What does this study entail?
The master Health Psychology & Digital Interventions focuses on leveraging scientific knowledge and technology to promote healthy behaviours and improve care. Our aim is to help you use psychological insights, evidence-based theory and the design thinking process to create innovative interventions and technological solutions (eHealth).
For anyone interested in how to promote (mental)health or 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 (mental)health or influence behaviour. In this master you will learn:
- how you can use psychological theory to design and evaluate effective interventions
- how technology can be leveraged to provide unique solutions for an increasingly complex society
Together with our experts, you will take on the challenge to analyse, investigate, and solve complex behavioural problems. You will start with exploring how psychological processes are linked to behaviours, and how we can use these insights to design interventions that promote healthier choices.
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 exercise more, eat better, and reduce their bad habits? Once motivated, how do you help individuals achieve their goals? How can we effectively use technology to design innovative solutions for health or societal problems? In the master track Health Psychology and Digital Interventions, we try to answer these sorts of questions.
During this master track you will study the latest trends in designing (digital) behavior change interventions. You will also gain knowledge about health psychology and behaviour change theories and techniques. You will explore how a systematic intervention design support the development of more impactful interventions. You will discover how to use a design thinking process and how gamification and persuasive design can be used to increase user engagement with an intervention program or digital platform. You will also gain practical skills for designing, implementing, and evaluating digital interventions, including how to collaborate effectively with multiple stakeholders, such designers, software developers, and policy makers. The research interests of this specialisation include behaviour change theories, health promotion and prevention, persuasive system design and the applied use of new technologies and research methods, such as wearable technologies and ecological momentary assessments.
Active education
The education in the master is organised on a small scale. In addition to regular lectures, you will learn in small groups about influencing people’s choices and the potential of health promotion technology. An integral part of the programme is the ability to familiarise yourself with the skills of a professional health psychologist and digital intervention specialist. These skills involve collaboration with multidisciplinary teams, the development and execution of a procedure for intervention development, and the carrying out of applied psychological research on digital interventions. In the second half of the year, you will be given the opportunity to do a practical and research internship and independently carry out empirical research leading to your graduation thesis.
