Better education and training for all are of the utmost importance when it comes to developing our society. In this Master’s programme, you will learn to develop, evaluate and improve learning processes and learning environments from a variety of theoretical perspectives. You will do so by means of state-of-the-art methods and approaches in several different contexts; from a classroom setting to the non-profit and commercial sectors, and with a focus on people in all phases of life. This means that the person doing the learning may be a pupil, student or employee, but also a lecturer, educator or trainer, depending on the context. During the study programme, you will learn to optimise learning environments so that they meet the needs of the learners themselves and of society as a whole.
During the programme you will master an academic educational scientific and systematic approach. You will acquire and further develop theoretical knowledge of:
Read more about these characteristics under ‘Why in Utrecht?’
This Master’s programme is offered in a full-time variant (average of 40 hours of study per week) or a part-time variant (average of 20 hours of study per week).
The MSc in Psychology (research) is a two-year programme that is focused on acquiring research skills in a particular field of psychology.
This programme provides students with a rigorous training in the methodological and practical skills necessary to carry out scientific research on human behaviour. Students gain hands-on experience with how psychological theory can contribute to the analysis and solution of practical problems and how the application of existing theory guides further theoretical development. Students can specialise in the psychological subdiscipline of their choice, but are also trained in a broad multidiscipinary research approach.
Students who wish to expand their expertise in the domain of Brain and Cognition can choose from a wide range of elective courses offered within and outside the Institute of Psychology.
Project-X parties organised via Facebook. Unhealthy eating habits. Workplace bullying. Although a wide range of issues, the same rule applies to all of them: it comes down to the way in which people affect each other's behaviour. In this Master’s programme, you study human behaviour and behaviour change in a social, health, or organisational context.
During this Master’s programme, you will choose between the following three tracks:
By choosing a track and elective courses you can explore your personal field of interest.
This Master’s programme connects closely to our research programmes Social-cognitive and Interpersonal Determinants of Behaviour, Health Psychology: Self-regulation, and Work and Organisational Psychology. Connecting theory and practice is essential in our Master's. You will develop theory-driven interventions by means of the PATH model (Problem-Analysis-Test-Help).
Do you want to know more about our research? Watch the videos of Professor Belle Derks about Work and Organisational Psychology (in Dutch) or about Social Psychology by Professor Kees van den Bos. A video of Professor Denise de Ridder about Health Psychology: Self-regulation will follow soon.
The courses in this Master's programme are rooted in international scientific literature and are focused on the internatonal context. You can do your internship and/or thesis abroad or in (internatonal) organisations in the Netherlands, such as Trendsactive, Coca Cola, Hays, Sogeti (in Dutch), Philips and Nutrica.
As our student, you are primarily responsible for finding your own internship organisation. The department of Social, Health and Organisational Psychology has a database of internship organisations and has an internatonal network you can use.
You will gain specialised knowledge, skills and insights in the fields of Social Psychology, Health Psychology and/or Work and Organisational Psychology. Your development as an academic professional is of central concern.
As a Master's graduate, you will be able to analyse and propose interventions for social, health or organisational issues, such as:
With the Master’s programme Applied Cognitive Psychology, you will apply the most up-to-date knowledge of cognition to situations and solutions for problems that occur in daily life. Students will apply knowledge of human cognitive, sensory and motor systems in real-life situations.
During this one-year programme, you will learn about processing information, especially about how you can use that information to advise clients on how to improve communications. That knowledge is useful for making signage or advertising more effective, for example, or for making products more user-friendly.
Students also learn to come up with solutions for a wide range of problems that can occur in professional practice. Humans are dramatically changing their environment using increasingly complex technology, such as the Internet, social media, robotics and automation. In order to design a living environment that is well suited to human cognitive abilities, we must have a good understanding of how humans process knowledge and their skill at applying it.
This Master’s programme is internationally oriented, from the literature used in class to the opportunity to do an internship and write a thesis abroad, and from the option of attending electives at foreign universities to participating in international summer schools, research conferences or workshops.
Both our lecturers and our students have very diverse backgrounds. During the study programme, you will spend a lot of time learning to work in multi-disciplinary teams. Accurate and careful communication is vital to that process.
Once you have completed the Master’s programme, you will be a true academic professional who can apply scientific knowledge in day-to-day practice, such as acting as an independent consultant on ergonomic problems. As a member of an interdisciplinary team, you will contribute to solving these problems together with designers, policy makers, technicians, computer scientists and business experts. You can also advise on the sensory aspects of marketing communications. As a person with a Master’s degree, you will also have developed excellent verbal and written communication skills to communicate with all sorts of audiences.
