Laura Froehlich

• Dr.
• Junior Research Group Leader at University of Hagen

In the present work, we addressed the relationship between parental leave policies and social norms. Using a pre‐registered, cross‐national approach, we examined the relationship between parental leave policies and the perception of social norms for the gender division of childcare. In this study, 19,259 students (11,924 women) from 48 countries in...

Collective action is a powerful tool for social change and is fundamental to women and girls’ empowerment on a societal level. Collective action towards gender equality could be understood as intentional and conscious civic behaviors focused on social transformation, questioning power relations, and promoting gender equality through collective effo...

Collaboration improves multiple academic and social outcomes. Accordingly, computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) can be beneficial in distance education contexts to overcome the issues specific to online learning (e.g., underperformance, low identification with university). Distance universities often attract a substantial number of non-...

Educational disparities between traditional and non-traditional student groups in higher distance education can potentially be reduced by alleviating social identity threat and strengthening students’ sense of belonging in the academic context. We present a use case of how Learning Analytics and Machine Learning can be applied to develop and implem...

Educational disparities between traditional and non-traditional student groups in higher distance education can potentially be reduced by alleviating social identity threat and strengthening students’ sense of belonging in the academic context. We present a use case of how Learning Analytics and Machine Learning can be applied to develop and implem...

Many online learning environments offer opportunities for computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). Although the effectiveness of CSCL has been studied extensively, researchers have only recently begun to systematically examine student diversity in CSCL. Building on a theoretical integration of social psychology research with the CSCL liter...

Objective The goal was to investigate whether and how the well‐being of mothers and fathers was differentially affected by the COVID‐19 pandemic in four European countries and whether differences in stress and social support explain observed gender differences. Background Previous research documents that the COVID‐19 pandemic had a significant imp...

Using data from 15 countries, this article investigates whether descriptive and prescriptive gender norms concerning housework and child care (domestic work) changed after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of a total of 8,343 participants (M = 19.95, SD = 1.68) from two comparable student samples suggest that descriptive norms about unpai...

The purpose of this article is to present approaches that can help reducing the gaps between research and practice in the field of refugee integration. We provide examples of research-practice transfer activities that we hope will be taken up by researchers in different fields and implemented for refugee integration in various countries. We describ...

Since 1969, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) has been classified as a neurological disease in the International Classification of Diseases by the World Health Organization. Although numerous studies over time have uncovered organic abnormalities in patients with ME/CFS, and the majority of researchers to date classify the...

A subset of patients with post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) fulfill the clinical criteria of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). To establish the diagnosis of ME/CFS for clinical and research purposes, comprehensive scores have to be evaluated. We developed the Munich Berlin Symptom Questionnaires (MBSQs) and supplementary scor...

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a devastating disease affecting millions of people worldwide. Due to the 2019 pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), we are facing a significant increase of ME/CFS prevalence. On May 11th to 12th, 2023, the second international ME/CFS conference of the Charité Fatigue Center was he...

Purpose: A subset of patients with post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) fulfill the clinical criteria of myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). To establish the diagnosis of ME/CFS for clinical and research purposes, comprehensive scores have to be evaluated. Methods: We developed the Munich Berlin Symptom Questionnaires (MBSQs) an...

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a severe chronic illness and patients with ME/CFS are often medically underserved in Germany and other countries. One contributing factor is health professionals’ lack of knowledge about epidemiology, diagnostic criteria, and treatment of ME/CFS. Opportunities are scarce for health prof...

The integration of ethnic minority youth can only be successful if they are motivated to establish and maintain social relationships in important institutions such as school. At the same time, worries about negative stereotypes about one’s ethnic group can undermine ethnic minority students’ motivation to approach others. In the present study, we t...

With this literature review, we provide a systematic overview on and working definition of mental labor in the context of unpaid work—an inherent cognitive component of daily routines primarily related to domestic or childcare tasks. Our methodology followed PRISMA guidelines, and 31 full-text articles were included. Articles were peer-reviewed and...

Background The use of e‐exams in higher education is increasing. However, the role of student diversity in the acceptance of e‐exams is an under‐researched topic. In the current study, we considered student diversity in terms of three sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, and second language) and three dispositional student characteristics...

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflec...

Im ersten Teil des vorliegenden Kapitels wird zunächst beschrieben, wie Menschen sich selbst und andere in Gruppen einteilen (soziale Kategorisierung) und diese Gruppen mit bestimmten Eigenschaften verbinden (Stereotype). Anschließend werden theoretische Ansätze zur Entwicklung von Stereotypen im Kindesalter dargelegt. Im zweiten Teil des Kapitels...

In the academic domain, belonging to a negatively stereotyped group can impair performance and peer relationships. In higher distance education, stereotypes may be particularly influential as face-to-face contact is limited and non-traditional students who are at risk of being stereotyped are overrepresented. Still, research on stereotypes in highe...

Stigmatized individuals often feel threatened by negative stereotypes about their group. Previous research showed that concerns about being negatively stereotyped (i.e., social identity threat) have detrimental effects on performance in the stereotyped domain. Little research has focused on interpersonal consequences of negative stereotypes, despit...

In the academic domain, belonging to a negatively stereotyped group can impair performance and peer relationships. In higher distance education, stereotypes may be particularly influential as face-to-face contact is limited and non-traditional students who are at risk of being stereotyped are overrepresented. Still, research on stereotypes in highe...

Turkish-origin migrants on average show lower academic performance than Germans. This achievement gap cannot be fully explained by socio-economic differences between the groups. Negative competence stereotypes about Turkish-origin students predict the causal attributions that German preservice teachers make for migrants’ academic underperformance....

Although Germany and Japan are top-ranking in STEM, women are underrepresented in the STEM fields of physics, engineering, and computer science in both countries. The current research investigated widespread gender-science stereotypes in STEM in the two countries (Studies 1 and 2) and negative consequences of expected backlash (i.e., imagining nega...

Beyond formal education, continuing adult learning and education (ALE) is considered as successful means for supporting immigrants’ integration into the receiving society. Although recently, subjective parameters of immigrants’ integration (e.g., life satisfaction) have received increasing academic attention, research on the impact of education on...

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a chronic disease with the hallmark symptom of post-exertional malaise. Evidence for physiological causes is converging, however, currently no diagnostic test or biomarker is available. People with ME/CFS experience stigmatization, including the perception that the disease is psychosoma...

The utility value of an academic task can affect university students’ learning behav-ior and career choices. For collectivistic-oriented students, learning and career goals also matter to their families. Following expectancy-value theory, we assumed that families’ achievement-related expectations would affect collectivistic-oriented stu-dents’ util...

Background and Objective: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a severe illness with the hallmark symptom of Post‐Exertional Malaise (PEM). Currently, no biomarkers or established diagnostic tests for ME/CFS exist. In Germany, it is estimated that over 300,000 people are affected by ME/CFS. Research from the United States...

Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated ge...

Is there a ‘more helpful’ gender? The present research assessed gender differences in prosocial self‐perceptions, prosocial behavioural intentions, and prosocial (transfer) behaviour in same‐ and other‐gender interactions in 10 countries (N = 1,915). The present results showed negligible differences in the degree to which women and men saw themselv...

Humans are not purely selfish money maximizers. Most individuals take into account consequences for others in their decisions, reflecting social preferences. In a large-scale study ( N = 2,889) involving population-representative samples from 10 nations, we investigated social preferences toward different national out-groups. Social preferences var...

Education is often targeted as a key resource for integration of people with migration background. A silent assumption in many discussions is that beyond formal education, adult learning and education (ALE) also fosters integration, especially higher psychological identification with the receiving society. Still, empirical evidence testing this ass...

Social role theory posits that occupational gender roles give rise to gender differences in behavior, such that men and women engage in qualitatively different prosocial behaviors. Therefore, we expected that women who observed an unfair situation (involving a victim and a perpetrator) would respond by demonstrating communal prosocial behavior (by...

Occupational gender segregation is a worldwide phenomenon. Research from Western regions such as the United States and Europe shows that the observation of occupational gender segregation can perpetuate gender stereotypes (social role theory; men are ascribed agentic traits, whereas women are ascribed communal traits). However, predictions from soc...

Men sometimes withdraw support for gender equality movements when their higher gender status is threatened. Here, we expand the focus of this phenomenon by examining it cross‐culturally, to test if both individual‐ and country‐level variables predict men's collective action intentions to support gender equality. We tested a model in which men's zer...

Im folgenden Kapitel wird ein Überblick über aktuelle psychologische Forschungsliteratur zur Entwicklung von Stereotypen im Kindes- und Jugendalter und ihren Konsequenzen im Schulkontext gegeben. Dabei werden zunächst die zentralen Begriffe definiert. Dann wird ein Überblick über drei zentrale Theorien zur Entstehung von Stereotypen bei Kindern geg...

How immigrants define their ethnicity and nationality is relevant for integration: They can identify with their ethnic group, the receiving society, and a combination of both. A longitudinal study with elementary-school children with migration background ( N = 200; age 9–10) in Germany investigated the predictors and stability of ethnic and nationa...

The present work investigates the endorsement, antecedents, relationships, and consequences of young immigrants’ social identities in Norway. Despite increasing numbers of refugees and immigrants entering Norway in recent years, little is known about the relationship between immigrants’ different social identities and their feeling of integration i...

Germany is ethnically diverse and the social climate is more or less welcoming for different immigrant groups. The social climate can be described by stereotypes of members of the receiving society about immigrant groups, which in turn shape receiving-society members’ behavioral tendencies of support or discrimination. We investigated warmth and co...

This article uses an interactionist perspective to understand the role of media framings of critical events in catalyzing Western citizens’ support for radical responses to Muslim immigration (e.g., armed self-defense). A multi-method series of three studies tested this perspective in the context of the 2015/2016 Cologne New Year’s Eve sexual assau...

Verschiedene Forschungsergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass positive und negative Einstellungen gegenüber Fremdgruppen nicht die Endpole einer Dimension darstellen, sondern zwei unabhängige Kontinua bilden. Um diesen Erkenntnissen Rechnung zu tragen, wurde eine deutschsprachige Skala zur Erfassung von Allophilie („die Liebe zum Anderen“) basierend au...

Ostracism is a common social occurrence with severe psychological and behavioral consequences. Whereas many studies have focused on the perspective of ostracized individuals, our research explores observers’ perceptions of another’s ostracism, when the reason for ostracism is unclear. We investigated whether group membership affects observers’ caus...

The activation of negative stereotypes in achievement situations can lead to decreased performance (i.e., stereotype threat effect). Research has shown that stereotype threat effects increase when performance outcomes become more important. Cultural value orientations such as vertical collectivism can influence the perceived importance of performan...

The number of immigrants and children born to immigrant parents in Europe has risen steadily. Related to debates as to how best integrate immigrants, research points to the importance of investigating the structure as well as antecedents and consequences of immigrants' multiple identities. Here, we explore the relationship between three different i...

Past research on ethnic composition effects on migrant and ethnic majority students' performance has reported inconclusive results: Some studies have found no relationship between the proportion of migrant students in school and students' performance, some revealed positive effects, whereas others showed negative effects of the proportion of migran...

This research explores implicit theory of intelligence (TOI) as a moderator of stereotype activation effects on test performance for members of negatively stereotyped and of favourably stereotyped groups. In Germany, Turkish-origin migrants are stereotyped as low in verbal ability. We predicted that on a test diagnostic of verbal intelligence, endo...

In many countries, there is a gap in academic performance between native-born students and students with certain immigrant backgrounds. Based on ultimate attribution error theory, we examined the stereotypes and causal attributions that German student teachers use to account for immigrants' underperformance. By including both Turkish-origin and Ita...

Based on research on stereotype threat and multiple identities, this work explores the beneficial effects of activating a positive social identity when a negative identity is salient on women's performance in sports. Further, in line with research on the effects of anxiety in sports, we investigate whether the activation of a positive social identi...

Based on research on stereotype threat and multiple identities, this work explores the beneficial effects of activating a positive social identity when a negative identity is salient on women’s performance in sports. Further, in line with research on the effects of anxiety in sports, we investigate whether the activation of a positive social identi...

The activation of negative performance-related stereotypes can lead to underperformance of stereotyped group members (stereotype threat). From a social identity perspective, stereotype activation threatens people's need for a positive social identity, thereby creating a motivation to counteract this threat. Stereotype activation was experimentally...