The scope of scientific research realized at the Institute of Psychology,

Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Lodz

DEPARTMENT OF WORK, ORGANISATION, AND CAREER GUIDANCE PSYCHOLOGY

Topics of ongoing scientific research:

Personality and situational determinants of employees’ well-being

Trauma at work and its effects

Aggression/Mobbing/Sexual abuse at work

Issues in career development (ability to adapt to a career, career construction)

Standardisation of diagnostic techniques useful in vocational counselling

Personal (including psychological gender, psychological capital) and situational (including organizational climate) determinants of an employee’s functioning at work

Work models and forms of employment as related to satisfaction with varied spheres of life

Diagnostic tools used in personal guidance

Satisfaction with work

Commitment to work

Relations (including trust) at work

Work conditions

Employees’ positive personal resources and possibilities of their development

A person at labour market (methods of staff selection, key competencies)

Organisational climate – individual and organisational consequences

Generation differences in work environment

Psychological determinants of success in business

Psychological well-being of people of business: psychological, financial, and organizational determinants

Environmental psychology, local identity, place psychology, neighbourhood capital

DEPARTMENT OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

Topics of ongoing scientific research:

Psychology of procreation – postpartum depression and its determinants and consequences, adaptation to motherhood and fatherhood, menopause and andropause

Cognitive susceptibility to depressive disorders in varied stages of life

Biological and personality determinants of depression in women and men

Addictions and addiction therapy

The role of early negative schemas (the idea by Young) in aetiology of disorders

Clinical neuropsychology

Suicides – risk factors and prevention possibilities, the role of a ‘gatekeeper’

Eating disorders

Cognitive susceptibility to affective and anxiety disorders, also in children with

a chronic autoimmune disease – type 1 diabetes

Well-being of aging men and women, chronopsychology

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND FAMILY STUDIES

Topics of ongoing scientific research:

Psychology of emotions: Emotional work – its determinants and consequences, emotional contagion and emotional mimesis, emotion and mood measurement, social cognition, social meanings of tears, affective communication

Social attitudes: Attitudes towards sexual minorities, seniors, and towards sexuality

Psychology of close emotional relationships (marriages, cohabitations, same-sex relationships, ‘two-careers’ relationships). Strategies of partner selection, partner relationships, interpersonal commitment, sexual satisfaction, conflicts and crises, consequences of relational ostracism. Analysis of processes in close relationships. Close emotional relationships and life quality. Health and interpersonal relationships in singles.

Family psychology: Family values in cross-sectional studies, intergenerational transmission of behavioural patterns in a family system, family determinants of personal autonomy in young adults. Systemic mechanisms of developing psychological well-being. Family relations in the context of economic migrations. Interpersonal relations among siblings from the systemic perspective, determinants and consequences of positive and negative bonds among siblings, the role of family relations and siblings in forming aggression among young adults. Digitization of family life and its consequences.

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY

Topics of ongoing scientific research:

Traumatic stress and posttraumatic growth and its determinants in adults, children, and youth

Identification of risk factors of secondary traumatisation

The relation between trauma and behavioural addictions (to eating, shopping, Internet)

Adaptation to a chronic somatic disease (especially cancer and a dermatological disease)

Healthy behaviours, especially among seniors

Determinants of mental health in school environment. The ongoing research activity includes elaboration of new measurement tools to be used in health psychology. At present these include: The List of Symptoms after Traumatic Stress, The Inventory of Secondary Positive Posttraumatic Changes.