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Taking electives at the Department of Psychology

Are you interested in taking an elective at the Psychology department? We offer several interesting courses for students with little or no prior knowledge about psychology (our first-year courses). Do you already have some prior knowledge and want to deepen your knowledge in psychology? In that case, you can choose from even more courses.

Students from other programmes than Psychology are very welcome, but when there is a shortage of space, students taking the full bachelor’s programme are given priority.

Please note: for courses with prerequisites, we will know approximately one week prior to the start of the semester whether places are available. As soon as we have processed your request, we will inform you of the outcome via email. For requests regarding semester 1 courses, this will be during the second half of August. For semester 2, this will be towards the end of January. Before these moments, you will not receive any notification or update from us regarding placement in courses.

Teaching language

All lectures are in English. Depending on the course, tutorials are offered in English, Dutch or both English and Dutch. Examinations are always in English, with the option for Dutch students to answer in Dutch.

Registration

If you are studying at an educational institution other than the UvA, you first need to complete a supplementary enrolment in Studielink. You will then be given a UvA student number and a UvAnetID. These are required to register for UvA courses.

Please note: if you are doing a higher professional education programme (=HBO), you must have at least completed your first-year curriculum; after that, you can enroll in Studielink.

First-year courses

You can register for courses from our first-year curriculum (see the UvA Course Catalogue), with the exception of Research Methods & Statistics, Tutorials Academic Skills and the First Year Thesis. Students from our own Psychology programme and students from programmes with which we have made special arrangements, are given priority.

Course registration for first year courses takes place via GLASS. You can search for the relevant courses there and register, or access the GLASS via the Course Catalogue. Note that students are NOT placed on a first-come, first-served basis.

You can find registration dates in the student website.

Upper-year courses

Students who wish to register for upper-year courses need to complete an elective registration form during the course registration round. The form for semester 2 of the 2024-2025 academic year opens on Monday 2 December.

  • Courses without prerequisites

    You can take the courses below without any prior knowledge. For these courses, no tutorials are offered. 

    Please note: if you are doing a higher professional education programme (=HBO), you must have at least completed your propaedeutic phase.

    • Introductory Psychology (7201708PXY, 6 EC)
    • Brain & Cognition (7201709PXY, 6 EC) 
    • Developmental Psychology (7201705PXY, 6 EC) 
    • Work & Organisational Psychology (7201710PXY, 6 EC) 
    • Social Psychology (7201711PXY, 6 EC) 
    • Clinical Psychology (7201712PXY, 6 EC) 
    • Neuropsychology (7201713PXY, 6 EC) 
    • Behavioural Data Science (7201714PXY, 3 EC)

    The course Behavioural Data Science forms a 6 EC course with another course that is only for Psychology students. As an elective student, you can only take the 3 EC variant (7201714PXY).

  • Courses with little prerequisites (semester 1 only)

    Psychology offers courses for which no specific prior knowledge about Psychology is necessary but for which you need to have finished your first-year curriculum. These courses are:

    • Practical Training: Psychological Communication (3 EC)
    • Fundamentals of Psychology (6 EC)

    • Scientific and Statistical Reasoning (9EC)

    Psychology also offers courses for which no specific prior knowledge about Psychology is required, but for which you need to have finished the first year (or 60 EC) of your own study programme’s curriculum and (within or outside the 60 EC of your curriculum), have passed at least 12 EC on courses on methods and statistics in social sciences.

    The Current Topics (6 EC each), offered in semester 1 only, are:

    • A Clinical Perspective on Today's Issues (7203BK74XY)
    • Clinical Developmental and Health Psychology (7203BO48XY)
    • Consciousness: from Theory to the Clinic (7203BP48XY)
    • Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace (7203BA24XY)
    • Current Topics: Stress in Health and Disease (7203BK75XY)
    • Introduction to Cultural Psychology  (7203BS44XY)
    • Introduction to Sport and Performance Psychology (7203BA23XY)
    • Polarisation (7203BM47XY)
    • The Psychology of AI (7203BM45XY)

    For these courses, please use the elective registration form. In the form you will be asked to upload an overview of your results (transcript of records) so far, to prove that you have obtained at least 60 ec from your own study programme and - for the Current Topics - at least 12 EC in the field of social scientific research methods and statistics. You can request a transcript via the Education Desk of your own study programme.

  • Courses for which you need to have specific prior knowledge (semester 2 only)

    Do you have quite some prior knowledge of Psychology? If so, you might be eligible for our specialisation courses. Of course, it depends on what prior knowledge you already have.

    During the second semester, each specialisation offers a course package of 30 ec spread out over 4 or 5 courses. We advise you to follow the package as a whole, as you will then have a carefully composed programme in which all subjects are geared to each other. It is also possible to follow separate courses from the packages, but often you must have taken other, earlier, courses from the package as well.

    The prerequisites for the packages are:

    • At least 60 EC in from the first year of your study programme
    • At least 18 EC in the field of research methods and statistics in social science
    • Prerequisites may differ per package – see below

    Brain & Cognition
    Prerequisites: first-year level courses on cognitive psychology (at least 4 EC) and biological psychology/neuropsychology (at least 4 EC). Within our own study programme of Psychology, this is Brain & Cognition (7201708PXY) and Neuropsychology (7201713PXY). Both courses are 6 EC.

    Clinical Developmental Psychology 
    Prerequisites: first year level courses on clinical psychology/psychopathology (≥ 6 EC),  neuropsychology (≥ 6 EC) developmental psychology (≥ 6 EC), psychological communication (≥ 3 EC) and psychodiagnostics (≥ 6 EC). In our own programme of psychology, these are Clinical psychology (7201712PXY), Neuropsychology (7201713PXY), Developmental Psychology (7201705PXY), Psychological Communication (7202A703XY). Basics knowledge/skills psychodiagnostics are intertwined with several of our first year courses and cannot be taken as an individual course within our programme.

    Clinical Neuropsychology
    Note that within this specialisation, all courses are taught in Dutch. Prerequisites: first year level courses on clinical psychology/psychopathology (≥ 6 EC), developmental psychology (≥ 6 EC), neuropsychology, psychological communication (≥ 3 EC)  and psychodiagnostics (≥ 6 EC). In our own programme of psychology, these are Clinical Psychology (6 EC), Developmental Psychology (6 EC), Brain & Cognition (6 EC), Neuropsychology (7201713PXY), Psychological Communication (7202A703XY). Basics knowledge/skills psychodiagnostics are intertwined with several of our first year courses and cannot be taken as an individual course within our programme.

    Psychological Methods  
    Prerequisites: at least 18 EC on methods and statistics in social sciences. Within our own programme, this is Research Methods and Statistics (7201704PXY, 12 EC) and Scientific and Statistical Reasoning (7202A701XY, 9 EC).

    Note that, unless you have a very specific  relevant background, the five specialisation courses must be taken as a set of 5 as the courses build on each other.

    Social Psychology
    Prerequisites: first-year level course on social psychology (at least 4 ec). Within our own study programme of Psychology, this is Social Psychology (7201711PXY)

    Work and Organisational Psychology 
    Prerequisites: first-year level course on work & organisational psychology (at least 4 EC). Within our study programme of Psychology, this is Work & Organisational Psychology (7201710PXY)

    Clinical Psychology
    Prerequisites: first year level courses on clinical psychology/psychopathology (≥ 6 EC), developmental psychology (≥ 6 EC), neuropsychology (≥ 6 EC), psychological communication (≥ 3 EC) and psychodiagnostics (≥ 6 EC). In our own programme of psychology, these are Clinical Psychology (7201712PXY), Developmental Psychology (7201705PXY), Neuropsychology (7201713PXY), Psychological Communication (7202A703XY). Basics knowledge/skills psychodiagnostics are intertwined with several of our first year courses and cannot be taken as an individual course within our programme.

    For these courses, please use the elective registration form. The form will be open during the regular course registration periods of the UvA. In the form you will be asked to upload an overview of your results (transcript of records) so far, to prove that you have obtained at least 60 EC from your own study programme and at least 12 / 18 EC in the field of social scientific research methods and statistics. Also, it should show you fulfill the prerequisites for the specialised courses. You can request a transcript via the Education Desk of your own study programme.

    Further information on prerequisites

    The prerequisites for specialised courses are quite elaborate. Above, we provide you with the name of a course that is given by our department that covers the entrance requirement, so you can refer to our course catalogue what knowledge/skills is/are required. However, an equivalent course will also be considered sufficient. So, if the prerequisite we mention is "developmental psychology" and you passed a course on “child psychology”, please indicate this on the form with which you register.