“What fascinates me about the discipline of psychology is its diversity, the various areas of application and the fact that psychology is everywhere. Therefore, graduates of a degree programme in Psychology can pursue a career in many very different areas of activity. In the master’s programme at the University of Vienna, I specialised in work, economy and society. In addition, I decided to personally focus on work and organisational psychology and selected many courses dealing with these subjects.
Work is of great importance, especially in today’s performance-oriented society. Our job heavily influences all other areas of life and our satisfaction with life in general. For all these and many other reasons, I consider it very important to examine organisations, individual organisational units, jobs and the inherent structures and processes from a psychological perspective. People as well as organisations as a whole can benefit from this perspective in many ways.
As I am about to finish my studies, I can look back at a variety of fascinating topics that I have been able to address and experiences I have gained. In theory, I investigated stress, health, well-being, motivation and many other variables both in general and in the specific context of work. In practice, among other things, I implemented an organisational analysis in collaboration with other students and held a coaching conversation with a person in a management position after learning about coaching strategies. As part of my master’s thesis, I conducted a study on the question of whether and how relevant time pressure and self-leadership are for employees’ work engagement, comparing office and home office days.
After I have graduated and as soon as I can officially call myself a ‘psychologist’, I will complete postgraduate training to become a health psychologist. This way through my work I can contribute to foster health on an individual as well as institutional level. This also combines well with my interest in work psychology and the desire to improve work and working conditions for people and to promote the further development and training of people through appropriate measures.” – Katharina Woharcik
Katharina is studying Psychology at the University of Vienna.
P.S.: At the University of Vienna, entrace exam procedures are carried out for some degree programmes. Degree programmes with an entrance exam procedure have a limited number of university places. Psychology is one of them! Find out more.
