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Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier invited to a background discussion on loneliness:

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier hosted a background discussion on loneliness at Bellevue Palace on March 18, 2024, to which Prof. Dr. Maike Luhmann and three other experts were invited. The 90-minute discussion focused in particular on young people and people of advanced age and highlighted the responsibility and room for action of politics and society.


TerraXplore addresses the topic of loneliness in several episodes (January 2024)

For the TV documentary TerraXplore, Eric Mayer interviewed various people on the subject of loneliness, including RUB students on the university bridge and Maike Luhmann. The video series can be found following this link in the ZDF Mediathek.




New paper published on the pursuit of happiness in everyday life (December 2023)

Can people choose to be happy? To date we have no definite answer to this very old question. In this paper published in the European Journal of Personality, we introduced and tested a new theoretical model of the pursuit of happiness. You can access the publication of Julia Krasko, Sabrina Intelisano, and Maike Luhmann by following this link: EJP Publication and the publicly accessible post-print version of the article by following this link: Postprint



Loneliness is the unpleasant feeling people experience when their social needs are not met (Luhmann, 2022; Peplau & Perlman, 1982). It is mainly associated with older people, who particularly suffer from loneliness (Hawkley et al., 2022; Luhmann & Hawkley, 2016; Qualter et al., 2015). However, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that loneliness can occur at any age (Entringer, 2022; Entringer & Kröger, 2021). Young adults under 30 seem to be particularly affected by loneliness during and after the pandemic (Alt et al., 2021; Entringer, 2022; Das Progressive Zentrum et al., 2023; Ravens-Sieberer et al., 2021; Schütz & Bilz, 2023). Therefore, the study "Loneliness among young people in North Rhine-Westphalia after the pandemic", commissioned by the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), specifically examined adolescents and young adults from NRW. The main objectives of the study were to estimate the current prevalence of loneliness, identify risk and protective factors, and explore coping strategies to provide recommendations for prevention and intervention strategies against loneliness among adolescents and young adults in NRW. On Friday, November 24, 2023, Prof. Maike Luhmann and Hendrik Wüst presented the study results in Berlin at the NRW State Representation (click here for the press release). The study revealed a high prevalence of loneliness among adolescents and young adults (Luhmann et al., 2023). Notably, close friendships play a crucial role in combating loneliness (Luhmann et al., 2023). Detailed results can be found in the study report following this link.


November 2023

Lonely together - Interview with the science magazine Rubin

Maike Luhmann and Debora Brickau talk about how common loneliness is, who is particularly at risk of feeling lonely and what the consequences of loneliness are.


Teaching Awards for the Summer Term 2023

For the past summer term, Maike Luhmann was awarded by the students of our faculty in the categories lecture slides and engagement for the students. Congratulations, Maike!



5x5000

June 2023

"Rscape Room" wins award at 5x5000 contest

In this year's 5x5000 competition, the "Rscape Room" designed by us was awarded as a winning project by the student jury. The Escape Room scenario was developed for the course Statistics and Applied Data Analysis 1 (WiSe 22/23) with the aim to make the teaching of the statistical software R even more appealing and motivating. Like in a classic Escape Room, students had to solve various puzzles in a story-driven setting to reach the goal. In order to solve the tasks, the students had to apply their knowledge of the statistic program R acquired during this semester. By winning the 5x5000 competition, we are now able to design further corresponding formats based on our already piloted "Rscape Rooms". In the best possible case, this format can also be made usable for teaching other (statistical) software in the long run. We are very much looking forward to this upcoming task and would like to take this opportunity to once again express our special thanks to our students, who have supported the project with their committed participation and constructive feedback.


How (un)popular is the "Corona warning app"? We investigated this question in a study recently published in the European Journal of Public Health. The full text can be found here: Full Text. If you do not have access to the article, it can also be accessed as a "postprint" version here: Postprint version. A German-language press release is published here: press release.


New paper on loneliness during Covid-19 pandemic out in Social Science & Medicine (November 2020)

The first paper using data from our large-scale daily diary study on Covid-19 (Bochum Berlin Covid-19 Study) is now published at Social Science & Medicine: here.



The consultation seminar Psychological Methods (methods consultation) is held completely online in the winter semester. The current dates and further information can be found here.



August 2020

First results on loneliness from the Bochum Berlin Covid-19 Study

First results on loneliness during the Corona pandemic, taken from the data of our online diary study "Bochum Berlin Covid-19 Study", show that there was no general trend towards an "epedemic of loneliness" in non-contact periods, but for some groups of people (e.g., parents) an increase in daily loneliness over time was observed.

The results are summarized in a generally understandable way in this press release: https://news.rub.de/wissenschaft/2020-08-11-psychologie-wie-einsam-sich-deutschland-waehrend-des-corona-lockdowns-fuehlte


We are currently conducting an online study to learn more about the personal, social and societal effects of COVID-19/ SARS-CoV-2 (Corona virus) in cooperation with the team of the "Psychological Assessment of Person-Situation-Dynamics" of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Further information and participation:
https://covid-19-psych.formr.org


At the 15th European Congress of Sport & Exercise Psychology in Münster, Sophia Terwiel (third from left on stage) was honored with the FEPSAC Young Research Award. Congratulations!


The project "Studying Statistics in a Motivated Way - Blended Learning in the Test Theory Lecture" by Till Kaiser and Maike Luhmann is one of the winning projects in the 23rd RUBel competition 5x5000 "Hit the Bull's Eye with eLearning".


December 2018

Maike Luhmann receives the "SAGE Young Scholar Award"

The SAGE Young Scholar Award for personality and social psychology goes to Maike Luhmann. This prestigious young scholar award is endowed with $5,000, which is earmarked for research purposes.