Master s programme Psychology 2015-2016 The Master s programme in Psychology (60EC, 1 year) offers five (specialization) tracks in the field of psychology: Human Factors & Engineering Psychology (in English) Conflict, Risk & Safety (in English) Learning Sciences (in English) Health Psychology (in English) Positieve Psychologie & Technologie (in Dutch) Students can start the master(tracks) in September or February. Programme Master Psychology September 2015 enrolment Health Psychology (HP) The mastertrack HP consists of four obligatory courses (20EC) and one elective course (). The track will be completed with a Master Thesis and Internship (3). The Internship (10EC) is optional. When an Internship is possible the student conducts a Master Thesis of 2. When a student does not go on an Internship a Master Thesis of 3 is conducted. Semester 1 Semester 2 Quartile 1A Quartile 1B Quartile 2A Quartile 2B Research Methods in Psychology 201000136 201400579 201200121 Design of Persuasive Health Technology 1 201400584 Elective Course 2 1 out of 3: Learning and Instruction 1 Cognition and Technical Systems 1 Risk and Leadership in Societal and Technological Contexts 1 Master Thesis and (if applicable) Internship (3) 1 This course is offered twice a year, in Quartile 1A and Quartile 2A. 2 Students choose one of the courses
Programme Master Psychology February 2016 enrolment Health Psychology (HP) The mastertrack HP consists of four obligatory courses (20EC) and one elective course (). The track will be completed with a Master Thesis and Internship (3). The Internship (10EC) is optional. When an Internship is possible the student conducts a Master Thesis of 2. When a student does not go on an Internship a Master Thesis of 3 is conducted. Semester 2 Semester 1 Quartile 2A Quartile 2B Quartile 1A Quartile 1B Research Methods in Psychology 201200121 201400579 201000136 Design of Persuasive Health Psychology 1 201400584 Elective Course 2 1 out of 3: Learning and Instruction 1 Cognition and Technical Systems 1 Risk and Leadership in Societal and Technological Contexts 1 Master Thesis and (if applicable) Internship (3) 1 This course is offered twice a year, in Quartile 1A and Quartile 2A. 2 Students choose one of the courses Course descriptions obligatory courses HP Design of Persuasive Health Technology In this course students will gain insights into possibilities of newest technologies for health, such as personal mobile sensors, virtual coaching applications, serious games, smart glasses and wearables. Special attention will be given how to reach hard-to-reach populations such as low SES groups, adolescents, illiterates by applying the strategies of Entertainment-Education (EE). Furthermore, principles of diffusion of innovation will be applied. In this course students will learn how to design engaging technology for real health problems in a multidisciplinary team. Students will apply persuasive design theory and entertainment education strategies to support health and well-being. The project assignments are linked to the research projects from our Centre for ehealth & Wellbeing. Students will work on their project in a multidisciplinary team. In this assignment team students will design a persuasive interactive health technology. Your team will create and evaluate a prototype which is substantiated by relevant literature for design of persuasive system design and strategies for entertainment education in a written (group)paper. The course will be finished by a Demo Pitch. (PHP) addresses the field of health promotion with a focus on promoting a healthy lifestyle in the general public. A healthy lifestyle includes behaviors relevant for primary prevention (healthy diet, safe sex, no smoking) and secondary prevention (early detection of disease through participating in cancer screening programs). Specific health issues such as overweight,
addictions, infectious diseases, and specific risk groups such as people with lower socio-economic status, elderly, adolescents, will be addressed in this course. Students will learn to systematically plan and design an evidence-based health promotion intervention, including skills such as: collecting relevant evidence, identifying relevant determinants of health behavior, selecting appropriate behavior change techniques and put such techniques into practice, and achieving successful dissemination of an intervention on a large scale. Students are also acquainted with novel techniques, including innovative web-based technology and cognitive bias modification techniques. The course contents are illustrated by current research on implicit and explicit behaviour change techniques from the Self-Management and Health Assessment Lab at the Department of PHT. The examination of this course consists of a written exam, presentations and assignments. In two assignments students will deepen and apply the knowledge necessary to design and implement interventions. In a brief assignment students focus on a specific behavioral change technique and share this with their fellow-students in oral presentations. In a second and larger assignment students run through the full cycle of intervention design on a given health issue. In this assignment, students also acquire several professional skills. Students will practice to identify stakeholders and analyse their position concerning the designed intervention. Students will learn to negotiate different (possibly opposite) perspectives in order to create win-win situations for all involved stakeholders to finance and implement the proposed intervention successfully. This course also provides the opportunity to become familiar with the current professional field of public health psychology. Students will meet an inspiring public health practitioner invited as guest lecturer. In this course students will gain in-depth knowledge about the interaction between mental and physical processes in people with somatic disorders. Topics are related to the patient s lllness journey and include: symptom interpretation and help-seeking behaviour, coping with the stress of becoming ill, patient-provider communication, pain and pain management, adherence to treatment and selfmanagement, informal caregiving and terminal (or palliative) care. Students will learn to identify potential psychological interventions in the care process for a particular disease, and will study several current interventions that have been the subject of scientific study. In addition, students will learn about developmental stages from a life span perspective and will discover the impact of illness for patients in different phases of their life. Students will learn to become sensitized for age appropriate approaches and interventions. The course contents are illustrated by current research on the adaptation to chronic somatic diseases, patient empowerment and patient-provider interaction from the Centre for ehealth & Wellbeing Research at the Department of PHT. In a small group students will prepare a presentation about the psychological aspects of one particular chronic disease (e.g. diabetes, stroke, HIV, dementia, cancer) and review a recent article about a psychological intervention (e.g., self-management training, decision aid, motivational interviewing, mindfulness, music therapy). In the professional skills part in this course you will learn how to prepare and lead a discussion with your fellow students about a topic in behavioural medicine. In this course lectures and tutorials are offered and the examination consists of a written exam and presentations. Research Methods in Psychology This course teaches students advanced skills in designing, conducting, and evaluating research in psychology. They gain insight in the field of academic and applied research. The focus is on how to solve dilemmas in everyday research practice with a keen eye to the reliability and validity of the study. In lectures, researchers from different psychology departments share and reflect on their own research experience in order to provide students good real life examples of different aspects of the research process. Students prepare themselves for these lectures by evaluating (parts of) research proposals, published peer-reviewed articles and/or relevant book chapters. They use existing tools for assessing the quality of research (e.g., criteria for how to conduct a good randomized controlled trial). Furthermore,
students learn advanced methods that are used within their field of specialization. Therefore, several tutorials are offered that are specific for the chosen specialization in the master. The examination of the course consists of a written exam and an (specialization specific) assignment. Course descriptions elective courses HP Learning and Instruction In this course the psychological principles of learning and instruction are introduced, ranging from basic theories of learning reading, writing, math and science to means of fostering learning by means of instruction in the widest sense of the word. Instruction includes giving feedback, design of learning activities, providing examples and supporting collaborative learning and problem solving. Finally it will be shown how these theories can be utilized in the design of learning environments The course offers several interactive lectures and the examination consists of a written exam. Risk and Leadership in Societal and Technological Contexts Failing leadership and risk communication have recently gained much attention in popular media. An example of disputed risk communication was the low uptake of the HPV vaccine offered to 12-13 year old girls in 2009. An alleged important characteristic of the resulting controversy was not anticipated and not adequately dealt with, viz. the online interaction through social media undermining the trust in the RIVM experts. An example of both failing leadership and risk communication is the crisis situation in Groningen with respect to the decades of gas drilling by the NAM and the subsequent earthquakes. An independent evaluation report recently concluded that the Dutch government has played a dubious role by disregarding the safety of region inhabitants in favour of economic considerations. To be able to explain the psychological processes that might have taken place, this course will focus on the many facets of leadership, risk communication and crises against a societal and technological background. Based on a number of recent crises, the student will become familiar with leadership and risk communication theories that might provide an explanation for the development of these crises. In this course lectures and workshop(s) are offered. Several lectures will consist of two parts: a lecture part and a discussion on a particular case, in subgroups as well as plenary. The student will apply the study material by writing of a group paper on leadership and/or risk communication aspects in a particular (potential) crisis. And at the end of course the student will take a written exam. Cognition and Technical Systems The course Cognition and Technical Systems focusses on the way in which insight in human cognition influences the design of technical systems. This will be elaborated for the domains of Intelligent Systems (Quartile 1A) and Traffic Psychology (Quartile 2A). In the domain of Intelligent Systems the focus will be on how systems can be made more intelligent, based on knowledge of human cognition. This is increasingly important for the design of systems that access the web, make independent decisions, or that are creative (like with gaming). With respect to Traffic Psychology, the focus will be on how the knowledge we have of cognitive processes like perception, attention, learning, memory, decision making, and acting, can be used for designing optimal traffic systems. In addition, attention will be devoted to the effects on driving behaviour of telephoning, fatigue, aging, and drugs. The course offers several (interactive) lectures and the examination consists of a written exam and/or assignment(s).