Master Psychology: Developmental Psychology

Programme outline

During the first semester, you will take several courses that will familiarise you with developmental psychology, such as Infancy; Perception, attention, and motor development; Development of cognition and language, and Social and emotional development. You'll also take a number of professional skills training. During the second semester, you will complete a research internship and write your thesis.

Professional skills

You will learn the skills important for a career as a psychologist in applied settings, such as applying and designing instruments that measure cognitive function (like IQ) in infants and children. You’ll also learn scientific skills, such as how to design a developmental experiment and how to measure brain processes using EEG and ERP.

Research internship & thesis

The research internship gives you the opportunity to participate in the ongoing research of the faculty’s academic staff or to work with external academic or clinical institutions. You will design and pursue your own research question, which will be the foundation of your master's thesis. You can choose the subject of your research internship from a wide variety of topics, for example: typical and atypical (ADHD, autism) development of executive control, attention, memory, and number processing; cognitive training in typical and atypical development, and life-span social-emotional development in healthy people and in autism.

Clinical internship (addition to standard programme)

You also have the option to do a clinical internship in addition to the normal programme, which will give you the clinical experience needed to meet the requirements for a professional clinical training programme in the Netherlands (obtainment of BAPD).

Problem-Based Learning

This programme is taught using Problem-Based Learning (PBL). In small tutorial groups of 10 to 12 students, you'll seek solutions to ‘problems’ taken from real-world situations. Instructors act as facilitators, giving help as it’s needed. This allows you to build independence and develop problem-solving skills that you’ll need in the field. This active, dynamic and collaborative learning method has one of the highest knowledge retention rates of any instructional method.

International classroom

From day one of the programme, you’ll be challenged with differing viewpoints and experiences as you interact with staff and students from all over the world. Your worldview will be enhanced by this interaction, bringing you closer to the programme’s goal of teaching students not only facts and concepts but also international accessibility and understanding. Roughly 80% of the students in this master’s programme come from outside the Netherlands. Such diversity creates an international atmosphere that is strengthened by the international orientation of the programme.