Research on Personality
Typical behavior comprises many human characteristics that – if relatively stable over time and contexts – are ordinarily subsumed under the heading of personality factors. Questions pertaining to the structure of personality factors has attracted a lot of attention in psychological research and beyond. Although there is widespread consensus on the number and type of many broad factors, controversies remain about the completeness of prominent factor structures (e.g., the Big Five), particularly at the so-called facet level, that is, at the level of more specific personality aspects.
Dark Personality Traits
Dark personality traits is an umbrella term for an open set of personality traits that are perceived as “socially aversive” and/or “exploitative” that has emerged in the literature over that last decades. Of course, it remains a contentious issue what aspects of personality exactly qualify as “socially aversive” and “exploitative” and therefore as a member of this set. Some consensus has been reached, though, that at least the traits of the dark triad (including psychopathy, machiavellianism, and narcissism) are part of the set. A general dark factor of personality has also been proposed as an overarching common factor for the set that may also describe underlying mechanisms and processes in this domain. The question of how dark personality traits fit into broader structures of personality has not been clarified yet, though. In fact, whether the dark personality contribute anything new to existing structures at all or if they are nothing but old wine in new skins is another contentious issue in this area of research.
Our activities in this field include research on single dark personality traits, in particular everyday sadism and narcissism. Here we focus on the theoretical contributions of the traits (definition, structure) and on reliable and valid measurement. In addition, we also investigate the broader dark factor and its relations to agreeableness and honesty-humility, as well as the differentiation of these traits.
Interested in collaborating with us? Considering a Bachelor or Master Thesis in Psychology or an internship in this area? Great! Please contact us -> Prof. Dr. Ralf Schulze & Dr. Markus Jansen
Self-Motivated Cognition
Self-motivated intellectual engagement describes the disposition to be intrinsically motivated towards cognitive activity. It is a construct that can be assigned to the overlapping area of personality and intelligence and has been studied in various areas of psychology under different names. Examples include Need for Cognition (NfC), Typical Intellectual Engagement (TIE) or Openness to Ideas, which is a facet of the Big Five personality trait Openness to Experience. Available instruments to assess NfC, TIE, and Openness show substantial overlap and high correlations.
Our research activities focus on the integration of existing approaches on self-motivated intellectual engagement and the extension of this construct to other cognitive processes and content areas. This also includes the construction and evaluation of corresponding measures.
Interested in collaborating with us? Considering a Bachelor or Master Thesis in Psychology or an internship in this area? Great! Please contact us -> Prof. Dr. Ralf Schulze & Dr. Maike Pisters
