Psychology: Economic and Consumer Psychology
Description
We are constantly making choices and decisions. We choose a master’s specialisation, select a health care insurance, and decide to skip dessert for a healthier lifestyle. Some of our choices require intentional decisions, whether to buy or rent a house, to save or spend our money after a day’s work, who to date (and who not to date). Other choices and decisions may be more habitual, such as switching on the news at eight or accessing Google to look up some information. Our days are filled with countless decisions and the consequences of these decisions, from having tea or coffee in the morning to choosing a movie to watch in the evening. And if this is not already hard enough by itself, companies and organisations try to influence our choices and decisions, through marketing and advertising. These persuasion attempts range from how to tempt us to buy their (new and improved) product to how to make us save energy or donate money to charity. But how do we decide? How rational are our choices? Are our emotions useful in making decisions or not? How do we sell our own products and ideas to others? As economic behaviours overlap to a large extent with social behaviours, the master’s specialisation in Economic and Consumer Psychology has a lot to offer in answering these questions.
Objectives
In the master’s specialisation in Economic and Consumer Psychology, students will study the psychological mechanisms that underlie many of our choices and decisions concerning consumption and other economic behaviours. It aims at providing students with high-level training (i.e., comprehensive knowledge and excellent skills) in economic and consumer psychology, which will enable them to work independently at a professional level in a relevant field. Economic and Consumer Psychology has a core curriculum with a focus on the integration of psychological and economic theories and practice.
Curriculum
The curriculum of 60 EC offers a variety of courses and a supervised master thesis. The specialisation consists of:
4 mandatory courses (20 EC)
thesis (20 EC)
internship (10 EC)
2 elective course (10 EC)
Master's Kick Off
At this day (beginning of September for students starting in September / late January for students starting in February) your attendance is strongly advised.
During the Master's Kick Off you will be handed important information on how to organise your studies at Leiden University. A representative of your specialisation will be present. You do not want to miss this!