Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Master | Psychology: Social Influence | University of Amsterdam

Social influence means that we try to change the behaviours,

the attitudes, the motivations and the emotions of people

in order to help them live healthier lives and also to act more pro-socially.

We see that in our society there is an increasing demand

in understanding how behavioural change could be implemented,

how it works, in an ethically responsible way.

And we teach our students in order to design evidence-based interventions

such that they can reply to this demand.

I decided to study this programme

because I wanted to convert my theoretical knowledge

of my Bachelor Psychology into practical action.

We are working on a project currently for an advertising agency.

We have to do a target research, find an insight, build an intervention,

and present it in an attractive manner, in a very short time period for us.

In the first semester of our programme,

we teach our students the theoretical foundations

and the methods that they will be using during the second semester in which

they work on their own project and also in which they apply this knowledge

when they work as an intern for an organisation or a company.

Well, one of the courses that we have is called Developing Interventions.

Students get to learn how to set up and carry out

their own behavioural change intervention project.

Think about, for example, waste separation.

There are different kinds of waste bins with different kinds of colours.

But still people don't use them properly and the question is: Why?

There are many different psychological processes involved here

that make people behave a certain way.

And we try to take what we know from some psychology in general

and to change people's behaviour, motivating them to make correct choices.

We try to do this with external parties as well.

Like the ministries we have cooperation with.

Different kinds of consultancy companies

that try to stimulate people in behavioural change

in order to benefit mankind and the environment in general.

In the future I intend to work for socially responsible companies

or governments which influence people.

And my personal goal in working with these organisations is

changing people's behaviour in the sake for social welfare.

I have studied Social Psychology, the Master's track Social Influence,

and now I am an impact researcher at Avance Impact.

The skills I acquired during my studies which I still use include research skills.

So how to create a questionnaire, analysing data,

and drawing conclusions to write a report.

I also did the course Developing Interventions,

where we learned methods that apply to my work here.

What I like about my job is that we work with organisations

engaged in sustainability, social initiatives, and development aid.

We help them make an even bigger impact.

The most important asset of our programme is that we have this unique combination of

being firmly grounded in scientific research doing evidence-based research,

and on the other hand, that we are firmly grounded

in our network of organisations in practice.

Students learn what behavioural change means in the real world.

But they do this evidence-based and with scientific methods.