Voice to the focus area Psychological Analysis of Social Dynamics

Paula Schweppe

I currently study…

…human medicine at Justus-Liebig-Universität in Gießen.

In the context of my PhD-position, I deal with…

...of psychiatric fMRI research. We investigate the effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) of different brain areas on the human reward system. In a combined tACS-fMRI study, we aim to determine whether gain- and loss-associated neuronal activities can be influenced using tACS stimulation. Perspectively, this could be significant for the therapy of patients with borderline personality disorder, who try to stimulate their reward system by (self-) damaging actions.

In my leisure time…

...I support the intercultural exchange among students in Giessen. Since intercultural exchange is very important to me personally and I have already had the opportunity to gain experience abroad several times, which has been very good for my personal development, I spend time besides my studies finding ways to promote intercultural exchange among students in Giessen. For example, I work in the Erasmus office of the medical faculty, organize the buddy program and am involved at the local level in AG X (AG Exchange) of the Federal Representation of Medical Students in Germany (bvmd).

I still benefit from my time as student in Münster…

...because thanks to my very good and extensive training in methodology and statistics during my psychology studies at the University of Münster, I now have skills that help me, for example, in the statistical analysis of complex (tACS-fMRI) data. I also particularly benefit from my theoretical knowledge and experience in the field of research work, which enables me not to "just understand" medical studies, but also to be able to classify them in terms of their significance. In the medical context, this is important, for example, to understand on which empirical evidence therapy recommendations or medical guidelines are based.

The most influential time of my psychology studies…

…was the time of my final thesis: My final thesis was part of a large research project. We investigated how personality can be assessed most accurately and compared, among other things, classic personality assessment using trait questionnaires with personality assessment using time- and event-based state questionnaires, some of which were collected via smartphones. We also compared self- and informant-assessments collected using the above methods. Working with data collected using state-of-the-art methods was very impressive for me. Furthermore, I found it enriching to learn how to process and analyze the partly complex data sets. Thanks to the excellent supervision by the lecturers of personality psychology, I have been able to further develop my skills and deepen my knowledge here and feel well prepared for statistical problems that I may encounter during my further career. I also had the pleasure of presenting my thesis at several congresses and eventually publishing it as a paper. This provided me with authentic insights into psychological research work.

What I take with me for my further professional career is…

...a sharpened solution-oriented thinking, statistical skills, which are useful for my own research, as well as theoretical knowledge, which enables me to classify scientific papers, for example, regarding their quality and thus to critically evaluate therapy recommendations if necessary.