Why are smoking behaviour and financial problems related?
How can digital interventions support the mental health of young adults?
Which behavioural change techniques are most effective in countering obesity in deprived neighbourhoods?
How do we motivate people to stay healthy, live meaningful lives, and actively participate in society as they age?
If you're curious about the answers to these questions and more, this master's specialisation is the right choice! By the end of this programme, you will have the scientific knowledge and practical experience in behaviour change methods and technologies, ready to make a real impact on health-related societal challenges.
In this specialisation, you will explore how psychological insights, evidence-based methods, and participatory, user-centred design approaches are applied to create innovative solutions that address societal needs, tackle psychological problems, promote healthy behaviours, and prevent unhealthy ones. You'll become familiar with various models of behaviour change and health behaviours, gaining a strong theoretical understanding and practical skills in intervention design and implementation, practising with real-world cases. For example, you will be challenged to develop ideas on how to change the food environment into a healthy one or develop a concept of an app to enhance resilience and improve mental health.
This master's will train students to become all-round professionals who can apply scientific knowledge on health promotion in practice. With increasing shortages in care professionals and the challenges an ageing population poses, experts in this field will be in high demand. Graduates will stand out due to their strong theoretical foundation and exceptional research and professional skills, including teamwork, project management, scientific integrity, transparency, and communication.
This master track is for anyone interested in the psychology of behaviour change and the use of interventions to affect behaviour and promote health and well-being, both in the community and digitally. In this master's, you will learn:
How you can use psychological theories to design and evaluate innovative, effective and inclusive interventions at individual, community and system level, using a lifespan perspective from birth to older age).
How you can use digital technology to develop unique solutions for complext health and wellbeing challenged (e.g., e-health tools, app-based interventions).
This programme is unique as it combines state-of-the-arttheoretical and methodological knowledge on health psychology and behaviour change with practical expertise on how to design, implement and evaluate behaviour change interventions in complex, real-life contexts.
Active education, where you work in groups to solve real-life behaviour change challenges by designing interventions in a multidisciplinary context.
Attention to developing professional skills (e.g., personal leadership, teamwork, project management).
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After graduating, you can help organisations understand and change health-related behaviour. You can work, for example, as a behaviour change specialist,health promotion consultant, or policy maker/advisor in public health services, healthcare, and public or private organisations (e.g., governmental institutions, NGOs, consultancy firms, scientific associations). You can also bring your expertise to digital health and technology, for example as a digital intervention designer, project manager or UX researcher in eHealth companies, start-ups or other tech-driven organisations. If you are interested in research, you can continue as a research scientist in academic institutions or independent research organisations.
聽I was drawn to this programme for its unique blend of theory, creativity, and applied innovation.
Carmen van Gelderen
Carmen van Gelderen - Alumna Health Psychology
The most valuable thing I learned was that translating science into practice means nothing when you don't consider how people will engage with the intervention you designed.聽
Ilse Rink
Ilse Rink - Alumna Health Psychology
During the programme, I was allowed academic freedom to explore specific topics within health psychology that piqued my interest. I would recommend the HP master to anyone who wants to help others live a healthy life in the broadest sense.
Your student life starts in the vibrant city of Rotterdam
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