At this year's conclusion of the PRE-Class Psychology, the central hall of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences became a hub of knowledge exchange revolving around a central theme: emotions.

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has granted health psychologist Andrea Evers a visiting professorship funding for Luana Colloca. This funding is linked to the KNAW’s Visiting Professors Programme which enables outstanding foreign researchers to spend time working in the Netherlands.…

This book offers a detailed analysis of social policy in Ecuador, covering its evolution over the past four decades. It examines how social relations and institutional frameworks have influenced concepts of well-being, the implemented policies, and the outcomes achieved.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences brings together high-quality research and outstanding mono- and multidisciplinary teaching.

Do you often find yourself exhausted in the lecture hall or at your workplace? Not great for your mental well-being, as Laura Pape knows. She is investigating how an online self-help program can assist in addressing sleep issues and preventing mental health problems. Join her on this elevator pitch…

This year will see the start of not one but two citizen science projects in Leiden and The Hague. This is the outcome of a large survey among residents and researchers in both university cities. The Citizen Science Lab will help the winners implement their ideas, with support from the University and…

Why do some smokers quit much more easily than others? Can we think ourself to insomnia? And does playing music together help to calm conflicts? Psychology students investigated these questions and presented their findings during the Psychology Science Day 2023.

The idea that socially anxious people avoid eye contact because they are not interested in other people needs to be changed. They take their information from other physical sources, such as people's hands. This is the finding of Leiden psychologist Mariska Kret whose research has been published in…

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences brings together high-quality research and outstanding teaching.

How do you measure over-protective parenting? Why are girls more likely to develop anxiety disorders? And do the social skills of therapists really make a difference in treatment outcomes?

The main aim of this dissertation was to provide insight into possible subtle forms of bias in youth socialization by various socializing agents in the Netherlands, and exploring new ways to document bias. Additionally, it addresses the importance of using sound statistical methods for calculating effect…

-

This ecological community has long been known to affect host biology, and their diverse roles have been further clarified in recent years following numerous studies of animal:microbiota interactions in diverse systems.

Can a robot perform a religious ritual just like a monk? And what exactly is a religious ritual? Robots and religion seem to be two different subjects, but according to university lecturer Elpine de Boer, both can make us think about what it means to be human and what we consider to be of value. Together…

Why are not all children equally responsive to variations in the social environment?

Effects of age and social anxiety

Wie empathisch glimlacht om iemands geluk of fronst om iemands leed, stijgt in aantrekkingskracht. Andersom maakt glimlachen uit leedvermaak iemand niet minder aantrekkelijk. Roujia Feng promoveert 26 mei op onderzoek naar de sociale gevolgen van het uiten van (contra)empathische emoties.

Semiha Aydin is one of the three first-generation researchers who received a grant from the Leiden Empowerment Fund to stimulate their scientific career.

This study, Calypso, The Trinidadian Experience, has sought to establish links between calypso music and the construction and maintenance of identities, and to locate the genre as a mechanism (or as part of a broader mechanism) that has exerted on-going social influence within Trinidadian society…

Last year, Dr. Henk van Steenbergen received a Grass Shoot grant to completely redevelop the research master's course 'Experimentation I: Programming Psychological Experiments'. The revised course was taught for first time last block and has just come to an end. Time for a brief recap.

Lack of money impacts how a person takes financial decisions: now or preferably later. Procrastination and avoidance behaviours in turn have an effect on lack of money, which can result in a sense of loss of control. These are the findings of psychologist Leon Hilbert in his PhD research, although the…

Parents often see that when their sweet, socially-minded children become adolescents they change into selfish 'hotel guests' who think only of themselves. But adolescents become increasingly better at weighing up one another's interests. This discovery has been made by development psychologist Rosa…

The European Registry of Exonerations database provides an overview of miscarriages of justice in Europe with a view to preventing future errors.

The new Executive Board of the Institute of Psychology became effective on 1 February 2022. Scientific director Andrea Evers tells us where she gets her energy from.

Most degree programmes at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences are based in the Pieter de la Court building on the Wassenaarseweg in Leiden. Besides this location, some degree programmes are based in The Hague, at Campus The Hague’s Wijnhaven building.

Speeches and speech acts have been crucial in settling the question at the centre of every political debate: who gets what, when and where?

Sub-Saharan Africa has seen a significant rise in terrorist acts and radicalized youth since the appearance of Boko Haram in 2009 and the fall of Libya in 2012. This book investigates the deeper layers of radicalization in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is situated in a larger global tendency.

Together with Knud Andresen, Bart van der Steen recently published a volume titled A European Youth Revolt. European Perspectives on Youth Protest and Social Movements in the 1980s.

Can subgroups of people be differentiated whose attitudes on the Sinterklaas festivities and Black Pete cluster with either a) high Dutch national identification or b) a strong preference for social hierarchy, also known as social dominance orientation (SDO; Pratto et al., 1994)?

Unethical conduct by traders at banks is likely to be a continual problem as long as fraud cases are treated as the fault of a single rotten apple. Improving the team atmosphere reduces the likelihood of improper behaviour. This is the finding of psychologist Wieke Scholten from Leiden University in…

In the ‘Educatips’ column, psychology lecturers share their valuable insights about lecturing. This month: Franz Wurm is developing entrepreneurship workshops together with PLNT for master’s students of Clinical Psychology. ‘We want to teach students to develop from passive consumers to become active…

Attitudes towards cultural heritage have long been characterised by an ‘endangerment sensibility’ concerned with preventing losses. Recently, however, critical heritage scholars have argued that loss can be generative, facilitating the formation of new values and attachments. Their arguments have focused…

Loneliness and social isolation have become a significant problem in contemporary Japan. The financial burden associated with an ageing population has severely constrained the ability of local authorities to address the problem. As a result, policymakers have sought cost‐effective methods of tackling…

Leiden psychologist Wilco van Dijk and communication scientist Jaap Ouwerkerk of VU University Amsterdam published a book about the emotion Schadenfreude. The authors describe what the emotion Schadenfreude really is, when people experience the emotion, and what role it plays in social relations.

How does loneliness work? What sometimes makes friendships complicated for autistic people? And why can the school building be such an unpleasant place for some pupils? Pupils explored this during their pre-university classes. 'I now have a good idea of what studying psychology entails.'

Minister of Justice Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius recently warned against

This research project is funded by a subsidy from Instituut Gak.

Better supervision of PhD candidates, clear guidelines on career paths and an MRI scanner that can be accessed by all researchers: these are the recommendations from the new self-evaluation. Colleagues say: ‘This forces us as an institute to formulate our mission and vision more precisely.’

Within the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FSW), D&I translates as the diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, and identities among both students and staff.