Great that you are interested in being supervised by me. Here is some important information.
Then simply check the projects listed here.
My supervision takes place mainly through lab meetings, where all students working with me meet with me on Fridays from 14:00–15:30. Apart from that, I offer individual appointments only in urgent cases. This usually works very well and is also enjoyable. If you are considering working with me for your thesis, please be aware of this supervision format. Here is some additional information about the lab meetings.
Lab meetings are optional for you, and we discuss the individual scientific projects. It is an open and creative group in which your ideas and feedback are very welcome. The goal is not to always have the right answers, but to practice scientific thinking. Better to make mistakes in the lab meeting than later in the written thesis or in the colloquium. With the lab meetings you can...
The students of the lab meeting have also created their own Teams channel, which I do not have access to (and I also don’t know what is posted there). Just ask your fellow students in the lab meeting if you want to join the Teams group (I hope posting this information is okay—otherwise please let me know).
Here is the link to the lab meeting (in German) (14–15):
https://iubh.zoom.us/my/delarosa.
If the supervision agreement has not yet been signed, please contact me by email beforehand (≥1 day in advance) so that you can be admitted to the meeting.
Lab meetings in English will be Fridays from 1–2 pm CET at:
https://iubh.zoom.us/my/delarosa
The path to completing the thesis consists of several steps. If you are interested in working with me, I am very happy about that. In this case, the steps towards the thesis are as follows (time values in parentheses are approximate guidelines reported by other students; these are not binding):
For steps 3–6, I offer non-mandatory, regular online meetings (so-called lab meetings). These are for students writing their thesis with me. Here you can ask questions, discuss problems (e.g., regarding data collection, analysis, interpretation), and briefly present your work to other students (for sharing, practicing, and receiving feedback on your project and its presentation).
I am a very passionate scientist and psychologist who enjoys research and the subject and wants to communicate this to students. I am interested in your ideas and approaches, analyses, data, and discussions throughout your entire creative process. I have successfully supervised many student theses to the full satisfaction of students.
High-quality scientific work is important to me, and I want to pass this on to my students. Our team has published in leading international psychological journals (e.g., Psychological Science, Cognition) and in very good interdisciplinary journals (e.g., PNAS, Scientific Reports). Our research has won several awards (Atempto Award), and some of my PhD students have also become professors.
If you want to learn how to do excellent scientific work and conduct a high-quality scientific thesis, then you are in the right place.
In my scientific work, I value...
I provide close supervision because I aim to use the collected data also for publications. All projects have direct and indirect applied relevance.
Lab meetings are regular meetings where students can present and discuss their research projects. Any student supervised by me can attend a lab meeting at any time without prior registration.
The lab meetings are intended to help all participants conduct their research better through constructive, collaborative, and respectful exchange. To achieve this, some principles are important:
Mindfulness: Your own behavior influences the tone and interaction within the group. Please behave in a way that supports our goal—conducting our research well.
Respectful interaction: Our words affect others in two ways:
Discussions, disagreements, and mistakes are an important part of scientific research and therefore unavoidable. We want to address disagreements factually. We learn from mistakes, and we want to point them out respectfully and constructively. Research is not about personal concerns, e.g., who is right, but about jointly discovering the truth behind our research question. Respectful and constructive communication helps us achieve our goals better.
Collaborative and supportive interaction: Please help each other and actively participate in the lab meetings. This increases the benefit for everyone’s research.
To advance the work efficiently for everyone in the lab, it is necessary that we share our knowledge and data. Therefore, the data you have collected may also be used by other lab members for teaching and research purposes. Using these materials for other purposes or in other contexts (e.g., building a new corporate coaching program based on a model developed in the lab) is not impossible, but requires prior approval from the labs.
Ideas in science are what money is in the financial system.
Using someone else’s ideas without citing the source is like spending someone else’s money and is therefore equivalent to theft.
(S. de la Rosa)
Although the projects grow out of your great ideas, they are shaped through our joint exchange. The lab meeting serves to promote this exchange so that you can improve your work.
A project in science is often not a purely individual achievement but a team effort. Acknowledging these contributing efforts is part of good and ethical scientific practice. I will therefore often use the “we” form in reference to your project, which means that in addition to your main contribution, other people have contributed to the project. This does not mean that I want to take the project away from you. You are the project leader, and it is your project.
In the case of an external publication, the order of authors is determined by contribution to the project (the greater the contribution, the further forward the author appears).
In the thesis, you must present the work as if you carried out the project independently. If you still want to acknowledge the contribution of others in the thesis, you can do so in general acknowledgments at the beginning of the thesis.
Pragmatic: There are many important and of course interesting points to discuss, but sometimes also less important ones. Please help us achieve the goals of the lab meetings, e.g., by setting aside less important points in favor of more important ones, keeping speaking times in check, etc.