{"id":133847,"date":"2021-12-06T17:01:09","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T16:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=133847"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:02","slug":"sophie-van-der-zee-found-her-calling-through-studium-generale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2021\/12\/06\/sophie-van-der-zee-found-her-calling-through-studium-generale\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie van der Zee found her calling through Studium Generale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sophie van der Zee was not captivated by her psychology studies until she attended a lecture by the founding father of legal psychology: Willem Albert Wagenaar. She eagerly read his book The popular policeman and other cases<\/em>. “All of a sudden, I was no longer a mediocre C student, but someone who was getting As.”<\/p>\n

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The book <em>The popular policeman and other cases<\/em> made Sophie van der Zee enthusiastic about legal psychology.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald van den Heerik<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Assistant professor Sophie van der Zee (34) completed her psychology studies on willpower at Utrecht University. In the first year, one student after another dropped out before February to avoid having to pay the full tuition fee, but Van der Zee persisted even though she was not enthralled by the subject. \u201cIf I start something, I want to finish it, even though I did not see myself working in psychology for the rest of my life. Incidentally, I would not recommend this trait to anyone. It won\u2019t make you any happier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mother\u00a0\u2013<\/span>\u00a0who worked as a professor of psychology at Utrecht University\u00a0\u2013<\/span>\u00a0saw Van der Zee struggling with her choice of study. She advised her to take a course in Legal Psychology given by Willem Albert Wagenaar at Studium Generale. \u201cI followed her advice as any well-behaved daughter and student would do,\u201d says Van der Zee. \u201cNow, I can\u2019t speak highly enough of Studium Generale. I remember attending Wagenaar\u2019s first lecture. I was sold. Afterwards, I walked up to him and said: \u2018I want to be you later. How can I do that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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