Themes and specializations

Would you like to gain a better understanding of psychopathological disorders and brain disorders and deficits?

Within the theme Mental Health: perspectives from Neuro- and Clinical Psychology, we combine insights from clinical psychology, clinical neuropsychology, and psychometrics, rendering a unique multidisciplinary approach. We address associations between brain and behaviour, but the programme also has a focus on understanding the causal mechanisms underlying the onset and maintenance of disorders. Moreover, insight in transdiagnostic (dysfunctional) cognitive, emotional, and behavioural processes is combined with insight in specific disorders, their symptoms, and effects on everyday functioning. You will gain the knowledge and tools to conduct fundamental research as well as more applied research on assessment, diagnosis, and improving interventions in healthcare.

Students also have the opportunity to train in advanced diagnostic and other clinical skills to qualify for a postgraduate training programme including the Dutch GZ-opleiding. In terms of ECTS spent on clinically relevant components (including courses, traineeship and skills subjects) this is equivalent to the RUG Master's degree in Clinical Psychology or Clinical Neuropsychology- where our programme includes a thorough and more extensive research-oriented training. With a statement of the programme, you can enrol in several postgraduate programs. Please contact us for such a statement or if you want to know more about this option.

Would you like to gain insights in how individuals develop across the lifespan and become active contributors to society?

The Individual Development in Social context (IDS) track uses a multidisciplinary perspective on human development. Our goal is to better understand the processes that underlie the development of the marked differences in emotions, happiness, creativity, identity, learning ability, motivations, and the comorbidity of somatic and mental problems as they unfold over the lifespan. What is abnormal or healthy? What is the role of culture and society? How are individual differences and lifespan changes reflected in our interactions with parents, siblings, peers, friends, teachers, colleagues, romantic relationships, the jobs we choose, or society more broadly? How can we intervene in individual development? Our courses cover the domains of Developmental Psychology and Psychopathology, Sociology, Positive psychology, (ortho)Pedagogy and Educational Sciences, and Methodology and Statistics. We believe that happiness and somatic and mental health (and problems) can only be understood from a lifespan perspective that also covers the worlds in which we live and grow.

By the end of the program, students will be proficient in both theoretical and conceptual modeling and empirically studying how interpersonal contexts shape individual development across the life span. In addition, students will master research method techniques to analyze three-dimensional data (persons, variables and time points), such as dynamic network analyses, time-series analyses, and complex dynamic system models. Also qualitative methods (such as interviews and text analyses) and social network approaches (e.g., ego-networks and genograms) are part of our toolbox. Students have the opportunity to train in diagnostic and clinical skills for postdoctoral training during an internship. This program is designed to prepare students for PhD studies, but also for a professional career in social science research institutes and educational and clinical settings.

Perhaps more rapidly than ever, modern society is facing major challenges, changes, and demands for resilience such as the rise of social tensions (e.g., terrorism, the influx of migrants, political polarization and protest, abusive leadership), the aging and diverse labour market, and climate change. How do individuals and groups cope with and adapt to these changes and how can they live, work, and interact with others in their changing world? In the theme Understanding Societal Change, you will learn theory and research methods about how individuals, organizations and societies change from the fields of environmental, organizational, and social psychology and sociology. As such you will develop broad knowledge and specific expertise within and across these disciplines that enables you to define, explain, and design empirical research about, understanding societal change.