poojakulkarni780@gmail.com
Hello! Thanks for visiting my website :)
I'm a PhD student at Saarland University, Germany, and work in the Social Psychology Unit. I'm part of the DFG funded RTG 2988 where I investigate self-regulatory flexibility in everyday life. I completed my masters in Applied Psychology from University of Mumbai, India. My research interests are connected to the areas of self-regulation, self-control, motivation, behavioral change, emotions, and education. I'm a strong believer in open science practices, improving accessibility and have worked on several open science initiatives aimed at reducing barriers in education and academia in the Global South.
As someone from a Global South country, I'm concerned about barriers here in education, a human right crucial in social mobility. In the Global South, under-resourced universities, lack of guidance, accessible resources, and support hinder our educational goals. In my research pursuits I've attempted to understand some of these barriers. I founded Psych #rstats Club, which was recognized with a SIPS Mission award for providing an accessible and inclusive learning platform for statistics and R. I have also worked as a visiting scholar (remotely) at SNAP Lab at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where I investigated self-regulation in online contexts. I was elected as the Graduate International Member-at-Large for Society of Affective Science (SAS) Student Committee and serve as the student DEI representative. I feel incredibly lucky to be surrounded by passionate and kind individuals and work with them on these research and initiatives.
In today's world, understanding self-control and effective means of self-regulation is crucial, especially when most businesses thrive on tempting individuals with short-term pleasures at the cost of long term goals. 'The Marshmallow Test' by Walter Mischel intrigued me. I was fascinated by the way 4-year-old kids could delay gratification and the strategies they used. However, as the field progresses towards a better understanding of self-regulation, some of the traditional beliefs about self-control have been challenged. For example, no single strategy seems equally helpful across all contexts. Moreover, the role of system level factors in self-regulation has not received enough attention. In my current work as a PhD student, I investigate if and how people make flexible use of strategies in their everyday lives. I'm interested in the various system level and individual level factors that influence self-regulation. Experimental and intensive longitudinal sampling methods are most attractive to me when exploring variables in these areas.