Objectives and contents

Study objectives

Students learn to apply practical psychological knowledge on a scientific basis in different fields of work, e.g. for an independent activity in a supervisor position, for a scientific career or for freelance work. For this purpose, the professional, methodological and social competences required for working in interdisciplinary teams are taught.


Course content

The courses offered comprise five main content areas (so-called tracks) in which topics from the classic psychological research and application fields in the clinical, educational and economic areas are dealt with:

  • Competence development in the life course
  • Clinical psychology, health psychology, psychotherapy research
  • Cognition, emotion, behaviour
  • Psychobiology, neuropsychology, behavioural medicine
  • Work, organisational and applied social psychology

Further information about the tracks can be found on this page.

The programme is complemented by courses on methodology (evaluation and applied diagnostics as well as multivariate procedures). The programme is completed by a work-related internship, a non-psychological elective module and the Master's thesis.


Possible focal points in the tracks

In the course of the degree programme, courses totalling 36 semester hours per week (SWS) are attended and completed as modules. In the process, 120 credit points (LP) are acquired. The modules Applied Diagnostics and Multivariate Methods are compulsory modules. Three research-oriented modules (FOVs) and two project-oriented modules (POVs) can be selected and studied from the five main content areas ("tracks"). In the seminar allocation system, you can indicate preferences for FOVs or POVs of certain tracks. The seminar allocation system will then try to take these preferences into account. However, we cannot guarantee that you will receive the FOVs and POVs of your preferred tracks because of random fluctuations in the number of students and lecturers in the subject and in the distribution of students' interests across modules. As students do not have to commit to tracks at the beginning of the Master's, we cannot calculate in advance exactly how many FOVs and POVs are needed in which track. So if you choose the Master's programme, you are choosing a Master's programme with a broad content that will give you insights into many topics and thus prepare you for many professional fields.

Course of studies

The study plan in the module manual describes one way in which the courses can be attended across the study semesters. Many students do not follow the study plan, e.g. because they complete an Erasmus semester or a longer internship in between. These frequent deviations from the module plan by students do not pose a problem. However, these random fluctuations mean that we cannot guarantee that even students who would like to study according to the module plan will be able to get the necessary seminar spots in every semester. Sometimes it might be possible to attend courses earlier than stated in the study plan, but sometimes seminar spots might only be available one or two semesters later than stated in the study plan. You should therefore be prepared to spend the fourth semester in Trier and to take FOVs or POVs there. However, you will receive all seminar spots in good time so that you can complete your studies with us in the four semesters of the standard period of study, provided you try to do so (and do not go abroad or take an internship for one semester, for example).

Our MSc Psychology is a full-time, face-to-face degree programme. If you are trying to complete it alongside a substantial professional career, you must be prepared for time conflicts and a longer course of study.

For more information on the structure of the Master's programme, please see the structure of the modules or the module manual.