The difference between a Master by Research and a PhD is that PhD requires more significant theoretical contributions and it needs a strong theory to support the entire theoretical framework.

The examiners would not expect much of the above from a Master by Research student. Also, the framework would be much smaller.

This post has been edited by Blofeld: Oct 1 2012, 10:23 PM

Master of Philosophy/Doctor of Philosophy are both research-based postgraduate degrees.

There are also coursework-based master's degrees in the psychology field. I believe this is available in Help University and IIUM.

To explore new idea or to take an inductive approach (qualitative) to research in the psychology field might take you up a few years for your postgraduate research and it is rarely taken by psychology students locally unless you are willing to spend several years for your studies.

To shorten your time, the best approach is to test your hypotheses deductively (quantitative) by building on someone's else framework. You do not need to build an entirely new framework. Many articles provides suggestions for future research and you can get new ideas from there. Basically, you are just playing around with the variables.