Psychology

Overview

The study programme

Human behaviour often appears to be predictable. But on closer inspection, it turns out to be less obvious than you think. Can behaviour ever be understood? And can it – where necessary – be influenced?

The Psychology programme of the University of Amsterdam not only looks at the general characteristics of human behaviour, but focuses particularly on differences between behaviour: How do people respond to stress? Why does one person perform better at school than another? Why is one person friendly and relaxed while another may often seem tense and stressed? These questions are explored in the Psychology Bachelor’s programme.

Is Psychology for you?

If the bullet points below apply to you, then this programme could be a good fit:

• You are fascinated by people and their behaviour.

• You are interested in what drives people, in their skills, emotions, development and the way in which they interact.

• You show initiative and are inquisitive. In order to study behaviour, you will apply scientific methods to collect data about people.

• One of the most important instruments available to the psychologist is research. By using scientific methods to do research, a psychologist can gain insight into human behaviours. You can be critical when necessary. 

• You have a pre-university diploma equivalent to a Dutch VWO diploma.

• You must have pre-university-level Mathematics because of the amount of research and statistics in the programme.

After graduation

Graduates find employment in a range of different positions, depending on the major:

• psychologist

• HR officer

• trainer

• sports psychologist

• test developer

• adviser

• sexologist

• information specialist