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| In der folgenden Übersicht finden Sie Themenbereiche, Einzelthemen und ev. extern betreute Einzelthemen vor. Bei Interesse wenden Sie sich bitte an eine der genannten Kontaktpersonen. Bitte fügen Sie Ihrer Bewerbung für eine Masterarbeit neben einem kurzen Lebenslauf auch ein ca. einseitiges Motivationsschreiben bei, in welchem Sie erklären, warum Sie sich für das Forschungsprojekt bewerben. Die Masterarbeit darf erst nach Rücksprache mit der/dem Ko-Betreuer/in gebucht werden. Empfohlen wird, die Masterarbeit parallel zum Forschungskolloquium 2 zu buchen. |
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Beschreibung: Research has shown that subjective age is associated with people's health, life expectancy, and well-being. However, most research has focused on trait-liked subjective age and has not examined variability of subjective age until recently. This thesis aims to examine subjective age as a varying and dynamic concept and to understand its correlates as captured in older adults? daily life. Specifically, you will work on a Swiss multidisciplinary dataset that includes 6 years longitudinal data collected with smartphone questionnaires, in-lab questionnaires, and a custom-built multi-sensors device including GPS, accelerometer and audio recordings. Your thesis can examine momentary subjective age in relation to various aspects, such as (1) health and well-being, (2) activity engagement, and (3) mind wandering and time focus, etc. Multiple theses can be developed under this umbrella topic. The theses will be written in English.
Alonso Debreczeni, F., & Bailey, P. E. (2021). A systematic review and meta-analysis of subjective age and the association with cognition, subjective well-being, and depression. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 76(3), 471-482.
Kornadt, A. E., Pauly, T., Schilling, O. K., Kunzmann, U., Katzorreck, M., Lücke, A. J., ... & Wahl, H. W. (2022). Momentary subjective age is associated with perceived and physiological stress in the daily lives of old and very old adults. Psychology and Aging, 37(8), 863.
Röcke, C., Luo, M., Bereuter, P., Katana, M., Fillekes, M., Gehriger, V., ... & Weibel, R. (2023). Charting everyday activities in later life: Study protocol of the mobility, activity, and social interactions study (MOASIS). Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1011177.
Kontakt: Dr. Minxia Luo, E-Mail
Beschreibung: Mobility is an important functional ability in healthy aging, but it is a relatively understudied concept in aging research, including the lack of a profound theoretical rationale and empirical findings on its antecedents, correlates, and consequences. Most research on this topic has relied on self-report questionnaires with a cross-sectional design.
This thesis aims to overcome the limitations and examine mobility and its correlates using a novel dataset. Specifically, you will work on a Swiss multidisciplinary dataset that includes 6 years longitudinal data collected with GPS sensors, smartphone questionnaires, and in-lab questionnaires. Your thesis can examine mobility in relation to various aspects, such as (1) health and well-being, (2) physical and social environments, (3) goals and motivation, (4) personality, and (5) attitudes to aging and ageism, etc. Multiple theses can be developed under this umbrella topic. The theses will be written in English.
Luo, M., Kim, E. K., Weibel, R., Martin, M., & Röcke, C. (2023). GPS-derived daily mobility and daily well-being in community-dwelling older adults. Gerontology, 69(7), 875-887.
Röcke, C., Luo, M., Bereuter, P., Katana, M., Fillekes, M., Gehriger, V., ... & Weibel, R. (2023). Charting everyday activities in later life: Study protocol of the mobility, activity, and social interactions study (MOASIS). Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1011177.
Kontakt: Dr. Minxia Luo, E-Mail
Beschreibung: Active engagement of daily activities (physical, social, and cognitive) is important for older adults to stay healthy and independent. Most existing research focused on examining a single type of daily activity of older adults, but have insufficiently investigated the roles of different combinations of daily activities in health and well-being.
The large multidisciplinary research project of mobility, activity, and social interactions study (MOASIS) was developed to address this research gap. It designed a custom-built mobile sensor "uTrail", including GPS, accelerometer, and audio recording, to track older adults' daily activities. As part of the ongoing MOASIS research efforts, this master thesis aims to conduct a validation study of the accelerometer sensor in comparison to several other existing and validated physical activity sensors.
For this aim, the key tasks of the thesis include collecting, analyzing, and interpreting physical activity data from accelerometers. With guidance of experienced researchers and technical experts, you will have the chance to work with mobile sensing technology, digital markers, and gain experiences of running your own study using these tools. You should be interested in learning and using digital health tools and have experience in statistical inference.
Röcke, C., Luo, M., Bereuter, P., Katana, M., Fillekes, M., Gehriger, V., ... & Weibel, R. (2023). Charting everyday activities in later life: Study protocol of the mobility, activity, and social interactions study (MOASIS). Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1011177.
Amagasa, S., Kamada, M., Sasai, H., Fukushima, N., Kikuchi, H., Lee, I. M., & Inoue, S. (2019). How well iPhones measure steps in free-living conditions: cross-sectional validation study. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 7(1), e10418.
Kontakt: Dr. Minxia Luo, E-Mail
Beschreibung: Over half of older adults living in residential aged care settings report significant levels of anxiety and depression. Traditionally, staff who care for older adults have limited education and resources available to assist them to respond to psychological distress in the moment.
We are commencing a project to educate staff on the use of an evidence-based intervention called music-assisted reminiscence therapy (MRT) to help address the varied psychological and emotional needs of older adults. This project is part of a grant awarded to Romy Engelbrecht (University of Queensland, visiting UZH until Feb 24) by the Swiss government and will be conducted in the healthy longevity centre UZH within the research group CoupleSense: Health and Interpersonal Emotion Regulation (head: Andrea B. Horn). It involves conducting training with aged care staff on the intervention and collecting and analysing mixed research data on psychological resources in aging and how they can be supported in a culturally sensitive way by short interventions provided by the staff. The master?s thesis will be conducted at the unit ?Gerontopsychology and Gerontology? in the psychology department at the University of Zurich, chair: Professor Dr. Mike Martin.
Your responsibilities:
? Support preparing communication between institutions and participants
? Support the implementation and development of written training resources
? Assist the research team to conduct a staff training program
? Assist with the transcription of data recordings
? Support the research team with mixed data collection and analysis.
Your profile:
? Currently studying psychology as a master?s student.
? Have an interest in Gerontology, or working with mental health and wellbeing.
? You have excellent communication skills, organisational skills, and attention to detail.
? You have advanced English and German Skills (Swiss German also highly regarded).
? Interest and/or experience in qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis.
What we offer:
We offer a collaborative and stimulating international research environment with varied work tasks and flexible working times. This project will offer the opportunity to learn practical and clinical skills in the evidence-based intervention of music-assisted reminiscence therapy from an international expert, and allow you to obtain experience with qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis.
You will have the opportunity to develop your own research question within in the project. Though involvement in the project is expected as soon as possible, the planning of the master thesis development is open for discussion (co-supervisor: Andrea B. Horn).
Start of project
Immediately (the intervention phase ends February 2024; Master thesis time line open for discussion)
Applications should include: motivation letter, CV, bachelor thesis. If available: reference letters referring to earlier work (any). Applications are welcome as soon as possible best before October 15 2023.
Kontakt: Dr. Andrea Horn, E-Mail
Beschreibung: Lifelong learning is the continuous development of knowledge and skills throughout life and is not limited to formal education. One of the most successful providers of lifelong learning is the Universities for the Third Age (i.e., Seniors universities). Past research shows that continuing to learn in old age (60+) is positively associated with the maintenance and enhancement of cognitive functioning, psychological well-being and social integration.
Although there is large variation in the ICT (i.e., information and communication technologies) skills and interests of adults 60+, the current trend is that more and more 60+ are highly competent in these technologies. There is agreement in the literature that online educational programs can be effective in addressing the diverse characteristics of aging individuals. There is no typical senior learner, as they tend to have different cognitive, motivational and physical states. E-learning can support this diversity by allowing for self-directed and self-paced learning.
Thus, we are developing a distance learning platform specifically designed for 60+ in collaboration with Swiss Seniors Universities. The offered thesis projects will review the literature on lifelong learning and e-learning in old age, and present the current trends, challenges and opportunities in this field. It will include interviews and surveys with seniors who are currently using our distance learning platform. We offer more than one thesis on the topic, with a focus on different aspects, such as: (a) seniors' learning needs and styles, (b) seniors' UX design needs/interests and usability testing of the platform, (c) data analytics (developing learning analytics on the platform to track seniors' online behavior), (d) reaching out to seniors who have weaker digital skills and onboarding them on the platform, and (e) development of new and age-targeted course-content.
Narushima, M., Liu, J., & Diestelkamp, N. (2018). Lifelong learning in active ageing discourse: Its conserving effect on wellbeing, health and vulnerability. Ageing & Society, 38(4), 651-675.
Zadworna, M. (2020). Healthy Aging and the University of the Third Age-Health Behavior and Subjective Health Outcomes in Older Adults. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 104126.
Githens, R. P. (2007). Older adults and e-learning: Opportunities and barriers. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 8(4), 329.
De Palo, V., Limone, P., Monacis, L., Ceglie, F., & Sinatra, M. (2018). Enhancing E-Learning in Old Age. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 58(1), 88-109.
Kontakt: Dr. Burcu Demiray, E-Mail
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