Behavioural and Social Sciences

My name is Hannah, and I am a 27-year-old ReMA student from Germany. I completed my Bachelor of Psychology between Leipzig (GER), Stockholm (SWE) and Edinburgh University (UK).

I chose the research master's programme since I am naturally a very curious person who seeks to understand new phenomena. Focussing on research allows me to dive deeper into the materials as I really enjoy learning new things. This master’s was especially interesting to me since I have always worked interdisciplinarily and internationally and enjoy the collaborative nature of research projects.

Focus and exploration

This master’s programme, despite my psychological background, enabled me to delve deeper into sociology through its extensive and adaptable curriculum, encouraging me to explore a variety of academic disciplines centred around societal changes. Looking back, I feel that the master’s programme isn’t necessarily inherently multidisciplinary, but its setup provides the flexibility to make it so. As such, choosing a theme sets a focus but doesn’t limit exploration across fields.
I tailored my programme to my interests by taking courses from other faculties and diversifying my practical experience. My research assistantship and traineeship bridge different disciplines, and I now work with the Department of Sociology, the Arctic Center, and the Department of Environmental Psychology.

Choosing a theme

I am currently in the second year of the ‘Understanding Societal Change’ programme. Given my previous focus on developmental neuroscience and evolutionary anthropology, several themes would have been suitable. Ultimately, I chose USC, as societal challenges span all age groups, and I was more interested in macro-level societal issues than individual phenomena.
This was the right choice for me: while still interested in socialization and development, I’ve found elements of these topics reflected in my theme’s courses. The flexibility of my course assignments has allowed me to explore subjects that might align with other tracks but I then chose to approach them from a social-psychological or sociological perspective.
Study plan
At first, I felt overwhelmed by the rapid pace of the programme, especially when required to map out my study plan for the next two years. But it helped me familiarize myself with the options early on and think critically about my academic ‘storyline’. Realizing that I could still make changes took some pressure off.

Study experience

After a year here, I’ve adapted to a new university system and feel surprisingly at home with this faculty.
Throughout my master’s, I’ve gained diverse knowledge, developed networking and proactivity skills, and learned to work well under pressure. I’ve gained confidence in engaging with colleagues and professors and learned that building connections is essential for collaboration and broadens my horizon. I’m especially happy that some professors approached me for collaboration, recognizing my efforts and appreciating my qualities.

Insights

I entered this programme intending to pursue a PhD, and I still see myself as a researcher and most of all a lecturer. Yet, I have come to understand the challenges of academia, particularly the importance of setting boundaries to avoid burnout, especially given the abundance of interesting opportunities.
To prospective students, don’t fear not being ‘smart enough.’ Everyone here is learning, and while challenges are inevitable, you’ll grow from them. I always felt supported by my peers, and it was often the moments of doubt and struggle that I took the most away from.

My future

I believe there is a great need to bring scientific knowledge back to the people through science-informed, practitioner-approved policymaking and communication. At this point, I see myself at the intersection of research, policy, and communication. To prepare for a well-balanced theoretical and practical PhD, I would like to gain further experience as a research assistant in sustainability psychology, sociology, or cultural psychology, allowing me to take my time to find a suitable PhD position.

“I am currently doing a PhD in criminal network analysis at the University of Groningen. In collaboration with the Dutch National Police we are working on a project called 'Multiplexity in Criminal Networks' which concerns the examination of organized crime. Specifically, we aim to study the possible ways individuals become involved in criminal networks, the development of criminal activities in criminal networks, and the impact of law enforcement interventions on those networks.

Throughout the years of my education I have made it my mission to foster society by combatting organized crime. This idea already started growing when I was younger as a result of watching crime series. During my bachelor in Sociology I chose the specialisation Sociology of Crime and Safety and did a minor at the Faculty of Law, where I followed some law and criminology courses. I was so passionate about the topics that were discussed that I knew I definitely wanted to do something with them. Before, studying criminology had also been on my mind but I wanted my studies to have a bit of a broader societal lense from the start. After graduating from my bachelor, I decided to do the Research Master in Behavioural and Social Sciences (BSS) and chose a lot of courses where I could focus on the phenomenon of organized crime. For example, I wrote a literature study on women trafficking and an essay on American youth gangs.

The Research Master BSS especially shaped my critical thinking and programming skills. What I still value these days are the courses Advanced Statistics, Applied Statistics, and Statistical Analysis of Complex Social Networks. During this programme I chose the Lifespan Development and Socialization* domain with the specialization label Sociology. I also did a traineeship at the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University in England Here, I really learnt to apply some social network analysis on real criminal events data for the first time, skills that I later implemented in my Master’s Thesis.

For the next four years I am very excited to be working on my own project proposal. I feel like I got a lot left to learn and I am grateful to be able do this in a work setting which provides me with the time and resources to further develop myself in this field. In the future, it is my dream to fulfill a bridging position between practice and science, and use police data, such as registrations and investigations, to get more insight into organized crime groups. Ultimately, I would like to help the police with predictive policing, so that based on previous events they can increasingly prevent criminal activities from happening.

I definitely recommend following the research master if conducting research is your passion or if you want to, like myself, gain a PhD position later on. Two years seems long but I saw it as an opportunity to develop myself. From my experience, it can however be challenging and, therefore, I would advise students who experience problems to always keep talking to fellow students, lectures or the study advisor.”

*now called: Individual Development in Social Context

“I'm a PhD student in the group of Environmental Psychology at the University of Groningen. My job is to conduct research and I also have to do a little bit of teaching as part of my PhD responsibilities. The topic of my research is the acceptability of energy technologies and environmental policies.

Currently I am working on a systematic literature review about the support, acceptability and protest of and against ten different energy technologies. This includes all renewable energies but also emerging new technologies like carbon captive storage, an energy facility that tries to capture Co2 that is produced by fossil fuel burning and stores it under the ground. I think the research about acceptability and what people's most important perceptions are of those technologies is very interesting. Sometimes engineers or politicians may think something is a perfect solution, but if people don’t like it, then it can significantly decrease the potential of a certain technology.

The research master of Behavioral and Social Sciences really prepared me for a career in research. During the programme you have to read and understand literature, think about research questions and come up with new ideas. You also have to design studies and to conduct them, analyze them and use statistics. I think the big strength of a two-year programme is that you have enough time to work on these skills and at the same time can explore your research interests. For me personally an important motivation to do the BSS research master in Groningen, is that it has a big lab with many people working on environmental psychology.

The great thing about working in science and working as a PhD student is that you have a lot of autonomy and freedom to decide what you want to work on. In the future I would like to do something with my research that is also of use for people outside of academia, for example policy makers or NGO’s that are interested in environmental issues.

If you are interested in research and would like to do a PhD then I definitely advise to think about the research master. Having two years to take into a lot of the programme, the stats education but also the theory courses and having the chance to talk with peers and other researchers about ideas and explore them practically is a very good preparation I think.”

I just received a PhD position at the Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln, where I will start as of April 2021 with a research project on embodied cognition. This is an approach that basically says that cognition is not only something in our head but also takes place in our bodies and our surroundings.

For example: in a supermarket you are pushing a shopping cart or holding a basket which are two different actions. They found out that people who were using a shopping cart, which you have to push, were less likely to buy little candies at the cashier than people who were holding a basket. This is because their body posture was basically in an avoiding position by pushing something (the shopping cart) away the whole time. During my research project, I will likely focus on sports and to what degree we adapt these certain mindsets when we are playing sport.

When I was young my dad showed me a little graph. In the middle there was a small circle which said ‘everything you learn at elementary school’, around that a bigger circle which showed ‘what you learn in highschool’, and an even bigger circle of what you learn at the university. Everything outside these circles basically presents all the information humankind has, he said back then. By doing research you’re expanding that circle of what everyone knows. This really caught me because I can add something to that pool and that’s a nice idea. In the second year of my bachelor I knew that I wanted to do the research master Behavioural and Social Sciences. Eventually, I chose the theme Understanding Societal Change with a specialization in Social Psychology.

The research master really prepared me for the PhD position, having to do research, read papers and think about statistics. At the beginning, a lot of things are difficult from the start but once you get into reading papers, you become good at it and you are going to like it. From my experience the programme is not as hard as you might think it is. When I did the research master I went to the library every week and I still managed to have a social life. Also, the people are really friendly here and there is a lot of support. After my PhD, I would like to become a postdoc and eventually professor. On the side I would like to do something in the direction of consultancy or marketing.

I teach the course units 'Evidence-based interventions' and 'Diagnostic models and strategies' on the Clinical Psychology Track. Although I work for the departments of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology, my research lies somewhere between the departments of Clinical Neuropsychology and Clinical Psychology. I feel at home in both fields.

My particular expertise is in psychotic disorders. Psychoses are extremely interesting. They create a very unique clinical picture, with many different manifestations and affecting many different types of people. It is fascinating to see how the brain can fool itself. People believe unimaginable things that other people cannot understand or see, regardless of contradictions or external proof. The next question is how best to help these people return to functioning in society. Increasing social participation and counteracting stigmatization are thus my most important objectives.

Psychology is a branch of science that is very close to daily life. Psychologists study day-to-day social processes. The main attraction of clinical psychology is to make a difference for other people. Curiosity is a major factor – curiosity about the causes of problematic behaviour and the motivation to find out how to best treat these problems.

The Clinical Psychology Track has a lot to offer prospective students. For example, we look at scientific themes from a clinical practice point of view, while at the same time paying attention to innovations in care. We also conduct experimental research to see which processes lie behind certain forms of psychopathology. The expertise of the lecturers is very varied – we have a lot of knowledge from many different domains.