What does this study entail?
The master Health Psychology focuses on using scientific knowledge and technology to promote health and wellbeing and trigger meaningful behavior change. Our mission is to bring a positive impact on society by training the future generation of behavior change specialists. You will learn to use psychological insights, evidence-based methods, and design thinking approaches to create innovative interventions and technological solutions (eHealth) for a diversity of communities.
For anyone interested in how to promote health and wellbeing, and influence behaviour
Erasmus University Rotterdam offers you one of the best master programmes in Psychology in the Netherlands. This master track is for anyone with an interest in the psychology of behaviour change and the use of digital interventions to promote health and wellbeing, and influence behaviour. In this master you will learn:
- How you can use psychological theories to design and evaluate innovative and effective interventions meeting the needs of a diversity of communities (e.g., youth, elderly, minority groups, patients).
- How you can use digital technology to provide unique solutions for an increasingly complex society (e.g., e-health interventions).
Together with our experts, you will take on the challenge to analyse and solve complex behavioral and societal issues. You will start with exploring how psychological processes are linked to behaviours, and how we can further use these insights to design interventions that promote healthier and sustainable behaviors.
Become an all-round professional
This master trains you to become an all-round professional who is able to apply scientific knowledge in practice. Graduates have an advantage because of their good theoretical basis and excellent research and practical skills.
Is this the right programme for you?
How do you motivate people to stay healthy, live a meaningful life, and actively participate to society? How do you help individuals achieve their goals? How can we use modern technology to better serve and fulfil the needs of our communities? In the master track Health Psychology, we try to answer these sorts of questions.
In this master track you will study the latest trends in designing impactful behavior change interventions. You will gain knowledge about health psychology and behaviour change theories and techniques. You will discover how to use design thinking approaches and how persuasive strategies can be used to increase engagement with a (digital) intervention. You will also gain practical skills for designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions, including how to collaborate effectively with multiple stakeholders (e.g., health specialists, interventions designers, software developers, policy makers, etc.). The research interests of this master track include behaviour change theories, health promotion and prevention, community-based and participatory research, persuasive system design and the applied use of new technologies and research methods, such as wearables and ecological momentary assessments.
Active education
The education in the master is organised on a small scale. In addition to regular lectures, you will work in small groups. An integral part of the programme is the ability to familiarise yourself with the skills of a professional health psychologist and behavior change specialist. These skills involve team work, project management, personal leadership, and research skills. In the second part of the program, you will be given the opportunity to practice these skills during a practical and a research internship, and independently carry out your research leading to your graduation thesis.
