Here you can get an overview of our research activities, including our main research interests and research projects.
Our main research interests
The research of our lab is based on the assumption that development is possible over the entire lifespan and into old age. This concept of development includes that new processes can begin at any point in life, that everyone has individual reserves, that behaviour is plastic. Moreover, our research assumes that individual differences with regard to the time, extent and direction of development processes can be observed and that these are context-dependent.
Regarding domains of development, our research focuses on emotions and their interconnections with motivational, social and cognitive processes. We aim to describe emotional development from adolescence to old age as a process, which includes both gains and losses at every point in life. Moreover, it is our aim to examine the role of emotions and emotional competencies for successful development in different domains of life.
Another focus of our work is the psychology of wisdom. Following the Berlin wisdom paradigm, we define wisdom as an extraordinarily broad and deep knowledge of important but uncertain questions that concern the interpretation and management of life. We are interested in age differences in wisdom-related knowledge as well as in the interactions between wisdom-related knowledge and wisdom-related action.
Our research methods include a range of experimental developmental approaches. We furthermore aim to combine experimental paradigms with multi-method surveys to relate self-reported, behavioural and physiological data. In addition, we investigate various aspects of emotional development in everyday contexts.
Current research projects
New research project zon age differences in context sensitivity of emotion regulation
- Lab studies and ambulatory assessment
- in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf (Humboldt University Berlin) and Prof. Dr. Steffen Nestler (University of Münster)
- funded by the German Research Foundation
- starting in August 2021
- PhD students and Post-Docs: Martin Katzorreck, Felix Sternke, Josefin Röbbig
The age-differential role of discrete emotions, motivational tendencies, and control strategies in coping with psychosocial stressors in older adults
- Measurement Burst Design
- in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Carsten Wrosch (Concordia University) and Prof. Dr. Christiane Hoppmann (University of British Columbia)
- funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
- 2018 – 2023
Emotional Reactivity and Regulation in Old Age: A Multi-Time-Scale Approach
- Experimental studies and ambulatory assessment
- in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Denis Gerstorf (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) und Prof. Dr. Oliver Schilling (Universität Heidelberg)
- Conducted as part of the Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study of Adulthood
- funded by the German Research Foundation
- since 2017
- Research assistant: Martin Katzorreck
Completed research projects
Development and Validation of Emotional Film Stimuli in Various Work-Related Contexts
- Experimental studies
- in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Susanne Scheibe (Universität Groningen)
- funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
- 2017 – 2021
- Post-doc: Dr. Cornelia Wieck