Master focus

Psychology of Digitalisation

In the Master program Psychology of Digitalisation, students examine how the increasing availability of digital tools and services affects human behaviour in everyday life generally, and in psychological professions specifically. This specialisation places a particular focus on the interactions between psychology and technology, on technical skills, and on critical science such as meta-science. Through our courses, students acquire digital competencies related to data and services they will encounter in their careers – be it in clinical settings, human resources, or research – such as privacy and data protection, statistical and methodological literacy, and programming.

This topic area offers graduates a wide range of career opportunities, such as in research, consulting, data analytics, development of digital applications, usability testing, or in the fields of data protection and IT security. For those seeking careers in academic research, this specialisation provides a rigorous training in critical analysis of research, as well as technical, coding, and Open Science skills that are highly desirable when recruiting PhD students. In the focus Psychology of Digitalisation, students have the opportunity to work on practical projects and apply their knowledge directly. For example, students may manage a project to test the reproducibility and robustness of results from published research using modern digital tools, or support the transformation towards “industry 4.0” in a company. The importance of digitalisation will continue to increase in the future. Understanding the interaction between psychology and technology, and being trained in a variety of skills in this area, will prepare graduates of this specialisation for dynamically changing job demands for psychologists.

Course Structure

Our courses are formed from two parallel tracks: one for substantive knowledge in domains relevant to digitalisation, and one on technical skills.

Substantive knowledge track

In the substantive knowledge track, students engage with topics such as online communication, media effects, human-computer interaction, critical thinking to separate facts from rhetoric, and how to understand the evidential basis of the public discourse around digitalisation. Courses can be loosely organised into three broad themes, Meta-Science, Privacy and Security, and Digitalisation more generally.

  • The lecture series touches on many topics that are explored in more depth in the seminars. We suggest that students take the lecture series in their first year of their masters. Please note that the lecture will span two semesters starting from Autumn semester 2025.
  • Places in the "Psychology in Crisis?" seminar are awarded based on having fewer completed ECTS, whereas most other courses at the Institute of Psychology are awarded based on having more ECTS. This is so that students complete this course as early in their Master’s degree as possible. Feedback from students in previous years indicated that they wanted to be exposed to this course early.

Technical skills track

In the technical track, students learn a range of coding, methodological, and statistical skills to better evaluate psychological research, and increase the credibility, reproducibility and transparency of future research.

Please note that these courses have specific target audiences, mostly based on your existing data analysis and R skills: beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

This does not mean that you have to start with the basic courses, only that you should a) choose courses based on your existing ability, and b) not take basic courses if you have already successfully completed intermediate or advanced courses. This is particularly the case for the "R you Ready?" and the "Reproducible Data Wrangling and Visualisation in R" courses, both of which teach R skills but at different levels. Students should not enroll in both at the same time or complete the basic course if they have already successfully completed the intermediate or advanced courses, and will be asked to deregister if they do so.

The advanced courses do not require you to already have advanced R knowledge, only the desire to acquire it within the course.

Choosing the right classes

1. During my studies (e.g., Bachelor or Master), I actively worked with R or another statistical programming language.
2. I enjoy solving technical problems on my own and don’t give up quickly, even if it takes time and effort.
3. I can usually handle data wrangling tasks (e.g., cleaning, transforming, merging datasets) on my own.

For each "yes":

0–1 Point → R u Ready
2 Points → Reproducible Data Wrangling & Visualisation
3 Points → Simulation Studies (Monte Carlo)

If you are unsure as to which course is best for you, please email the student advisory service or ask a member of our department.

Requirements: Psychology of Digitalisation as a Main Topic Area (30 ECTS) according to SP2021

  • Psychology of Digitalisation: Everything is Computer (Lecture) - 3 ECTS
  • Digitalisation of Psychology: Computer is Everything (Lecture) - 3 ECTS
  • At least 24 ECTS, free choice of other lectures and seminars from our department
  • At least one of the chosen methods seminars has to be offered by our department
  • Beyond this, any methods seminar offered by us can also be chosen as a regular seminar

Requirements: Psychology of Digitalisation as a Supplementary Area (15 ECTS) according to SP2021

  • Free choice of our seminars and lectures


Current Psychology of Digitalisation courses