Entry requirements
Only open to master’s students in Psychology with specialisation Occupational Health Psychology.
Description
This course focuses on interventions to promote employee health and well-being. Attention is given to health promotion programmes (e.g., life style interventions), as well as organisational interventions (e.g., job redesign). A stepwise approach is followed, starting from how to assess psychosocial job conditions / occupational risks and health / well-being outcomes, to the development, implementation, and evaluation of an intervention programme. The workgroup sessions combine mini lectures with in-class assignments. The topics addressed are elaborated upon in individual homework assignments. Parallel to this, students work autonomously in subgroups to develop an intervention programme for a specific work setting. Case descriptions, based on actual situations in e.g. health care and manufacturing industry, are used as a starting point. At the end of the course each subgroup will present their intervention programme (including a rationale, an outline, and evaluation plans) to the other students. The intervention programmes will be compared and critically discussed.
Course objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will:
Be acquainted with some methods to assess psychosocial job conditions / occupational risks and health/well-being in employees;
Be aware of the potential benefits / advantages of the worksite as a setting for health promotion, and of the ethical issues involved in work site health promotion; and
Be able to design a tailored work site intervention to improve employee health and well-being applying scientific knowledge with regard to effective interventions.
This course prepares students for their future role as occupational health psychologists in which they may need to assess occupational risks / psychosocial job conditions and employee health and well-being in diverse organisational settings, and design and implement tailored evidence-based interventions to improve employee health and well-being.
Timetable
For the timetables of your lectures, work groups and exams, please select your study programme in:
Psychology timetables
Registration
Course
Students need to enroll for lectures and work group sessions.
Master’s course registration
Examination
Students are not automatically enrolled for an examination. They can register via uSis from 100 to 10 calendar days before the date. Students who are not registered will not be permitted to take the examination.
Registering for exams
Mode of instruction
The course starts off with a plenary 3-hour session, followed by six 3-hour workgroup sessions, and ends with two 3-hour plenary presentation & discussion sessions. All aspects of the intervention process will be addressed, from assessment and problem analysis of the current situation, to the development, implementation, and evaluation of interventions.
Attendance to all sessions is mandatory.
Assessment method
The final grade is based on:
Subgroup assignment (50%)
Individual assignments (40%)
Active participation and input in the sessions (10%)
The Institute of Psychology follows the policy of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences to systematically check student papers for plagiarism with the help of software. Disciplinary measures will be taken when fraud is detected. Students are expected to be familiar with and understand the implications of this fraud policy.
Reading list
Leka, S. & Houdmont, J. (Eds.)(2010) Occupational Health Psychology. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. (note: this book will also be used in the course ’Work & Stress’)
Further readings will be announced via Blackboard. Exemplary literature includes:
Allegrante, J, & Sloan, R. (1986). Ethical dilemmas in workplace health promotion. Preventive Medicine, 15(3), 313-320.
Cahalin, L.P., Kaminsky, L., Lavie, C.J., et al. (2015). Development and implementation of worksite health and wellness programs: A focus on Non-communicable disease. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, 58, 94-101.
DeJoy, D, Wilson, M, Vandenberg, R, et al. (2010). Assessing the impact of healthy work organization intervention. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 83(1), 139-165.
Nielsen, K, Randall, R, Holten, A, et al. (2010). Conducting organizational-level occupational health interventions: What works?. Work and Stress, 24(3), 234-259.
NIOSH (2008). Essential elements of effective workplace programs and policies for improving worker health and wellbeing. WorkLife, October 2008.
Robroek, S, van Lenthe, F, van Empelen, P, & Burdorf, A. (2009). Determinants of participation in worksite health promotion programmes: A systematic review. The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 6(1), 26.
Tetrick, L.E. & Winslow, C.J. (2015). Workplace stress management interventions and health promotion. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 2, 583-603.
Contact information
Dr. Margot van der Doef
doef@fsw.leidenuniv.nl