Organizational psychology and work place safety

This course presents a preventative perspective on the management, administration, and putting into practice of safety-related activities that are grounded in individual, social, organizational, and cognitive psychology.

The behavioral science perspective is of increasing importance as technical/organizational systems expand, interact, and become more complex. New systems are being introduced in existing organizational structures as institutionalized types of organization are giving way to temporary and less fixed constellations.

This carries with it a new operational framework with risks for error at the individual level and in connection with organizational decision-making. Focusing on preventative safety is therefore all the more important. The course takes into account the interplay of humans, technology, and organizations (HTO), but the course also gives an introduction and orientation of basic risk philosophy, causality theory, risk and incident analysis, and accident investigations.

This course has got a new syllabus valid from autumn 2025, see PSMA51.

As a registered student on this course you will find detailed course information and communication in the learning platform Athena. Login with your university account.


Compulsory elements may occur in the course. These are stated in the schedule and explained in more detail in the course instructions.

Detailed information can be found in the current syllabus and the course instructions for the course. A link to the syllabus can be found here on the page and the course instructions are posted on the course website in the university's learning platform no later than the start of the course.

Expected learning outcomes

The learning outcomes for this course are listed in the syllabus.

Information about the forms of assessments for this course are listed in the syllabus and explained in detail in the course instructions.

You will find the dates for the examinations in the schedule.

The schedule will be available no later than one month before the start of the course. We do not recommend print-outs as changes can occur. At the start of the course, your department will advise where you can find your schedule during the course.


Note that the course literature can be changed up to two months before the start of the course.

In case the course literature list is missing, please check with the course leader before buying any expensive books etc.

Course reports are displayed for the three most recent course instances.


This course is compulsory for the Master's programme in Personnel, Work, and Organisation, 120 credits, and offered as an elective course, with limited admission, in the International two-year master’s program in psychology, 120 credits.






Course leader/examinator
Johnny Hellgren, jhn@psychology.su.se

Registered students should primarily use our learning platform for teacher communication.

Contacts in Education

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