Christmas party 2025

This year's Christmas party took place on December 1. Together with the "General Psychology" working group, we first visited the ice skating rink at the Siegen Christmas market. Afterwards, we baked cookies together and weighed books. We reviewed the past year over punch. We are now looking forward to the coming year and many exciting projects.

Kai Horstmann receives the "Professor of the Year 2025" award

Kai Horstmann was awarded 3rd place in the "Professor of the Year 2025" competition by the UNICUM Foundation in the natural sciences/medicine category. The award recognizes professors who support their students far beyond the classroom.
Kai Horstmann is committed to ensuring that students can develop their potential regardless of their personal or social background. Through individual mentoring and application training, he strengthens students in the development of their professional and personal skills and makes it possible to experience how theory and practice interact through lectures and insights into his everyday research.

Further article by the University of Siegen

Further information on the prize

Anabel Büchner receives the "Heritage Dissertation Research Award"

Anabel Büchner has been awarded the prestigious "Heritage Dissertation Research Award" by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). The award recognizes promising doctoral projects in personality and social psychology and highlights the scientific significance and quality of her research project. The award also provides financial support in the amount of USD 2000, which Anabel Büchner will use for her ongoing PACE study. The study records the behavior and experience of students in Germany, the USA and Canada in everyday life over several weeks using the experience sampling method. The aim of the study is to investigate how often people have several stable behavioral tendencies, between which they switch in everyday life, and to gain a better understanding of people with such personality traits.

Information about the award

Participation in the ECPA conference

In July, Kai Horstmann and Karla Fliedner took part in the European Conference on Psychological Assessment (ECPA) in Barcelona.
Karla Fliedner presented a project on the development of a questionnaire that captures the subjective perception of everyday events and presented the results of an accompanying diary study.
Kai Horstmann also presented the results of a study in which automatically generated 3D items for capturing mental rotation were examined in the context of performance diagnostics.

Here you can find more information about the conference

Presentation at the ISSID conference

In July, Karla Fliedner took part in the conference of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID) in Vienna. As part of the symposium "How life experiences can influence personality differences and development (or vice versa)", she gave a presentation on the relationship between self-reported and externally reported perceptions of formative life events.

Here you can find more information about the conference

Symposium at the ISPP conference in Prague (03.-06.07.2025)

In July, Alexandra Zapko-Willmes led a symposium on new methods for measuring ideological constructs at the 48th conference of the ISPP (International Society of Political Psychology). Alexandra Zapko-Willmes presented results on the (lack of) overlap between scales measuring ideological constructs, a phenomenon also known as the jingle-jangle fallacy. She investigates this in a new approach using large language models. In addition, Vera Fahrner presented results of her work on the influence of political attitudes, especially political paranoia, on mental models of renewable fuels. The conference offered a very enriching exchange between political psychologists and scientists from related disciplines. Together with Dr. Christine Finn and Arne Stolp (both from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena), we were able to explore Prague's old town after the joint symposium.

Here you can find more information about the conference

End of the intervention study on mental models of renewable fuels

At the beginning of June, the intervention study on changing mental models in relation to regenerative liquid fuels came to an end. The preregistered study was institutionally funded by the DLR Institute of Transport Research and implemented as a collaboration as part of Vera Fahrner's doctorate at the University of Siegen. Almost 450 participants answered questions on renewable liquid fuels, vehicle, environmental and political attitudes in an online format for six weeks in a row. In some weeks, they received text or AI-based information as an intervention, for example on the availability of eFuels, whereby the information could be positive, neutral or negative. At the same time, the survey coincided with the German parliamentary elections, which makes it all the more interesting to look at political attitudes over time. By June, a post-measurement was carried out with another 342 of the participants in order to check how stable any changes are. We are looking forward to the results!

Pre-registration of the study: https://osf.io/mc2s9

SAA conference in Leuven

In May, Kai Horstmann and Anabel Büchner took part in the conference of the Society for Ambulatory Assessment (SAA) in Leuven (Belgium). Kai Horstmann gave a presentation on the question of whether the way people hold their cell phones when answering surveys influences their answers. Anabel Büchner presented initial data from her PACE study, in which she is investigating whether the frequency of multiple attractors in personality changes depending on the study design. They also celebrated Anabel's birthday together at the conference party. Overall, their time at the conference was an enriching and interesting experience.

Here you can find more information about the conference

EAPP Focus Meeting on Personality Assessment in non-WEIRD Contexts in Nairobi, Kenya

The Focus Meeting on Personality Assessment in non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) Contexts, organized by the European Association for Personality Psychology (EAPP), took place from 10 to 12 April. Scientists from Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Nigeria and Rwanda exchanged views on intercultural perspectives and challenges in psychological diagnostics. The speakers were Oliver John (University of California, Berkeley, USA), Atsushi Oshio (Waseda University, Japan), Fritz Goetz (University of British Columbia, Canada) and Kai Horstmann from the University of Siegen. The meeting was organized by the EAPP and Stephen Asatsa from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. The Schools II of the University of Siegen provided financial support for Kai Horstmann's travel expenses.

Click here to go to the website of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa

Research internship in Nairobi

From February to April, Kai Horstmann is supervising a research internship for Tina Thurm and Sarah Lindfeld, which they are completing at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi. As part of the "Africa Long Life Study" project, they are developing their own research question with the aim of publishing a scientific article. They also provide teaching support and hold workshops on topics such as personality and data analysis with R.

Find out more about the study here

New research interns: Carolina Helsper and Sophie Zimmermann

We are delighted to welcome our research interns Carolina Helsper and Sophie Zimmermann to the team! Master's student Carolina (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf) and Bachelor's student Sophie (University of Siegen) will gain a deeper insight into everyday scientific life during their internships and enrich our research projects with their cooperation and impulses. Welcome, Carolina and Sophie!

Pre-registration workshop for the Berlin University Alliance

In January, Anabel Büchner and Björn Siepe (University of Marburg) held a workshop on preregistration for the Berlin University Alliance (BUA). The workshop provided an overview of the historical background of preregistration, its theoretical foundations and its empirical effectiveness. In addition, deviations from preregistrations and their evaluation were discussed. More than 20 early career researchers took part in the workshop. Anabel organized the event as part of her work as an ambassador for Open Science at the BUA.

The slides and exercises for the workshop are available here

Personal development workshop for the Siegen talent network

On January 7, 2025, the second workshop "Personality Development" for particularly talented students from high schools in the region took place. Younger students in particular took part in this event. The workshop covered the topics of personality, measuring personality, changing personality and questions about studying. The workshop was conducted by Kai Horstmann and supported by the students Franzis Neuhaus, Franziska Withake and Nora Strub from the 3rd Bachelor semester.

Further information on the TALENTNETZ SiWi can be found here

Associate Editor for the European Journal of Psychological Assessment

From January 2025, Kai Horstmann will take on the role of Associate Editor for the European Journal of Psychological Assessment. The EJPA is the journal of the European Association of Psychological Assessment (EAPA) and publishes research on the development and validation of psychological measurement instruments. We wish Kai Horstmann every success in his new role!

Link to the European Journal of Psychological Assessment at hogrefe.com

Christmas party 2024

This year's Christmas party took place on December 5. Over dinner together, we looked back on a successful year and not only indulged in culinary delights, but also weighed books. We are looking forward to the new year and our joint projects!

Start of the PACE study at the University of Siegen

In November, the Personality and Contextualized Experiences (PACE) study started at the University of Siegen. The PACE study investigates inter-individual differences in changes in behavior and experience over time and across different situations. The study was developed by Anabel Büchner as part of her dissertation and is being conducted in cooperation with researchers from the University of British Columbia (Prof. Friedrich Götz), the University of California, Davis (Prof. Emorie Beck) and Washington University in St. Louis (Benjamin Hardin, Prof. Jessie Sun). Students of the University of Siegen can receive up to 9 VP hours for participating in the study.

Students of the University of Siegen please register for the study via SONA: https://uni-siegen.sona-systems.com. Researchers can obtain further information about the study in the pre-registration: https://osf.io/hxpsu

Personal development workshop for the Siegen talent network

On 18.11.2024, the workshop "Personality Development" took place for particularly talented students from high schools in the region. The workshop covered the topics of personality, measuring personality, changing personality and preparing to study psychology. The workshop was conducted by Kai Horstmann and supported by the students Lea Bauder, Franziska Withake and Nora Strub from the 3rd Bachelor semester.

Further information on the TALENTNETZ SiWi can be found here

Associate Editor for EJP and Collabra: Psychology

Since October 2024, Kai Horstmann has been Associate Editor of the two journals European Journal of Personality and Collabra: Psychology, Section Personality. The European Journal of Personality is the preeminent journal for personality psychology research in Europe. The journal Collabra is the journal of the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science and has a special focus on transparency in research. We wish Kai good luck and success in his search for reviewers!

European Journal of Personality (EJP)
Collabra: Psychology

Passed exam for license E DIN 33430

Kai Horstmann has taken and passed the license exam E DIN 33430 for aptitude diagnosticians. DIN 33430 is a recommendation for aptitude diagnosticians for quality assurance in personnel selection and was developed jointly by the DGPs and the BDP.

Click here to go to the DIN 33430 portal

Working group retreat

From October 7 to 10, we met with the doctoral students from Berlin in Siegen 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 working group projects and solving individual problems together.

53rd Congress of the German Society for Psychology (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 working group was represented with contributions on the information content of global personality self-reports (Kai Horstmann), on the consideration of relationships between life events using a network approach (Alexandra Zapko-Willmes), on the dynamic analysis of intensive longitudinal data (Anabel Büchner), on the perception of formative life events in romantic couples (Karla Fliedner) and on the assessment of situational awareness in clinical settings (Lilly Buck).

Further information on the 53rd Congress of the German Psychological Society can be found here

21st European Conference on Personality

From 6 to 9 August 2024, the 21st European Conference on Personality (ECP21) took place in Berlin, which was organized by Karla Fliedner and the team of the Diagnostics Chair of Humboldt University under the direction of Prof. Matthias Ziegler. Over 550 international researchers presented their current work in the field of personality psychology.

Lilly Buck and Kai Horstmann from our research group presented 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 formative life events in romantic couples. Vera Fahrner was also a participant at 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 work structuring. A total of 16 students and doctoral candidates from various countries around the world took part in the summer school.

Further information on the European Association of Personality Psychology can be found here

Participation in the conference 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 relationship between missed or negative life events in young adulthood and social withdrawal and took the opportunity to exchange ideas with international colleagues on projects and collaborations. The conference trip was funded by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).

For more information about the conference click here

Learning under uncertainty - lecture by Dr. Rasmus Bruckner

Dr. Rasmus Bruckner gave the lecture "Understanding learning through uncertainty and bias" as part of the department colloquium. In his research, Dr. Bruckner investigates how people make adaptive decisions in the face of uncertainty and adjust their behavior to new situations. We thank Dr. Bruckner for the exciting lecture!

Further information on Dr. Bruckner's research area can be found here

External doctoral candidate: Vera Fahrner from the DLR Institute of Transport Research in Berlin

Vera Fahrner started her doctorate in the working group in May. Her research focuses on the acceptance of various drive systems and energy sources in road-based transportation in Germany. She is particularly interested in the "mental models" that people form of new technologies in road traffic. At the same time, she focuses on how these ideas and evaluations can be appropriately recorded and changed in perspective. Welcome, Vera!

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" and Karla gave a presentation on the convergence of self-report and other-report on formative 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 views with other researchers on various research projects.

Information about the conference can be found here

New article on social inequality and political participation of young people in the journal Political Psychology

Alexandra Zapko-Willmes' article "Accounting for the Association Between Socioeconomic Status and Youth Political Participation: A Twin Family Study" is published in the journal Political Psychology. The article was written in collaboration with the political scientist Yannis Theocharis (TU Munich).
The twin study investigated the extent to which the relationship between socio-economic status (particularly educational attainment) and political participation among young people could be determined by personality traits and family factors. The results suggest that political interest, intelligence and openness to experience explain the correlation, depending on the form of political participation.

Read the preprint publication here

Completion of the SPSS2R project

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 summer semester 2024. In addition, Dr. Frederik Aust offered a workshop on getting started with R.

Click here for more information on the project

New article in the Journal of Personality

Anabel Büchner and Kai Horstmann have 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's thesis, which was supervised by Kai, and is her first publication as first author. Congratulations!

Read the article here

SPSP conference in San Diego

In February, Kai Horstmann and Anabel Büchner represented our working group at the annual conference of the Society for Social and Personality Psychology (SPSP) in San Diego. Kai Horstmann gave a talk on modeling dynamic personality theories using continuous-time models and Anabel Büchner on investigating conceptualizations of self-control in daily life using machine learning. Kai and Anabel exchanged ideas with existing and new cooperation partners and colleagues and had a very stimulating time.

Information about the conference can be found here

Visit to Stanford University

Kai Horstmann visited Stanford University (USA) and the research group 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.

Link to the Media and Personality Lab at Stanford University

Research stay in California

At the beginning of the year, Anabel Büchner completed a three-week research stay at the University of California, Davis. There she is part of the Beck Personality Lab under the direction of Prof. Emorie Beck. The research stay lays the foundation for collaboration with Emorie Beck on her dissertation projects and a project on the idiographic measurement of the manifestation of personality in everyday life. We wish Anabel an exciting stay!

Click here for the Beck Personality Lab

New article in the journal 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" in the journal Mindfulness. Anabel Büchner worked on the project as a research intern during her Bachelor's degree and wrote her Bachelor's thesis on it.

Read the article here

New article on the potential of natural experiments for psychological causality research

Alexandra Zapko-Willmes has co-authored the article "Natural Experiments: Missed Opportunities for Causal Inference in Psychology" in the journal Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science. The article was written in the context of the DFG-funded scientific network "Explicit Causal Inference in Personality Psychology", a collaboration of ten psychologists and economists led by Prof. Dr. Michael P. Grosz. The article is intended to show psychological scientists the opportunities and implementation possibilities of natural experiments for the investigation of cause-effect chains.

Artikel: 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

Anabel Büchner becomes doctoral candidate representative of the ARP

Together with Kendall Mather from the University of Oregon, Anabel Büchner will be the doctoral student representative of the Association of Research in Personality (ARP) for the next two years. The ARP is one of the world's largest scientific organizations in the field of personality psychology. As doctoral student representative, Anabel will act as an interface between the doctoral students and the ARP board. We congratulate Anabel and wish her every success in this new role!

Further information about the Association for Research in Personality

New article in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Anabel Büchner has co-authored an article entitled "Extraverts Reap Greater Social Rewards From Passion Because They Express Passion More Frequently and More Diversely" in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Anabel worked on the study together with Kai Krautter and Prof. Jon Jachimowciz during her time as a research associate at Harvard Business School. A popular science version of the article was published in the Harvard Business Review. Congratulations!

Click here for the article in the journal and here for the popular science article

Tina Thurm is accepted into the Studienstiftung

Our student assistant Tina Thurm has been accepted into the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. The Studienstiftung is the largest and oldest organization for the promotion of gifted students in Germany. In addition to financial support, Tina also benefits from an extensive program of non-material support. We congratulate Tina on her success!

Studienstiftung - Information for students and applicants

Lecture on the topic of "AI in education" on 17.10.2023

On 17.10.2023 Prof. Dr. Niels Pinkwart will give a lecture
on the topic "AI in education: developments, perspectives, challenges & limits".

Prof. Dr. Niels Pinkwart is Scientific Director of the Educational Technology research department at DFKI Berlin and Professor of "Didactics of Computer Science/Computer Science and Society" at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He is currently also Vice President for Teaching and Studies there. Prof. Dr. Pinkwart has led a large number of research projects in the field of educational technologies in the course of his work to date and is scientifically renowned for his numerous publications in the field.

All members of the University of Siegen are invited to attend, and we are particularly pleased to welcome students!

• Date: Tuesday, 17.10.2023
• Time: 10:15-11:45
• Room: US-C 115
• Prior registration is not necessary!

New addition to the team: Dr. Alexandra Zapko-Willmes

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Alexandra Zapko-Willmes as an Academic Councilor in our working group from October 1, 2023! She previously worked as a research assistant (postdoc) at the University of Bremen.

In her research, she is particularly interested in the explanation of personality differences through individual environmental influences as well as interactions between disposition and environment. In addition to the conceptualization of personality and personality development, sociopolitical orientations are among the other focal points of her previous work.
Welcome, Alexandra!

Further information and contact

© Manuela Seethaler

The prizewinners Isabel Thielmann (2nd from right; William Stern Prize) and Kai Horstmann (2nd from left; Anne Anastasi Prize)
© Manuela Seethaler

Kai Horstmann receives Anne Anastasi Prize for Psychological Diagnostics

Junior Professor Dr. Kai Horstmann has been awarded the Anne Anastasi Prize, which recognizes outstanding young researchers for significant contributions to the field of psychological diagnostics. The prize was awarded by the Division of Differential Psychology, Personality Psychology and Psychological Diagnostics (DPPD) of the German Psychological Society (DGPs). The award ceremony took place at the 17th conference of the specialist group in Salzburg.

Further information on the Anne Anastasi Prize

17th DPPD specialist group conference in Salzburg

In September, Kai Horstmann, Karla Fliedner and Lilly Buck represented our working group at the 17th conference of the DGPs Division of Differential Psychology, Personality Psychology and Psychological Diagnostics (DPPD). They presented research findings on (1) the information content of global self-reports, (2) the relationship between self-perception and external perception of life events and relationship satisfaction in romantic couples, and (3) situation assessment in clinical psychology.
We had a wonderful time with valuable suggestions and lively exchanges. Our heartfelt thanks go to the organizing team of the Paris Lodron University Salzburg!

To the website of the DPPD conference

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. As the University of Siegen does not have an Erasmus contract with RU, she has applied as a freemover (self-organized student). As a freemover, students can apply to any university worldwide that accepts them, but often have to pay tuition fees and are not funded by the Erasmus program.

Go further, go global!

Research stay in Vancouver

In August, Anabel Büchner will begin a one-year research stay at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver. There she will be part of the Personality and Geographical Ambiance (PANGEA) Lab under the direction of Fritz Götz. Together with Fritz Götz, an expert in person-environment transactions, she will be working on projects as part of her doctorate. Even though we will miss Anabel Büchner here, we wish her an enriching time in Vancouver!

Link to the Personality and Geographic Environment Laboratory (PANGEA)

Doctoral funding from the German National Academic Foundation

From August, Anabel Büchner's doctorate will be supported by the German National Academic Foundation. The Studienstiftung is the largest and oldest organization for the promotion of gifted students in Germany. In addition to financial support, she also benefits from an extensive program of non-material support. We congratulate Anabel Büchner on this success!

Find out more about the Studienstiftung's doctoral funding program here

SPSS2R - Teaching materials in R

In the course of the planned gradual conversion from SPSS to R in the Department of Psychology, existing teaching materials will be adapted, exemplary R scripts will be created and short explanatory videos will be produced. In addition, workshops are planned that will be offered to both lecturers and students to ensure a smooth and successful transition.

Further information can be found here

Retreat at the University of Siegen

In July, the Siegen working group of the Chair of Psychological Diagnostics and Differential Psychology met with the doctoral students from Berlin in Siegen for a retreat lasting several days - including a hike and scientific exchange with Prof. Hennecke's working group. The team of Prof. Kai Horstmann is looking forward to a continuation next year!

Click here for the working group of Prof. Hennecke

Poster presentation at the ARP Conference in Evanston, Illinois

Anabel Büchner took part in the meeting of the Association for Research in Personality (ARP) in Evanston. At ARP, she presented one of her dissertation studies entitled "Modeling Personality Traits in a Dynamic Systems Framework: Pitfalls and Ways to Overcome Them" as a poster.

The 8th Biennial Meeting of the Association for Research in Personality will be held in Evanston, Illinois in July 2023. ... read more

Mark Schutera gives lecture on ChatGPT

On June 21, 2023, Mark Schutera visited the University of Siegen with his lecture on "Placing GPT - Effective intuitions through a technical perspective". Team Lead Mark Schutera works at the ZF Group as AI Product Owner for Autonomous Driving. In his presentation, he explained the technical functionality of ChatGPT step by step and explained how ChatGPT could be further improved in the near future. We thank Mark for his exciting presentation!

Lecture series "AI at the university"

SIPS in Padova

In June, Anabel Büchner took part in the congress of the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) in Padova. At SIPS, she presented the idea of one of her dissertation studies in the form of a pre-study poster entitled "Can Dynamic Conceptualizations of Personality Traits be Measured in Cross-Sectional Assessments?".

SIPS 2023 - June 22-24, Padova, Italy

Lilly Buck takes part in the DPK in Berlin

In May, Lilly Buck took part in the German Psychotherapy Congress (DPK) in Berlin. As part of the symposium "Experience Sampling in Clinical Psychology: From Basic Research to Implications for Practice", she gave a presentation on "Recording Situations in Clinical ESM Studies".

German Psychotherapy Congress (DPK)

Anabel Büchner begins her doctorate with the Elsa Neumann Scholarship

Since April 2023, Anabel Büchner has been supported by the Elsa Neumann Scholarship of the State of Berlin. She is using this funding to begin her doctorate at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Kai Horstmann is supervising her doctorate. We would like to congratulate her and wish her a good start to her doctorate!

Elsa Neumann Scholarship - Promotion of doctoral studies