Positive Psychology and Well-being Tilburg University

Overview

Program and courses

Positive psychology is the scientific study of strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive in their personal life, schools and universities, companies, and mental health care. You focus on people's strengths and talents and study concepts like creativity, happiness, developing talents and strengths, adaptive power, and psychological well-being. You will study these concepts in the context of individuals, personal life, health, education, entrepreneurship, and society in general. 

• Instead of focusing on preventing human disfunctioning, a positive psychologist recognizes and trains people’s character strengths to promote optimal flourishing in work, relationships, and personal development.
• This Master's track uses the scientist-practitioner model, with a strong link between theory and practice. You learn to conduct independent research and you put what you have learned into practice during an internship. You also attend guest lectures from professional practice.
• The program has the highest student satisfaction of all the psychology programs in the Netherlands (Keuzegids Masters 2025).
• Students from a Dutch university of Applied Sciences (hbo) can follow a one-year preparatory pre-Master’s program in Social Psychology.

As a positive psychologist, you focus on positive outcomes, like well-being, happiness and competence, instead of abnormal behavior and psychopathology. Being able to guide positive change processes on an individual, interpersonal and organizational level (HR departments or training and consultancy firms), positive psychologists can be employed in the broad domain of schools, companies and mental health services.

• Identify and stimulate talent development and motivation in schools and universities, as a coach, trainer, or consultant.
• Help employees and companies recruit the right people in the right positions, by gaining insight into their talents and strengths, or by establishing a suitable work environment for people with disabilities.
• Contribute to mental health care with a strength-oriented approach instead of a disorder-based approach. Psychologists are often one-sidedly trained in diagnosing and treating disorders, focusing on the co-morbidities and thus ignoring the fact that people with complaints are also people with talents and co-vitalities.