Clinical and Health Psychology (Research)

Specialisation of: Psychology (research)
Degree: Master of Science in Psychology (Research)
Mode of Study: Full-time
Duration: 2 years
Start date: September and February
Language of instruction: English
Location: Leiden
Croho/isat code: 60395
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The research master’s Clinical and Health Psychology prepares you for a PhD trajectory. Academic and research skills are trained at an advanced level. You will make an in-depth study of topics within the broad context of ‘self-regulation of health and illness’. Topics that you will investigate include: stress, symptomperception and illness, the dynamics of behavioral change, and coping with (chronic) disease. You will learn a broad variety of methods and techniques, e.g., clinical trials, neuro maging, and longitudinal survey or intervention studies. It is possible to also qualify for the post-master training in health care psychology.

Programme

The specialisation involves the following parts:

  1. General courses
  2. Specialisation-specific courses
  3. Electives
  4. Research Internship/Thesis

General courses

The general coursework (40 ECTS) consists of advanced training in academic and research skills. The design and timing of these courses is such that students can immediately apply their newly acquired skills to their own research project. Besides lectures, the programme offers seminars, work in small groups, and practicals.

Specialisation-specific courses

The obligatory specialisation-specific coursework (20 ECTS) consists of four advanced content-specific courses, in which students acquire in-depth knowledge of a range of theories, issues and research domains in clinical psychology and health psychology.

For the most up to date course overview, see the e-Prospectus

Electives

Students can choose electives (20 ECTS) from the range of modules offered in the different (research) master’s programmes at the Institute of Psychology, either to concentrate further on the specialisation of their choice (by choosing additional specialisation-specific electives), to acquire additional training in specific research techniques, or to broaden their view.

Research internship and master’s thesis

Students spend most of the second year on a supervised research internship (20 ECTS] and a master’s thesis (20 ECTS). During the first semester, the research internship focuses on the preparation of a literature review and the development of a research question, resulting in a written research proposal. During the second semester, students implement the research, collect and analyse the data, and write their thesis.