Program content
Core courses
During the first and second year you will take 9 core courses and three track-specific courses. You will write your Master's thesis during the second year. At the end of the first year, you will start your internal traineeship, which you will continue throughout the second year. You can use the summer holidays between the first and second year to do an international traineeship.
Program content first year
Foundations of Social Psychology
Foundations of Sociology
Foundations of Organization Studies
Multivariate Analysis
Survey Research
Experimental Research
Meta-Analysis
Programming
Academic Writing
Research Integrity and Ethics
First-year Paper
Internal Traineeship
One track-specific course
Program content second year
Academic Presenting in Social Sciences
Internal Traineeship
Structural Equation Modeling
Colloquia and Seminars
Psychometrics
Master's thesis
Two track-specific courses
Track-specific courses
In addition to the core courses, you also take four track-specific courses, with which you specialize in your research area of interest. You can find more information about the track-specific courses below.
You will find a detailed description of the core courses and required literature in our course catalog.
Go to the course descriptions
Social Psychology track courses
Year 1
During the first year, you will take all the core courses and one track-specific course in block 2. The track-specific course for Social Psychology is:
Behavioral Decision-Making
Learn how people make decisions from the perspectives of psychology, consumer research, decision-making, and economics. In this course, you will mainly focus on how people make decisions in a context where the outcome of a decision is uncertain.
Year 2
During your second year, you will take two track-specific courses apart from the core courses, your Master's thesis, and traineeships. The track-specific courses for Social Psychology are:
Social Cognition
Get an in-depth look at the field of social cognition, including the processes underlying perception, memory and judgment of social stimuli, the effects of social, cultural and affective factors on the processing of information, and behavioral and interpersonal consequences of cognitive processes.
Emotions and Motivations
Get familiar with the different psychological perspectives on what emotions are, what triggers specific emotions and the various processes through which emotions shape people's interactions with their (social) environments.
You will find a detailed description of the courses and required literature in our course catalog.
Go to the course descriptions
Organization Studies track courses
Year 1
During the first year, you will take all the core courses and one track-specific course in block 2. The track-specific course for Organization Studies is:
Organizational Networks
Deepen your theoretical, methodological and empirical knowledge about the ways in which social actors create and maintain relationships, how networks form, and how social actors use their networks and relationships to foster the achievement of their goals.
Year 2
During your second year, you will take two track-specific courses apart from the core courses, your Master's thesis, and traineeships. The track-specific courses for Organization Studies are:
Organizations and Groups
Study organizations as a social system of interaction between individuals, teams, within and between organizations.
Institutions and Intra-organizational Teams
Get an overview of institutional theory and the way in which social interaction, dissemination of norms and values, social capital and practices can be explained in a coherent way.
You will find a detailed description of the courses and required literature in our course catalog.
Go to the course descriptions
Sociology track courses
Year 1
During the first year, you will take all the core courses and one track-specific course in block 2. The track-specific course for Sociology is:
Networks and Cohesion
Study the concept of social capital, its sources and its consequences.
Year 2
During your second year, you will take two track-specific courses apart from the core courses, your Master's thesis, and traineeships. The track-specific courses for Sociology are:
Intergenerational Relations and Reproduction
Examine several aspects of the parent-child relationship, such as the way in which parents transfer lifestyles and values to their children, intergenerational reproduction of educational and occupational opportunities, mutual support between parents and their children and the way in which support patterns change over time, and how family composition affect children's outcomes, like wellbeing and educational success.
Relations between Ethnic Groups
Examine the phenomenon of ethnic relations with a focus on prejudice, racism and discrimination and its manifestations in the United States and Europe.
You will find a detailed description of the courses and required literature in our course catalog.
Go to the course descriptions
Methods and Statistics track courses
Year 1
During the first year, you will take all the core courses and one track-specific course in block 2. The track-specific course for Methods and Statistics is:
Mathematical Methods
Study differential and integral calculus, matrix algebra and probability and statistical inference.
Year 2
During your second year, you will take two track-specific courses apart from the core courses, your Master's thesis, and traineeships. The track-specific courses for Methods and Statistics are:
Categorical Data Analysis
Study regression models belonging to the generalized linear modelling family, technical aspects of maximum likelihood estimation, likelihood-based statistical inference, and class analysis.
Latent Variable Measurement (Bayesian Statistics)
Study the concept of subjective probability, prior knowledge, prior specification, Bayesian estimation, Bayesian hypothesis testing using the Bayes factor, posterior predictive checking, and Bayesian computation using Gibbs sampling.
You will find a detailed description of the courses and required literature in our course catalog.
Go to the course descriptions
Master’s thesis
In your second year, you will write your Master’s thesis (24 ECTS), in English, under supervision of a knowledgeable staff member who will supervise you during both the research and thesis-writing processes. You write your thesis within your track. Your thesis should have a track related subject.
You will choose your own research topic and supervisor.
You will learn how to conduct all aspects of the research process: creating hypotheses, collecting data, analyzing data, and writing a scientific article.
Prior to writing the thesis, you will write an individual research proposal (IRP) based on an original idea, which your supervisor must approve.
You will conduct the research and work on your Master's thesis independently, for most of the time. However, you will be in constant and close contact with your supervisor.
The Master’s thesis should be written as a manuscript that could be submitted for publication in an ISI journal.
Examples of thesis subjects:
Trust behavior and dispositional greed
On shame-proneness, public exposure and bribe acceptance
Flat Earth and scientific boundary construction on Twitter
Statistical reporting inconsistencies in Psychology
Transgenders’ experiences stigma and its effect on mental health
A thermal imaging approach to detect deception
Karmic belief, karmic investment and emotions
Malicious and benign envy
Bayesian hierarchical models
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