Master of Science in Psychology | 2007 - Faculty of Psychology and ...

Master of Science in Psychology | 2007
Language of Instruction: English

General Information
The one-year Master of Science in Psychology (MSc) is a
challenging programme that prepares students for a
professional career in one of the emerging fields of biological
and cognitive psychology. Keywords that describe the
programme are international, state-of-the-art, challenging,
student-centred, and research-driven. Keywords that
describe our students are independent, critical, curious,
assertive, open, and keen to learn.
The master’s programme comprises two specialisations,
namely Biological Psychology and Applied Cognitive
Psychology. Biological Psychology has three tracks:
Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, and
Neuropsychology. Applied Cognitive Psychology also has
three tracks: Experimental Health Psychology, Psychology
and Law, and Work and Organisational Psychology. In each
track the programme starts with four theoretical courses
combined with training in academic, research, and professional
skills. The second part of the year is devoted to
planning and conducting a research internship under
supervision of a faculty member. A substantial number of
students will conduct this internship abroad. The master’s
programme is finished by writing a master’s thesis on the
research internship.
Specialisation:
Biological Psychology
Overview of the tracks
Biological Psychology 2006–2007
Developmental Psychology
• Infancy
• Perception, attention and motor development
• Measuring attention and executive functions in behavioural
paradigms or Practical EEG/ERP
• Development of cognition and language
• Social and emotional development
• Practical psychological test
• Research internship and master’s thesis
Cognitive Neuroscience
• Auditory and crossmodal (speech) processing
• Mechanisms of perception and attention
• Practical EEG/ERP
• Brain imaging methods
•The cognitive neuroscience of the sensory and motor systems
• Practical fMRI
• Research internship and master’s thesis
Neuropsychology
• Brain damage
• Behavioural disorders
• Neuropsychological assessment
• Arousal, attention and psychopharmacology
• Cognitive ageing
• Practical arousal, attention and ageing
• Research internship and master’s thesis
The biological revolution that takes place in general
psychology also occurs in the research at our faculty and is
studied in the field of biological psychology. The mutual
relations between psychological and biological factors are
taken into account. For example, the development of our
brain determines for a large part if and when we are learning
to see, think or speak. Furthermore, many psychological or
psychiatric disorders appear to have, at least in part, a
genetic origin and are associated with some deficit in brain
circuits. Courses in biological psychology all study the “roots
of our behaviour” by relating many of our actions and
experiences to brain functioning mechanisms. These mechanisms
can be made visible by the application of brain
imaging techniques. Issues on these techniques such as
fMRI, ERP and TMS are also studied.
Track: Developmental Psychology
Developmental Psychology is the study of the development
of behaviour and cognitive functions from infancy to
adulthood. In this biological track, there is especial focus on
understanding how the development of certain behaviours
and cognitive functions relates to a person’s biological
constitution and the development of the brain. Students are
made familiar with current developmental theories and
research findings from different fields and will become
acquainted with various research tools. Students learn what
is needed, both biologically and environmentally, to develop
functions such as audition, vision, language, social perception
and emotion and motor abilities. Both normal and
abnormal development are important topics.
Programme outline
The “Infancy” course gives an overview of the development
of cognitive and motor functions during the first two years
of human life. “Perception, attention and motor development”
deals with normal and abnormal development of
these functions from childhood to adulthood. “Development
of cognition and language” provides an overview of normal
and abnormal development of the higher cognitive and
language functions. In the “Social and emotional development”
course, students deal with genetic mechanisms and
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social and emotional development. During the second
semester, students will complete a research internship and
write their thesis.
Links with research
There is a strong link between existing research programmes
and themes in the Developmental Psychology
track. Research in our department has a strong biological
focus, trying to elucidate links between brain and behaviour
during development and developmental psychopathology,
and making use of brain imaging methods such as EEG.
This biological focus is present in all the courses. Practical
training focuses on skills that can be used later in professional
settings, such as psychology practices or psychological
research.
Fascination for the brain
“I have always been extremely interested in the human brain. Even during my years at
the music conservatory, the brain always attracted my attention. Back then, I enjoyed
learning about the relationship between music and the brain. Thereafter, I decided to
study psychology, and more specifically cognitive neuroscience, so that I could gain a
greater understanding of this fascinating topic.
Career focus
This track provides an excellent basis for several job
applications. Most students end up with a career in applied
settings such as a psychologist in a mental health or school
setting. In addition, many take a position as a researcher in
academic or more applied settings.
Track: Cognitive Neuroscience
The teaching programme covers the relevant topics of
Cognitive Neuroscience (CNS), and reflects the research
expertise of the “cognitive neuroscience” group. Students
learn about CNS theories, and how to measure and interpret
human brain activity, using imaging techniques to observe
(fMRI, EEG/MEG), and modulate (TMS) the brain “at work”.
CNS unravels the cognitive and neural mechanisms that are
at work whenever we hear, see, think, talk, attend to others
or move, i.e., the core aspects of human behaviour.
The Cognitive Neuroscience research group is highly respected in its field, so you know
that your professors are real experts. Moreover, they are friendly and approachable
people. You receive plenty of personal attention so when you don’t understand
something you can go to your tutor, for example. The tutor always takes time to deal
with your problems thoroughly.
One of the biggest benefits of this track at the Maastricht University is the practical
training we receive. For instance, I have been trained to use the electroencephalogram
laboratories and the fMRI scanner. During both training opportunities, I learned all the
methodologies and the steps involved in conducting research with these technologies.
It is great to be able to apply the theoretical knowledge you gain throughout the years.
Furthermore, I am a research assistant for a professor at the faculty; this way I acquire
even more practical experience. I also have the opportunity to follow courses with
international students. This creates a very dynamic environment, as people with different
nationalities have a variety of experiences and knowledge.”
Rinus Verdonschot,
Master’s student in Biological Psychology,
Master’s track: Cognitive Neuroscience
Programme outline
The core programme covers attention in “humans and nonhuman
primates”, “sensory-motor mapping”, “auditory and
language processing” and “CNS methods”. It introduces
important theoretical concepts and includes training for
students to develop their own research questions and carry
out their own experiments. Students may undertake a
master’s thesis on one of the topics. There will be a focus
on issues such as motor learning, predicting the actions of
others and reacting to errors in performance. One of the
goals is to provide knowledge of the basic principles underlying
fMRI. Another aim is learning to think critically with
regard to recent and ongoing research in the domain of
auditory/speech processing and cross-modal integration,
including event-related potential (ERP) and fMRI studies.
During the second semester, students will complete a
research internship and write their thesis.
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Links with research
Ongoing attention research tests ideas from non-human
studies in the domains of human vision, audition, and how
words are selected for speaking. Language research focuses
on dyslexia and self-monitoring. Auditory research investigates
how we identify and localise sounds. We also investigate
neurofeedback, sensory-motor mapping, neural
connectivity, cross-modal integration and real-time imaging
of social interactions. The group develops new analysis
methods for brain imaging data (“BrainVoyager”). Because
the group has much international collaboration, international
student exchanges are strongly supported.
Career focus
This track is an excellent background for any professional
career. Its interdisciplinary character is a major advantage
for research or teaching careers, because students become
experts in cognitive psychology as well as neuroscience
methods. This track prepares students for employment at
universities, research institutes, the private industry sector
and also in clinics.
Track: Neuropsychology
The Neuropsychology track focuses on cognition, brain and
behaviour in health and disease. The emphasis is on the
cognitive as well as affective functions, general intellectual
abilities and biopsychological mechanisms in children,
adolescents and adults. Both theoretical and applied
questions are addressed to neural, cognitive, medical and
psychological/psychosocial factors.
The programme aspires to provide sound theoretical
knowledge and insights, acquire methodological skills and
the practical experience that is necessary to pursue either a
clinical or a research career in the broad domain of neuropsychology.
Programme outline
The four obligatory courses are “Brain Damage”, “Behavioural
disorders”, “Arousal, Attention and Psychopharmacology”
and “Cognitive ageing”. These address basic biological
(e.g., hormones, neurotransmitters, drugs) and psychosocial
mechanisms as well as the behaviour of healthy subjects
and patients with borderline pathology or neurological or
psychiatric disease. During the second semester, students
will complete a research internship and write their thesis.
Clinical experience needed to fulfil the requirements for a
clinical career can also be obtained.
Links with research
Research internships can be performed in four areas:
“cognitive ageing and development”, “cognitive and
behavioural dysfunction” (including various neurological
and neuropsychiatric disorders), and “drugs, hormones,
cognition and performance”. Research internships use
clinical as well as neuroimaging facilities, biopsychological
laboratories and large cross-sectional and longitudinal data
sets of healthy children and adults.
Career focus
Careers are possible in a wide range of settings; universities,
research institutes, clinical settings, hospitals and rehabilitation
centres, the pharmaceutical industry, schools and
educational institutions. Activities may vary from diagnosis,
treatment and research to measurement of performance in
labour-related settings and industry.
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Specialisation: Applied
Cognitive Psychology
One of the central postulates in cognitive psychology is that
our behaviour rather depends on the subjective interpretation
of an event than on the event itself. It is not the cracking
of the twig in the dark wood that determines whether the
lonely walker runs away in terror, but the interpretation of
that sound. An anxious city dweller will attribute the sound
to something creepy. A forester will attribute the sound
differently and, accordingly, will act differently. Between the
external stimulus and our response to it occur various kinds
of cognitive processes, which often lie outside our awareness.
Such processes are at the centre of the three tracks of
this master’s specialisation: Applied Cognitive Psychology:
Experimental Health Psychology; Psychology and Law; and
Work and Organisational Psychology.
Overview of the tracks
Applied Cognitive Psychology 2006–2007
“The master’s specialisation in Applied Cognitive Psychology is designed for students who
are committed to studying contemporary issues such as the reliability of eyewitnesses,
false memory, child obesity, alcohol abuse, unsafe sexual practices, workplace safety,
man-machine interaction or optimising team work. In our programme, students will
focus on the fundamental processes of human behaviour (such as learning, memory,
decision-making, attention or perception) and on how such processes occur in applied
settings (such as the comprehension of instructions, eyewitness testimonies, expert
versus lay decisions, attentional biases or body image). Students are offered a choice of
three cognitive tracks: Experimental Health Psychology, Psychology and Law, and Work
and Organisational Psychology. Students are trained to approach and analyse real-life
problems from a scientific angle in order to come up with solutions. There are many
opportunities for students to participate in research. Each track of Applied Cognitive
Psychology will prepare students for employment in academia, government and industry
settings.”
Experimental Health Psychology
• Bad habits
• Self-control
• Planning health promotion programmes
• Manipulation
• Research internship and master’s thesis
Dr. Carolien Martijn,
Assistant Professor in Cognitive Psychology,
Master’s track: Experimental Health Psychology
Psychology and Law
• Eyewitnesses and victims
• Forensic psychology
• Perpetrators and defendants: an experimental approach
• Experts and their decisions
• Practical psychology and law in action
• Research internship and master’s thesis
Work and Organisational Psychology
• Human resources
• Human performance
• Organisation and cognition
• Safety at work
• Research internship and master’s thesis
Track: Experimental Health
Psychology
Overeating and unsafe sex are examples of unhealthy and
undesirable behaviour. From a multidisciplinary perspective,
the Experimental Health Psychology track studies the
nature and origin of such “bad habits”. Although we study
un healthy and undesirable behaviour, it is important to
know that Experimental Health Psychology does not train
students to be a clinical psychologist or psychotherapist!
Students will learn to analyse the underlying mechanisms of
unhealthy behaviour, using recent theories and models from
various psychological disciplines. With this knowledge, it is
possible to develop systematically an intervention to change
such behaviour. In their thesis, students do research, for
example, as to why people maintain bad habits.
Programme outline
The Experimental Health Psychology track offers the
following courses: “Bad habits”, “Self-control”, “Planning
health promotion programmes”, and “Manipulation”.
Drinking or eating excessively and unsafe sex are examples
of unhealthy and unwanted behaviour. In the “Bad habits”
course, various recent views from both social and clinical
psychology are used to explain how healthy and unhealthy
and wanted and unwanted behaviours develop and endure.
The course on “Self-control” focuses on the regulation of
behaviour: why do people find it so hard to resist their
impulses? “Planning health promotion programmes” aims
at translating theoretical knowledge into an effective
intervention. The course on “Manipulation” deals with
strategies of social influence, persuasion and attitude
change. During the second semester, students will complete
a research internship and write their thesis.
Links with research
The themes of the Experimental Health Psychology track
are strongly linked to existing research programmes on
disordered eating behaviour, obesity, self-control, addictive
behaviours, learning theories, cognitive processing of
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health-related issues, AIDS prevention, intervention
development, and planned behaviour change. This close link
between education and research offers Masters students
many opportunities to participate in current research.
Career focus
Job possibilities for experimental health psychologists are
broad: researcher in an academic or applied health setting,
communication planning, health promotion and policymaking.
Track: Psychology and Law
How reliable were the eyewitness testimonies in the case
against Michael Jackson? Do criminals such as Marc Dutroux
have a brain dysfunction making them permanently
dangerous to society? Questions such as these are typical for
the discipline of Psychology and Law (PsyLaw). Psychologists
with a background in PsyLaw ask questions that have direct
relevance to the legal arena, and conduct research to address
these questions.
The aim of this programme is to make master’s students
familiar with typical themes in the PsyLaw domain. For
example, students will learn how to analyse the reliability of
eyewitness testimonies. In doing so, they will study memory
from various perspectives. Another issue that will be
addressed is, for example, testing. What tests can be used
to detect liars and malingerers?
Programme outline
The PsyLaw programme is underpinned by two important
elements: research and testing. More specifically, the
programme will consist of the following courses; the course
on “Eyewitnesses and victims” will provide the student with
insight into the psychology of eyewitnesses and victims. The
course on “Forensic psychology” will focus on the development,
assessment and treatment of criminal behaviour.
During “Perpetrators and defendants: an experimental
approach”, students will learn more about the psychology
and behaviour of offenders who have committed serious
crimes. In the course on “Experts and their decisions”,
psychometric issues and the role that experts play in judicial
decision-making are important subjects. Decision-making
themes will be discussed at length.
The literature for these courses consists of individual
research papers taken from experimental, applied, and
psychiatric journals. During the second semester, students
will complete a research internship and write their thesis.
Admission Requirements
1. Students from the Faculty of Psychology (UM):
• With a bachelor’s degree in Psychology: no restrictions
• Otherwise: conditional entrance (see requirements on the website)
2. Psychology students from other Dutch universities:
• At minimum a bachelor’s degree in Psychology obtained at a Dutch university,
with sufficient statistical knowledge (a)
• Passing of an entrance exam (testing specific knowledge in biological or
cognitive psychology, depending on which Master’s is chosen) (b)
3. Non-psychology students from other Maastricht faculties or other
Dutch universities:
• At minimum a bachelor’s or equivalent degree in an academic field
• Passing of an entrance exam (testing basic psychology knowledge and specific
knowledge in biological or cognitive psychology, depending on which master’s
is chosen) (b)
• Passing of an entrance exam in Methods and Statistics (c)
4. Students from foreign universities:
• At minimum a bachelor’s or equivalent degree in an academic field
• Passing of an entrance exam (testing basic psychology knowledge and specific
knowledge of biological or cognitive psychology, depending on which master’s
is chosen) (b)
• Passing of an entrance exam in Methods and Statistics (c)
• Passing of an entrance test in English. Minimal score: (d)
- TOEFL (computer-based): 230;
- TOEFL (paper-based): 570;
- IELTS: 6.5
Links with research
Research in the PsyLaw domain is broad. Topics include, for
example, eyewitness testimonies, eyewitness identification,
interrogation techniques, false confessions, deceit, psychopathology,
and malingering. Master’s students have the
opportunity to participate in ongoing research on one of
these topics.
Career focus
Because of the wide range of typical PsyLaw themes,
psychologists with a background in PsyLaw are well
equipped to work in such diverse areas as the child protection
services or high security forensic facilities. Moreover,
with its heavy emphasis on research, this track offers a good
training to students who intend to become researchers in
the PsyLaw field.
More information
For more information, check our website: http://www.
psychology.unimaas.nl/base/research/psychology&law.htm
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Track: Work and Organisational
Psychology
How can industrial accidents be prevented?
What determines team effectiveness?
How to select air traffic controllers?
How can someone’s ability to cooperate or make decisions
be evaluated?
Which factors improve the quality of life for the elderly?
How to design leadership training?
Which work conditions prevent mental fatigue?
How to stimulate innovations?
These questions illustrate some of the issues that are
studied in the field of Work and Organisational Psychology
(WOP). This track combines theoretical preparation in the
cognitive aspects of work, personnel and organisational
psychology with practical application in the aviation sector.
Students completing the programme have knowledge of the
major content areas of Work and Organisational Psychology
with an emphasis on Applied Cognitive Psychology. They
know how to apply job and task analysis techniques; they
know how to determine standards of effectiveness and how
to measure and evaluate human performances; they know
how to design and evaluate employee selection tests,
training programmes and organisational interventions;
they have acquired data selection and analysis skills for
conducting applied psychological research.
(a): Students who have insufficient statistical knowledge will have to pass
the Methods and Statistics exam.
(b): Students who can prove that they have sufficient knowledge of basic
psychology and/or sufficient knowledge of biological or cognitive
psychology can request exemption from the entrance exams.
(c): Students who can prove that they have sufficient knowledge of
methods and statistics can request exemption from the Methods
and Statistics exam.
(d): Students who can prove that they have sufficient knowledge of the
English language can request exemption from the English test
(e.g. if your native language is English or your academic education was
in English).
Application materials should be sent to:
Board of Admissions Master’s Programme
Faculty of Psychology
Universiteit Maastricht
PO Box 616
6200 MD Maastricht
The Netherlands
Programme outline
During the first semester, several PBL courses and practicals
will acquaint students with cognitive issues within the field
of work and organisational psychology. In the course on
“Human performance”, the key question is “how do humans
process information during the performance of tasks?”
Problems related to employee recruitment, selection, career
development and management will be discussed in the
“Human resources” course. The course on “Organisation
and cognition” focuses on the contributions of cognitive
psychology to the study of organisational behaviour. In
“Safety at work”, the cognitive appraisal of policies, practices
and procedures related to safety, and which can be summarised
as the ‘safety climate’, will be highlighted. During the
second semester, students will complete a research
internship and write their thesis.
Links with research
The themes of the WOP master’s track can be linked to
existing research programmes on decision-making under
uncertainty, intervention development, innovation and
human resources, education and the labour market, work
and health, and learning theories.
Career focus
Master’s-level graduates are expected to find employment
in various settings (e.g., assessment and training, human
resource management, organisation consultancy, research
and development) in private industry, governmental
agencies, universities or non-profit organisations.
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© 2006 Student Services Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands
Text: Faculty of Psychology | Photography: Arjen Schmitz Maastricht, Carin Willemsen and Marianna Bandi / Coproductions Sittard
Design: Vormgeversassociatie BV, Hoog-Keppel | Production: OBS Maastricht
Although this brochure was made with the utmost care, no rights can be obtained from it.
www.unimaas.nl
Contact Information
Public Relations and Information
Faculty of Psychology
Universiteit Maastricht
PO Box 616
6200 MD Maastricht
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 43 388 2209 / 1871
E-mail: masterinfo@psychology.unimaas.nl
Internet: www.psychology.unimaas.nl (go to Prospective Master’s Students)
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