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 On this page you will find information on theses 

We are delighted that you are interested in the research and topics of our unit! Below you will find an overview of what you can expect from a thesis in the Psychological Methods Lab. 

What we offer...

Types of theses

  • Empirical work (e.g. laboratory or online experiments)
  • Statistical or theoretical work (e.g. Monte Carlo simulations)

Topics

Our research interests concern the development and application of psychological methods, statistics and cognitive modelling at the interface with social psychology and general and differential psychology.

Details on possible topics can be found on our research page. Are you interested in a specific question that is not included in the following topics? Then please contact us anyway with your topic suggestion (see contact below).

Theses can be written in the following subject areas:

Content-related, empirical topics: Statistical and methodological topics
  • Truth judgements (Illusory Truth Effect)
  • Lies and reduction of social desirability
  • Decision research (e.g. wisdom of the many)
  • Intergroup research
  • Contact research
  • Aggression and violence
  • Variability of personality traits
  • Bayes statistics
  • Hierarchical models
  • Cognitive modelling
  • Meta-analysis
  • Test of order restrictions
  • Item response theory
  • Response formats with (double) sliders
  • Time series analyses/network analyses (with clinical reference)
  • Open Science

Examples of more specific and current topic suggestions (including contact persons) can be found in the document Final Theses.

Methodical

  • Online-supported or laboratory-based data collection including independent, guided data analysis
  • Work with specific analysis programmes (e.g. R, Mplus, JASP, jamovi, SPSS)
  • Depending on the question, application of common analysis methods (ANOVA, regression, path analysis, etc.) through to more complex methods of statistical and cognitive modelling

Supervision

  • motivated supervisors
  • Joint development of a research question
  • Regular meetings and a structured approach
  • Clarification of ambiguities regarding the research question, study design, implementation and analysis
  • Depending on requirements, support with familiarisation with analysis software such as R/RStudio

What we expect...

Contentwise

  • Interest in the topic
  • Familiarisation with the relevant literature
  • Motivated and solution-orientated processing of the agreed question

Methodical

  • Interest in advanced methods of data analysis (e.g. with JASP, jamovi, SPSS, Mplus)
  • Depending on the topic: willingness to familiarise yourself with new software (e.g. R/RStudio) with support from the supervisor

Supervision

  • Independent and careful work throughout the entire research process
  • Communication of problems or ambiguities

Procedure…

  • If you are interested in writing your thesis in the Psychological Methods Lab, you can expect the following approximate procedure:
  • First appointments: Getting to know each other, discussing motivation, finding a topic together
  • Working out a research question and writing an exposé
  • Depending on the type of thesis: meetings as required or support by email with the development of the study design, data analysis and the writing process.
  • Here you will find a guideline for the process of your thesis.

Contact…

Would you like to write your thesis in our work unit or do you have further questions? Then please send us an e-mail with your ideas and ideally more specific topics. Please also send us a current transcript of records. You can send your enquiry to:

We look forward to hearing from you!