Curriculum Business Psychology
The six-semester program (3 years, 180 credit points) starts with the Leuphana Semester that all students take together. From the second semester on, students start specializing in their major and minor. The major forms the subject concentration of the program with five academic semesters whose core consists of the required modules (areas of concentration). The minor supplements this concentration with a second area of learning. In addition to the academic fields of the major and minor, all students, from the second semester on, complete the interdisciplinarily structured comprehensive studies program together.
The module in the major covers a number of courses in the first semester, that provide the student with a basic understanding of business psychology methods. In the second semester, after the Leuphana semester, the introduction into the discipline of business psychology commences.
Students attend further lecture courses on statistics and research methods and receive an introduction into general psychology. The subsequent semesters will explore the individual subfields of general psychology, significant to business psychology. The curriculum includes, for example, classes in social and communications psychology or in labor and engineering psychology. In addition, business psychology methods will be taught, such as, for example, market- and consumer research or personnel selection. In the sixth semester, students can take an internship as they write their Bachelor essay, in order to apply what they have learned in practice and to learn about possible occupational fields.
The thesis (also called Bachelor essay) rounds out the Bachelor program with a concentration in business psychology. Here students can show that they can apply the foundations and methodologies, which they have learned, to a topic of their own choosing. Over the course of a nine-week working period, they demonstrate that they can carry out an academic assessment of a question. After students have completed the respective modules (in their business psychology concentration as well as those in the minor and comprehensive studies program), they can graduate from Leuphana with the academic degree, “Bachelor of Science” or they can continue with a consecutive Master’s degree program.
You can find an overview of the modules you need to take for the major in business psychology on the following pages.
In the business psychology major you must take the following modules:
- Statistics for Psychologists
- Research Methods II
- Introduction to Business Psychology II
- General Psychology I & II
- Developmental- and Pedagogical Psychology
- Differential Psychology and Diagnostics
- Social- and Communications Psychology
- Organizational Psychology und Personal Development
- Market- and Consumer Research
- Labor- and Engineering Psychology
- Personnel Selection and Psychological Testing
- Workplace Security and Health
- Environmental- and Traffic Psychology
You will complete the major in the sixth semester with the Bachelor essay and a practical project.
The guidelines for the discipline (FSA) state which modules are required and which are permitted. The discipline guidelines (FSA) for the business psychology major are available to be downloaded on the pages of the central examination office via the link below.
The Business Psychology major has no elective modules. The guidelines for the discipline (FSA) specify which modules are required. You can find the guidelines on the homepage of the central examination office.
Students have the option to take up to 15 additional credit points by selecting from the entire course offerings of the Leuphana Bachelor (additional electives according to § 3, section 2, sentence 3 RPO). These credit points are not considered as merit or demerits. Students must declare upon registration, whether a module will be considered a required course or an elective. Students registered in the particular major or minor will have priority in getting into a seminar. Addition electives will be noted on the official transcript but will not be calculated as part of the final grade point average.
The Bachelor degree concludes with the Bachelor thesis (or essay). As a rule, the thesis is written in the sixth semester, within a specifically defined period of time. In the Bachelor essay, students demonstrate that they are able to work on a question within a set time limit using the academic methods of their discipline.
The bachelor thesis is then defended orally in a colloquium, where the student explains the essay to a panel of evaluators. The resulting final grade is drawn from the thesis grade, as well as the colloquium grade.
The essay can be written in connection with a business or it can have a theoretical focus. In the business psychology major, the Bachelor thesis can be written in the context of the practical project. The practical project module is scheduled for the sixth semester, which you can combine with two modules in the “projects and practices” perspective within the comprehensive studies program, in order to form a larger practical project. The Bachelor essay can share the same subject matter as the practical internship.
You can find further information about the Bachelor thesis and the practical project in the download section of this page under “special details” as well as in the general examination guidelines (RPO, § 18). The guidelines can be found on the home page of the examination office.