transversal Skills
Our students complete work-based research with X Culture in the first semester when they work on Global Virtual Teams to address market expansion and other challenges for multinationals. They then work with companies and organisations in Galway and beyond to complete an in-depth work-based project. Our modules on Tools and Insights and Strategy and Innovation give our students the inside track on skills employers are looking for right now. Our studentsdevelop a rounded skillsetproducing a wide variety of coursework from reports and essays to videos and presentations, working solo or on teams. We provide continuous mentorship to help our students identify strengths and weaknesses and develop themselves.

Minimum Entry Requirements
Applicants will require a NQAI Level 8 degree, or equivalent, with a minimum classification of 2.2 in BA or BSc Psychology with Graduate Basis Membership of the Psychological Society of Ireland OR 2.1 or above in a psychology-related discipline. Graduates from other disciplines (e.g. Commerce, Accounting, Economics, Data Science, Mathematics, Marketing, or Business) whose degrees contain at least one module of taught statistics, mathematics and/or research methods and have a 2.1 or above can also apply.

1 year, full-time.

Course code
MSC-PSY (MSc); PGDS-CPSY (PDip)

Next start date September 2024

Career Opportunities
Industry is more data-focused than ever before. However, as the amount of data is increasing, it becomes ever more difficult to extract relevant signal from irrelevant noise. Some companies feel that they are “drowning in data”. McKinsey in May 2011 pointed out that only 20% of the data collected by companies is unique and the rest is duplicated. Every second, the haystack gets bigger and the needles are harder to find.

Many companies are "drowning in data". They need employees who understand consumers and the market in order to design tests to collect the data that matter for organisational decisions. You will refine and isolate decision-grade information. To do this, you require the combination of psychology, business and data skills provided in this programme.

Examples of the roles that graduates can obtain using this qualification include consumer psychologist, consumer research analyst, consumer planner, organisational consultant, data insights analyst, product development and design roles, sales roles—especially sales enablement and leadership.