RG Personality pathology and interpersonal processes

The research group exists since November 2022 and is dedicated to investigating interpersonal processes in the context of the dimensional personality disorder diagnosis as defined in ICD-11 and DSM-5 AMPD. In a project funded by the German Research Foundation (https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/492768360), we assess whether the level of personality functioning and different maladaptive trait combinations predict interpersonal processes in the daily lives of individuals with personality disorder. We test determinants of both interpersonal problems and positive social interactions using Ambulatory Assessment. Participants provide self-ratings of their social interactions and relevant contexts throughout their daily lives on a study app, and we couple this data with psychophysiological and activity data collected via wearable sensors. Beyond this, we investigate how individuals with different severity levels of personality disorder react to interpersonal stimuli in a laboratory context.

In previous collaboration projects, we investigated interpersonal problems as potential triggers and outcomes of non-suicidal self-injury and alcohol use. Moreover, in past projects, we researched negative mental health outcomes of the climate crisis, especially how climate change distress affects interpersonal processes and pro-environmental behavior.