News
2024
October
Research group retreat
From October 7 to 10, we came together with the doctoral students from Berlin for this year's fall retreat. In addition to a workshop on working methods and project management, we spent the three days exchanging scientific ideas, advancing projects and solving individual problems together.
September
53rd Congress of the German Psychological Society (DGPs)
From September 16 to 19, 2024, the 53rd Congress of the German Psychological Society (DGPs) / the 15th ÖGP Conference took place in Vienna. Our research group was represented with contributions on the nature of information yielded by global personality self-reports (Kai Horstmann), the investigation of dependencies between life events using a network approach (Alexandra Zapko-Willmes), the dynamic analysis of intensive longitudinal data (Anabel Büchner), the perception of major life events in romantic couples (Karla Fliedner), and on the assessment of situation perception in clinical settings (Lilly Buck).
Further information on the 53rd Congress of the German Psychological Society can be found here
August
21. European Conference on Personality
From August 6th to 9th 2024, the 21st European Conference on Personality (ECP21) took place in Berlin, which was organized under the direction of Prof. Matthias Ziegler by Karla Fliedner and the team of the Diagnostics Chair at Humboldt-Universität. Over 550 international researchers presented their current work in the field of personality psychology.
From our working group, Lilly Buck and Kai Horstmann organized a symposium on the assessment of situations. In addition, Alexandra Zapko-Willmes, Anabel Büchner and Karla Fliedner presented their projects on a network approach to critical life events, a dynamic conceptualization of personality traits and the perception of major life events in romantic couples. Vera Fahrner was also a participant at the ECP21.
Find out more about the European Conference on Personality here
3rd Summer School of Personality Science
From July 29 to August 4, the Summer School of Personality Science (SSPS 2024) took place at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Together with three other lecturers, Kai Horstmann took part in this summer school and gave a seminar on experience sampling and a workshop on how to work. A total of 16 students and doctoral candidates from all over the world took part in the summer school.
Further information on the European Association of Personality Psychology can be found here
July
Participation in the Meeting of the Behavior Genetics Association in London
Alexandra Zapko-Willmes took part in the 54th meeting of the Behavior Genetics Association in England. She presented a twin study on the association between missed or negative life events in young adulthood and social withdrawal and took the opportunity to exchange ideas with international colleagues about projects and collaborations. The conference trip was funded by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).
June
Understanding learning through uncertainty and bias - presentation by Dr. Rasmus Bruckner
Dr. Rasmus Bruckner held a guest lecture on "Understanding learning through uncertainty and bias" as part of the department colloquium. In his research, Dr. Bruckner investigates how people learn in the face of uncertainty to make adaptive decisions and adjust their behavior to new situations. We would like to thank Dr. Bruckner for the exciting presentation!
Further information on Dr. Bruckner's research group can be found here
May
External PhD candidate: Vera Fahrner from the DLR Institute of Transport Research in Berlin
This May, Vera Fahrner started her PhD project in our group. Her research focusses on the acceptance of different drive systems and energy sources in road transport in Germany. She is particularly interested in the "mental models" that people form of new technologies in road transport and, at the same time, how these can be appropriately assessed and changed in the future. Welcome, Vera!
April
Participation in the World Conference on Personality on Curaçao
Anabel Büchner and Karla Fliedner took part in the 4th World Conference on Personality on Curaçao. Anabel presented her project "Capturing Dynamic Conceptualizations of Personality Traits in Cross-Sectional Assessments". Karla gave a presentation on the convergence of self-report and partner-report in major life events and relationship satisfaction, as well as a presentation on the development of a taxonomy for the perception of daily events. In addition, Anabel and Karla exchanged with other researchers on various research projects.
March
New article on social inequality and political participation in youth in Political Psychology
Alexandra Zapko-Willmes' article "Accounting for the Association Between Socioeconomic Status and Youth Political Participation: A Twin Family Study" will be published in the journal Political Psychology. The article was written in collaboration with political scientist Yannis Theocharis (TU München).
The twin study investigated to what extent the association between socioeconomic status (particularly educational attainment) and political engagement of young people can be explained by personality characteristics and family factors. Results suggest that, depending on the form of political participation, the association is attributable to political interest, intelligence, and openness to experience.
Project Closure SPSS2R
The SPSS2R project accompanied the switch from the fee-based software IBM SPSS Statistics (SPSS) to the free and open source software R in the Department of Psychology. Existing teaching materials were adapted for the R software, R scripts were developed and explanatory videos were recorded. These teaching and learning materials will be available to lecturers and students from the coming semester. In addition, Dr. Frederik Aust offered a workshopon getting started with R.
New article in the Journal of Personality
Anabel Büchner and Kai Horstmann published an article entitled “On the importance of being clear about the level of analysis of interest: An illustration using the case of self-compassion” in the Journal of Personality. The article is based on Anabel’s master thesis, which was supervised by Kai, and represents her first first-author publication. Congratulations!
February
SPSP Convention in San Diego
In February, Kai Horstmann and Anabel Büchner represented our research group at the Annual Convention of the Society of Social and Personality Psychology (SPSP) in San Diego. Kai Horstmann gave a talk about modeling dynamic personality theories in a continuous time framework and Anabel Büchner about exploring conceptualizations of self-control in daily life using machine learning. They connected with old and new collaborators and colleagues and had a very engaging time.
Visit to Stanford University
Kai Horstmann visited Stanford University (USA) and the lab of Prof. Gabriella Harari. During his visit, he participated in a seminar and worked on a joint publication with Prof. Harari on the topic of personality state assessment. He also worked with Chiara Förster on her master's thesis on examining person situation dynamics in everyday social behavior.
Click here to visit the Media and Personality Lab at Stanford University
January
Research stay in California
At the beginning of this year, Anabel visits the University of California, Davis, for a three-week long research stay. At UC Davis, she is part of the Beck Personality Lab, led by Prof. Emorie Beck. The research stay lays the foundation of the collaboration with Emorie Beck on projects of her dissertation as well as a project on the idiographic assessment of manifestations of personality in everyday life. We wish Anabel an exciting research stay!
New paper in Mindfulness
Anabel Büchner has co-authored an article entitled “Stress Perception and Coping as Mediators of the Link Between Self-Compassion and Affective Well-being? Evidence From Two Longitudinal Studies“, published in Mindfulness. Anabel worked as a research intern in this project during her undergraduate studies and wrote her Bachelor’s thesis on this topic.
New article on the potential of natural experiments for causality research in psychology
Alexandra Zapko-Willmes co-authored a paper entitled "Natural Experiments: Missed Opportunities for Causal Inference in Psychology" to be published in the scientific journal Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science. The article was written by ten psychologists and economists led by Prof. Dr. Michael P. Grosz in the context of the DFG scientific network "Explicit Causal Inference in Personality Research". The paper aims to demonstrate the chances and implementation possibilities of natural experiments to psychological scientists.
Article: https://doi.org/10.1177/25152459231218610 (available soon; preprint: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/dah3q)
Information on the scientific network: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/461127198?language=en
2023
December
Anabel Büchner becomes Graduate Student Representative of ARP
Together with Kendall Mather from the University of Oregon, Anabel Büchner will serve as the Graduate Student Representative of the Association of Research (ARP) for the next two years. The ARP is one of the largest scientific associations in the field of personality psychology. As Graduate Student Representative, Anabel will act as a liaison between ARP’s graduate students and its executive board. Congratulations and best wishes to Anabel in her new role!
Further information on the Association for Research in Personality
November
New paper in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Anabel Büchner co-authored a paper titled “Extraverts Reap Greater Social Rewards From Passion Because They Express Passion More Frequently and More Diversely“ published in the scientific journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Anabel worked on this study together with Kai Krautter and Prof. Jon Jachimowicz during her position as a research associate at Harvard Business school. A popular-science version of the article was published in the Harvard Business Review. We congratulate!
Click here for the article in the specialist journal and here for the popular science article
Tina Thurm was admitted into the German Academic Scholarship Foundation
Our student assistant Tina Thurm was admitted into the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung). The Studienstiftung is Germany’s largest and oldest scholarship foundation. In addition to financial support, Tina will benefit from an extensive program for intellectual and personal development. We congratulate Tina on this achievement!
Studienstiftung - Information for students and proposers
October
Welcoming Dr. Alexandra Zapko-Willmes to our team
We are happy to announce that Dr. Alexandra Zapko-Willmes is joining our team starting 1st October 2023. Previously, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bremen.
In her research, she primarily focuses on explaining personality differences through individual environmental influences and gene-environment interplay. In addition to the conceptualization of personality and its development, sociopolitical orientations have been another focus of her work.
Warm welcome, Alexandra!
September
Award recipients Isabel Thielmann (2nd from the right; William Stern Award) and Kai Horstmann (2nd from the left; Anne Anastasi Award).
© Manuela Seethaler
Kai Horstmann receives the Anne Anastasi Award for Psychological Assessment
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Kai Horstmann has received the Anne Anastasi Award for outstanding early career researchers who have made significant contributions to the field of Psychological Assessment. The award was presented by the division for Differential Psychology, Personality Psychology and Psychological Assessment (DPPD) of the German Psychological Association (DGPs). The award ceremony took place at the 17th DPPD meeting in Salzburg.
17th DPPD meeting in Salzburg
In September, Kai Horstmann, Karla Fliedner and Lilly Buck represented our team at the 17th meeting of the Association for Differential Psychology, Personality Psychology and Psychological Assessment (DPPD). They presented research on (1) the informativeness of global self-reports, (2) the convergence of major life event perception and relationship satisfaction among romantic couples, and (3) on situation perception in clinical psychology.
We had a great time with lots of inspiring and insightful exchange. Our genuine thanks go to the organizing team of Paris Lodron University Salzburg!
August
Semester abroad in Iceland 
Our student assistant Emma Kiesel has started her semester abroad in Iceland. She will live in Reykjavik and study psychology at Reykjavik University (RU) from August to December. Since the University of Siegen does not have an Erasmus contract with RU, she applied as a freemover (self-organized student). As a freemover, students can apply to any university worldwide that accepts them, but they often have to pay tuition fees and are not funded through the Erasmus program.
Research stay in Vancouver .jpeg)
Starting in August, Anabel Büchner is on a one-year research stay at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver. At UBC, she joins the Personality and Geographical Ambiance (PANGEA) Lab, which is led by Fritz Götz. In collaboration with Fritz Götz, who is an expert in person-environment transaction, she will work on projects for her doctoral thesis. While we will miss Anabel Büchner, we wish her an enriching experience in Vancouver!
Welcome to the Personality and Geographical Ambiance (PANGEA) Lab!
PhD scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation
Starting in August, Anabel Büchner's PhD research is supported by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung). The Studienstiftung is Germany’s largest and oldest scholarship foundation. In addition to financial support, Anabel Büchner will benefit from an extensive program for intellectual and personal development. We congratulate Anabel on this achievement!
Find out more about the Studienstiftung's doctoral sponsorship here
SPSS2R - Teaching materials in R
The Department of Psychology is currently undergoing a transition from SPSS to R. To facilitate this transition, teaching materials will be adapted, R scripts will be created, and explanatory videos will be produced. Workshops will also be held for both lecturers and students to ensure a successful and seamless transition.
July
Retreat at the University of Siegen.jpeg)
In July, we met together with the PhD students from Berlin in Siegen and held our first multi-day retreat - including hiking and scientific exchange with the research group of Prof. Hennecke. We are looking forward to a continuation next year!
Anabel Büchner attends ARP in Evanston.jpeg)
In July, Anabel Büchner attended the Meeting of the Association for Research in Personality (ARP) in Evanston. At ARP, she presented one of her dissertation studies as a poster titled "Modeling Personality Traits in a Dynamic Systems Framework: Pitfalls and Ways to Overcome Them".
The 8th Biennial Meeting of the Association for Research in Personality will be held in Evanston, Illinois in July 2023. ... read more
June
Mark Schutera gives presentation on ChatGPT
On June 21, 2023 Mark Schutera visited the University of Siegen and gave a presentation on "Placing GPT - Effective intuitions through a technical perspective". Mark Schutera works as a Team Lead at ZF Group where he is AI Product Owner for Autonomous Driving. In his talk, he explained step by step how ChatGPT works technically and how ChatGPT could improve further in the near future. We thank Mark for his interesting talk!
SIPS in Padova.jpeg)
In June, Anabel Büchner attended the Congress of the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) in Padua. At SIPS, she presented the idea of one of her dissertation studies as a pre-study poster titled "Can Dynamic Conceptualizations of Personality Traits be Measured in Cross-Sectional Assessments?".
May
Lilly Buck attends DPK in Berlin
In May, Lilly Buck attended the German Psychotherapy Congress (DPK) in Berlin. As part of the symposium "Experience Sampling in Clinical Psychology: From Foundational Research to Implications for Practice", she gave a talk on the topic "Situation Assessment in Clinical ESM Studies".
April
Anabel Büchner starts her PhD with the Elsa-Neumann-Scholarship
Starting in April, Anabel is supported by the Elsa-Neumann Scholarship from the state of Berlin. With this funding, she begins her PhD at Humboldt University in Berlin. Her PhD project will be supervised by Kai Horstmann. We congratulate and wish her a successful start to her PhD journey!