Manfred Schmitt

• Professor
• Professor emeritus at Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau

The use of journal impact factors and other metric indicators of research productivity, such as the h-index, has been heavily criticized for being invalid for the assessment of individual researchers and for fueling a detrimental “publish or perish” culture. Multiple initiatives call for developing alternatives to existing metrics that better refle...

This paper is an updated English version of a report filed by a commission that the German Psychological Society (DGPs) appointed in 2022. The commission’s task was a) to identify factors in the academic system that enable and/or promote unethical behaviors, and b) to propose corrective measures. Based on expert interviews, a literature review, fee...

Symposium Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie (Leitung Anton Rupert Laireiter); Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie, Hildesheim, Sept. 2022

The concept of implicit bias – the idea that the unconscious mind might hold and use negative evaluations of social groups that cannot be documented via explicit measures of prejudice – is a hot topic in the social and behavioral sciences. It has also become a part of popular culture, while interventions to reduce implicit bias have been introduced...

This paper was triggered by a comment on our article “Sense and Nonsense in Psychotherapy Outcome Assessment - Recommendations for Clinical Practice”. The comment criticized our recommended exclusion of non-pathological scores from the assessment of the success of psychotherapy. Here we deepen and explain our position based on the following theses:...

Belief in a just world (BJW) has been assumed to promote subjective well-being. The results of cross-sectional studies have been consistent with this assumption but inconclusive about the causal origins of the correlations. Correia et al. (2009a) experimentally tested the original hypothesis (BJW causes subjective well-being) against the alternativ...

We conceptualize and measure right-wing populism (RWP) as a three-dimensional concept, explicitly and implicitly, based on online surveys and implicit association tests (IATs) in Germany and Switzerland. Confirmatory factor analyses show that explicit populism, nativism, and authoritarianism establish the latent RWP-construct and that they are each...

Subjective ratings often fail to assess therapeutic effects accurately. Standardized objective assessment is mandatory. Disorders often improve between the sign up for therapy and its beginning. Reasons for this improvement are discussed. Comprehensive assessment of therapy outcome requires 5 occasions of measurement (including catamnesis); therapy...

The use of journal impact factors and other metric indicators of research productivity, such as the h-index, has been heavily criticized for being invalid for the assessment of individual researchers and for fueling a detrimental “publish or perish” culture. Multiple initiatives call for developing alternatives to existing metrics that better refle...

The use of journal impact factors and other metric indicators of research productivity, such as the h-index, has been heavily criticized for being invalid for the assessment of individual researchers and for fueling a detrimental “publish or perish” culture. Multiple initiatives call for developing alternatives to existing metrics that better refle...

Criminal victimization is a potentially traumatizing event that can threaten the belief in a just world (BJW). Unlike other kinds of victims, victims of crime are involved in criminal justice procedures. Therefore, the present study examined whether positive experiences in this process can buffer the threat of victimization on the BJW. We collected...

Discusses appropriate occasions of measurement in psychotherapy outcome estimation. Deals with question of how to judge often found therapeutic gains between registration and start of intervention. Explains why criteria of Significance and Effect Size are awkward in outcome determination. Wait list designs confound results. Instruments must chosen...

Based on the assumption that disclosing explicit populist radical-right (PRR) attitudes and voting intentions for PRR parties may be inhibited by a social desirability bias, this paper aims at developing a measure for implicit populist attitudes (IAT) and at assessing its explanatory power for the prediction of PRR party support. Using data from a...

Anger, indignation, guilt, rumination, victim compensation, and perpetrator punishment are considered primary responses associated with justice sensitivity (JS). However, injustice and high JS may predispose to further responses. We had N = 293 adults rate their JS, 17 potential responses toward 12 unjust scenarios from the victim’s, observer’s, be...

According to the congruence hypothesis, job and study satisfaction will be higher when individual interests and the respective environment (both conceptualised according to Holland’s RIASEC model) are congruent. As our target group were teacher students, all participants who did not intend to become a teacher or did not meet other inclusion criteri...

Zusammenfassung. In Studie 1 wurde die Validität des Fragebogens FEMOLA (Fragebogen zur Erfassung der Motivation für die Wahl des Lehramtsstudiums) durch Überprüfung der internen Struktur untersucht. Hierzu wurden anhand von Daten von N = 1467 Lehramtsstudierenden zwei in der Literatur vorgeschlagene Faktorenstrukturen verglichen, wobei sich zeigte...

In the last few years, plastic has become an issue of current interest as tremendous ecological effects from plastic littering have become visible. Taking the role of consumers into account, activities comprising purchasing decisions and political engagement are expected to help prevent plastic pollution. The goal of this study was to examine antec...

Dieses Kapitel widmet sich den grundlegenden Merkmalen und Wirkmechanismen von Online Self-Assessments (OSA) zur Studienfachwahl. Wir beginnen mit einer Begriffsklärung und der Beschreibung der verschiedenen Elemente und zugrundeliegenden Wirkmechanismen von OSA. Anschließend stellen wir unterschiedliche Einsatzmöglichkeiten und aktuelle Erscheinun...

(1) Background: Children with greater physical activity (PA) may show a higher physical fitness (PF) and motor competence (MC) compared to peers with less PA. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), PF, and MC in 8- to 9-year old children in Germany and China. MVPA was differe...

(1) Background: Children with greater physical activity (PA) may show a higher physical fitness (PF) and motor competence (MC) compared to peers with less PA. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), PF, and MC in 8- to 9-year old children in Germany and China. MVPA was differe...

Studies complementing the assessment of symptoms right before (t1), right after therapy (t2), and at follow-up (t3) with an assessment of symptoms preceding the waiting period without intervention (t0) have revealed substantial t0–t1 changes. We discuss this phenomenon based on our own data and address the following questions: does it make sense to...

Untersucht man Therapieverläufe nicht nur zwischen unmittelbarem Beginn und Beendigung, können Fortschritte be­reits zwischen Anmeldung und Beginn, noch ohne Intervention, aufgezeigt werden. Diese t₀-t₁-Veränderungen werden anhand eigener Befunde diskutiert: Ist der Vergleich Beginn (t₁) – Ende der Therapie (t<sub>2...

Zusammenfassung Untersucht man Therapieverläufe nicht nur zwischen unmittelbarem Beginn und Beendigung, können Fortschritte bereits zwischen Anmeldung und Beginn, noch ohne Intervention, aufgezeigt werden. Diese t0-t1-Veränderungen werden anhand eigener Befunde diskutiert: Ist der Vergleich Beginn (t1) - Ende der Therapie (t2) bzw. Katamnese (t3)...

Personality processes are central for the entire discipline of psychology. Understanding intraindividual processes and the ways in which they differ interindividually is necessary to explain behavioral differences. Processes explain concrete behavior and they are responsible for individual change and normative development. They are the core of psyc...

This study examined pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion, posing research questions regarding the (1) relationship between attitudes and personality and (2) between attitudes and the uptake of learning opportunities, and (3) moderating effects of the uptake of learning opportunities on the relationship between attitudes and personality...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund: Zwangspatient/inn/en leiden, wie klinische Beobachtungen zeigen, häufig unter starker Schuld, was sich auch mit frühen psychoanalytischen Annahmen (übermäßig hohes Über-Ich) deckt, bis heute aber nicht spezifisch empirisch untersucht wurde. Auch aktuelle kognitionspsychologische Ansätze fokussieren auf diese emotionale...

To tackle the plastic problem, the worldwide campaign ‘Plastic Free July’ aims at encouraging people to reduce single-use plastics during the month of July. To get people started with new behavior patterns, so-called ‘windows of opportunity’—periods where people become open for new experiences—are expected to matter. Therefore, the current study ev...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund: Zwangspatient/inn/en leiden, wie klinische Beobachtungen zeigen, häufig unter starker Schuld, was sich auch mit frühen psychoanalytischen Annahmen (übermäßig hohes Über-Ich) deckt, bis heute aber nicht spezifisch empirisch untersucht wurde. Auch aktuelle kognitionspsychologische Ansätze fokussieren auf diese emotionale...

There is an active debate regarding whether the ego depletion effect is real. A recent preregistered experiment with the Stroop task as the depleting task and the antisaccade task as the outcome task found a medium-level effect size. In the current research, we conducted a preregistered multilab replication of that experiment. Data from 12 labs acr...

Addressing the prevalent topic of plastic pollution, an intervention to break people’s consumption patterns was implemented. It wasinvestigated if Lent could work as a ‘window of opportunity’ of habit change, expecting people to be open to try new behaviour in this period. An online survey was conducted before, during and after Lent. 140 persons in...

In Western samples, individuals differ systematically in the importance they assign to matters of justice and injustice, and dispositional Justice Sensitivity can be differentiated according to the perspectives of victim, observer, beneficiary, and perpetrator. In a cross-cultural comparison between the Philippines, Germany, and Australia ( N = 677...

Background: Clinical observations suggest that many patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) suffer from severe feelings of guilt. These observations, which are consistent with psychoanalytic assumptions (overly strict super-ego), have rarely been subjected to systematic empirical investigation. Even cognitive approaches broach the issue o...

People differ in how sensitive they are to justice or injustice, how easily they ruminate on injustice, and how strongly they feel justice-related emotions such as anger and guilt. This individual difference can be measured by the Justice Sensitivity Inventory (JSI; Schmitt et al., 2010), which is divided into four components: sensitivity to becomi...

Structural approaches to personality have brought about considerable progress in description and prediction of interindividual differences in thoughts, feelings, and behavior. However, in order to move towards personality psychology as an explanatory science, we argue that structural, process-oriented and developmental approaches to personality hav...

Hintergrund: Zwangspatient(inn)en leiden, wie klinische Beobachtungen zeigen, häufig unter starker Schuld, was sich auch mit frühen psychoanalytischen Annahmen (übermäßig hohes Über-Ich) deckt, bis heute aber nicht spezifisch empirisch untersucht wurde. Auch aktuelle kognitionspsychologische Ansätze fokussieren auf diese emotionale Seite des Zwangs...

By means of transcranial direct current stimulation applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, we investigated the causal role of increased or decreased excitability of this brain region for two facets of executive functions: working memory and Stroop interference control. We tested 1) whether anodal tDCS of the left DLPFC enhances working...

Stereotypes influence teachers’ perception of and behaviour towards students, thus shaping students’ learning opportunities. The present study investigated how 315 Australian pre-service teachers’ stereotypes about giftedness and gender are related to their perception of students’ intellectual ability, adjustment, and social-emotional ability, usin...

There is an active debate regarding whether the ego depletion effect is real. A recent pre-registered experiment with the Stroop task as the depleting task and the antisaccade task as the outcome task found a medium level effect size. In the current research, we pre-registered a multi-lab collaborating project to replicate that experiment. Data fro...

Misst erhöhte Schuldwahrnehmung von Patienten mit einer Zwangserkrankung in vorgegebenen charakteristischen Situationen

This study investigated the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about gifted students’ characteristics compared to students with average-ability and the teachers’ motivation (i.e., enthusiasm, self-efficacy). We investigated pre-service teachers’ beliefs and motivational orientations as substantial components of their professional competencies a...

Zwei-Prozessmodellen der Informationsverarbeitung zufolge sagen explizite Dispositionen kontrolliertes Verhalten vorher, während implizite Dispositionen automatisches Verhalten prädizieren. Die Verfügbarkeit von Selbstkontroll-Ressourcen sollte den expliziten Zusammenhang stärken, ein Mangel an Ressourcen den impliziten Pfad. Bereits überprüft wurd...

This article proposes an optical measurement of movement applied to data from video recordings of facial expressions of emotion. The approach offers a way to capture motion adapted from the film industry in which markers placed on the skin of the face can be tracked with a pattern-matching algorithm. The method records and postprocesses raw facial...

Im Diskurs um eine nachhaltige Entwicklung ist unter anderem die Frage nach distributiver Gerechtigkeit, das heißt der gerechten Verteilung von begrenzten Ressourcen, von hoher Bedeutung Dem Bildungsbereich wird hier eine bedeutende Rolle zugewiesen, Individuen soll der Kompetenzerwerb zur Gestaltung einer nachhaltigen Zukunft ermöglicht werden. Zi...

What are the long-term effects of justice and injustice in school? This longitudinal study examined the bidirectional relationships of classroom justice with students’ behavioral problems, well-being, and joy of learning. Using systematic observation on the singlechild level, teachers and external observers made high and low inference justice ratin...

Осуществлена валидизация немецкого опросника “Чувствительность к справедливости”на российской популяции (N=1002, Mвозраст=22.3 года; SD=6.3; 769 женщин). Чувствительность к справедливости — черта личности, отражающая индивидуальную восприимчивость к ситуациям несправедливости и характеризующаяся когнитивными, эмоциональными и поведенческими реакция...

Despite the broad consensus in psychology that human behavior is influenced by the interaction between characteristics of the person and characteristics of the situation, not much is known about the precise shape of this person-situation (P x S) interaction. To address this issue, we introduce and test the Nonlinear Interaction of Person and Situat...

Although many motivational theories have emphasized that person- and situation-based aspects should be recognized simultaneously when explaining actual learning behavior, not much is known about the occurrence of state goals. The model of adaptive learning (Boekaerts & Niemivierta, 2000) proposes that state goals are influenced by trait goals, perc...

Based on the thoughtful and thought-provoking comments, we strengthened some of the main proposals of our framework to integrate research on personality structure, process, and development. Integration is an important, yet challenging goal for personality science, and we see considerable potential for it, theoretically and in empirical research. We...

In this target article, we argue that personality processes, personality structure, and personality development have to be understood and investigated in integrated ways in order to provide comprehensive responses to the key questions of personality psychology. The psychological processes and mechanisms that explain concrete behaviour in concrete s...

Lievens proposed use of Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs) and Assessment Centre exercises (ACs) for personality research. We suggest potential limitations of these methods and offer idea for improving them. We propose that SJT can be enriched by considering the equi- and multi-finality of trait expressions, multiple goals, and the basic assumption...

Teacher training seeks to prepare students for inclusion. One aspect of this preparation is the attempt to shape pre-service teachers attitudes towards inclusion. Therefore, this study set out to shed light into the development of attitudes towards inclusion, posing research questions regarding the (1) relationship between attitudes and learning op...

There has been a limited focus on the construal of justice judgments in contexts where norms are potentially conflicting, despite the relevance of norms in justice research. The present study aimed to close this gap by looking at the case of favoritism in Jordan where such conflicting norms are highly salient. A qualitative approach was chosen to f...

Mõttus alerts us to the widespread predictive heterogeneity of different indicators of the same trait. This heterogeneity violates the assumption that traits have causal unity in their developmental antecedents and effects on outcomes. I would go a step further: broader traits are useful units for description and prediction but not for explaining p...

Both school achievement goals (mastery, performance approach, performance avoidance goals) and well-being goals (work avoidance, affiliation goals) are important predictors of learning and achievement related outcomes. However, disagreement exists regarding the definition of goals as relatively stable traits versus situational states that react sen...

According to the Sensitivity-to-mean-intentions model, dispositional victim sensitivity involves a suspicious mindset that is activated by situational cues and guides subsequent information processing and behavior like a schema. Study 1 tested whether victim-sensitive persons are more prone to form expectancies of injustice in ambiguous situations...

This handbook attempts to substantiate the academic legacy and the research prospects of the International Society for Justice Research (ISJR). It includes a wide range of topics, such as disciplinary approaches to justice research (e.g., sociology, philosophy), the theory of the justice motive, mapping of the multifaceted forms of justice (e.g., d...

The present chapter reviews findings on justice sensitivity as an indicator of an individual’s concern for justice. People differ systematically in their inclination to perceive injustice and the strength of their cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions. These differences have been found to be consistent across types of injustices and relati...

The International Society for Justice Research (ISJR) aims to provide a platform for interdisciplinary justice scholars who are encouraged to present and exchange their ideas. This exchange has yielded a fruitful advance of theoretical and empirically-oriented justice research. This volume substantiates this academic legacy and the research prospec...

Justice-related situations are a part of studentsʼ everyday life. In order to test the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of (in)justice in school, valid measures of justice are needed. To our knowledge, this is the first study to develop an observer low inference rating instrument that can be applied to measure justice in the primary classr...

Applying an experimental between-subject design with varying situational demands (N = 168) we investigated the main and interactive effects of perfectionistic strivings (PS) and perfectionistic concerns (PC) on primary threat appraisal and secondary self-confidence appraisal and if these appraisals mediate the effects of PS and PC on the affective...

Situation research would benefit from a more thoroughly parallel conceptualization of persons and situations. This includes (1) understanding the characteristics of situations as situation traits, (2) adapting other models of personality psychology (e.g. state model, latent state-trait models or multi-trait-multi-method models) to psychological sit...

Approaches to identify person characteristics relevant to accomplish postsecondary education are diverse and under suspicion of producing method-related outcomes. The present contribution including four studies attempts to provide empirical evidence on the question whether the type of requirement analysis or the interviewed group (teachers, student...

School can be regarded as an important factor in the development of children’s values and attitudes. Given this great importance of justice experiences for students’ development, this study aimed at examining the influence of perceived injustice in school on students’ emotions, well-being, and behavior with an experimental longitudinal design. In t...

Although moral courage is a highly desirable behavior whose determinants need to be understood, research has largely neglected the emotions involved in moral courage. Does anger about the norm violation or (anticipated) guilt enhance such interventions even if general mood does not? As previous studies have often failed to overcome the limitations...

The authors examined the development of self-esteem across the life span. Data came from a German longitudinal study with 3 assessments across 4 years of a sample of 2,509 individuals ages 14 to 89 years. The self-esteem measure used showed strong measurement invariance across assessments and birth cohorts. Latent growth curve analyses indicated th...

The use of objective behavioral indicators instead of selfreported behaviors and self-ratings has a long history in personality assessment. The basic idea of objective personality tests (OPTs) can be traced back to James McKeen Cattell’s proposal of mental tests in 1890. A few decades later, OPT procedures were employed by the German and US militar...

Although Objective Personality Tests (OPTs) have a long history in psychology and the field of psychological assessment, their validity, and reliability have not yet been sufficiently studied. In this study, we examined the convergent and discriminant validity of objective (personality) tests, Implicit Association Tests (IATs), and self-report meas...

Other-related concerns for justice are fundamental components of morality and interpersonal behaviors. In this paper, we investigated macro/cultural and micro/individual differences in justice concerns for others. More specifically, beneficiary sensitivity (BS) and observer sensitivity (OS) were compared across China as a typical collectivist socie...

Latent state–trait theory (LSTT) considers the fact that measurement does not take place in a situational vacuum. LSTT decomposes any observed variable into a latent state component and a measurement error component, and any latent state into a latent trait component and a latent state residual representing situational influence and/or interactiona...

Previous research has shown that different configurations of the implicit self-concept of intelligence (iSCI) and the explicit self-concept of intelligence (eSCI) are consistently related to individuals’ performance on different intelligence tests (Dislich etal., 2012). The results indicated that any discrepant configuration between the iSCI and th...

Interpretational tendencies in ambiguous situations were investigated as causal mechanisms of altruistic compensation. We used a training procedure to induce a tendency to interpret one's own advantages as unjustified. In a subsequent mixed-game, participants had to decide whether to invest their own money to compensate a victim of a norm violation...

The psychometric properties of behaviors in economic games as indicators of stable latent dispositions of altruism and fairness were tested in two studies. Using latent state-trait analyses, we explored the factor structure of offers in the dictator game, rejection decisions in the ultimatum game, and altruistic punishment and altruistic compensati...

Etliche empirische Befunde der kulturvergleichenden Psychologie belegen, dass Menschen verschiedenen kulturellen Hintergrunds sich bezüglich einer Reihe von Merkmalen unterscheiden, während andere Merkmale universell geteilt werden (für einen Überblick siehe z. B. Berry, 2004; Kagitcibasi & Berry, 1989; Shiraev & Levy, 2004). Unterschiede finden si...

People differ systematically in their vulnerability to injustice. We present two-item scales for the efficient measurement of justice sensitivity from 4 perspectives (victim, observer, beneficiary, perpetrator). In Study 1 using a quota-based sample of German adults, a latent state-trait analysis revealed the factorial validity and high reliabiliti...

Being a teacher is known to be a particularly stressful occupation and as a consequence many teachers suffer from reduced well-being. Thus, it is important to know as soon as possible which individuals are likely to experience reduced well-being in their employment. Therefore, this study investigated whether it is possible to infer teachers’ future...

Marshall and Brown (2006) proposed a Traits as Situational Sensitivities (TASS) Model, which implies a systematic person × situation interaction. We review this model and show that it suffers from several limitations. We extend and modify the model in order to obtain a symmetric pattern of levels and effects for both person and situation factors. O...

Based on an integration of dual-process models of information processing and the lensmodel framework of person perception, we conducted two studies to investigate whether selfperceivers could detect their implicit disposition from video feedback of behavioral cues and whether these cues were used for explicit dispositional inferences under conditio...

Moral courage is characterized as a bystander intervention against the norm violations of a perpetrator despite the potential for negative consequences for oneself. We tested a comprehensive set of potential personality determinants of moral courage derived from a model of helping. In Study 1, we used a vignette to assess the self-reported willingn...

At present, it is not well understood which individual characteristics determine whether individuals will benefit or suffer from feedback about suboptimal performance. Three separate studies tested the idea that individuals' reactions to (neutral versus negative; positive versus negative) feedback as either improving or deteriorating performance in...

Consensus obtained in personality judgments based on thin slices of behavior was examined by manipulating the shared meaning of the traits being judged, the accountability for the judgments, and the amount of target information. 160 judges rated a total of 60 teachers on the Big Five personality dimensions. Consensus was approached from a judge and...

Replicability of findings is at the heart of any empirical science. The aim of this article is to move the current replicability debate in psychology towards concrete recommendations for improvement. We focus on research practices but also offer guidelines for reviewers, editors, journal management, teachers, granting institutions, and university p...

Depression is one of the most clinically relevant mood disorders, and many assessment instruments have been developed to measure it. Probably the most frequently used instrument is Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI). The simplified BDI (BDI-S) is a more efficient version of the BDI that has been shown to be no less reliable or valid. As the BDI-S ha...

The main goal of our target article was to provide concrete recommendations for improving the replicability of research findings. Most of the comments focus on this point. In addition, a few comments were concerned with the distinction between replicability and generalizability and the role of theory in replication. We address all comments within t...

According to self-determination theory, the satisfaction of the basic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness influences achievement emotions and situational interest. The present study investigated whether domain-specific explicit need strength moderated the impact of need satisfaction/dissatisfaction on the outcomes achievement emotions a...

As theoretical considerations and empirical research suggest, human behav-iour is guided by a fundamental justice motive. In the present chapter, we dis-cuss two theoretical constructs that have been proposed to capture inter-individual differences in the strength of the justice motive: belief in a just world and justice sensitivity. We review rese...

We propose a triangulation of distributive justice theory, resource theory, and culture theory that sheds new light on cross-cultural differences in preferences for allocation principles. We propose that a culture’s standing on power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity/femininity will determine the importance of status, information, ma...

Problem. It was confirmed in previous studies that belief in a just world is positively related to subjective well-being of victims of injustice but also of other persons. Up to now it is not sufficiently clarified which particular processes are in the background. It is possible to suppose that people protect their belief in a just world and thus t...