Clinical and Health Psychology (research) (MSc)
Career prospects
A master's degree in Psychology at Leiden University combines theoretical knowledge with academic and professional skills, making you an attractive candidate for many employers.
Skills after graduation
The research master’s specialisation in Clinical and Health Psychology provides students with an in-depth knowledge of theories and research domains in this area. This includes the acquisition of knowledge and skills relevant to the assessment and treatment of psychopathology, as well as to health promotion and disease prevention and management of chronic diseases. Students acquire advanced research skills by participating in a clinical psychology or health psychology research projects and participating in labmeetings.
Sabine Peters
Research alumna
'I looked at both cognitive and affective aspects of development. I focused on adolescence because it is a very interesting period with a range of developments, especially in the brain. Cognitive brain regions play a role in complex processes like planning, reasoning and reflecting on your own behavior.'
Sabine Peters of Leiden University investigated how the development of cognitive and affective brain regions relates to learning and risk-taking behavior, such as alcohol use. She showed that, contrary to predictions from prior research, brain regions for cognitive control could be recruited even by young children and adolescents, but in different situations than adults.
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A master's degree in Psychology from Leiden University will prepare you adequately for entering the job market. The bar chart below indicates in which different fields our Psychology alumni work.
*Note: this is a general list for all our Psychology alumni, not specifically for this master's specialisation Clinical and Health Psychology.
Source: Elsivier - Beste Banen (2016)
Where do our former students work?
The master’s programme provides an ideal preparation for students who want to continue with an academic career and obtain a PhD in psychology. The research master’s programme also prepares students for positions where basic or applied psychological research is used to support the development of corporate or public policy. These include research agencies such as TNO, NIA, IOWO, as well as private firms (e.g. software and hardware development, safety control), municipal, and governmental (SCP) institutions focusing on research and consultancy.
Students who wish to pursue a career as scientist-practitioner/clinician may combine the research master with specific parts of the professional one-year master’s programmes in Clinical Psychology or in Health Psychology to qualify for post-master psychotherapy training programmes (PDO in Dutch).