BSc Psychology
Leiden, Netherlands
BSc
DURATION
3 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
TUITION FEES
EUR 2,530 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* Tuition fee: €13.400,- (academic year 2024-2025) | Institutional tuition fee: €9.500,- (academic year 2024-2025)
Key Summary
About: Leiden University's International Bachelor in Psychology studies human behavior in personal, social, and clinical contexts. It trains you in scientific methods: observe, listen, think analytically, and adopt objective perspectives. The programme lets you specialise or stay broad, work with researchers in an international classroom, and focus on career prospects from the start. The university's modest communities in Leiden and The Hague create a personal, committed atmosphere.
Career Outcomes: Graduates often enter clinical services, research, counseling, education, human resources, policy, or data roles. Career opportunities include clinical psychologist, research assistant, counselor, educational psychologist, HR specialist, policy advisor, and data analyst.
Psychology plays a role in every aspect of life and society. It’s a subject for people who are interested in understanding why we behave the way we do.
Why study Psychology?
Would you like to know why a conflict arises among your friends or why your grandmother with Alzheimer's keeps forgetting who you are? Why do we behave differently when we're in a group? What can we do about depression? These are questions psychologists try to find answers to. And the best thing is, most psychological topics are applicable to your own life.
Are you fascinated by human behaviour? Do you always wonder what's behind your first impression of someone? Then studying Psychology may be just the right choice for you!
Why the International Bachelor in Psychology in Leiden?
If you choose the International Bachelor in Psychology at Leiden you will:
- be able to specialise or keep a broad orientation;
- work closely with inspiring researchers in an international classroom;
- focus on your career prospects from the start of the programme
Does this study fit you?
What do you need to be able to study Psychology?
- You are no doubt interested in people’s behaviour, but you also need to be aware that Psychology is a science. This means you will be trained to look at things from different perspectives and be as objective as possible.
- Being good at observing people and listening to them is important for a psychologist.
- You have it in you to think systematically and analytically, and to reason clearly. Psychology is a fitting field for people with inquisitive minds.
- A feeling for language helps as you will need to understand, speak and write in English.
The International Bachelor in Psychology (IBP) offers a broad academic development, with knowledge of several subdisciplines, such as clinical (neuro)psychology, developmental psychology, social and organisational psychology, economic and consumer psychology, cognitive psychology and health psychology.
In order to organize this diversity, you can choose different specialisation courses from your second year. The electives space can be filled with studying abroad, following a minor, or gaining more in-depth knowledge with several electives.
Year 1
Introduction to Psychology
Introduction to Psychology offers a representative and coherent overview of the discipline. ‘Representative’ because it constitutes a first acquaintance with the main currents and themes within psychology including neural, evolutionary, cognitive, social and developmental perspectives on human behavior; ‘coherent’ because it introduces students to the different psychological sub-disciplines emphasizing their common elements.
Introduction to Methodology and Statistics
Topics discussed in this course include: empirical reasoning; deriving a verifiable research idea; selecting data collection methods; determining reliability and validity; using descriptive statistics; standard normal distribution, relationships between variables; experimental control, experimental designs; describing and explaining variance.
Academic Skills Tutorial
In the ‘Academic Skills Tutorial’ course students embark on their academic education. They are taught 3 important skills: how to write an article, how to give a presentation, and how to set up an experiment. In practising these skills considerable attention is paid to argumentation, correct use of language, library use, correct referencing and compiling a bibliography. The ethical aspects of conducting research are also addressed in various contexts.
Year 2
Interpersonal Professional Skills
This course centres on the psychologist in training as a professional. In order to function adequately as a professional in the field, you need to be aware of your own motivations, your skills (conversational and other) and competencies, your personal effectiveness, your own unique talents and pitfalls, your self-sabotaging patterns, your decision-making process and your reflective skills. It is important to be able to reflect on your own behaviour and the response it evokes in others. Another component of the learning process is learning to reflect on group dynamics, i.e. the context in which a given behaviour occurs.
Perspective on Career Planning
This course consists of three modules. In each module some career related questions are addressed.
1. Career perspectives and orientation on the field of work: In this module, we examine how careers develop. Do they take the form of a straight, continuous line (‘linear’) or do they tend to be more erratic and less predictable (‘non-linear’)? What does the answer to this question imply for my career planning and career orientation? What is the content of the field of work? What will my possibilities be? How can I orientate myself on these possibilities?
2. Self-knowledge: What am I capable of? What do I want? How can I best examine my ambitions and qualities?
3. Expectation of the field of work: What will be expected of me? What is my role in my future field of work? What is ethical behavior? How can I act in an ethical way?
In addition, this course has a mentoring function during the whole academic year.
Year 3
Bachelor project Psychology
The Bachelor’s thesis is an independently completed scientific paper representing a study load of 15 ECTS. The thesis consists of a report on a study (or partial study) conducted in the context of the Bachelor’s project and involving data collection on the basis of interviews, questionnaires, laboratory experiments and other methods.
In his/her thesis, the student should demonstrate a broad command of the psychological knowledge and skills acquired throughout the bachelor’s programme. Although the research conducted in the context of the Bachelor’s projects is usually designed and carried out in groups, the thesis is written individually.
How will you fill your electives space?
Where you will work after your study, (partly) depends on the direction you choose. The first year of your study, the propedeuse, is determined: you will get an introduction to the field of study. From your second year, you will specialise. You will then have electives space which you can fill with electives, a minor or studying abroad.