Team
Dr. J. Lukas Thürmer
Head of the Group
Lukas Thürmer investigates on how teams reach their goals in political and intercultural contexts. His work evolved around if-then planning with collective implementation intentions. More recently, Lukas started investigating the role of criticism in group goal progress and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship allowed him to study reactions low performers in teams.
Dr. Emma Halfmann
PostDoc
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1490-1494
E-mail:
Dr. Emma Halfmann received her PhD from the Justus Liebig University in Giessen (Germany) on the effects of psychophysiological impairments (e.g. lack of sleep) on decisions and behaviour in a social context, such as dyadic negotiations. Other research interests include problem solving and decision-making in teams, reactions to norm breaches and intergroup processes.
Dr. Kaiyuan Chen
PostDoc
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2719-5229
E-mail:
Kaiyuan (KY/Kevin) Chen received his PhD degree in psychology at Claremont Graduate University in May, 2024. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg. His research interests include the role of self in sense-making, well-being, collective action and intergroup dynamics.
Jeremias Braid, MSc
Doctoral Candidate
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6685-1604
Jeremias Braid completed both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Psychology at the Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS)and has been a PhD candidate there since the summer of 2023. Since March 2024, he has been working as a project assistant in the PIP team, conducting research on topics at the intersection of social and sports psychology. His research areas include behavior, performance, and group dynamics in football, as well as the perception of activism and responses to criticism. In addition to his academic work, Jeremias Braid is also a practicing sports psychologist.
Nagihan Özman, MA
Doctoral Candidate
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4712-4572
E-mail:
Nagihan is a PhD student at Paris Lodron University of Salzburg. She previously obtained her Bachelor’s degree at Özyeğin University and her Master’s degree at Kadir Has University, Turkey. Her research interests include cultural differences in decision and judgment-making, the culture of honor, cognitive styles, and responses to criticism. She is working on deviance in task groups as a graduate research assistant in the PIP group.
Jakob Reichert
Doctoral Candidate
After completing his degrees in Political Science (BA) and Psychology (MSc), Jakob Reichert’s current PhD project examines psychological group processes underlying Democratic Backsliding and elaborates a political-psychological framework of the democratic process.
Manuela A. Wagner, MSc.
Doctoral Candidate
Manuela A. Wagner holds a high interest in how cultural aspects influence behavioural aspects. Currently, she focusses in her research on investigating the role of criticism in group goal progress in an international context. She is a doctoral candidate at the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg.
Julia Prohaska
Research Intern
Julia Prohaska is studying psychology and sociology at the Paris Lodron University Salzburg. In the course of her studies, she is particularly interested in social processes within and between groups. She finds it exciting to apply the different perspectives of the two disciplines in her daily work as a student.
Tanja
Zschieschang
Master’s student
Email:
Tanja Zschieschang is a Master’s student at the Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg, where she also completed her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. Her research interests focus primarily on psychological phenomena in group processes, particularly on how individuals handle criticism in high-performance contexts.
Jan-Philip Knebel 
Research Asisstant
E-mail:
I moved from Koblenz, Germany, where I am originally from, to Salzburg to study Psychology. After developing an interest in Social Psychology, I wrote my Bachelor’s thesis on this topic. Now I am happy to also have the opportunity to keep working in and studying this topic further.
Alumni
Dr. Oleksandra Loshenko
Betül Kurban
Theresa Sünkel
Teresa Rüschenschmidt
