Masterarbeiten

Beschreibung: Neuroticism describes the tendency to experience frequent and intense negative emotions in response to stress (Barlow et al., 2014; Goldberg, 1990). Due to neuroticism's many links with undesirable life outcomes (Beck & Jackson, 2022; Ozer & Benet-Martínez, 2006; Soto, 2021), its individual- and societal-level costs have long been a topic of discussion (Bleidorn et al., 2019; Cuijpers et al., 2010; Lahey, 2009) and have prompted calls for interventions. However, although neuroticism's associations with life outcomes are well understood for its average trait levels, the same is not true for other metrics. Research conducted with metrics beyond average levels of traits suggests there is incremental value in examining other metrics, such as someone's mean-level changes or magnitude of within-person variability (Wright & Jackson, 2023, 2024). To best understand how neuroticism relates to important outcomes, and what potential ramifications of modifying someone's trait neuroticism are, it is necessary to thoroughly examine how multiple metrics of this trait are associated with outcomes. The purpose of this thesis is to test the predictive validity of trait levels, mean-level changes, and, particularly, within-person variability of neuroticism for an array of future outcomes in domains such as health, relationships, work, and civic engagement. Knowledge of linear regression is required. Familiarity with multilevel modeling, R statistical software, and/or Bayesian statistics are recommended but not required. This thesis must be written in English. Einstiegsliteratur / Literature Barlow, D. H., Sauer-Zavala, S., Carl, J. R., Bullis, J. R., & Ellard, K. K. (2014). The nature, diagnosis, and treatment of neuroticism: Back to the future. Clinical Psychological Science, 2(3), 344?365. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702613505532 Beck, E. D., & Jackson, J. J. (2022). A mega-analysis of personality prediction: Robustness and boundary conditions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 122(3), 523?553. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000386 Bleidorn, W., Hill, P. L., Back, M. D., Denissen, J. J. A., Hennecke, M., Hopwood, C. J., Jokela, M., Kandler, C., Lucas, R. E., Luhmann, M., Orth, U., Wagner, J., Wrzus, C., Zimmermann, J., & Roberts, B. (2019). The policy relevance of personality traits. American Psychologist, 74(9), 1056?1067. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000503 Cuijpers, P., Smit, F., Penninx, B. W. J. H., de Graaf, R., ten Have, M., & Beekman, A. T. F. (2010). Economic Costs of Neuroticism: A Population-Based Study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 67(10), 1086?1093. https://doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.130 Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative ?description of personality?: The Big-Five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(6), 1216?1229. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.6.1216 Lahey, B. B. (2009). Public health significance of neuroticism. American Psychologist, 64(4), 241?256. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015309 Ozer, D. J., & Benet-Martínez, V. (2006). Personality and the prediction of consequential outcomes. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 401?421. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.57.102904.190127 Soto, C. J. (2021). Do Links Between Personality and Life Outcomes Generalize? Testing the Robustness of Trait?Outcome Associations Across Gender, Age, Ethnicity, and Analytic Approaches. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12(1), 118?130. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619900572 Wright, A. J., & Jackson, J. J. (2023). Do changes in personality predict life outcomes? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 125(6), 1495?1518. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000472 Wright, A. J., & Jackson, J. J. (2024). Longitudinal within-person variability around personality trajectories. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000507
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: ab sofort möglich
Eingabedatum: 01.07.2024
Kontakt: Amanda Wright, PhD, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Ein Vorteil computerbasierter Leistungstests liegt in der automatischen Erfassung von Verhaltensweisen, die zur Lösung der Aufgabe beigetragen haben könnten. So kann mit diesen Messinstrumenten nicht nur erfasst werden, ob eine Aufgabe richtig gelöst wurde, sondern auch, ob und in welchem Ausmass verschiedene Verhaltensweisen gezeigt wurden. Die Berücksichtigung dieser zusätzlichen Informationen findet in der psychologischen Diagnostik jedoch nur bedingt statt, obwohl die Idee der «objektiven Persönlichkeitstests» sensu Cattell bereits Jahrzehnte alt ist. Ziel dieser Masterarbeit ist es, den Nutzen von Logfile-Analysen anhand vorhandener Daten verschiedener computerbasierter Fähigkeitstests zu untersuchen. Dabei sollen neben den bisher in der Forschung berücksichtigten einfacheren Massen (z.B. Bearbeitungszeit) auch komplexere Verhaltensindikatoren (z.B. unterschiedliche Problemlösestrategien) identifiziert und empirisch (z.B. mittels Data Mining) validiert werden. Das Thema eignet sich besonders für Studierende, die Freude und Interesse an datenintensiven Analysen haben und über (erste) Programmierkenntnisse (z.B. in Python) verfügen. Die Arbeit kann in deutscher oder englischer Sprache verfasst werden. Einstiegsliteratur - Stadler, M., Hofer, S., & Greiff, S. (2020). First among equals: Log data indicates ability differences despite equal scores. Computers in Human Behavior, 111, 106442. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106442 - Molnár, G., Alrababah, S. A., & Greiff, S. (2022). How we explore, interpret, and solve complex problems: A cross-national study of problem-solving processes. Heliyon, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e08775
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: ab sofort möglich
Eingabedatum: 01.07.2024
Kontakt: Dr. Andre Kretzschmar , E-Mail

Beschreibung: Different life events have differential average effects on well-being, most often conceptualized by its cognitive-evaluative component, life satisfaction (e.g., Krämer et al., 2024). For example, entering new romantic relationships and childbirth on average increase life satisfaction for a few years around the time of event occurrence, whereas widowhood and unemployment decrease life satisfaction. Set-point theory postulates that these deviations in both directions are only temporary and are followed by adaptation to baseline. However, complete adaptation has been debated for some events such as long-term unemployment and disability. This thesis is intended to replicate and extend this existing research in several ways, with a specific focus on the Swiss context (e.g., Anusic et al., 2014). First, using nationally representative longitudinal panel data from the Swiss Household Panel (SHP) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), effects of life events are compared between the two countries, using more waves of longitudinal data than previously available. Second, effects of life events on the affective component of well-being are examined and compared across the two panels. Third, factors that are important in the context of the Switzerland/Germany comparison are explored as moderators (e.g., education, income, childcare) of well-being trajectories around event experience. The thesis is intended to be written in English. Longitudinal multilevel regression models or econometric regression models will be used to address the research questions inferentially, while generalized additive mixed effect models (GAMMs) could be used to trace kongitudinal trajectories more decriptively. Therefore, good statistics knowledge or a high motivation to read up on such methods is an advantage. Einstiegsliteratur - Anusic, I., Yap, S., & Lucas, R. E. (2014). Testing set-point theory in a Swiss national sample: Reaction and adaptation to major life events. Social Indicators Research, 119(3), 1265?1288. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0541-2 - Krämer, M. D., Rohrer, J. M., Lucas, R. E., & Richter, D. (2024). Life events and life satisfaction: Estimating effects of multiple life events in combined models. European Journal of Personality. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/08902070241231017
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: ab sofort möglich
Eingabedatum: 01.07.2024
Kontakt: Dr. Michael Kraemer, E-Mail

Beschreibung: People feel lonely if they perceive a discrepancy between desired and actual social contacts. Loneliness is associated with a range of adverse outcomes, including the onset of mental disorders, reduced quality of life, and mortality. Better understanding the causes, correlates, and consequences of loneliness is thus a critical task of personality psychology. Therefore, the links to other constructs like personality traits have to be examined. It is well established that loneliness is cross-sectionally correlated with the Big Five personality traits such as neuroticism. However, to better understand the nature of this relationship, longitudinal studies are needed. This master thesis will therefore draw on multiple large-scale panel studies like the German Socio-Economic Household Panel to examine the longitudinal (co)development of loneliness and personality traits. For this master thesis, advanced longitudinal methods such as random-intercept cross-lagged panel models, bivariate growth curve models, or continuous time models will be needed. Literature - Buecker, S., Maes, M., Denissen, J. J. A., & Luhmann, M. (2020). Loneliness and the Big Five Personality Traits: A Meta?Analysis. European Journal of Personality, 34(1), 8-28. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2229 - Tapia-Munoz, T., Ajnakina, O., Fancourt, D., & Steptoe, A. (2023). Personality traits and loneliness among older people in the UK: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. European Journal of Personality. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/08902070231206196
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: sofort
Eingabedatum: 30.05.2024
Kontakt: Dr. Peter Haehner, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Personality traits, particularly the Big Five, are robustly associated with future health outcomes such as self-report health status and mortality (Jackson et al., 2015; Takahashi et al., 2013). These effects are presumed to occur through mechanisms such as engagement in health behaviors (e.g., exercise), biological processes (e.g., inflammation), and life events or daily experiences (e.g., stressful events). Separate links between personality, these mechanisms, and health outcomes have been identified (Bogg & Roberts, 2004; Hampson, 2012), but explicit investigations of the personality ? mechanism ? health pathway are often limited in scope to one or two traits, a select few mechanisms, and/or a single health outcome. The purpose of this thesis is to test this pathway for a range of mechanisms and multiple health outcomes with all Big Five traits. Knowledge of linear regression is required. Familiarity with structural equation modeling and R statistical software are recommended but not required. This thesis must be written in English. Einstiegsliteratur / Literature - Bogg, T., & Roberts, B. W. (2004). Conscientiousness and Health-Related Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis of the Leading Behavioral Contributors to Mortality. Psychological Bulletin, 130(6), 887?919. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.130.6.887 - Hampson, S. E. (2012). Personality processes: Mechanisms by which personality traits ?get outside the skin?. Annual review of psychology, 63, 315-339. - Jackson, J. J., Connolly, J. J., Garrison, S. M., Leveille, M. M., & Connolly, S. L. (2015). Your friends know how long you will live: A 75-year study of peer-rated personality traits. Psychological Science, 26(3), 335-340. - Takahashi, Y., Edmonds, G. W., Jackson, J. J., & Roberts, B. W. (2013). Longitudinal correlated changes in conscientiousness, preventative health?related behaviors, and self?perceived physical health. Journal of Personality, 81(4), 417-427.
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 29.11.2023
Kontakt: Amanda Wright, PhD, E-Mail

Beschreibung: The study of character strengths is growing, yet there is a notable lack of agreement on their definition. This gap makes it difficult to differentiate character strengths from other personality dimensions, such as the Big Five traits. This thesis seeks involves a systematic review and meta-analysis to gather and qualitatively examine various definitions of character strengths from key literature. The goal is to identify a broad yet precise working definition that can effectively guide a wide range of future research in this field. Einstiegsliteratur / Literature - Pfattheicher, S., Nielsen, Y. A., & Thielmann, I. (2022). Prosocial behavior and altruism: A review of concepts and definitions. Current Opinion in Psychology, 44, 124?129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.08.021
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 29.11.2023
Kontakt: Dr. Alexander Stahlmann, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Parenthood has been described as an ambiguous life event, with many positive facets that ? on average ? benefit well-being aspects such as life satisfaction and satisfaction with family life, but also several negative facets that adversely affect sleep or personal income (Krämer & Rodgers, 2019), as well as the available leisure time and social time with friends. From a theoretical perspective, such ambiguous effects of parenthood can be viewed within the frameworks of both role enhancement theory and role strain theory, especially for the first-time occurrence of childbirth, when parents add a completely new social role to the roster of already existing social roles. This thesis focuses on loneliness as an outcome in the context of parenthood which has not yet been examined extensively. Initial results relying on data from a representative Dutch panel study indicated that parenthood related to an increase in loneliness starting in the second year after childbirth (Buecker et al., 2019). Despite this increase, parents were still overall lower in loneliness when compared to a matched control group which did not experience parenthood. Still, it remains unclear whether this finding replicates in other populations and which factors associated with parenthood moderate the effect (e.g., gender, parity, partner/marital status, or socio-economic status). Another important question is whether governmental contact restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated any potential effects on parental loneliness. In this thesis, nationally representative longitudinal panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) is used to shed further light on these questions that are of interest not only to psychology but also to demography, sociology, and economics. The thesis is intended to be written in English. Longitudinal multilevel regression models will be used to address the research questions. Therefore, good statistics knowledge or a high motivation to read up on such methods is an advantage. Einstiegsliteratur - Buecker, S., Denissen, J. J. A., & Luhmann, M. (2021). A propensity-score matched study of changes in loneliness surrounding major life events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 121(3), 669?690. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000373.supp - Krämer, M. D., & Rodgers, J. L. (2020). The impact of having children on domain-specific life satisfaction: A quasi-experimental longitudinal investigation using the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(6), 1497?1514. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000279
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 29.11.2023
Kontakt: Dr. Michael Kraemer, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Major life events can lead to changes in people?s subjective well-being and their mental health. However, sometimes we expect that we will experience a certain event in the near future but this event does then never actually occur, a phenomenon referred to as missed events. Due to violating personal expectations, such missed events may affect our well-being. Drawing on a sample of young adults (N > 1,500 at T1), it is the goal of this thesis to examine whether missed events are related to changes in subjective well-being over one year. The data analysis for this thesis will require (advanced) longitudinal modeling (e.g., multilevel models, latent growth curve models, latent change score models). Einstiegsliteratur / Literatur - Luhmann, M., Buecker, S., Kaiser, T., & Beermann, M. (2021). Nothing going on? Exploring the role of missed events in changes in subjective well?being and the Big Five personality traits. Journal of Personality, 89(1), 113?131. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12539
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 29.11.2023
Kontakt: Dr. Peter Haehner, E-Mail

Beschreibung: On April 29, 2020, the German supreme court ruled that the Federal Climate Change Act was incompatible with constitutional rights. For the first time, the government became accountable for installing appropriate measures to mitigate climate change. Notably, the plaintiffs were no scientists or opposing politicians but school students who started taking their protests to the streets. Did perceived threats to their beliefs about the world feed the activism that ultimately caused this unprecedented ruling? The students strike for ?climate justice??curbing emissions now to preserve the world?s environment for the future. Central to their identity are the sadness, fear, and anger that accompany the prospect of spending adulthood in a world that is not worth living in anymore. This thesis investigates whether such beliefs about the future world, called primals, are important correlates of school student strikers? activism. The resulting paper can be submitted in English or German.

Literatur
- Clifton, J. D. W., Baker, J. D., Park, C.L., Yaden, D. B., Clifton, A. B. W., Terni, P., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2019). Primal world beliefs. Psychological Assessment, 31, 82?99. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000639
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 2
Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 28.11.2022
Kontakt: Alexander Stahlmann, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Etablierte Modelle der Intelligenz gehen von einer hierarchischen Konzeptualisierung der Intelligenz aus (z.B. Cattell-Horn-Carroll Modell; Berliner Intelligenzstrukturmodell), welche basierend auf explorativen und konfirmatorischen Faktoranalysen wiederholt empirisch bestätigt werden konnte. In den letzten Jahren wurde in der Intelligenzforschung immer stärker die psychometrische Netzwerkanalyse (Borsboom et al., 2021) als Alternative zur Faktorenanalyse diskutiert. Basierend auf einen bestehenden Datensatz soll in dieser Masterarbeit das Berliner Intelligenzstrukturmodell (Süß & Beauducel, 2015) mittels konfirmatorischer Faktorenanalyse und psychometrischen Netzwerkanalyse (mittels der Statistiksoftware R) überprüft werden. Dabei soll auch herausgearbeitet werden, ob und inwieweit die psychometrische Netzwerkanalyse Vorteile über etablierte Verfahren (z.B. konfirmatorische Faktorenanalyse) zur Überprüfung der Struktur der Intelligenz hat.

Literatur
Borsboom, D., Deserno, M. K., Rhemtulla, M., Epskamp, S., Fried, E. I., McNally, R. J., Robinaugh, D. J., Perugini, M., Dalege, J., Costantini, G., Isvoranu, A.-M., Wysocki, A. C., van Borkulo, C. D., van Bork, R., & Waldorp, L. J. (2021). Network analysis of multivariate data in psychological science. Nature Reviews Methods Primers, 1(1), 1?18. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-021-00055-w
Süß, H.-M., & Beauducel, A. (2015). Modeling the construct validity of the Berlin Intelligence Structure Model. Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas), 32(1), 13?25. https://doi.org/10.1590/0103-166X2015000100002
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: ab HS23
Eingabedatum: 25.11.2021
Kontakt: Dr. Andre Kretzschmar, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Charakterstärken wie Mut, Freundlichkeit und Humor sind Persönlichkeitseigenschaften, die andere Menschen dazu inspirieren über sich selbst hinauszuwachsen, indem sie Gefühle der Bewunderung und des Stolzes statt Neid und Scham auslösen. Alle Charakterstärken sind wünschenswerte Eigenschaften, aber manche werden eher geschätzt als andere. Zum Beispiel ist die Charakterstärke Urteilsvermögen beliebter als Vorsicht. Dies könnte daran liegen, dass die Laienkonnotationen der Begriffe negativer besetzt sind als theoretisch intendiert. Zum Beispiel könnte der theoretisch positiv besetzte Begriff Vorsicht von Laien fälschlicherweise mit Zurückhaltung, Feigheit, oder Ängstlichkeit verwechselt werden. In dieser Arbeit sollen die Laienkonnotationen von Charakterstärken systematisch untersucht werden. Am Ende sollen best-practice-Empfehlungen zur Kommunikation von Charakterstärken abgeleitet werden; also ob zum Beispiel die Charakterstärke Vorsicht im Umgang mit Laien anders benannt werden sollte. Die Arbeit soll in deutscher Sprache verfasst werden.

Literatur
-Ruch, W., & Stahlmann, A. G. (2019). 15 years after Peterson and Seligman (2004): A brief narrative review of the research on the 12 criteria for character strengths ? the forgotten treasure of the VIA classification. In M. Brohm-Badry, C. Peifer, J. M. Greve, & B. Berend (Eds.), Zusammen wachsen ? Förderung der positiv-psychologischen Entwicklung von Individuen, Organisationen und Gesellschaft (pp. 142?172). Pabst Science Publishers.
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 28.11.2022
Kontakt: Alexander Stahlmann, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Agreeableness refers to individual differences in compassion, politeness, and trust in relations with others. People who are described by others as "kind" are also described as "considerate" and "warm," implicating a superordinate dimension that is relatively stable over time and related to a wide range of thoughts, feelings, and social behaviors. But how exactly do agreeable people spend their time on an average day? The purpose of the present thesis is to examine whether people who are high vs. low in agreeableness differ in their time expenditure using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement, in Europe (SHARE). In addition to analyzing the average effects of agreeableness on time expenditure, the thesis will explore cultural differences in in the time usage of agreeable people.

Einstiegsliteratur:
- Chapman, B. P., & Goldberg, L. R. (2017). Act-frequency signatures of the Big Five. Personality and Individual Differences, 116, 201-205.
- Graziano, W. G., & Tobin, R. M. (2009). Agreeableness. In M. R. Leary & R. H. Hoyle (Eds.), Handbook of individual differences in social behavior (pp. 46?61). The Guilford Press.
- Jensen?Campbell, L. A., & Graziano, W. G. (2001). Agreeableness as a moderator of interpersonal conflict. Journal of personality, 69(2), 323-362.
- John, O. P. (2021). History, measurement, and conceptual elaboration of the Big?Five trait taxonomy: The paradigm matures. In O. P. John & R. W. Robins (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 35?82). The Guilford Press.
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 28.11.2022
Kontakt: Prof. Dr. Wiebke Bleidorn, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Openness to experience refers to relatively stable individual differences in curiosity, exploration, and imagination. People who score high in this personality trait are supposed to have many interests; they like to seek out novel experiences, and tend to be reflective and thoughtful about new ideas. But how do open people spend their time on an average day? The purpose of the present thesis is to examine whether people who are high vs. low in openness differ in their time expenditure using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement, in Europe (SHARE). In addition to analyzing the average effects of openness on time expenditure, the thesis will explore cultural differences in the time usage of open people.

Einstiegsliteratur:
- Chapman, B. P., & Goldberg, L. R. (2017). Act-frequency signatures of the Big Five. Personality and Individual Differences, 116, 201-205.
- John, O. P. (2021). History, measurement, and conceptual elaboration of the Big?Five trait taxonomy: The paradigm matures. In O. P. John & R. W. Robins (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 35-82). The Guilford Press.
- McCrae, R. R., & Costa Jr, P. T. (1997). Conceptions and correlates of openness to experience. In Handbook of personality psychology (pp. 825-847). Academic Press.
- Schwaba, T., Luhmann, M., Denissen, J. J. A., Chung, J. M., & Bleidorn, W. (2018). Openness to experience and culture-openness transactions across the lifespan. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 115(1), 118?136.
- Schwaba, T., Robins, R. W., Grijalva, E., & Bleidorn, W. (2019). Does openness to experience matter in love and work? Domain, facet, and developmental evidence from a 24?year longitudinal study. Journal of Personality, 87(5), 1074-1092.
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 28.11.2022
Kontakt: Prof. Dr. Wiebke Bleidorn, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Conscientiousness refers to individual differences in orderliness, industriousness, and self-control. Conscientious people tend to be hardworking, reliable, and adhere to rules and norms. But how do conscientious people spend their time on an average day? The purpose of the present thesis is to examine whether people who are high vs. low in conscientiousness differ in their time expenditure using data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement, in Europe (SHARE). In addition to analyzing the average effects of conscientiousness on time expenditure, the thesis will explore cultural differences in in the time usage of open people.

Einstiegsliteratur:
- Chapman, B. P., & Goldberg, L. R. (2017). Act-frequency signatures of the Big Five. Personality and Individual Differences, 116, 201-205.
- Jackson, J. J., Wood, D., Bogg, T., Walton, K. E., Harms, P. D., & Roberts, B. W. (2010). What do conscientious people do? Development and validation of the Behavioral Indicators of Conscientiousness (BIC). Journal of research in personality, 44(4), 501-511.
- Jackson, J. J., & Roberts, B. W. (2017). Conscientiousness. In T. A. Widiger (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of the Five Factor Model (pp. 133?147). Oxford University Press.
- John, O. P. (2021). History, measurement, and conceptual elaboration of the Big?Five trait taxonomy: The paradigm matures. In O. P. John & R. W. Robins (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 35?82). The Guilford Press.
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 28.11.2022
Kontakt: Prof. Dr. Wiebke Bleidorn, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Das beste «Training» für die Intelligenzentwicklung ist die Beschulung (Ritchie & Tucker-Drob, 2018). In Deutschland wurde im Rahmen einer Schulreform die Schuldauer von 9 auf 8 Jahren reduziert bei gleichzeitiger Beibehaltung der Inhalte im Lehrplan (sogenannte «G8-Reform»). Unklar ist dabei, welche Auswirkungen dies auf die Entwicklung der Intelligenz der Schüler*innen hatte: Die Studie von Bergold et al. (2017) hat zwar substantielle Unterschiede nachweisen können, allerdings ist die Aussagekraft wegen der fehlenden Repräsentativität der Stichprobe stark eingeschränkt. Eine andere Studie hat nur teilweise Unterschiede in den schulischen Kompetenzen gefunden, allerdings nicht die allgemeine kognitive Leistungsfähigkeit berücksichtigt (Hübner et al., 2017) In dieser Masterarbeit soll der Effekt der reduzierten Schuldauer auf die kognitive Leistungsfähigkeit anhand eines bestehenden Datensatzes basierend auf einer repräsentativen Stichprobe (NEPS-Daten: Zusatzstudie Baden-Württemberg; Blossfeld et al., 2011) untersucht werden. Die Arbeit kann in Deutsch oder Englisch verfasst werden.

Literatur
- Bergold, S., Wirthwein, L., Rost, D. H., & Steinmayr, R. (2017). What happens if the same curriculum is taught in five instead of six years? A quasi-experimental investigation of the effect of schooling on intelligence. Cognitive Development, 44, 98?109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2017.08.012
- Blossfeld, H.-P., H.-G. Rossbach und J. von Maurice (Hrsg.) (2011). Education as a Lifelong Process -- The German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Zeitschrift fuer Erziehungswissenschaft: Sonderheft 14.
- Hübner, N., Wagner, W., Kramer, J., Nagengast, B., & Trautwein, U. (2017). Die G8-Reform in Baden-Württemberg: Kompetenzen, Wohlbefinden und Freizeitverhalten vor und nach der Reform. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11618-017-0737-3
- Ritchie, S. J., & Tucker-Drob, E. M. (2018). How Much Does Education Improve Intelligence? A Meta-Analysis. Psychological Science, 29(8), 1358?1369. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618774253
Anzahl Arbeiten für dieses Thema: 1
Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 09.12.2022
Kontakt: Dr. Andre Kretschmar, E-Mail

Beschreibung: The transition to parenthood has been associated with changes in various psychological variables. However, little is known about new parents? affective development during this life transition. The goal of the present study is to examine the stability and change in positive and negative affect among first-time parents (n = 246) in comparison to a sample of individuals who did not have children during the research period (n = 293) using three-wave longitudinal data.

Einstiegsliteratur:
- Bleidorn, W., Buyukcan-Tetik, A., Schwaba, T., Van Scheppingen, M. A., Denissen, J. J., & Finkenauer, C. (2016). Stability and change in self-esteem during the transition to parenthood. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7, 560-569.
- Saxbe, D., Rossin-Slater, M., & Goldenberg, D. (2018). The transition to parenthood as a critical window for adult health. American Psychologist, 73(9), 1190-1200.
- van Scheppingen, M. A., Denissen, J. J. A., & Bleidorn, W. (2018). Stability and change in self?control during the transition to parenthood. European Journal of Personality, 32(6), 690-704
- van Scheppingen, M. A., Jackson, J. J., Specht, J., Hutteman, R., Denissen, J. J., & Bleidorn, W. (2016). Personality trait development during the transition to parenthood: A test of social investment theory. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(5), 452-462.
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Eingabedatum: 09.05.2022
Kontakt: Prof. Dr. Wiebke Bleidorn, E-Mail

Beschreibung: People differ in the ways in which they deal with stress. While some people rely on communal strategies involving social support from relevant others (Cohen & Wills, 1985), others prefer to rely on themselves and favor agentic ways of coping involving mastery and self-efficacious strategies (e.g., Little et al., 2006). Both communal and agentic strategies may be fruitful and effective ways of coping with stressful events (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). However, little is known about the relative effectiveness of communal versus agentic coping strategies in dealing with stress over time. The present Master?s thesis will use existing data to examine the longitudinal links between stress and agentic (mastery, self-efficacy) versus communal strategies (social inclusion, perceived support) across 9 assessment waves in a sample of 400 students during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Einstiegsliteratur:
Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 310-357.
Elliot, A. J., Thrash, T. M., & Murayama, K. (2011, Jun). A longitudinal analysis of self-regulation and well-being: avoidance personal goals, avoidance coping, stress generation, and subjective well-being. Journal of Personality, 79(3), 643-674.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer.
Little, T. D., Snyder, C., & Wehmeyer, M. (2006). The agentic self: On the nature and origins of personal agency across the lifespan. In D. K. Mroczek & T. D. Little (Eds.), Handbook of Personality Development (pp. 61-79). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. Polizzi, C., Lynn, S.J., Perry, A. (2020). Stress and Coping in the Time of COVID-19: Pathways to Resilience and Recovery. Clinical Neuropsychiatry, 17, 59-62.
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Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 25.11.2021
Kontakt: Prof. Dr. Wiebke Bleidorn, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Im Gegensatz zu traditionellen Leistungstests wird bei Lernfähigkeitstests die Leistung bewertet, anhand von standardisierten Rückmeldungen ein Problem zu lösen. Damit sollen Lernfähigkeitstests eher das Potenzial abbilden. Im Rahmen dieser Masterarbeit soll ein figuraler Lernfähigkeitstests weiterentwickelt und empirisch überprüft werden. Basierend auf den bisherigen Aufgaben sollen (vor allem schwierige) Items entworfen und in einer Onlineumfragesoftware (LimeSurvey) implementiert werden. Darauf aufbauend soll der weiterentwickelte Lernfähigkeitstest hinsichtlich psychometrischer Eigenschaften (z.B. Itemschwierigkeiten) und der Konstruktvalidität (z.B. Korrelationen mit anderen Leistungstests) empirisch überprüft und validiert werden. Die Masterarbeit liefert damit einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Weiterentwicklung der psychologischen Leistungsdiagnostik.

Literatur
Beckmann, J., & Dobat, H. (2000). Zur Validierung der Diagnostik intellektueller Lernfähigkeit. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 14(2/3), 96?105. https://doi.org/10.1024//1010-0652.14.23.96
Beckmann, J. F., & Guthke, J. (1999). Psychodiagnostik des schlußfolgernden Denkens: Handbuch zur Adaptiven Computergestützten Intelligenz-Lerntestbatterie für Schlußfolgerndes Denken (ACIL). Hogrefe, Verl. für Psychologie.
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Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 25.11.2021
Kontakt: Dr. Andre Kretzschmar, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Recent research suggests that many people desire to change their personality -- e.g., to be less stressed, better organized, or more outgoing -- and are willing to invest time and effort to do so. However, people differ in the extent to which they desire to change different traits, raising questions about the factors underlying these differences. The goal of this set of theses is to examine age and gender differences in personality change goals, through meta- (or mega-) analytic techniques and / or empirical replication studies of age and gender diverse samples.

Einstiegsliteratur:
- Hudson, N. W., & Roberts, B. W. (2014). Goals to change personality traits: Concurrent links between personality traits, daily behavior, and goals to change oneself. Journal of Research in Personality, 53, 68-83.
- Hudson, N. W., Briley, D. A., Chopik, W. J., & Derringer, J. (2019). You have to follow through: Attaining behavioral change goals predicts volitional personality change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117, 839-857.
- Hudson, N. W., & Fraley, R. C. (2016). Do people?s desires to change their personality traits vary with age? An examination of trait change goals across adulthood. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7, 847-856.
- Miller, T. J., Baranski, E. N., Dunlop, W. L., & Ozer, D. J. (2019). Striving for change: The prevalence and correlates of personality change goals. Journal of Research in Personality, 80, 10-16.

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Eingabedatum: 09.05.2022
Kontakt: Prof. Dr. Wiebke Bleidorn, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Intimate relationship partners continuously covary in their everyday emotions (Schoebi & Randall, 2015). One mechanism through which intimate relationship partners experience and shape each other?s emotions is emotion contagion, that is, the spread of emotions from one person to another. The present Master?s thesis will examine whether everyday processes of emotion contagion differ with respect to (1) personality traits and (2) gender of older intimate partners. For example, neuroticism is associated with heightened reactivity to social and emotional stressors (McCrae & Costa, 1996) and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (Baranczuk, 2019) and may be hypothesized to impact upon processes of emotion contagion. Data from an experience sampling study will be used to track processes of emotion contagion in the daily lives of older intimate partners. The results of this study will contribute to a better understanding of dispositional factors underlying everyday emotional processes between older intimate partners.

Literature
Hatfield, E., Bensman, L., Thornton, P. D., & Rapson, R. L. (2014). New perspectives on emotional contagion: A review of classic and recent research on facial mimicry and contagion. Interpersona, 8(2), 159?179. https://doi.org/10.5964/ijpr.v8i2.162
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (1996). Toward a new generation of personality theories: Theoretical contexts for the five-factor model. In J. Wiggins (Ed.), The five-factor model of personality: Theoretical perspectives (pp. 51?87). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Schoebi, D., & Randall, A. K. (2015). Emotional dynamics in intimate relationships. Emotion Review, 7(4), 342?348. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915590620
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Eingabedatum: 25.11.2021
Kontakt: Dr. Elisa Weber, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Civic engagement involves different actions individuals take to improve conditions for others or to help shape a community?s future, such as volunteering, donating blood, and voting. While the literature offers some theory and evidence that civic engagement correlates with the Big Five, little is known about specific actions? relationships with other individual differences. Recently, a group of American researchers introduced Primal world beliefs?or primals for short?to the literature. Primals are conceptualized as a category of individual differences in beliefs about the overall character of the world (e.g., the world is a safe place). Proponents of the model postulate that primals inform differences in various aspects of cognition, affect, and behavior and hence influence civic engagement. In this project, we examine the cross-sectional relationships of primals with civic engagement in a nationally representative sample of couples from the U.S.A. The Master?s Thesis involves analyzing the data in view of our hypotheses and exploring multivariate relationships of primals, personality, and civic engagement?both in close collaboration with the supervisor. The resulting paper should be submitted in English.

Literatur
Adler, R. P., & Goggin, J. (2005). What do we mean by ?civic engagement?? Journal of Transformative Education, 3(3), 236?253. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541344605276792
Clifton, J.D.W., Baker, J.D., Park, C.L., Yaden, D.B., Clifton, A.B.W., Terni, P., & Seligman, M.E.P. (2019). Primal world beliefs. Psychological Assessment, 31, 82?99. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000639
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Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 25.11.2021
Kontakt: Alexander Stahlmann, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Primal world beliefs?or primals for short?are a category of beliefs about the overall character of the world (e.g., the world is a safe place). Theory and evidence suggest that some of these beliefs correlate with important mental health and well-being indicators, such as resilience, life satisfaction, and relationship quality. Accordingly, there is growing interest in the development of interventions that change these outcomes through changing primals. A relatively novel approach to fostering mental health involves virtual reality interventions, which have been used successfully, for example, for treating eating disorders or promoting empathy. In this project, we will attempt to elicit short-term changes in primals through subjecting individuals to different worlds in the popular video game ?Minecraft.? Specifically, we expect individuals who spend time in a world abundant with resources, beautiful landscapes, and little danger from enemies to briefly superimpose their experiences on the real world. Although this would not prove that primals can change in the long run, the project would provide initial evidence that changing primals is possible at all. The Master?s Thesis involves planning the first study, collecting data, and analyzing them in view of our hypothesis?all in close collaboration with the supervisor. The resulting paper should be submitted in English.

Literatur
Clifton, J.D.W., Baker, J.D., Park, C.L., Yaden, D.B., Clifton, A.B.W., Terni, P., & Seligman, M.E.P. (2019). Primal world beliefs. Psychological Assessment, 31, 82?99. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000639
Freeman, D., Reeve, S., Robinson, A., Ehlers, A., Clark, D., Spanlang, B., & Slater, M. (2017). Virtual reality in the assessment, understanding, and treatment of mental health disorders. Psychological Medicine, 47(14), 2393?2400. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003329171700040X
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Eingabedatum: 25.11.2021
Kontakt: Alexander Stahlmann, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Understanding others is a crucial element of maintaining functioning social relationships. Empathic processes, e.g., how people perceive, process and respond to information about other people, is strongly tied to dimensions of peoples? personality, such as neuroticism (McNulty et al., 2008) and agreeableness (Graziano et al., 2007). However, little is known about the role of personality factors for empathic processes in the daily lives of older couples. The present Master?s thesis will use existing experience sampling data to examine the role of personality in everyday processes of (a) cognitive empathy, i.e., the extent to which intimate partners are accurate in identifying each other?s thoughts and emotions, and (b) empathic motivation, i.e., the extent to which intimate partners are motivated to understand each other?s thoughts and emotions. In addition, the extent to which individual differences in empathic processes are linked to markers of relationship satisfaction and functioning in the daily lives of older couples will be explored. The results of this study will contribute to a better understanding of dispositional factors that conduce to maintaining positive romantic relationships. Furthermore, it will help to identify important predictors of dyadic relationship satisfaction and functioning.

Literature
Graziano, W. G., Habashi, M. M., Sheese, B. E., & Tobin, R. M. (2007). Agreeableness, empathy, and helping: A person × situation perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(4), 583?599. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.93.4.583
Ickes, W. J. (1997). Empathic accuracy. Guilford Press. Rauers, A., Blanke, E., & Riediger, M. (2013). Everyday empathic accuracy in younger and older couples: Do you need to see your partner to know his or her feelings? Psychological Science, 24(11), 2210?2217. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613490747
Zaki, J. (2014). Empathy: A motivated account. Psychological Bulletin, 140(6), 1608?1647. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037679
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Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 25.11.2021
Kontakt: Dr. Elisa Weber, E-Mail

Beschreibung: Self-esteem, a person's subjective evaluation of their worth as a person, predicts a variety of important life outcomes, including relationship satisfaction, physical and mental health, educational success, and job satisfaction (for a review, see Orth & Robins, 2014). Leading self-esteem theories posit that self-esteem varies as a function of the extent to which people feel appreciated and included by others (e.g., Leary, 2005). Specifically, self-esteem has been often described as a sociometer, with lower levels indicating low levels of social inclusion. Evidence for the sociometer hypothesis has been mixed, with some studies finding higher self-esteem levels in those people who report higher levels of social inclusion and other studies finding no evidence or reverse effects suggesting that higher self-esteem may lead to better relationship outcomes (e.g., Denissen et al., 2008; Harris & Orth, 2020). One potential explanation for the mixed body of evidence is that most existing studies examined the links between self-esteem and relationship outcomes at the between-person level, either in cross-sectional or in longitudinal studies with few assessments and oftentimes long intervals between assessments. These studies have been useful in testing whether people with higher self-esteem trait levels tend to have better relationship outcomes. However, the cross-sectional approach does not enable an examination of the within-person links between self-esteem and relationship outcomes over shorter time periods. The goal of the present thesis is to test whether within-person changes in daily self-esteem attitudes predict changes in daily relationship experiences in a sample of first-time parents. The project will use existing data of N=230 parents who completed three waves of 7-day diary studies during the transition to parenthood.

Einstiegsliteratur:
Denissen, J. J. A., Penke, L., Schmitt, D. P., & van Aken, M. A. G. (2008). Self-esteem reactions to social interactions: Evidence for sociometer mechanisms across days, people, and nations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 181?196.
Harris, M. A., & Orth, U. (2020). The link between self-esteem and social relationships: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119, 1459-1477.
Leary, M. R. (2005). Sociometer theory and the pursuit of relational value: Getting to the root of self-esteem. European review of social psychology, 16, 75-111.
van Scheppingen, M. A., Denissen, J. J. A., Chung, J. M., Tambs, K., & Bleidorn, W. (2018). Self-esteem and relationship satisfaction during the transition to motherhood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 114, 973?991.
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Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 25.11.2021
Kontakt: Prof. Dr. Wiebke Bleidorn, E-Mail

Beschreibung: In der Persönlichkeitspsychologie wird zwischen kognitiven (z.B. Intelligenz) und nicht-kognitiven (z.B. Big Five) Persönlichkeitseigenschaften unterschieden, wobei üblicherweise schwache bis moderate Zusammenhänge aufgezeigt werden konnten (Kretzschmar et al., 2018). Bei der Fähigkeit, komplexe Probleme zu lösen, wurde in den letzten Jahren vermehrt auch der Einfluss nicht-kognitiver Persönlichkeitseigenschaften diskutiert (Greiff & Neubert, 2014). Im Rahmen dieser Masterarbeit soll basierend auf einen bestehenden Datensatz (N ~300) der Zusammenhang zwischen nicht-kognitiven Persönlichkeitseigenschaften und der Komplexen Problemlösefähigkeit empirisch untersucht werden (z.B. mittels konfirmatorischer Faktorenanalysen). Dabei sollen einerseits verschiedene Messinstrumente der komplexen Problemlösefähigkeit als auch verschiedene Konzeptualisierungsebenen der Big Five (z.B. Dimensionen und Facetten) berücksichtigt werden.

Literatur
Greiff, S., & Neubert, J. C. (2014). On the relation of complex problem solving, personality, fluid intelligence, and academic achievement. Learning and Individual Differences, 36, 37?48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2014.08.003
Kretzschmar, A., Spengler, M., Schubert, A.-L., Steinmayr, R., & Ziegler, M. (2018). The Relation of Personality and Intelligence?What Can the Brunswik Symmetry Principle Tell Us? Journal of Intelligence, 6(3), 30. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence6030030
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Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 25.11.2021
Kontakt: Dr. Andre Kretzschmar, E-Mail

Beschreibung: In früheren Studien konnte wiederholt ein negativer Zusammenhang zwischen kognitiven Leistungen (z.B. kritisches Denken) und negativen Lebensereignissen (z.B. überhöhte Preise bezahlen, Substanzmissbrauch, Termine nicht einhalten) aufgezeigt werden (z.B. Butler, 2017). Dazu wurde ein Inventar negativer Lebensereignisse verwendet, welches vor allem für den amerikanischen Kontext entwickelt wurde. In dieser Masterarbeit soll der Zusammenhang zwischen verschiedenen kognitiven Leistungen (d.h. fluide Intelligenz, komplexes Problemlösen, Lernfähigkeit) und negativen Lebensereignissen empirisch untersucht und damit frühere Studien konzeptuell repliziert werden: (1) Findet sich der Zusammenhang auch im deutschsprachigen Kontext? (2) Fällt der Zusammenhang je nach berücksichtigter Kognition unterschiedlich stark aus? Basierend auf einen bestehenden Datensatz (N ~ 300 deutschsprachige Studierende) soll im ersten Schritt der Fragebogen zu den negativen Lebensereignissen analysiert werden (d.h. psychometrische Itemanalyse). Im zweiten Schritt soll darauf aufbauend der Zusammenhang zwischen negativen Lebensereignissen und unterschiedlichen Kognitionen auf Basis konfirmatorischer Faktorenanalysen und Strukturgleichungsmodellierungen (vorzugsweise mittels der Statistiksoftware R) überprüft werden.

Literatur
Butler, H. A., Pentoney, C., & Bong, M. P. (2017). Predicting Real-World Outcomes: Critical Thinking Ability is a Better Predictor of Life Decisions than Intelligence. Thinking Skills and Creativity. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2017.06.005
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Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 25.11.2021
Kontakt: Dr. Andre Kretzschmar, E-Mail

Beschreibung: In der differentiellen Psychologie gibt es einen Konsens darüber, wie Intelligenz konzeptualisiert werden kann (siehe z.B. Gottfredson, 1997). Weniger Evidenz gibt es allerdings dahingehend, welche Bedeutung dem Konzept der Intelligenz im Alltagsverständnis zugrunde liegt. Wegweisend war dabei die Studie von Hofstätter (1971), welche nicht nur die Alltagsvorstellung (d.h. implizite Theorie) über Intelligenz bzw. intelligente Personen untersucht hat, sondern auch verschiedene Vorurteile (z.B. Rollenstereotype von Mann und Frau) aufzeigen konnte. In Anlehnung an Hofstätters Studie soll daher in dieser Masterarbeit eine Onlineumfrage geplant sowie an einer deutschsprachigen (optional: zusätzlich englischsprachigen) Stichprobe durchgeführt und ausgewertet werden. Die Masterarbeit liefert damit nicht nur wichtige Erkenntnisse, ob sich die damaligen Ergebnisse replizieren lassen, sondern auch, ob und welche Vorurteile mit Intelligenz heutzutage assoziiert sind.

Literatur
Gottfredson, L. S. (1997). Mainstream science on intelligence: An editorial with 52 signatories, history, and bibliography. Intelligence, 24(1), 13?23. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-2896(97)90011-8
Hofstätter, P. R. (1971). Differentielle Psychologie. Kröner.
Rost, D. H. (2013). Handbuch Intelligenz (1. Auflage). Beltz - siehe Abschnitt 1.1
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Zeitrahmen: ab sofort
Eingabedatum: 25.11.2021
Kontakt: Dr. Andre Kretzschmar, E-Mail