Maastricht University - Center for European Studies

This course familiarizes students with various aspects of work and organizational psychology. Questions that are addressed during the course are: How can organizations select good employees? What can organizations do to maintain a healthy and motivated workforce? What are effective leadership styles? What does a high-performance team look like? Which work factors lead to stress? To answer these questions, the course presents an array of different topics from work and organizational psychology such as work stress, occupational health, emotions in organizations, leadership, personnel selection, work motivation, and teamwork. The course consists of lectures, an individual assignment and a group project in which students either work on a practical consultancy project (e.g., develop a plan how to address an issue in an organization) or a research project (e.g., develop a specific idea for a field study). At the end, there is a ‘mini-conference’ in which groups present the results of their group project. 

In this course, the core processes for developing theory-and evidence-based interventions are highlighted. Several topics in the field of applied psychology are discussed, such as socio-economic health inequities, safe sex, as well as sustainability topics such as pro-environmental behaviors. The application of the role of reserve capacities such as psychological and social capital, or stigma are reviewed. The course concludes with first-hand examples of existing behavior change programs, from problems they target and who are involved, to theory and empirical evidence, to development, implementation, and evaluation.

In this course, students learn about various ways to enhance cognition covering a broad range of approaches. The focus is on current hot topics such as brain stimulation, neuro-feedback, smart drugs, and meditation. Additionally, students have the opportunity to critically discuss the scientific basis of other (potential) cognitive enhancers such as sleep, hypnosis, nutrition, physical exercise, and neuro-linguistic programming. Lastly, the possibility of cognitive enhancement poses ethical questions that are discussed. At the end of this course, students have basic knowledge of the potential, current limitations, and risks of cognitive enhancement.

This version of the Positive Psychology course includes an Independent Study Project (ISP) done under the direction of the instructor. The ISP is 10-12 pages and counts for 1/3 of the overall grade for the course. Positive psychology was introduced by Martin Seligman around 2000 and can be viewed as a supplementary approach to clinical psychology. The positive psychological movement formulated three aims: (1) to focus on well-being and happiness instead of abnormal behavior and psychopathology, (2) to be concerned with building positive qualities and strengths instead of repairing damage, and (3) to prevent future problems instead of correcting past and present problems. This course starts with a general introduction to the field of positive psychology. The main concepts are introduced and clarified, and an overview of the results of happiness studies is presented. In subsequent meetings, various topics are discussed in lectures and group discussions including mindfulness, positive emotions, resilience, self-determination theory, self-compassion, and research in the field. There is ample room to gain hands-on experience with positive psychological techniques ranging from simple journaling exercises to mindfulness meditation. The course provides participants with the tools to be able to evaluate and design research in the area of positive psychology, but also with the skills to apply some important intervention techniques. Final assessment is by means of an individual paper on a topic of choice within the field of positive psychology. The course includes a field trip.

The course provides an overview of modern health challenges in Europe and how they are shaped by a variety of themes within stakeholders in policy, research, and practice. Such themes include developing a unified system of population health monitoring across sovereign countries; coping with population aging and rising healthcare expenditures; managing commercial and social determinants of health; supporting cross-border collaboration between national health systems; fostering learning and the exchange of expertise in social and health policy; and identifying a global role for European Public Health. The current course combines theory with practice through lectures, tutorials, and a masterclass. Lectures introduce the content and initiate discussions on topics covered by the course. In addition, the course makes use of problem-based learning (PBL), a prominent learning method widely used at Maastricht University, in which students actively engage in their own learning. Finally, the course includes an exchange of views in the form of a masterclass with a senior expert in European health policy. To facilitate a fruitful learning environment a moderate level of health-related knowledge is required. Hence, the course is directed toward students attending bachelor or master's courses in medicine, public health science, sociology, anthropology, political science, or economics.

This course provides students with an introductory investigation into the question of if, when, and how ethical considerations can or must play a role in the practice of the medical profession. It makes students aware of the fact that the health sciences are not operating in a moral vacuum and that a good knowledge of both older and recent ethical debates in this particular field is of the greatest significance. This course consists of three parts. The first part of the course gives an introduction to some fundamental European philosophical ideas of what it means to be a human being. This introduction is accompanied by an introduction to the most important ethical theories of the West. The second part of the course discusses a general framework of medical ethics as it could play a guiding role in the day-to-day practice of those who are members of the medical profession or related areas. The third part of the course discusses some of the most important and well-known ethical problems that can be found within the medical field. There are lectures, discussions, and the study of cases that reflect the most important problems and topics that make up the moral challenges of the medical discipline of today. 

In this course, students are introduced to the innovative and mind-blowing field of developmental neuropsychology. The anatomy of the brain and relevant brain functions are introduced at the beginning of the module. Through case studies, students explore the fundamental research and the most recent advances in the field. Students endeavor to find solutions to the questions presented by researching various articles and group discussion. For example, why is there a change in the ability to discriminate between human faces and monkey faces in babies of 12 months? And why is this difference not present at 6 months? Cognitive development is typically measured by changes or improvements in cognitive processes. In this course, processes such as language, reasoning, and memory etc. are explored in terms of their developmental trajectory and how this trajectory relates to changes in the maturing brain. It examines how these developmental changes can be measured by various neurological methods (e.g. fMRI and EEG). The field trip included in the course focuses on the importance of neuroscientific research methods and forms a unique and practical insight into the subject matter. Midway through the course the students construct a research proposal regarding developmental neuropsychology in subgroups and present this proposal.

The most general function of our brain is to interact with our environment to obtain what we desire and to avoid what is disadvantageous. The brain plans and executes actions to accomplish this. Actions can be simple (e.g., picking up a pencil), effortful (e.g., endurance running), complex (e.g., dancing), or symbolic (e.g., stick up your thumb to get a ride). In all of these actions our brain is involved, but not to the same degree. Evolution has organized motor functions in a hierarchical system that delegates important motor and control functions to lower levels of the nervous system. This allows the brain to spend more time on other important functions, including the selection of goals and the planning of how to pursue them. Understanding of the neural mechanisms of decision making, action selection, action planning, and action execution has gained a lot from studying neural disorders (Parkinson's disease, orbitofrontal patients, obsessive compulsive disorder, etc.) which are considered in the course. Pre-requisites for this course include a course on biological foundations of behavior and a course on sensation and perception.

This course introduces students to the social policy that is characteristic of European welfare states. In light of the recent economic crisis and developments in the European Union (EU), characterized by rise in poverty and unemployment (among youth in particular) along with the rise of popularities of the right-wing parties, the framework for policy has become quite challenging for policy makers and citizens alike. Throughout the course, the students learn about various ways and degrees to which citizens get involved in social problems (e.g. poverty, unemployment, exclusion on various grounds) in their communities and country. The course begins with students brainstorming on social policy concepts they have heard and are or familiar with. The aim of this class is to bring to a common learning ground the diverse backgrounds (geographical and knowledge wise) students have. The course covers welfare state regimes, classification of the European welfare states, Esping-Andersen typology of welfare state, US social security system, and China's social policy regime. The course provides an historical perspective of European social policy, beginning with the time period before the First World War when poverty was on rise in Europe. Students discuss the first attempts of creating social policy, the case of Beveridge and Law of the Poor in the United Kingdom and the case of Bismarck and unemployment insurance of miners in Germany. The shift from incipient forms of social policy to advanced forms of welfare state is the focus of this class. Students are introduced to the stages of welfare state development. The course then covers an historical perspective of social policy practices across the world including examples from the US, Australia, China, Latin America, and Russia. Students learn how to distinguish between the systems and to analyze the governmental approach in this area. The course then turns to the social policy focused on the following topics: the alleviation of poverty, unemployment, insurance and pension, and gender discrimination and other dimensions. The course ends with a review of the current challenges and trends in social security systems across the world. The course is best suited for economics, political science, sociology, or social work majors, but it can also be attended by students with other background who are interested in the topic.