MSc Psychology of Fashion

The standard entry requirements for this course are as follows:

• An Honours degree at 2.1 or above in any Arts and Humanities or Science subjects. 
• OR equivalent qualifications

Note: As a BPS-accredited conversion programme, this course does not operate Accreditation of Prior (Experiential) Learning.

For fees and funding information, please see website 

All our postgraduate courses offer career development, so that you become a creative thinker, making effective contributions to your relevant sector of the fashion industry.

LCF offers students the opportunity to develop Personal and Professional Development (PPD) skills while studying through:

• Access to to speaker programmes and events featuring alumni and industry.
• Access to careers activities, such as CV clinics and one-to-one advice sessions.
• Access to a graduate careers service
• Access to a live jobsboard for all years.
• Advice on setting up your own brand or company.

Block 1

• Research Methods 1 (20 Credits) - The purpose of this unit is to provide an overview of the range of research methods, approaches and tools used in psychology to enable you to conduct your post graduate project. By applying some of these methods in contexts relevant to the fashion and creative industries, you will understand the relationship between theory and practice. You will also learn about philosophy and ethics in research and develop skills necessary for designing robust research that considers ethical and resource implications and constrains.  This unit will develop your skills in critical analysis and evaluation of research literature and findings in order to formulate suitable research questions.
• Personality and Individual Differences (20 Credits) - This unit focuses on personality and other individual differences that make us who we are and influence our emotions, cognitions, and behaviours. In recent years, personality has been conceptualised as a system consisting of dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations (e.g., goals), and a life narrative that is situated in our social and cultural context. In this unit, you will explore personality and self components from a developmental perspective, as well as topics such as intelligence, leadership styles, and psychopathology. You will discuss the value of psychometric assessment and will use your knowledge of individual differences to understand behaviours and phenomena concerning individuals as consumers and producers of fashion.
• Collaborative Challenge: Psychology (20 Credits) - This unit is your opportunity to innovate, explore and engage with collaborative working practices. In the taught part of the unit, you will learn about group dynamics and processes and how these affect group performances. In the practical part, you will develop your professional negotiation, teamwork and networking skills that are essential in the cultural, entrepreneurial and creative industries. The emphasis of this unit is on cross-disciplinary student-led collaboration. You can conceive of your own project or engage with industry and college-based briefs. 

Block 2

• Research Methods 2 (20 Credits) - This unit builds on the knowledge you have developed during Research Methods 1 unit. You will learn more advanced techniques of qualitative data analysis and a variety of tests that can be used to analyse quantitative data and answer research questions. For this purpose, you will use software like SPSS or equivalent data analysis software and will learn how to use specialist online data collection tools.  With the rise of technology and big data usage across all industries including fashion, the ability to understand and work with data and communicate the findings in an accessible format is a highly desirable skill.
• Cognition and Creativity (20 Credits) - In this unit you will study human development, biological bases of cognitive processes and existing theories of perception, thinking, reasoning, decision making and communication. You will explore how people make sense of the world and how cognitive psychology theories apply in the context of fashion and creative sector. In addition, this unit will cover origins and evolutionary perspective of creativity, the theoretical understanding of creativity and how creativity can be enhanced. The knowledge and understanding of cognition and creativity will help you to address challenges faced by the creative and fashion industries. 
• Consumer Psychology (20 Credits) - This unit introduces you to concepts of consumer behaviour and psychology through investigations of how and why we buy fashion goods and services. You will learn how consumer identity is formed and will develop your understanding of fashion psychographics and cross-cultural values, as well as how these inform fashion marketing practices. You will also understand how individuals make sense of themselves and others and the developmental processes underlying social judgment and behaviour. In particular, you will look at how these factors affect attitudes, judgments, and actions across the lifespan relatable to fashion.

Block 3

• Master’s Project Psychology (60 credits) - The Master’s Project is the final stage of your master’s course and is central to achieving the course aims. The project provides you with the space to synthesise all the knowledge and skills you have gained on the course so far. You will identify and develop a novel opportunity for your research to expand the existing knowledge and understanding of the role psychology plays in fashion. Your project should evidence originality in the nature of the primary material, technical experimentation or the application of challenging theoretical perspectives. Your project will be self-directed and you will negotiate the shape and direction of your project at the outset with your supervisor. Upon completion of your project, you will have generated a high-level masters’ quality dissertation that will showcase your academic literacy, research skills, creativity in research dissemination, and the professional standards that will act as a platform for your future career and professional development.

The credit framework conforms to the University of the Arts London framework in which the unit of credit is 20 credits (equivalent to 200 hours of student study time). All credits on the master’s programme are at postgraduate level 7. The Course is divided into three 15-week blocks. The first block is 60 credits and students who successfully complete this block are eligible for the award of a PG Cert. The second block is a further 60 credits and students who complete blocks 1 and 2 are eligible for the award of PG Dip. The third and final block is the Master’s Project. This is a 60-credit unit and students who successfully complete this block are eligible for the award of MSc Applied Psychology in Fashion. The final award grading is based upon the Master’s Project only.