And, following on from my last post, the course has ten learning outcomes listed in the Studay and Assessment Guide. One of these is:
‘Work with others to carry out the stages of drafting research proposals, data collection, analysis and interpretation.’

Students are told:
‘You cannot pass this course unless you submit a project proposal to the ethics panel’.
This is also mentioned in the Senior Tutor Notes (2006)
‘students will fail the course if they don’t jointly submit the prpject proposal form.’

Every so often, I investigate which aspects of group work the students on the course I am studying need to experience in order to get BPS accreditation. Having spent some time looking this information up, I always lose it again – so here it is, stored safely.

The QAA Subject Benchmark Statement for Psychology lists ten generic skills. It can be found at
http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/statements/Psychology07.pdf

Generic skills
5.5 On graduating with an honours degree in psychology, students should be able to:
● engage in effective teamwork
● be sensitive to contextual and interpersonal factors. The complexity of the factors that shape behaviour and social interaction will be familiar to psychology graduates and will make them more aware of the basis of problems and interpersonal conflict. They should also be more sensitive to the importance of enhancing cooperation to maximise the effectiveness of individual skills as shown in group work and team-building.

In September 2008, the BPS published ‘Quality Assurance Policies and Practice for First Qualifications in Psychology’.
http://www.bps.org.uk/downloadfile.cfm?file_uuid=DB57A883-1143-DFD0-7ECF-67BFDD0107AC&ext=pdf
This specifies that

‘The empirical practical component will normally involve the completion of a psychology project at Honours level. Exceptionally, other equivalent forms of empirical practical work in psychology may also be deemed appropriate, if delivered at Honours level (as defined by the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications, or equivalent frameworks). The project (or equivalent) must be  passed and cannot be condoned/compensated. […] it must be demonstrated that students complete independent practical work at H level which includes:
● where appropriate, collaborating effectively with colleagues, participants and outside agencies.’

‘All students must be advised that, in order to be eligible for the GBR, they are required to successfully complete the empirical psychology project, or the equivalent practical components of the programme.’

‘collaboration should be recognised as a state of social engagement that, on any given occasion, is more or less active and more or less effectively resourced. So, collaborators may vary in their concern to create shared understandings; and their circumstances of joint activity may vary in how readily they permit such achievements to be brought off. The challenge is to discover how discourse is mobilised in the service of creating joint reference; to see how what is created gets used as a platform for futher exploration; and to see how the material conditions of problem-solving can be more or less friendly towards efforts after this mutuality.’

Crook, C. (1994). Computers and the collaborative experience of learning. London: Routledge. Page 225.