Research

I am a life-span developmental psychologist with interdisciplinary research interests at the intersection of psychology and sociology. My current research concerns psychosocial antecedents and consequences of civic and political engagement across the life span, cumulative advantage and disadvantage of different employment trajectories and their consequences for mental health, and dealing with perceived societal expectations for active ageing in old age. I am also interested in developmental cognitive psychology, especially in mind wandering from a developmental perspective.

In my research, I have used various cross-sectional and longitudinal survey data, such as the Jena Study on Social Change and Human Development, the Finnish Educational Transitions Studies (FinEdu), and regional surveys on civic engagement in the former East Germany. Currently, I work with large-scale data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), the British Household Panel Study (BHPS), the European Social Survey (ESS), and the German Ageing Survey (DEAS). Additionally, I gradually become involved in experimental research: lab experiments and randomized controlled trials.