Research at the Institute of Psychology

Center for Leadership and Behavior in Organizations (CLBO)

The Center for Leadership and Behavior in Organizations (CLBO) is a practice-oriented research institute and part of Goethe University Frankfurt. It brings together an interdisciplinary team of psychology, sociology and economics researchers who together explore, teach and advise on topics related to human resource management.

Center for Individual Development and Adaptive Education (IDeA)

IDeA stands for Individual Development and Adaptive Education of Children at Risk. The IDeA research centre in Frankfurt investigates individual development processes in the first 12 years of a child’s life. The centre also analyses the effectiveness of individual learning support approaches.

 

Methodology Advisory Service

The aim of this service is to improve students’ methodological skills during their early days at university in order to enhance their chances in the long term of completing their studies successfully.

Consultation sessions are offered and the normal teaching curriculum supplemented by additional workshops.

 

Wertheimer Kolloquium


Departmental research

The Department of General Psychology I examines cognition in the broadest sense, in particular perception, attention and memory. An individual’s interaction with his/her environment plays an important role in this context.

The Department of General Psychology II deals with the question of how the human brain makes decisions in situations characterized by uncertainty. Emotions, expectations and risk assessment play a role here, often unconsciously.

More about the research work being conducted in the Occupational and Organizational Psychology Department can be found here.

In the Department of Differential Psychology and Psychological Diagnostics, verbal and physiological methods are used to investigate emotions, in particular anxiety and anger, as well as mechanisms used to express or cope with emotions. Other areas of research include music psychology and adaptation processes amongst migrants.

The Department of Developmental Psychology explores cognitive changes over the entire lifespan, whereby the focus lies on infant and early childhood research as well as research related to older people. Behavioural indicators and their correlates in the brain are also analysed.

The Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy examines factors leading to the development and perpetuation of mental disorders, treatment methods and the effectiveness of psychotherapy.

Our research in the Department of Educational Psychology concentrates on people in educational contexts. These can be children, but also adults in nurseries, schools or further training. We develop diagnostic tools and carry out evaluations and training measures.

The Department of Neurocognitive Psychology uses functional imaging (fMRI, fNIRS, EEG) to investigate the neuronal mechanisms of cognitive functions (e.g. working memory, cognitive control). Focal areas are the explanation of inter-individual differences and the understanding of cognitive development.

More about the research work being conducted in the Psychological Methods with Interdisciplinary Focus Department can be found here.

In the Department of Psychological Methodology, Evaluation and Research Methods, modern statistical processes are developed and their attributes systematically reviewed and tested in practice. In addition, test procedures, for example in the area of attention, are designed and validated using advanced statistical methods and modern test theory approaches.

For the Department of Social Psychology, making social psychology theories useful for practical applications and evaluating them in practice is a core task. The focus lies on inter-group research in organizational contexts (e.g. corporate mergers, management research, working groups) and social contexts (e.g. prejudices, xenophobia, acculturation).

Former Departments:

The Department of Psychoanalysis uses autobiographical accounts and recounted life stories in its research to study the development of autobiographical memory and thinking as well as narrative emotion processing, also in the framework of mental disorders.