A method for determining a safety-critical yawing motion of a vehicle includes comparing a specification signal representing an ascertained setpoint yaw rate of the vehicle for an anticipated trajectory of the vehicle to a measuring signal representing an instantaneous yaw rate of the vehicle measured based on an actual trajectory of the vehicle, thereby generating a comparison signal; checking whether an amplitude of the comparison signal exceeds a first threshold value and whether a frequency of the comparison signal exceeds a second threshold value; and, in response to the amplitude exceeding the first threshold and the frequency exceeding the second threshold, outputting a yawing-motion signal indicating presence of the safety-critical yawing motion of the vehicle.