Psychological Science

Overview

About

Psychological science is the systematic study of human thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. With carefully planned studies and well-informed theories, psychological scientists can provide practical advice for virtually every part of society. Some researchers study environmental attitudes and behaviours that have implications for climate change. Some study how people can organize themselves effectively and collaborate better in work contexts. Others study the psychology in legal contexts and give advice to improve the practices of police, judges, and lawyers.

Preparing for the future with a personalized portfolio

The Psychological Science programme of the University of Gothenburg builds on and is designed to promote active involvement and engagement. You will build your own learning portfolios and develop your future career plans as part of the programme.

As you learn about the central concepts, theories, and research in each major area of psychology, you will take complementary research methods courses. This approach integrates learning of methods and subject-matter content. The programme equips you with practical skills in quantitative and qualitative research methods, as well as in-depth knowledge of the main areas of psychological science:

• personality psychology

• cognitive psychology

• social psychology

• lifespan and developmental psychology

• biological and human neuropsychology

Research-oriented learning and active participation

From the start and throughout the whole program, you will be part of a research group at the department and a peer group of your classmates.

In the research practicum course, you will be matched with a supervisor, with whom you will work on research projects for three semesters. By collaborating with active researchers in psychology, you will get practical hands-on experience with various research-related tasks as well as in-depth understanding of research challenges. In addition, this collaboration can act as the basis for your master’s thesis that you will write during the fourth semester.

Course readings will primarily include current high-quality research articles from the most influential journals in the field, and courses are taught by teachers who are active researchers in their fields.