Psychology: Work and Organisational Psychology

The research activities of the Organizational Psychology group are combined under the Amsterdam Leadership Lab in collaboration with the Institute for Brain and Behaviour Amsterdam (IBBA). As a Master’s student, you’ll benefit from the expertise and knowledge within the group, while having the opportunity to make your own contribution to both research and practice during your Master’s thesis.

The group is highly international, and cooperates with a wide variety of departments and institutions within VU Amsterdam (the School of Business and Economics, NSCR, Zijlstra Centre), as well as several international universities (Oxford, Singapore, UCLA, Michigan State, Queensland, UWA). The department also has strong contacts with major public and private organisations in the Netherlands, Europe, and beyond.

Leadership, personality and team dynamics are themes that are central to our departmental research programme. Our research looks at questions like:

• What role do personality and leadership play in social interaction?
• How do we optimize selection in organizations?
• Which skills should you possess to stay in control of your feelings, and can self-control be accomplished through training?
• How do you optimize HR and reward systems in the organisations?

Specific information about the courses can be found in the Study Guide. 

During your master's programme, you will conduct a practice- or research-oriented internship. This will give you a good idea of your future profession. Through the programme's extensive internship network, you will establish contacts that are important for your future career as a psychologist. You will gain new experiences and get even more out of your studies.

VU Amsterdam offers you the opportunity to do your internship (and possibly your thesis) abroad. However, there are specific criteria for clinical internships and the number of places abroad is limited.

You will round off the  programme with your master’s thesis. You will write about research that you have conducted independently into a subject within your field of expertise. You can also combine your internship and master’s thesis.

The master's programme in Psychology thoroughly prepares you for your career as a psychologist.

Franziska Linn, who in the previous academic year was Dr. Marvin Neumann’s student, received the main award, and €2000, in the major thesis competition in Work and Organizational Psychology in the Netherlands: David van Lennep scriptieprijs by Nederlandse Stichting voor Psychotechniek (NSvP).

The title of Franziska’s thesis was: “Retaining the Hiring Professional in Employee Selection through a Mechanical Synthesis Approach”.