Prof Dr Rob Ruiter (R.A.C.)

Since 2016, I hold the chair of Health and Social Psychology in the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience at Maastricht University. This was preceded by an endowed chair in Applied Social Psychology with a special interest in the use of methods from the cognitive neurosciences in 2012. I obtained a Ph.D. degree in Psychology in 2000, preceded by a Master's degree in Public Health in 1995 with specializations in Health Education and Health Policy and Management, all at Maastricht University.

My core research and teaching interests are within the systematic development, implementation and evaluation of theory- and evidence-based behavior change interventions, with a special interest in the application of psychological theory to understand and provide solutions for societally relevant problematic human behavior in the domains of health, environment, and safety. I am a co-author of Intervention Mapping, a globally applied protocol for the planned design of behavior change interventions by using theoretical and empirical evidence, including the participation of stakeholders, program implementers and target population, and adopting a social-ecological approach. See here for my publications.

The research projects that I am involved in use both laboratory-based research methods including non-invasive measures of brain activation (EEG/ERP, fMRI) and unobtrusive behavioral measures (eye movement, virtual reality observations) as well as quantitative and qualitative research methods in applied settings including surveys and in-depth interviews.

I have been a student, Ph.D. candidate and scientific staff member at Maastricht University. In these roles, I have always taken a strong interest in teaching, next to my research activities, at the Bachelor but mainly at the Master and Ph.D. level, preferably in small groups and one-to-one contexts. Topics I teach relate to planning behavior change, program implementation, risk communication, and applying psychological theory.