Research ProgrammesWhat we think and do reflects and expresses what we want and feel. The research at the Institute of Psychology is based on the insight that human cognition and action are always motivated and driven by personal interests, emotions, and individual and social goals. The Institute of Psychology represents five highly interconnected research programmes.
The clinical programme aims to improve assessment, causal understanding and treatment of a number of stress-related mental disorders. We investigate the role of stressors in relation to other aspects, in particular cognitive processes (e.g., attention, memory, thought, reasoning), behavioral processes (e.g., approach and avoidance), and biological processes (e.g., HPA-axis or monoaminergic functioning).
This programme aims at integrating insights on perception and action planning, working memory, and executive functions into a comprehensive theory of action control.
We focus on the development of emotion and cognition, their interrelatedness, and their relation to the developing brain. We design and test intervention strategies to stimulate development and redress developmental problems.
The health psychology programme aims to investigate the adoption of health enhancing and the avoidance of health-compromising behaviors in healthy and diseased populations from a self-regulation perspective.
The research programme of the unit Methods and Statistics aims at the development, evaluation and application of models for analysis of psychological research data.
The research of the section is aimed at the development of models to describe and explain the influence of social systems.